Microsoft and Meta Bring Windows 11 to Quest 3
One of the key benefits of the Apple Vision Pro is how easy it is to connect it to your Mac and use it as a large external monitor. Now Microsoft is teaming up with Meta to catch up with Windows .
As part of today’s Microsoft Ignite press conference, the company promised to bring “the full Windows 11 experience to mixed reality headsets, starting with Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S.”
This doesn’t mean you can suddenly replace your computer with a VR headset – as with Apple’s Vision Pro, the key word here is streaming. While the headset will allow you to create a multi-monitor virtual workstation (which is actually an improvement over the Vision Pro’s single-monitor setup), it will first need to be connected to either your own Windows 11 PC or a cloud-based Windows 365 instance .
Microsoft says it will only take “seconds” to connect, which should be an improvement over current third-party solutions like Virtual Desktop or even its own Meta Horizon Workrooms program. While Microsoft hasn’t said exactly how this seamless connection will work, Mark Zuckerberg previously said at this year’s Meta Connect conference that Quest users will soon just have to “look at their keyboard” to connect to a PC, without having to install any software security. on the device. A video released today by Microsoft appears to back up that claim.
Specific details about how many monitors you can have or what resolution sacrifices you might have to make are unclear just yet, although with the public preview coming sometime in December, it won’t take long to find out.
Microsoft also didn’t mention Volumetric Apps, a trick announced in May during this year’s Build conference that will allow users streaming Windows to a Quest headset to view certain resources in 3D, assuming the app they’re using allows it. For example, Microsoft showed off a demo of a user pulling a 3D model of an Xbox controller out of their virtual Windows monitor and inspecting it in full 3D space, even being able to take it apart and look at an exploded view of the controller’s innards. Given that Microsoft didn’t raise the issue further today, it’s unlikely that Volumetric Apps will be available at launch.