According to some sources, Microsoft has changed its strategy around Windows. The next operating system would be planned for 2024.
Windows 10 was supposed to be the last operating system for PC from Microsoft. Originally, the American firm was supposed to update it regularly without changing its name, just like Mac OS X, which has remained in place through its updates for many years. But with the revival of the PC market, Microsoft had a change of strategy, and chose to make a major release again with Windows 11 in 2021.
A new version of Windows every three years
Now, with more than six years having passed between the release of Windows 10 and Windows 11, the company would like to return to a development cycle that allows a new Windows to be released every three years. This would mean the deployment of Windows 12 in 2024.
However, for the moment, nothing tells us that the OS that will arrive after the current version will be called Windows 12! Microsoft has already done the trick of skipping a number in the list of OS versions, with Windows 9 that never existed. In any case, for the moment, this future version is called “Next Valley”internally at Microsoft.
By 2024, Microsoft should therefore concentrate its development efforts on Next Valley. And according to Zac Bowden for Windows Central, this means the outright abandonment of Sun Valley 3, the Windows 11 update scheduled for next year.
The “moments”: new updates from time to time
But that’s not all. Apparently, Microsoft would also like to release updates to the current version more regularly. Currently, major updates to Windows 11 are released every year. But while waiting for the launch of Windows 12, Microsoft would like to regularly offer “Moments”for Windows 11: new features offered in updates without a very clear schedule.
This would mean up to 4 such updates per year. By the way, the integration of the weather in the taskbar earlier this year is one of those Moments or new experience in Windows. In addition, according to Zac Bowden, the new features planned for the cancelled Sun Valley 3 update should be rolled out across several of these Moments. As always, these new features will be tested internally and with the Insider community before eventually finding their way to the general public.
This should allow some development teams within the Windows division not to wait for major updates to offer their new features to users. For example, if the File Explorer team is ready, but the Taskbar team is not, the Explorer changes will be deployed through a Moment.
In the absence of an official announcement from Microsoft, this change of strategy obviously remains at the rumor stage. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will stick to this new development cycle!
