We may have just caught our first peek of Windows 12, but we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that Microsoft is making significant changes with Windows test builds.
XenoPanther on X (previously Twitter) discovered that the internal Canary versions of Windows 11 – those in the early testing channel, in other words – have just been forked, with a new build 27547 being introduced.
As you may be aware, the most recent Canary channel build is version 26040, which includes a new Voice Clarity feature for better video chats.
So we now have builds in the 26XXX and 27XXX ranges, which raises the obvious question: Is the latter Windows 12 in its first test phase? Let’s go over that in more detail next.
Analysis: Captain, I’m giving her everything she has!
According to Zac Bowden, a well-known Microsoft leaker (of Windows Central renown), the next version of Windows is likely to be the 26XXX branch, which is currently thought to be Windows 11 24H2 due later this year.
That means the 27XXX preview versions could be the next version of Windows, arriving in 2025 (though these builds are unlikely to be tested by Windows Insiders for some time). As a result, the (tentative) conclusion is that this might be Windows 12, or an entirely new Windows, whatever the name may be.
(Although we should further note that technically, Windows 11 24H2 will be all-new. Not the front-end thinking, but the fundamental foundations (it will be built on a new platform called Germanium, which will provide significant performance and security gains deep beneath the hood).
At any rate, this pretty well confirms that Windows 12 (or next-generation Windows, whatever the ultimate name is) will not be released this year, but rather next year. After all, Windows 10 will be phased out in 2025, thus it makes sense that a new operating system will arrive at the same time (October 2025).
As we’ve previously stated, one of the risks of introducing Windows 12 this year is that it will divide the desktop user base into three camps, which is inefficient and difficult to organize updates. So that scenario is neatly averted if Windows 12 does not arrive until 2025.
On a side point, Microsoft uses codenames for its OS development semesters the next one should have been arsenic, but the software giant avoided it since it was viewed as “scary and violent,” according to Bowden, and is now using the codename Dilithium instead. This is very cool for Star Trek aficionados (maybe Duranium will be the next in line when another incompatible real-world element appears).
