When Windows 11 and Windows 10 collectively hit 1.4 billion monthly active PCs earlier this year, Microsoft’s decision to restrict the pace of Windows feature upgrades in order to concentrate on system stability with monthly security patches and bug fixes looked like the appropriate one. A new main version of the Windows client is supposedly released every three years, and the corporation is now apparently switching to a new Windows development cycle that involves releasing feature upgrades as frequently as four times each year.
With Windows 11, Microsoft announced that feature upgrades will be released annually and would be made available in the second half of each calendar year. The Microsoft changed Windows 10’s feature update cycle from its twice-yearly cycle to the same single update cadence shortly after the introduction.
According to this new strategy, Microsoft will release new features and experiences for its current OS up to four times per year. The upcoming feature drops will be part of Microsoft’s internal “Moments” engineering initiative, which suggests that IT administrators may soon experience more of their own. Additionally, given that Microsoft is once again numbering its main OS updates, Windows 12 may be officially announced by 2024.
Details on Microsoft’s upcoming big OS release are currently scant, as one might expect. The project is now in the early planning and engineering stages and is reportedly referred to internally as “Next Valley”.