Last July, it was widely speculated that Microsoft would once again send new major versions of Windows to the market once every three years. This can mean many things. Among other things the fact that Windows 12 could come after Windows 11 in 2024. According to leaks in recent weeks, we are more likely to see them.
There are more resources. Early last summer, Windows Central’s Zac Bowden claimed that Microsoft would return to a three-year development cycle. The manufacturer neither confirmed nor denied it. This February Günteru Bornovi a blog reader reported seeing Windows 12 in a VMware vSphere 8 virtualization configuration alongside Windows Server 2025. He documented this with a photo.
As the website again pointed out VideoCardz, before the end of the month, the alleged existence of Windows 12 was confirmed by the Twitter account @leaf_hobby when it published the supposed specifications of the Meteor Lake-S processor platform. According to an internal Intel document, it should support Windows 12. Previously, this account published information about the Xeon W3400/2400 processor, its February tweet has been deleted.
Let’s take this opportunity to speculate on what the eventual release of Windows 12 could look like and how significant it would be.
Windows 12 does not have to offer a flood of news
Even if Windows 12 arrives in a year and a half, it still doesn’t automatically mean something groundbreaking. Microsoft may be saving some news for such a release, and there will likely be more than zero. But at the same time, it can be a few little things, with the fact that it will actually be a formal release.
The same is true with the latest versions of the Office suite. Microsoft continuously improves the tools and sells them in a package with other subscription services. Once every three years, it will take the applications, including what has changed in them in three years, and release them with a one-time license as Office 2019, three years after that as Office 2021, etc.
Windows 12 could just mean a marketing tweak to the product name
In the case of Windows, a similar approach could work as well. It’s possible that Microsoft will take a break now and save the improvements until the eventual release of Windows 12. Windows Central’s Zac Bowden has previously heard from sources that this fall’s release will be symbolic. But this may be due to the fact that the Redmonds decided to release new functions in smaller tandems several times a year.
For Windows 11 22H2, the first bundle with panel Explorer was released in the fall, and these days a relatively generous bundle with touch taskbar and improved Task Manager is released. (Supposedly also with a chatbot on the taskbar, but that’s a misleading marketing proclamation.) For all we know, another package is on the way, and Microsoft is publicly testing features that it will want to publish somehow.
What would the possible Twelve offer? It could be, for example, a wider involvement of artificial intelligence
The release of the next major version is important because of support, which is set to 24 months from release for minor non-corporate editions. This is where Microsoft can show us that a new release can sometimes just mean changing the version number. In recent years, it has been doing this with Windows 10 as well.
Each Windows series then has a lifespan set to 10 years. Microsoft can extend it, but in the case of Windows 10, it decided to capitalize on the renewed interest in classic computers. So Windows 11 was born. Microsoft may or may not release twelve. He will do what is more convenient/convenient for him.
We must also look at the concept of the operating system as a service, which the company has been promoting for less than a decade. It is difficult for the Redmonds to fully demolish it, so we can wait for a compromise like with Eleven, i.e. you can switch to a newer edition if you meet stricter hardware requirements.
Even if Microsoft does not raise the hardware requirements with possible Windows 12, computers with the new operating system will probably still sell better, because twelve is a higher number than eleven. Psychologically, it makes you feel new regardless of what the new product actually brings. A lot of people simply upgrade from Elevens, but businesses and individuals with older devices could take this as an opportunity to buy a new machine.
So there are many variants of what can happen. What do we know for sure? That a new major version of Windows 11 will be released in the fall, whatever it looks like. Everything else is speculation and gossip.
Resources: Born’s Tech and Windows World | Microsoft Learn | VideoCardz
