Microsoft is going to announce a new version of Windows.

Microsoft have been building up to a large announcement recently with a tweet about an event on 24 June and some more random social media teases such as an 11-minute video of Windows startup sounds.

Current speculation is that this will be Windows 11, but Microsoft’s famous random naming strategies (E.g. Xbox – Xbox 360 – Xbox One – Xbox X) could mean it is called something completely different!

This is happening despite Microsoft announcing previously that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows at their Ignite conference in 2015: “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.”

Microsoft have approached Windows 10 as a service rather than as a single software release, with extremely regular incremental fixes as well as bi-annual bigger updates. Hence their previous point that this could have been the last version of Windows – as it would be endlessly updated and refined.

However, it appears that competition with Apple’s macOS operating system (which is free to all Mac users and is updated every year) as well as a 55% increase in the PC market during the pandemic seems to have led to the decision for a new version rather than sticking to the incremental model.

Beyond the benefits to users and organisations of a new iteration of the world’s biggest operating system, from a sales perspective releasing a new flagship version of Windows usually leads to more hardware purchases – as manufacturers can use this for campaigns to sell machines.

Microsoft have been working on something codenamed “Sun Valley” which they have called “a sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows”. And this seems to have morphed into a new version of Windows now that Microsoft have also announced the end of support for Windows 10, for the first. You can find the lifecycle for Windows 10 here, which mentions October 2025 as the retirement date for Windows 10 – which will be 10 years after its initial release in 2015.

As a Microsoft Partner, we will have early access to the new version of Windows when it drops, and will keep you posted on any new big developments.