Windows 10 Cloud Rumored For Microsoft’s ‘Bespin’ Spring Event

A new report out this morning backs up this notion, and it comes from the same source: well-respected Microsoft insider Mary Jo Foley. According to Foley, Microsoft’s upcoming Spring event is codenamed “Bespin”, which is the name of a planet within the Star War universe. While that might not exactly jog your memory, you should at least remember the floating Cloud City, which is located on Bespin. Now, do we have your attention?

The Spring event, which is set to take place in early May, will put Windows 10 Cloud in the spotlight, and will likely hype up any perceived advantages over competing operating systems like Google’s Chrome OS. Despite what its name suggests, Windows 10 Cloud is not a streaming operating system that somehow uses Microsoft’s Azure platform. Instead, it’s a neutered version of Windows 10 that is only capable of running Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications.

Windows 10 Cloud is incapable of running legacy win32 apps, and all apps that you install on the operating system must either be preinstalled by Microsoft or downloaded from the Windows Store. Attempting to install or run a Win32 app will result in the following warning: “The app you’re trying to run isn’t designed for this version of Windows. This version of Windows was made to help protect you and your device by exclusively running Windows Store apps.”

(Image Source: MSPowerUser)

Although enthusiasts that read HotHardware might balk at the idea of being limited to only UWP apps, Windows 10 Cloud isn’t being aimed at you. It’s being positioned as a low-cost operating system — in the same vein as Windows 8.1 with Bing — that will be targeted at customers looking for bargain basement Windows-powered desktops, notebooks and convertibles along with educational institutions that have flocked in increasing numbers to Chromebooks running Chrome OS.