Virtual Workstations on Meta Quest 3: A Game-Changer?

Imagine transforming your Meta Quest 3 into a powerful, multi-monitor workstation. Microsoft has been cooking up something special and plans to unveil it this December. They’re giving the Quest 3 and Quest 3S users the full capabilities of Windows 11 in a public preview. That means you can connect to a local PC or a cloud instance of Windows 365 right from your Quest headset. Microsoft claims this connection is instant, comparing it to a private, high-quality workspace.

One exciting feature is how apps can be expanded into 3D space. Microsoft calls this Volumetric Apps. In a demo, they showed how a Quest 3 wearer could interact with a digital exploded view of an Xbox controller using hand gestures. Developers are invited to get creative with this new API, which allows them to build plugins for 3D Windows desktop apps. Microsoft has been hinting at this for a while. Back in 2022, they announced a partnership with Meta to bring select Windows apps to Meta headsets. Last December, they rolled out Microsoft 365 features for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the Quest, along with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

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