Microsoft and Meta Bring Windows 11 to Quest 3

One of the most important selling points AppleVision Pro how easy it is to connect it to a Mac and use it as a large external monitor. Now, Microsoft is teaming up with Meta to catch up with Windows.

As part of the Microsoft Ignite press conference today, the company promised to bring “all the features of Windows 11 to mixed reality headsets, starting with Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S.”

But that doesn’t mean you can suddenly replace your computer with a VR headset; just like with the Apple Vision Pro, the key word here is flow. Although the headset enables a virtual multi-monitor workstation (which is essentially an improvement on the Vision Pro’s single-monitor setup), it will need to be connected to your own Windows 11 PC or a Windows 11 PC. cloud-based Windows 365 instance First.

Microsoft says “it will only take a few seconds to connect”; this should be an improvement over existing third party solutions such as Virtual Desktopor even Meta itself. Horizon Study Rooms. Although Microsoft hasn’t said exactly how this seamless connection will work, Mark Zuckerberg had previously said at this year’s meeting: Meta Link Quest users will soon need to simply “look at their keyboard” to connect to a PC without needing to install any software on the device. A video released by Microsoft today appears to support this claim.

Specific details about how many monitors you can have or what kind of resolution sacrifices you may have to make are still unclear, but with the public preview set for December it won’t take long to find out.

Microsoft also made no mention of Volumetric Apps, a gimmick announced in May of this year. Create conference This will allow users who stream Windows to a Quest headset to view certain assets in 3D, assuming the app they’re running allows it. For example, Microsoft showed a demo where a user could pull up a 3D model of an Xbox controller from a virtual Windows monitor and examine it in full 3D space, even taking it apart and looking at an exploded view of the controller’s interior. Given that Microsoft didn’t bring up this issue again today, it’s unlikely Volumetric Apps will be available at launch.