Microsoft wants you to use a pen everywhere in Windows

Microsoft thinks pens are the future of interaction. During a demo of the forthcoming Fall Creator’s Update for Windows 10 at Build today, Joe Belfiore, VP of the operating systems group, showed off how a Surface Pen can be used on a Surface Pro 4 to fully interact with the Edge browser. Users can navigate windows, write in text boxes, navigate, scroll, and select text while only using the pen. In addition to that, users can continue to rely on a pen outside of Microsoft’s browser. They can strike through words on Word or even annotate a PDF.

More generally, Belfiore explained, Windows thinks the pen should provide a “natural, complete interaction.” Does this mean the end of mice or touchpads? Probably not, but Microsoft definitely wants to see more people using the pen across devices and all over Windows.