Windows 12 could arrive in 2024

Date:
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:05:59 +0000

Description:
Well, it might not be called Windows 12, but rumor has it that Windows 11
will be ousted by a new version in just two years.

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Microsoft is making a big change with Windows, switching to a new plan of introducing a fresh incarnation of the desktop operating system every three years, with smaller and more regular feature updates in-between.

The move to a new engineering schedule is a rumor floated by Zac Bowden of Windows Central , who is well-connected at Microsoft, and has offered up reliable leakage in the past.

As mentioned, the theory of whats happening in the future is that Windows
will have a three-year release cycle, and as Windows 11 emerged in 2021, thatll mean an all-new Windows possibly Windows 12, maybe something entirely different arriving in 2024 (Windows 24? Windows XXIV? WindowsOS, ahem?). And then another version will pitch up in 2027, and then rinse and repeat (unless Microsoft changes its mind, which is a fair bet, at some point, if recent
form is any indication).

Of course, what Microsoft doesnt want is a return to the not-so-good-old-days of having to wait ages for new features to arrive with a fresh incarnation of Windows, so the current version will be continually updated with new functionality throughout any given year.

So, instead of a big yearly feature update, Microsoft will issue smaller feature updates every few months, up to four of them per year, Bowden
asserts.

This situation will come into play from next year, so well still get the Windows 11 22H2 update (aka Sun Valley 2) later this year, of course, but Sun Valley 3 has apparently been scrapped. In 2023, we will instead move to those more compact feature updates rolled out quarterly (or thereabouts), and these will be called Moments, or at least thats the working title, itd seem. Analysis: A logical extension of whats already happening?

Lets wind back the clock a minute. As you may recall, the original plan with Windows 10 was that itd be the last version of Windows ever (not that we believed that), and itd be continually updated on a rolling basis, twice per year. That original concept obviously changed with Windows 11 being launched, and big feature updates getting switched down to a level of once per year.

However, with those major feature upgrades having had their cadence slowed, Microsoft has already introduced experience packs, which might sound like theyre straight out of a plan to monetize an MMORPG, but are in fact Microsofts scheme to bring in more regular updates. Feature experience packs, for example, can be deployed to update legacy core apps for Windows away from a major feature update.

So really, what were hearing here is kind of what we already have with Windows 11 following Windows 10, we could guess another version was likely coming down the line. And Moments are basically powered-up experience packs, and a way to bring in changes that improve the current interface without radically changing it, which are necessary to facilitate more regular tuning for the desktop OS if Microsoft is moving to a three-yearly plan for new versions of Windows which is a big if. Whereas those entirely new versions
of Windows will be where wholesale changes to the UI or user experience are debuted.

Another way to look at this is that it makes sense in terms of being a
logical extension of the direction Microsoft has already gone in. And a three-year release gap aligns perfectly with recent history for the software giant, too, with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Window 10 having three-years
between them all.

Still, we must regard this as just a rumor for now, even if a lot of it does make sense to us, and its from a more reliable source than most for Microsoft-related speculation. And besides, even if it is the current plan at Microsoft, that doesnt mean itll stay that way the company hasnt been shy about chopping and changing the way the OS is produced in recent times, of course.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-12-could-arrive-in-2024/


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