The Windows desktop remains one of the most widely deployed application platforms in business, education, and engineering settings. Unlike a phone, a Windows machine typically assumes a large screen, a mouse or trackpad, a full keyboard, multiple overlapping windows, and long working sessions. Those assumptions shape everything from how much information you can place on a screen at once, to how you expose commands (menus, ribbons, toolbars, right-click context menus, keyboard shortcuts), to how users expect to move data between applications.
In this module you are deciding which platform fits your project. Windows is a strong choice when users need dense data views, precise pointer input, file system access, long-form content creation, or integration with an organization's existing productivity and identity systems. It is a weaker choice when your users are mobile, occasional, or touch-first. The constraints matter as much as the capabilities: varying screen sizes and DPI settings, accessibility and keyboard navigation expectations, installation and update paths, and the strong conventions users already carry from Office and other Windows software.
The videos below approach Windows from three angles: the Microsoft 365 ecosystem that many Windows users live inside, the current developer tooling story on Windows, and a low-code route to building Windows-friendly business apps. While watching, note the interaction patterns you see repeatedly (ribbons, panes, command bars, keyboard shortcuts), and ask yourself what each one assumes about the user's hardware, attention, and environment. Those observations are the raw material for the platform justification and scope document you will write.
A beginner-oriented walkthrough of what Microsoft 365 is as a subscription and ecosystem, covering the applications it bundles and how desktop apps relate to their cloud and web counterparts. Expect demonstrations inside familiar Windows productivity applications rather than a formal design lecture.
It gives you a concrete tour of the software environment most Windows users already know, which is where the platform's design conventions - ribbons, panes, consistent command placement - come from; Kevin Stratvert is a former Microsoft product manager and explains the ecosystem clearly for newcomers.
A short conference segment from Microsoft Build 2026 in which Kayla Cinnamon demonstrates recent additions aimed at developers working on Windows. It is likely to touch on tooling, terminal and workflow improvements, and how developers set up and work within the Windows environment.
It is a first-party Microsoft source and gives a current snapshot of what building on Windows actually looks like today, which helps you weigh tooling and platform support when justifying a desktop choice.
A step-by-step beginner tutorial on Microsoft Power Apps, showing how to assemble a business application with low-code tools rather than traditional programming. It walks through the app-building interface, data connections, and producing something usable by an organization.
It illustrates a realistic path many Windows-oriented organizations take for internal tools, letting you compare build effort, constraints, and control against writing a full native desktop application when you select a platform for your project.
Together these videos let you characterize the Windows side of the mobile/web/desktop comparison called for in MO1: you see the input assumptions, screen density, and interaction conventions of desktop productivity software, plus the cloud and web counterparts that blur the line. The developer experience and Power Apps videos surface practical build-and-deploy considerations - tooling, low-code versus custom development, organizational integration - that you will need to cite when you select and justify a platform under MO2. Finally, the constraints you identify while watching (hardware assumptions, licensing and ecosystem dependencies, development effort) translate directly into the objectives, constraints, and success criteria sections of the scope document required by MO3.
These videos were chosen from YouTube on October 3, 2026. Each has captions; the player turns them on. Videos on YouTube can be changed or removed — if one no longer plays, tell your instructor. If a player does not appear, use its Watch on YouTube link.