All indications are that Microsoft will once again change the development cycle of its operating systems to launch new ones version every three years and here comes Windows 12 planned for 2024. Its outline was revealed at the Ignite conference. By chance?

This week, Microsoft is busy with its autumn events, and after the presentation of the new generation of Surface devices, the Ignite conference of a distinctly business nature followed, the main news of which were published by our colleagues from MCPRO. Others like the name change from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 have been hyped and we talked about it yesterday.

Revolution or preservation of the ecosystem?

Microsoft is waiting for a revolution in operating systems to leave behind much of the legacy components, which include some derivatives of Windows 95, no less. You know the challenge of making a move while supporting the vast Windows ecosystem in hardware and software. It seems unlikely (for now) that the Windows Core OS we’ve been talking about for years won’t even eliminate Win32 applications using virtualization technologies via “containers” as he once proposed. We’ll have to wait.

And in the meantime? When Microsoft released Windows 10, it assured that this would be the case «your latest operating system« citing the fact that more would not be necessary, as a continuous update as a “rolling version” would allow it to always be up to date. Unable to sustain this model, the company went from two annual updates to one, eventually releasing Windows 11.

Now Microsoft is thinking about a new engineering plan for Windows, which would cause the ka company to return three-year release cycle for older versions. Or what is the same thing, new Windows every three years. This cycle is not new and was already used in Windows 7 or Vista. At the same time, Microsoft would increase the release of new features by four releases per year to keep the latest release up to date. This engineering program is internally called “Moments”.

Windows 12

If all of the above is confirmed, Windows 11 will receive its last major update with the “Sun Valley 3” version in 2023 and Windows 12 will arrive in 2024. The version is in the early stages of planning and engineering and is codenamed ‘Next Valley’.

His first draft, as a screenshot, appeared at the Ignite conference and shows changes to the user interface with a new floating taskbar at the bottom, system icons at the top right, a search box floating at the top center, and the weather. widget in the upper left corner.

The image is low resolution, but with this idea, Windows Central has created another one where these elements are more visible.

It must be said that Microsoft is planning a a more extensive redesign of the user interface, including a new lock/login screen, notification center, and more. The general idea is to finally achieve a definitive interface to scale to any device, better optimized for touch screens, but without limiting the experience for the millions of users who use Windows with a keyboard and mouse.

It should be remembered that Microsoft “hit the brakes” in supporting touch screens in Windows 8, causing a split with the desktop. Windows 10, on the other hand, was the opposite, while Windows 11 is a mixture (rather disparate, by the way) of all these. Windows 12 should achieve this balance and perform equally on all forms, including foldable devices. And maybe support mobile phones again.

We’ll have to wait. The pending “revolution” did not arrive with Windows 11 and will not arrive with Windows 12 either. We’ve almost settled for better stability, bug-free update delivery, and Microsoft has completed what was promised for the unfinished Windows 11.