Microsoft appears to be pushing back the release of Windows 12 despite previous rumors and is instead focusing on more updates to Windows 11. Rumors regarding the debut of Windows 12 have been circulating since 2022, when it was once claimed it might’ve been planned to be launched last summer, and then, after that did not happen, it was thought it could launch this summer, but that too now seems unlikely. Microsoft has just announced that a new build update, 25H2, is coming to Windows 11 and is already available for members of its insider program.
“Today, Windows 11, version 25H2 became available to the Windows Insider community, in advance of broader availability planned for the second half of 2025.”
-Jason Leznek, Microsoft
As reported by Tom’s Hardware, the next build update does not appear to include any major feature additions or changes. It’s been reported that the changelog is the same as the one for the 24H2 preview build. The update installation process should be as easy as a restart, with install times taking approximately the same amount of time as a cumulative update install. While new features are expected to be added to 25H2 at some point, it’s possible some will roll down to 24H2 and 23H2.
Windows past, current, and future
It is somewhat common knowledge that Microsoft will be ending support for Windows 10 this October. Windows 10 launched in 2015 following a tumultuous series of OS launches which began with Windows Vista in 2006(OEM) and 2007 (public release) that succeeded the very popular Windows XP. Vista was generally not well received, and not long after Windows 7 launched in 2009, which reportedly had been in development side-by-side, and before, but had been delayed. Windows 7 was, by many, considered the true successor to XP and received praise from consumers and enterprises alike for its design.
However, Windows users were not out of the woods yet as Windows 8 and then 8.1, would follow in 2012 and 2013 to once again rattle the nerves of PC owners. Tablets and touchscreens began to become immensely more popular, and so Microsoft’s engineers sought to create a hybrid OS incorporating tiles into the Windows UI, something many didn’t like. MS also began to move familiar feature settings into new places, making it more difficult for veteran users to find them. So, in just over six years, Microsoft had launched three distinctly different operating systems, plus another that would be the equivalent of a major build update by today’s standards.
At this point, MS was well aware of the frustrations among its users, and so Windows 10 was released with the intent it would be around for some time. Some could joke that given Apple was on OSX at the time Microsoft decided to skip naming it 9 and ride the wave with 10. Many a gamer and average PC user clinged to Windows 7 claiming MS would have to pry it from their cold, dead hands but ironically that sentiment has now transferred over to not wanting to move to Windows 11 which was released in 2021. Windows 10 did what it was intended to do in its decade of use. Meanwhile as Windows 11 has introduced numerous AI-related features, some of which have found their way into Windows 10 and many wonder how far Microsoft will go into the AI rabbit hole. It has even been rumored that Microsoft could make Windows 12 its first subscription-based OS meaning users will not have the option of purchasing a license but will be forced to pay ongoing fees to use it. That rumor is based on wording found in a Windows 11 configuration file in 2022 but it remains to be seen what Microsoft is really planning for its next OS that now might not arrive until 2026.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →I just got on windows 11, slow down you numbnuts
Agreed. I forgot to include Windows 11's release date in the article, 2021, so yeah, they need to give it at least a couple more years until the next nightmare.
I went ahead an ninja edited the W11 release date in the post. Not something I usually do this late after a post but it does complete the circle of release dates mentioned.
I'll be finally making the switch to Win11 in a few months when Win10 is out, I'm holding on till the last minute, but... I know the time is coming, so my next computer refresh build I'll be doing later this year, it's time to finally do the switch to Win 11 :|
Who the f*ck was expecting Win12 in 2025?! I sure as f*ck wasn't!
While I've been using Win10 since launch, my own main desktop PC didn't get Win10 until 2022. Most of my friends, family, and clients are still on Win10. A friend and I recently built his new PC with 9800X3D and 4080 Super, and he decided we might as well just throw Win11 on that since Win10 EoL soon. But I used Win7 well after EoL, and the same will probably happen with Win10. I mean I care even less now cuz Windows is no longer my main OS. Win7 was the last Windows that I mained. In 2022 Linux went from something I experimented with over the years to being my main OS. But yeah if you're building a new system, I guess no real reason not to just throw Win11 on there.
But yeah I think it's way the f*ck too early for Win12. Win11 took a few years to even get decent. It's only just now getting to that point (Win10 had the same problem). Although man I do not remember it coming out in 2021! 4 years already, dang.
My laptop and 9800X3D both have W11 and it's overall been okay. As usual some things are moved around which I don't like, such as having to jump through multiple menus to get to refresh/HDR stuff and something else I can't remember right now. Indiana Jones was not supporting HDR on laptop for a bit but they fixed that about a month or so ago. The 9800X3D rig had been perfect so far but it's only about a month or two old.
I'll be upgrading all our business desktops and admin laptops to W11 next month and while I'm fully aware of ways to push it out to all at once, or re-image, I prefer to do each manually, letting Windows do the upgrade since our internet does the download fairly quick,in case something goes sideways and I can fix right away before the user is telling me they can't do their work. Not expecting the worse as testing has been mostly bug free so far but that's around 30+ systems to do.
As far as 12 goes, that might be the last one I have to do before retiring, I hope. It just better not be subscription based as some rumors have implied but I doubt they'd really do that with it, but it's probably only a matter of time.
Forgot to mention that while the 5800X3D still has W10 I've been putting that one off until the last minute because I plan to do a complete reinstall on that one since it's been using the same OS drive from my 3700X build. I'm just so tired of doing complete re-installs of everything on my OS drives with my home rigs that I get lazy with them.
Honestly after building out hundreds of windows and redhat servers... redoing my personal system is easy peasy... I mean game installs sure... but saves are generally backed up, all of my personal documents are saved to my one drive. The ecosystem of restoring is just so easy now that redoing my main OS is barely even a chore. Add to that fast internet connection.... and meh... no harm no foul.
Don't get me wrong I don't go LOOKING for chances to rebuild my OS... but upgrading, or new motherboards, and such... yep it's a fresh install every time. Just because I'm an old school windows 3.1 through 11 user... I know that crap gets left behind regardless.
Want to see something crazy... after a few years look at the size of the largest files on your system... know what's in the top... the windows drive index database... IE the history of everything that's been on your computer. Reset that puppy every couple years to keep it well below 100 gig.
For me it's usually reinstalling the apps and redoing all the various settings. Not brain surgery by any means, but my day job has enough tedious details for me to keep track of that I don't normally want to come home and deal with more, but I do in stages. For instance, tonight I put about an hour or more into fine tuning things on my laptop and gained a significant amount of FPS/performance gains, but I'll mention that in another thread.
I often use CC cleaner and then occasionally Windows disk cleaner to keep things tidy so no worries there.
I wonder if they are willing to pull the plug on 10 with it still sitting on hundreds of millions of PCs just 90 days to deadline. I have to say I'm still hoping for a last minute decision to not go through with slowly turning half of the world's windows PCs into a botnet.
I sure as hell waiting it out for as long as possible. I have no intent to inflict w11 on myself without a gun to my head. I used my home server as the canary for W11 a while back and it was nothing but a clusterf*ck and a PITA ever since. It was broken from the start, and it keeps rebooting itself at the worst possible times and there is absolutely nothing I can do to avoid it short of completely turning off the windows update service. Which would defeat the purpose of "up"grading anyway.
I haven't tried it in a server environment, but that does sound like a nightmare, but I've mostly had good experiences with it on my rig and laptop. I wouldn't even have it, though, but both came with it, the rig started as a prebuilt, which came with it, and then I transplanted various parts to upgrade one of my Lian Li setups. I have been, to some degree, keeping track of update/bugs and I have seen some ridiculous things for sure. Four years in, and I feel some things should not be an issue. For example, I think there was some kind BT issue about a month or two ago but somehow I managed to avoid that one. My biggest complaint is the extra digging I have to do to get to certain display settings. Annoyed to no end in that regard.
My wondering, what new features either-or GUI or under the hood would a Win 12 bring?
I tend to be a new to new-ish adopter of OS's. Really the only I ever wished I had waited a bit more was Vista and that was just the Driver issues - it took like a year to get some of my pieces and parts on my system working again and a new Sound Blaster.
Well to be fair, AFAIK MS never officially announced Windows 12, it was all rumors. So as far as we can tell its right on schedule.
True enough but they do have some odd cadence planning going on ever since XP ended. I do remember how they'll often have multiple OSes in development at the same time and depending on which reaches the goal quicker, that can affect what gets released like what happened with Vistas and 7. I often wonder if they know what target timeline is on the board.
I will if it offers a significant new API feature like DX10-12 as happened over the years but otherwise with W11 I wasn't in any rush and nobody really knows what's in store for 12. At this point as I'm getting older, I'm just tired of having to learn new GUIs and where they buried the settings I'm used to configuring. Another rumor that I just remembered now is that they might be trying to phase out control panel altogether and pretty bummed if that's true.