Microsoft’s Ignite 2022 keynote was filled with announcements about Microsoft 365 and beyond. However, in addition to the official announcement Microsoft also showed something that it didn’t intend to. In the live keynote, a screen displayed the Windows desktop that was running Microsoft Teams, but the desktop does not look exactly like the way we use it currently, possibly hinting at a the future versions of Windows which we believe will be referred to as Windows 12.
It’s normal for something like this to be a prototype. might have been just an unrealized mockup Microsoft put together to accompany the video, however Zac Bowden from Windows Central states that the prototype design was shown in the internal Windows Central meeting a couple of months ago, when we first heard Microsoft has been working to create the first major Windows release that is expected to be released in 2024. Actually, several variants of this prototype exist, for instance one in which the UI elements on top sit on a transparent bar at high-up on the screen.
Some users on Twitter noticed there are some major differences in comparison the previous version of Windows 11. One of the biggest changes is that we’ll see floating taskbars at the bottom of the screen, which means it’s not on the bottom part of the display. It’s similar to the UI that you see in macOS or other Linux distributions. You can also see many of the information you need in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, such as the weather at present and a search bar and icons from the system for things such as Wi-Fi and battery. The image shown in the keynote was a bit low-resolution, however Bowden made a mockup in which you can view the UI elements in a little more depth.
The aim of this new design strategy is to make the UI for users who use touch but without excluding keyboard and mouse users that constitute the majority of Windows users in the present. This is something Microsoft did not manage to achieve in the case of Windows 8, and since then, it’s been having difficulty finding the right balance to please both groups – even though Windows 11 version 22H2 does improve on this front.
Of all that means that we’ll get any UI style like this if it happens, or if Windows 12 does eventually release. In the end, this is an early prototype, and things may change drastically in the months to come. Recently, we were able to see an early version of the design concept to be used in Windows 8, which was presented internally two years prior to the time the OS was officially released. It contained numerous ideas that never came to the realization. We’ll need to wait until closer to the expected release date to determine how the final UI looks.
