I've mentioned before I'm a reluctant occasional user of Windows whose PC spends more time in Windows updating Windows than it does running applications. If there was a straightforward way to boot a fully updated Windows on demand, that would be useful to me.

However, I can't see that being technically possible given the way Windows currently works and I can't see it being financially or administratively possible as I can't tick any of "be in the Windows Insider program, have a Windows 11 machine to hand, Microsoft Intune Administrator rights, and a Windows 365 Cloud PC license".

I get the impression that, having basically positioned Windows as a platform for Chrome, the portal to lucrative subscription services online, Microsoft have undermined their own value proposition and are getting a bit panicky.

The 1990s called and want their Netboot NICs back.

Asking because the Thin Client monster keeps coming back with more and more improbable ways to cheat death. Why won't you just die?

...and this one isn't even actually a thin client – it's a fully-fledged and perfectly capable desktop being used for something a Raspberry Pi could do.

TTYs are a bit older than that, mate.

You beat me to it :)

I'm guessing the next "improvement' we'll see is the return of greenscreens (or emulations thereof) to "improve productivity" or similar marketing BS.

I swear, sometimes it feels like Microsoft is mainly busiy proving to management and shareholders that they have such a tight user lock in they can get away with practically anything and yet remain 100% unaccountable for the consequences.

Nor has it explained why frontline workers – or anyone else for that matter – should prefer cloud PCs, given that Windows allows creation of multiple user accounts, each with its own level of access to resources. Microsoft has long suggested that arrangement offers all the isolation and security anybody could possibly want.

But Redmond typically gets paid just once when users work on physical PCs. Cloud PC users send cash monthly.

This.

So much it hurts.

But then again I'm sure the marketing people will find other ways to sell it. Just like you might have a situation where there is no net (Yes. I know it makes you anxious, but yes, you know, some times that is what it is and you can't look up the solution to that on "Did your first have a look on our FAQ pages?" .)

In my first place of work, they used an external bureau service (as it was called then) to run our payroll. After a while they decided to bring it "in house" as it was cheaper than paying a monthly subscription.

What goes around, comes around.

.... making th boot process slower than it's needed to be since Windows 1.0.

You had to shoe that one in didn't you?

You mispelled "optimistic"

This is going to SUCK. Instead of buying decent local PCs, MS is going to sell companies who are using Office and Teams (using Teams proves you don't give a crap about anything except that it's 'free') on just having virtual cloud 'PCs' and sh#@$y client PCs instead for everything. Hey, they'll say, you never need to upgrade your hardware or do IT work again.

So I'm going to end up trying to debug deep C++ running through millions of records (or hideous JavaScript, whatever) on a last Gen Intel Celeron that only has a 1920x1080 screen and the absolute minimum specs and is running the real stuff via remote desktop four states away at the speed of our crappy local network and showing on the worst possible display. And I'm not going to have local admin access to install anything required at all. It's going to be corporate hell. I can absolutely see this as the future of office computing, because corporations and MS have been working tirelessly for decades to make it as sh@#$y as possible (hello open offices!).

So you need a windows 11 PC to use this... Meaning you already have a full windows desktop. With an RDP client...

Has Microsoft finally learned about LTSP?

I know that if El Reg is underwhelmed, the odds of me being whelmed or overwhelmed are low...

Thin cheap interface to a powerful remote server using some sort of serialised communication network?

Whatever will they come up with next?

oh good, now where did put that box of 20 year old wyse terminals?

where it takes one link to break and you cannot do any work.

The closer that resources are to you the more likely that you are able to at least do something.

I can see a use for this in a business setting - for instance, with a lot of WFH nowadays (myself included), rather than supplying laptops/PCs to employees they could do one of a couple of things.

Allow an employee to use their own PC to connect to a virtual PC on a hosted environment or provide a cheap thin client, like a RPi to connect, this means that companies can reduce phsyical hardware supplied to employees which would make it a lot cheaper.

Saying that, they don't need to run in some cloud providers environment as companies could just host it all themselves in their own environments using things like VMWare Horizon or one of the mass of other products out ther.

it wouldn't surprise me if companies go down that route, I fully expect that the company I work for would do that as literally only use the laptop for teams and outlook and my actual work is done thru hopping onto other secured hosts and from their jumping onwards.

"Allow an employee to use their own PC to connect to a virtual PC on a hosted environment or provide a cheap thin client, like a RPi to connect, this means that companies can reduce phsyical hardware supplied to employees which would make it a lot cheaper."

An additional advantage that I find working remotely is that if I am working with large volumes of data, RDP onto a "client" running in the same datacenter as the database server makes managing data much faster, since otherwise the whole datasets need to be transmitted over the network to my PC instead of just the screen view. Yes, it also means I am limited in what I can do if there are network / VPN issues, but nowadays (at least where I work) these are incredibly rare.

Actually the world will only require 5 computers - Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and the NSA.

About 10 years ago I worked in a small financial firm, approx 20 users, and each desk had a Zotac micro-PC (5x5x1.5") running Linux (Ubuntu I think).

On bootup they auto-ran an RDP client where you entered Username, Password and Device ID (your personal remote VM) - ie the boxes themselves weren't personalized in any way.

Five seconds later you're in your own VMware VM.

And of course Citrix have been doing similar for years.

That's not to say it isn't welcome, it is I think, but they're just playing catch-up.