It has been two years since Windows 11 was first revealed and quite possibly, around the same time next year, Microsoft will likely be talking about its Next Valley, generally referred to as Windows 12. As such, the buzz and enthusiasm around the next-gen OS is slowly beginning to rise and over the last several months, there have been multiple concept art showing how the next Windows could look like.
YouTuber AR 4789 published a Windows 12 concept video last month on their channel. The Start menu and widgets board look like something users would really appreciate. Not only do they look and work nicely with useful functionalities, but there are no ads or promos or recommendations that have become typical of Windows 11 nowadays. The latter alone probably makes it look extra nice. The Start menu gets a Recent items section instead of Recommended content, something which is likely to be much more useful or at least less annoying to a user. The widgets panel is more similar to how live tiles were on Windows 10 as they can be rearranged freely.
As you can see below, the main visual characteristics of Windows 11 like rounded corners are retained. The floating taskbar is almost certainly going to be a part of Windows 12 as evidenced by some Dev channel developments and changes. However, Microsoft could still change its mind.
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The concept also manages to strike an almost perfect balance between the light theme and dark theme as neither looks much better or worse than the other. Typically, the dark mode is what most users tend to prefer but in this case, you may have had a hard time choosing one over the other.
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The full video also shows other features and components like the Widgets board in more detail, the File Explorer, Tabbed Notepad, Microsoft Store, and others. Overall it looks like a nice blend of the best parts of Windows 11 and Windows 10. You can watch it below:
As for what we should expect from the real thing when it hits next year, there is a big chance that AMD"s Ryzen 8000 (Zen 5) will be Windows 12-ready, and that would happen to be Arrow Lake (15th Gen) on the Intel side.
As far as other system requirements are concerned, a senior Microsoft exec might just have recently suggested that future Windows 11 releases may get more chip-level security like TPM; and that would mean such requirements would carry over to Windows 12 too. A recent report alleged that Microsoft could make its Pluton security co-processor a compulsory requirement, meant to provide additional security over TPM.
Cloud is going to be a massive part of Windows 12 suggests an FTC filing. This will also be accompanied by the increasing AI-based capabilities that Microsoft is slowly integrating into Windows.