According to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft is planning another big change in the way Windows is updated. Instead of updating one version of Windows for years, as it did with Windows 10, Microsoft plans to return to a schedule where it releases a new major version of Windows about every three years, putting the hypothetical “Windows 12″on track for release. sometime in the fall of 2024.
At first glance, this looks a lot like a return to the status quo before Windows 10. Windows Vista 2006 was replaced by Windows 7 2009, Windows 8 2012 and Windows 10 2015. But the report says that Microsoft will continue to continually improve the current version of Windows, with the planned removal of new features (internally referred to as “Moments”). about once a quarter. We’ve already felt it with Windows 11, which has evolved steadily over the course of the year instead of keeping all of its big changes for the expected Windows 11 22H2 update.
When Windows 11 was released in October 2021, Microsoft said that both Windows 11 and Windows 10 would receive major “feature update releases”once a year in the second half of the year. This was already a change from Windows 10, which received two such updates a year. But Windows Central is reporting that the Windows 11 2023 feature update has already been “cancelled,”suggesting the big yearly update model may be gone for good.
Whatever the company is planning, it’s not ready to announce it to the public right now. A Microsoft spokesperson told us that the company “does not comment on rumors or speculation.”
This leaves a lot of important questions unanswered. If this change happens, will the “23H2″version of Windows still be released to define the Windows 11 update lifecycle? Will Windows 12 be a paid upgrade like older versions of Windows, or will it be free for current Windows users like Windows 10 and Windows 11? What features, if any, will be kept across multiple major editions of Windows? What features are included in Moments and what features are not used in the main releases?
A return to more delineated editions of Windows could be beneficial; it’s an opportunity to make larger changes to the user interface or internal improvements, and to take advantage of the additional user awareness and media attention that comes with major updates. It’s also the ability to change the system requirements, ensuring that any system running Windows 12 will have more powerful hardware than a system running Windows 11 (although the downside of doing so for users will be further tightening the already strict requirements of Windows 11).
On the other hand, to third-party developers and IT administrators, the current plan sounds like the worst of both worlds: an ever-changing current version of Windows that is constantly being improved, plus a more fragmented install base with large groups of users running one of three or four different versions of Windows with different user interfaces and feature sets. IT admins can fall back into bad habits by skipping less desirable versions of Windows (like 8 or Vista) while staying on “good”versions with a known amount (like XP or 7), missing out on important new features and security updates in the process..
If Microsoft has more to say about its plans to update Windows 10 or Windows 11 in the future, it might do so when the annual feature updates for both operating systems are released later this year. Windows 11 22H2 has been publicly developed through the Windows Insider testing channels and is already fairly well documented. The company hasn’t said much about Windows 10 22H2, which may or may not add any user-visible features to the latest generation OS.