Microsoft has a great new idea that might change the way you use a computer. But the company’s not sure it’ll work.
Wanna try it?
In the coming weeks, the world’s largest software maker will send an update for its 3-year-old Windows Insiders program to people who want to experience bleeding-edge prerelease software. The update will include a feature that could radically change how we use our computers. Or not.
Tentatively called Sets, the feature groups apps, browser tabs and documents together as tabs. Think of it as setting up a work space in which one tab could be a Word document you’re working on, another could be the PDF file you’re reading for reference and a third could be a PowerPoint presentation you’re putting together.
The real magic comes when you switch computers. Microsoft’s upcoming Timeline sync feature, which tracks what you’ve been doing on each of your devices so you can pick up that work regardless of where you are, will also work with Sets.
It’s much more ambitious than Apple’s Handoff, which helps you transfer an email you’re typing out on your phone to a computer so you can finish it. In Microsoft’s Sets, those documents, browser windows and other apps you have open and arranged just so while you’re in the office can be pulled up on your machine at home.
“We believe there’s an easier way to organize your stuff and get back to what you were doing,” Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.