Windows Lite will reportedly feature a new Start Menu

Reading time icon 2 min. read


Readers help support MSpoweruser. We may get a commission if you buy through our links. Tooltip Icon

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more

Windows Lite is Microsoft’s ChromeOS competitor, which is expected to run a user interface called Webshell and which will not look like Windows 10, and also not be able to be upgraded to Windows 10.  It will still be able to run Windows apps, but only those downloaded from the Store.

Today we have heard one of the ways Windows Lite will be different from Windows 10 is that it will drop Live Tiles, which does make sense as, again according to the WC, this is a very underused Windows 10 feature, both by users and developers.

Zac Bowden notes:

 I’ve seen internal documentation from Microsoft that suggests people aren’t really opening the Start menu to look at or customize live tiles. Users prefer pinning everything to the taskbar.

Zac expressed concern that once Windows Lite drops Live Tiles, Windows 10 may be next in line, noting that Microsoft has not been developing the feature for some time now, and developer support for the feature is only going down.

Microsoft is, of course, working on radically different new user interfaces for Windows 10, such as Andromeda and Polaris, and it would seem somewhat quaint to see this 2010 Windows Phone feature in 2020 Windows desktops.

Is it time to call the time of death on Live Tiles? Let us know below.

(Header image is a mockup based on Jay Machalani concept)

More about the topics: live tiles, windows 10, windows 10 lite