Leaked screenshot could be an early glimpse of the Windows 12 desktop
It’s an old, leaked screenshot, but with a new clue – and additional evidence besides
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We may have caught a glimpse of what theWindows 12desktop could look like, or at least been given a rough idea of how it might eventually turn out.
Neowinspotted that an image shown at Ignite 2022, which aswe reported at the timewas thought to represent the successor toWindows 11– generally assumed to beWindows 12(but we certainly don’t know that for sure) – has just turned up again.
This is an enhanced version of the original leaked image, and now you can clearly see that it says ‘Next Valley Prototype Design’ at the top, which refers to next-gen Windows. And as you may recall, it shows a very different-looking desktop with a floating taskbar (MacOS Dock-style) that has no system tray.
As Brad Sams (VP and General Manager at Stardock Software) further points out onYouTube, this seems to indicate that the leaked pic from Ignite is not just some sort of vague conceptMicrosoftis toying with, but potentially more of a firm design that shows where Windows is actually headed down the line.
There is some evidence to back up this assertion as Sams observes, pointing to the recent tweaks in preview versions ofWindows 11where Microsoft is in the process of adding theability to turn off the system tray clockand date (albeit this is still hidden in test builds and not yet realized).
Analysis: Windows 12 – being tested in plain sight?
In short, that piece of groundwork could be viewed as the first step towards the eventual jettisoning of the system tray from the taskbar, paving the way towards that floating taskbar as seen in the leaked Ignite image (which we now know pertains to the design of next-gen Windows thanks to the detective work in terms of enhancing that pic).
With these changes coming to Canary – the earliest testing channel recently ushered in by Microsoft, rumored to be the basis for Windows 12 – this begs the question whether Microsoft will openly carry out next-gen Windows development in the Canary channel.
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That could well be possible, and Microsoft may do so without actually telling us that explicitly, at least not until a good way down the road. If the rumor mill is right, that road could be a pretty short one, too, as the theory is that Windows 12 – or whatever it ends up being called – is going to arrive in 2024.
Other major interface changes recently spotted for Windows 11, which could equally end up in the next incarnation of the desktop OS, include further work on the rumored photo gallery for File Explorer, and more flexibility with widgets which may get the ability to be plonked on the desktop.
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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