Is Windows 12 on the Way? It Sure Looks Like It.
As Microsoft readies a new version of Windows 11 (version 22H2) the rumors are flying that Microsoft is already working on Windows 12. Despite its promise that Windows 10 would be the last named version of Windows, Windows 11 was released in 2021. And now it appears, from what we’ve heard, that Microsoft will stop releasing major annual updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11, and instead, as rumor has it, will release a brand new named version of Windows (Windows 12) sometime in 2024.
“The promise” lasted just over six years
That “promise” lasted a little over six years. Microsoft released Windows 10 on July 29, 2015, and Windows 11 was released on October 5, 2021. Now the rumor is that Windows 12 will be released sometime in the autumn of 2024. In the meantime, Windows 11 will continue to get annual version updates and Windows 10 will continue to be updated until October 14, 2025. That means we could potentially have three supported named versions of Windows at the same time – at least until October 14, 2025 – the end-of-support date for Windows 10.
Windows 12 features will be finding their way into Windows 11
New features and new annual versions of Windows 11 will continue to roll out – and some of the features will come from the development of Windows 12. However, Microsoft will continue to label them as new Windows 11 features.
Will Windows 12 be a free upgrade?
It’s too early to know right now, but Microsoft probably won’t change its current policy of making new versions free for Windows users. However, as many Windows 10 users sadly found out, Windows 11 will not run on most computers built prior to 2018. Of course, workarounds abound, but if you spend money it will probably be on a new computer and not on buying Windows 12.
Windows 12, Windows 13, and beyond
The rumors are flying, but some very reliable sources are saying that Microsoft will release a new “named version” version of Windows every three years. Of course, this is contrary to what Microsoft announced when they skipped Windows 9 and jumped from Windows 8 to Windows 10 which, at the time, they claimed would be the last named version of Windows. Will there be a “Windows 13” in 2027? Or will they skip the number 13 and go right to Windows 14 to appease the triskaidekaphobics and others who are apprehensive of the number 13?
All we know for sure is that Windows 10 was not to be the last named version of Windows -as Microsoft promised.
Are you ready for Widnows 12?
And yet another generation of newbies enters the industry’s “development team” to reinvent the wheel again and again and again.
I’m beginning to think the Mac is starting to look pretty good. No hoops to jump through. I wonder though if there’s a learning curve. It’s been a number of years since I’ve used a Mac. I’ll have to ask my neighbor.
I was so fed up with MSoft that I bought a Chromebook which I am very happy with and less stressed. I still have my old winddows 10 desktop but I never use it. I will keep it until they stop supporting it or until they finally come up with something that they don’t have to keep changing because they can’t get it right.(not likely in my life time…hahaha}
Linda
We’re all hooked on MS windows and that’s the way they want it. Now they control us. Where else are we going to go?
I’m 84 years old and am having a hard time keeping up with all the new fangled updates. I don’t know if I could handle a new verion of Windows. It gets harder and harder to learn new things as I age.
Shirley