Prediction: Windows "Next" Is Dropping This Year

While most believe that Microsoft will just keep endlessly updating Windows 11 with new features each year, I have reason to believe they are actually working on W11's successor as we speak.

Recently hints of this started showing up in different places.

Firstly there is Windows CPC/NXT/WNC, their small Thin Client OS that lacks a desktop UI and only serves to connect to Windows 365 instances.
Its UI looks already quite different, with rounder elements and more translucency.

Then there's today's Dev channel build 26120.3281 which features a new rounder style for context menus and other UI elements (Only showing up on the Recall app for now).


Later this month the Dev channel will begin testing brand new 25H2/Selenium builds from the se_release branch, In which we might start seeing more of this new rounder design (my guess is that the new context menus will show up first...)

And Selenium is the beginning of what will become Windows vNext.

We will start hearing more about this in late March or mid-April.
With MSFT making a formal announcement in June or more likely July.

Oh and of course, Microsoft execs and employees will fiercely deny the existance of such project for quite a while until they are ready to properly announce it (or somebody leaks it first...)
"2025 is the year of Windows 11 Upgrades." -- That's what they'll keep saying.

Zac Bowden for example didn't say Windows 12 wouldn't ever happen! And we all know he has access to inside info the general public does not.

IMHO based on what I'm seeing, Windows "12?" will feature about the same look as Windows 11, but with more translucency, rounder buttons, context menus, and other parts of the UI, more AI integration...
Heck perhaps we might even see the return of that scrapped floating taskbar design.


Windows 12 will be a refined, nicer looking, faster and more stable Windows 11.

This makes a lot of sense since Win10 is losing support completely on October 14.