Microsoft plans to make a fundamental change to its Windows update schedule leaked this week. Accordingly, the company wants to return from the constantly updated Windows of the service type to the traditional update of its operating system, releasing a new major version of Windows every few years.
Windows version numbers are back
The winds of change could already be felt over the past years, when updates for Windows 10, originally released in 2016, became more and more insignificant and rare. Then, when the company released Windows 11 last year, it became clear – in contrast to an earlier announcement by a company employee – that Windows 10 would not be the last Windows 10; Although at that time it was not yet known in what intervals the new versions would arrive.
However, this week it was leaked from Redmond’s ranks how Microsoft envisions a future Windows update. According to them, Microsoft plans to return to the three-year increase in the major version number of Windows on the customer side, according to which Windows 12 can be expected to be released sometime in 2024.
Will Windows 11 be the new Windows 8?
It also means that Windows 11 23H2, expected by the end of next year, is expected to be a weightless update like this year’s Windows 10 maintenance update, 22H2, and Microsoft will keep the substantial improvements for the next major Windows release. This also predicts that it will be possible to switch directly from Windows 10 – which will continue to be supported until 2025 – to Windows 12, even without Windows 11.
The move to the latter was practically discontinued a few months after its release, and at the moment it seems very likely that a significant number of users won’t make the switch until Microsoft permanently ends support for the program. Thus, Windows 11 can easily suffer the same fate as Windows 8, which was also skipped by the majority of users, who stayed on Windows 7 as long as possible and switched to a new Windows version only after the release of Windows 10.
What will Windows 12 know?
It is not yet known what new features Windows 12, expected for 2024, will bring compared to its predecessors. According to the leaks, the new system is referred to as “Next Valley” within the company (after Windows 11’s codename “Sun Valley”), but they are currently only planning improvements that can be included in it.
We will likely be informed of the details within the framework of the Insider Program, because there is no talk of changing or canceling it yet, and this is the first time Microsoft has shared new developments with the wider public.
At the same time, it is worth noting that in the case of Windows 11, even in the few months before its release, it was not known that insiders were actually testing a new major release, but Microsoft kept it a secret. I only pushed the version number key at the last minute – it is expected to be the same for Windows 12.
