Windows 10-On-Xbox One Screenshot Preview: Microsoft Brings OS To Select Gamers In September

Windows 10 may have launched for the PC last Wednesday, but Microsoft isn't slowing down. At the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany, the company gave customers a sneak peek at how we can expect Windows 10 to look and feel on Xbox One.

When the free update arrives in November, don't expect a start menu and taskbar to appear. Instead, Microsoft has shown screenshots of a redesigned Windows 10-powered Xbox interface, which places a list of the most recent games front and center. Mike Ybarra, partner director of program management for the Xbox and Windows platform at Microsoft, showed off on Twitter an in-development screen of how we can expect the update to look.

Ybarra also revealed that Preview customers will be able to get their hands on an early version of the new update in September, before the wider release in November.

Less than a month ago, Microsoft released a preview video on its YouTube channel of the new update in action. Despite being less than a month old, the interface shown in the video already looks notably different from the screenshot released on Tuesday.

The game selections have been modified to make the text easier to read, backed with translucent squares to distinguish against the background better. More text is now included, making it clearer what the interface elements mean. The previous, thicker title font has also been replaced by a slimmer, more modern font. Of course, both are previews of a work in progress, so more changes are possible before the general release.

Windows 10 on Xbox One is going to be a big moment for Microsoft. The company has been pushing the idea of "universal apps" that can run anywhere, and having a console in the living room space running the platform will open up the development possibilities to a whole new audience.

The Xbox One is the first Xbox console to run a version of Windows: while it is said in fan communities that the original Xbox and Xbox 360 ran a modified version of Windows 2000, the Xbox development team explained in a blog post that this is not the case. Those consoles ran a custom-built operating system from the ground up, using some of the same APIs found in Win32.