Spencer on Xbox One's new dash, updates and how Windows 10 will arrive on your Xbox

Windows 10 is a universal operating system for Microsoft. That means it will be what powers every Microsoft device once it comes out, including the Xbox One.

That's good news for gamers and, in theory, for game makers. It means the advent of universal apps and the increased likelihood of things like cross-play between PC and Xbox One, or cross-buy, or streaming games from one platform to the other.

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, explained what that will mean in terms of the new look for the Xbox One's user interface, how the shift from Windows 8 to Windows 10 on the console will work and what that will mean for future monthly updates.

"When Windows 10 ships you will get a — the only reason I'm hesitating on 'bigger' is I kind of hope you don't think of it as bigger, you just think of it as better. But you will see an upgrade," said Spencer.

Installing that Windows 10 OS, Spencer said it's not really a Windows 10 kernel, is an important first step to unlocking some of the Windows 10 features shown off during the Windows press event earlier this week.

Those features could include things like the Cortana voice-recognition search engine, though Spencer said he couldn't talk specifically about what's coming to Xbox One from Windows until later in the year.

The Xbox App, which is home to gaming on the PC in Windows 10, will update every month, just like Xbox One does, once the new operating system is out.

"The Windows side and the Xbox side will be on the same page," Spencer said. "You will see when the Xbox monthly update comes, there will be features on Windows, there will be features in the app, there will be features on the console."

This will allow Microsoft to start treating things like gaming on Windows and gaming on Xbox One on a more equal level.

While Spencer said more details about the impact Windows 10 will have on the Xbox One are coming at GDC later this year, he did want to point out one more thing this week: The new Xbox One user interface shown in a screenshot during the Windows press conference isn't necessarily what it will look like when the update hits.

"I don't want anybody to take away that that's the dash for the next Xbox update," he said. "We haven't talked about it, the UI or anything. "

He added that while there's nothing wrong with that particular design, they simply haven't come to a final decision on what the UI will look like.

"I just don't want anybody to kind of go off in the wrong direction on the pictures," he said. "It's a nice picture because it shows all of the devices with the common UI, which is our goal, but that's just not necessarily the UI."