I've recently gotten into using the Virtual Desktop feature in Windows 10. I've used this in Ubuntu before, and I liked it then, and I'm happy to see it come to Windows as part of the OS. I posted a couple of my thoughts on the feature as it is now in the sticky related to this, but I had an idea and I was wondering what the Windows Central community thought of it.
As an extension to the Virtual Desktops, I'd like to see my phone as one of the "desktops". It could be like a Continuum "Pass-through" that could leverage either USB-C or WiFi or Bluetooth (if it did nothing but pass messages when necessary like to connect via headset profile or send an SMS, otherwise, just offer a virtual desktop booted to my phone configuration). If I'm signed in to Windows with the same account I use on my phone, I think this should just work (or at least work under the right circumstances [connected via USB-c, on the same WiFi network, paired via BT...])
Microsoft could promote the added functionality through the Phone Companion App for people who don't necessarily follow all the tech news and it would be an obvious entry point and opportunity to sell the feature for people who connect an iOS or Andriod device. You could even make it one more step better and allow this to work for any Windows 10 device [Directly connected or through the network]. I could connect to my Dell Venue Pro 8, for example. This would basically be an integration of the RDP into Task View. You could choose from a list of your machines that you would want to be able to view.
If I'm sitting in my office at home and my phone rings in the other room, swap to the phone "task" and answer through the computer, same with text messages. IDEALLY I would like to see those activities rolled into the Messaging and Phone universal apps, but we'll see. Another scenario is I'm working on my personal computer, and I get an e-mail from work. I pull up my work laptop (to which I have also added my MSA) "task" and do whatever I need to do and then get back to what I'm doing.
I really think that kind of feature would fit really well with Microsoft's mission and make your production "device agnostic" as it were.
I also like the idea of a Continuum pass-through on its own as well, though.I see it as a great way to entice people to use Windows Phones who use Windows 10 on their PCs. It also has a neat side effect of making the existing Mobile-only apps universal in a round-about way. I'm not privy to the inner workings of Microsoft Development, but I have been developing system software for 12 years, and I think that kind of a feature would be a quick and simple addition to the OS, either as a function of the phone companion app or as a driver or hell some proprietary communication protocol that allows a VM to access device state.
As an extension to the Virtual Desktops, I'd like to see my phone as one of the "desktops". It could be like a Continuum "Pass-through" that could leverage either USB-C or WiFi or Bluetooth (if it did nothing but pass messages when necessary like to connect via headset profile or send an SMS, otherwise, just offer a virtual desktop booted to my phone configuration). If I'm signed in to Windows with the same account I use on my phone, I think this should just work (or at least work under the right circumstances [connected via USB-c, on the same WiFi network, paired via BT...])
Microsoft could promote the added functionality through the Phone Companion App for people who don't necessarily follow all the tech news and it would be an obvious entry point and opportunity to sell the feature for people who connect an iOS or Andriod device. You could even make it one more step better and allow this to work for any Windows 10 device [Directly connected or through the network]. I could connect to my Dell Venue Pro 8, for example. This would basically be an integration of the RDP into Task View. You could choose from a list of your machines that you would want to be able to view.
If I'm sitting in my office at home and my phone rings in the other room, swap to the phone "task" and answer through the computer, same with text messages. IDEALLY I would like to see those activities rolled into the Messaging and Phone universal apps, but we'll see. Another scenario is I'm working on my personal computer, and I get an e-mail from work. I pull up my work laptop (to which I have also added my MSA) "task" and do whatever I need to do and then get back to what I'm doing.
I really think that kind of feature would fit really well with Microsoft's mission and make your production "device agnostic" as it were.
I also like the idea of a Continuum pass-through on its own as well, though.I see it as a great way to entice people to use Windows Phones who use Windows 10 on their PCs. It also has a neat side effect of making the existing Mobile-only apps universal in a round-about way. I'm not privy to the inner workings of Microsoft Development, but I have been developing system software for 12 years, and I think that kind of a feature would be a quick and simple addition to the OS, either as a function of the phone companion app or as a driver or hell some proprietary communication protocol that allows a VM to access device state.
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