Microsoft kicked off its Developer Day by introducing its first Windows 10x Emulator. Windows 10X is a variant of Windows 10 that is designed for dual-screen devices like Microsoft’s Surface Neo. So, with this tool, you can have the first-hand experience of dual-screen Windows 10X apps.
Windows 10X Emulator can be used to test the compatibility of apps with the dual-screen OS. By installing the Emulator from Microsoft’s Windows dev tool site, developers can test the OS and use that experience to design apps for dual-screen devices.
The Windows 10X Emulator has been released by Microsoft for developers. However, they are not stopping anyone who wants to try it out.
The main highlight of Windows 10X is container technology. Basically, this technology runs all Win32 apps, except Edge and Office, in a container to separate them from the core OS. According to Microsoft, this ensures that older apps work well on dual-screen devices.
However, this “container” restriction means there will be compatibility issues with a number of older apps. That is why the Windows 10X Emulator is a perfect tool for developers to test and shape their apps to work on Windows 10X.
How To Run Windows 10X Emulator?
In order to test the dual-screen OS by installing the Windows 10X emulator, you must be signed up as a Windows Insider. Also, you should be running the latest Windows Insider build.
If the above conditions are fulfilled, you can move on by downloading and installing the Visual Studio 2019 Preview and the Windows 10 SDK Insider preview.
Next, you need to pay a visit to Microsoft Store to install Microsoft Emulator and the Windows 10X emulator Image.
System Requirements To Run Windows 10X Emulator
The following system requirements came directly from Microsoft:
Supported Operating Systems
- 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education
- Windows Insider Preview build 10.0.19555 or later
Supported Hardware
- Intel CPU with at least 4 cores that you can dedicate to the emulator (or multiple CPUs with a total of 4 cores).
- 8 GB of RAM or more, 4 GB of RAM for the emulator.
- 15 GB of free disk space for vhdx + diff disk, SSD recommended.
- Dedicated video card recommended.
- DirectX 11.0 or later
- WDDM 2.4 graphics driver or later
In the BIOS, the following features must be supported and enabled:
- Hardware-assisted virtualization
- Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
- Hardware-based Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
