In case you haven’t noticed, Microsoft — yes, sleepy old Microsoft — has been on a tear the last few years. Windows 10 was released last year to nearly universal praise, Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented-reality headset has been called groundbreaking, and the company jumped to No. 3 on the BrandZ list of most valuable global brands in 2015 after languishing at No. 7 as recently as 2013. More important, between early September 2015 and Feb. 1 of this year, the company’s stock price surged more than 25%, while the S&P and the Dow Jones indexes stayed flat, the Nasdaq dropped more than 1.5%, and Apple’s stock price plunged 14%.

Windows for now is Microsoft’s most visible product and the public face of the company. But it’s probably a last hurrah. Microsoft’s future is all about the cloud, so much so that one day Windows may become an afterthought.

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