Microsoft has finally put all speculations around Windows 12 to rest, as it announced that the next big update to its desktop operating system will be called Windows 11, version 24H2, and will be released in the second half of this year.
Not Windows 12, But Windows 11 24H2 To Release In 2024
The announcement was published on the official Windows Insider blog post, where Microsoft announced the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26052 release to Canary and Dev channels. The release notes clarify that this year’s annual feature update will be named ‘Windows 11, 24H2.’
It also sheds light that it will continue to focus on the annual feature update approach and plans to support Windows 11 with major feature updates for another year, which means that Windows 12 is not coming in 2024, as speculated.
“Starting with Build 26-xx today, Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels will see the versioning updated under Settings > System > About (and winver) to version 24H2. This denotes that Windows 11, version 24H2 will be this year’s annual feature update. As mentioned here, Windows 11 will have an annual feature update cadence that releases in the second half of the calendar year,” reads the changelog, which was first spotted by Windows Central.
All the features that were speculated to arrive in Windows 12 will now be released under Windows 11’s upcoming 24H2 version, which is supposed to be the most significant “AI upgrade” for the operating system.
The Windows 11 version 24H2 brings some notable features, which include Sudo for Windows, Copilot, improvements in hearing aid support, audio mic test utility to test audio in different processing modes, Taskbar and System Tray, Bluetooth, Graphics, Registry Editor, Developer APIs, security, settings, and many other things.
You can check out the complete list of changes in the press release here.
The upcoming Windows 11 24H2 version is likely to be released to manufacturers (RTM) in April and reach general availability in September or October of 2024.
It is also worth noting that Windows 12 has not been canceled and may debut in 2025 or later, considering that Windows 10 will reach the end of support (EOS) on October 14, 2025. Stay tuned for more updates!