In the past, various newspapers (including ours) have referred to a comment made by Microsoft managers in April 2015, during the conference Ignite of that year. Spokesmen for the Redmond company made it clear that Windows 10 it would have been thelatest version of the system operational.
In more recent times, even sources within Microsoft claimed that things were not exactly in those terms. Maybe even to justify the release of Windows 11which took place – as we know – at the beginning of October 2021. After the announcement a few months earlier.
Latest version of Microsoft operating system? Windows 10. Here’s the proof
The flurry of statements released after the launch of Windows 11 a few years ago led us to believe that Microsoft had never, in fact, uttered a sentence that sounded exactly like “Windows 10 will be the last version“. Yet, to confirm that “vision” on which the company evidently wanted to focus, now comes a consideration taken from a book published by Microsoft itself: “Windows Internals, Book 1“.
On one of the pages of the text, there is the paragraph “Windows 10 and future versions of Windows“. The company led by Satya Nadella put the following in black and white: “With Windows 10, Microsoft will update Windows more frequently than before. There will not be a Windows 11 as the official version; instead, Windows Update (or another update system used at the enterprise level) will update Windows 10 to a new version. At the time of writing, two updates have already been released: in November 2015 (…) and in July 2016 (…), the latter known as the Anniversary Update“.
Don’t you believe it? Just do a simple search with Google Books and you will find the paragraph in question.
So Microsoft’s plans were indeed to maintain Windows 10 “forever” by “changing the skin” of the operating system through i feature update, i.e. updates that were previously released twice a year (now only once). Updating Windows 11, in fact, now means interfacing not only with i feature update but also with “the new” called quarterly updates Moments.
Microsoft has changed its plans several times: that’s a fact
After reneging on the idea of keeping Windows 10 “natural life during“, Microsoft has released an operating system – Windows 11 – which directly takes up its legacy. Despite the many new features and the significantly renewed interface, the “behind the scenes” features remain unchanged. So much so that the codes Product Key of Windows 10 work without problems with the same editions of Windows 11: also see the Product keys for generic volume licensing (GVLK). They are exactly the same for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Furthermore, not only has Microsoft decided to shelve the project of keeping Windows 10 and gradually updating it with a life cycle of indeterminate length, but he had in his plans to release Windows 12 perhaps already in mid-2024. This is to return to the historic schedule which saw the company publish a new one major release Of Windows every three years.
After the historic manager of the Windows and Surface divisions left the company, Panos Panay, Microsoft would once again review its plans. In 2024, therefore, we will see the release of a new version of Windows but it will only be Windows 11 24H2, i.e. the feature update autumn of the operating system. No Windows 12.
There have been many “turns” over the years: have you ever wondered why Microsoft decided to skip Windows 9? Yet explicit references to that operating system never released they were also found within Windows 11. Because the Redmond company wanted to quickly put the failed experience of Windows 8.x behind it, present Windows 10 as a convincing operating system (and it was!…) and, perhaps , completely abandon version numbers from a future perspective. Therefore speaking, generically, of “Windows”.
Opening image credit: Microsoft News Center.