Is Microsoft already working on Windows 12?

How a joke on Twitter sparked rumours about Windows 11’s successor

If you ever needed proof that some computer experts have an obscure sense of humour, consider a recent tweet from anonymous security researcher ‘Swift on Security’ (346,000 followers). They cited Microsoft sources that claimed the company has already started building Windows 12, and that for security reasons it would require computers to have two TPM processors (one more than Windows 11).

Tech websites wasted no time in excitedly reporting the tweet, assuming Swift’s rumour was based on reality. But it wasn’t. Swift sent another tweet apologising for the initial message, saying it was meant to be a joke (see www.snipca.com/40984).

As punchlines go, it didn’t split any sides, nor tickle any ribs. But was Swift’s message entirely false? The reference to two TPMS certainly seemed to be an in-joke for bored cybersecurity researchers. Yet there may be truth in the claim that Microsoft has already started work on Windows 12, just months after releasing Windows 11.

That’s what German tech site Deskmodder thinks, anyway. It didn’t merely report Swift’s tweet: it provided the key extra detail that Windows 12 will see Microsoft return to its abandoned Windows 10X project, claiming that the company is hiring people now.

Windows 10X, you may recall, was the operating system everyone was expecting last year, instead of Windows 11. As recently as March 2021, Microsoft was touting it as a far simpler version of Windows, with fewer tools and a more streamlined design, including a new-look Start menu.

Yet within three months Microsoft had pulled the plug on 10X and announced Windows 11, backtracking on its promise that Windows 10 would be the final version of the operating system.

So, how much weight should we give Deskmodder’s story? On one level, it’s hardly news that Microsoft is already working on Windows 12. Operating systems take years to plan and build, so it’s inconceivable to think that work on Windows 11’s successor hasn’t started yet. And if so, it seems plausible that it will contain elements of 10X, given that Microsoft came so close to launching it last year.

The more pertinent question is how much work Microsoft has actually done on Windows 12, and here we’re in the dark. What we can say is that Deskmodder’s story doesn’t appear to be pure speculation. Its claim that work has started is “according to our information”, which is journalistic code for sources working within Microsoft.

If work has started - so soon after the launch of Windows 11 - then it might signal that Microsoft is returning to a shorter time gap between editions. In the past,

When – or if – Windows 12 arrives, it might be compatible with even fewer PCS than Windows 11

successive versions of Windows were separated by a gap of just three years. That six-year gap from 10 to 11 (2015 to 2021) could turn out to be an anomaly, artificially lengthened by Microsoft’s insistence that there would never be another version.

When - or if - Windows 12 arrives, it might be compatible with even fewer PCS than Windows 11. Some analysts have suggested that Swift’s ‘two TPM’ joke might have unwittingly pointed to a situation where PCS need both a TPM and Microsoft’s own Pluton security chip (www. snipca.com/40986) to run Windows 12.

But it won’t mean the premature demise of Windows 10 or 11. Microsoft will support the former until October 2025 (www.snipca. com/40985), and while the company hasn’t set an end date for the latter, it’s likely to be supported into the 2030s. So for now, keep using the version of Windows you’ve got, and don’t worry.