CShell on Windows phones repackages Windows 10 for the small screen (video)

Microsoft has been working on a new Composable Shell for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile over the past few months. This Composable shell – C-Shell – is exactly what it sounds like, állowing the Windows Shell to recompose itself on the fly for the device mode it is currently in. In simpler terms, this means that Windows will present you with the best user interface for your device, for example, a desktop in Continuum mode resembling the Windows 10 Native desktop in C-Shell, or a mobile phone running C-Shell resembling the current Windows 10 Mobile UI with elements from the Windows 10 Desktop UI integrated into it. This is because, for all intents and purposes, the shell for all these devices is to be the same, just recomposing itself into the best view for the current hardware.

This idea currently exists in Windows at the moment with Windows 10 Continuum for Phones, PCs and Tablets. Now, Microsoft is planning to extend the functionality of this as well as bring it to phones, unifying the capabilities of Windows 10 devices across the range.

In a C-Shell handset, you’ll get the Windows 10 Desktop action center, the start screen from the desktop with large tiles and landscape mode to boot, and more.

As reported earlier, you won’t be able to run non-UWP apps on it, wiping out a huge slate of older Windows Phone apps like WhatsApp and Telegram (At least, for a short while)

C-Shell is referred to as enabling Microsoft’s continuing attempts to make Windows running on phones a thing. The firm’s mobile dreams have failed in the past repeatedly, and the C Shell, while technically impressive, doesn’t provide anything that’ll change that just yet. It seems that Microsoft – having failed to convince people to buy into their Windows Phones, plans on relying on their strengths as a PC software maker. As a tech geek, I find this software approach fascinating, as a consumer, boring.