Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Microsoft is actively working on the next version of Windows, for which the name “Next Valley” is currently used internally. In July, Windows Central editor Zack Bowden reported that Microsoft had decided to return to the three-year development cycle for large versions of Windows, with the next such release scheduled for 2024.
It is unlikely that anyone expected that in the foreseeable future there would be news about the next version of Windows, but Microsoft itself gave rise to a conversation on this topic. Users watching yesterday’s Ignite Keynote noticed an updated version of the Windows user interface in one of the videos. Changes include a floating taskbar with rounded corners, system tray icons in the top right, a floating search box in the top center, and a weather widget in the top left.
It looks like there was a misunderstanding between the product and design teams when making this video, and the company inadvertently showed off its plans to modernize the interface on Windows.
Zach Bowden notesthat he had previously seen this prototype design. Along with the information about “Next Valley”, he was able to look at several ideas for the future design of Windows, which at that time were in the prototyping stage. Sources have now confirmed that the user interface shown reflects design ideas that Microsoft hopes to implement in the next version of Windows.
The UI prototype image shown at Ignite 2022 was pretty low quality, so Zach Bowden recreated it in a graphical editor to give you a full idea of how it should look in reality.
Zak also notes that he has seen several variations of this design, including a version where the system tray icons are placed at the top in a translucent bar, rather than simply displayed on top of the desktop wallpaper. What’s more, Microsoft is planning a massive UI update that will affect the lock and login screen, Action Center, and more.
This design prototype allows for a more touch-optimized interface without impacting the user experience with keyboards and mice, the sources said. The point is that Microsoft wants to be able to scale Windows to different form factors, whether desktops, laptops or tablets, including those with foldable screens.
In previous versions, Microsoft struggled to find a balance between touch and traditional keyboard and mouse controls. Windows 8 was overly touch-centric, and Windows 10 once again tipped the scales towards the traditional way of interacting with the OS. With Windows 11, the company is trying to strike a balance, while still being more geared towards keyboard and mouse users.
Anyway, it’s too early to talk about “Next Valley” yet. Nothing is fixed in the code right now, so the user interface is likely to change more than once before the release of the next version of Windows. We are in the early stages of planning and design, so this is absolutely normal.
In the meantime, one remains to wonder how a confidential prototype of the user interface got into the official presentation of Microsoft.
