Windows Lite, we hardly knew ye!

Windows Lite has always been a rather difficult and mysterious version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system, and now it appears we won’t have to struggle too much to figure it out, as it’s gone.

In a series of tweets Windows leaker Gustave Monce has revealed the current list of versions of Windows running Windows Core OS, and Lite is conspicuous in its absence.

The list reads:

Windows IoTOS (Microsoft.IoTOS)
Windows IoTEdgeOS (Microsoft.IoTEdgeOS)
Holographic (Microsoft.Holographic)
Factory OS (Microsoft.FactoryOS)
Factory OS Holographic (Microsoft.FactoryOSHolographic)
Factory OS Andromeda Device (Microsoft.FactoryOSAndromeda)
WindowsCoreHeadless OS (Microsoft.WindowsCoreHeadless)
Windows Core (Microsoft.WindowsCore)
Hub OS (Microsoft.HubOS)
Andromeda OS (Microsoft.AndromedaOS)
Polaris (Microsoft.Polaris)
ModernPC (Microsoft.ModernPC)

He also confirmed that Lite is gone, saying:

I can confirm Lite has been removed

— Gustave Monce ? (@gus33000) June 14, 2019

While the name may be gone, it seems likely that Lite has merely been renamed to ModernPC, a version of Windows Microsoft has been talking about which is secure, flexible and easily updatable.

According to Gustave ModernPC also subsumed Microsoft Centaurus, Microsoft’s dual-screen laptop OS.

To be clear, both Microsoft.Lite and Microsoft.Centaurus are now gone, most likely merged under Microsoft.ModenPChttps://t.co/LhIRohCJ2V

— Gustave Monce ? (@gus33000) June 15, 2019

This is interesting, as in some ways the two operating systems had diametrically opposed audiences – one was for ease of use while the other was for power users. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will square this circle.

It is notable that despite Windows Lite disappearing, Andromeda is still hanging around.

Also to clarify -IoTEdgeOS has nothing to do with the Edge browser, but rather with Edge Computing ie. intelligent Internet of Things devices which do some local processing before forwarding processed data onwards to the cloud.

What do our readers think? Let us know below.