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We are at a rare moment in Microsoft history, when the company that defined the modern PC is supporting a single version of its flagship operating system. Windows 10 is officially unsupported. Windows 11 is rushing towards its fifth anniversary -- which is traditionally the end of mainstream support.
Also: How to upgrade your 'incompatible' Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 for free - today
That all suggests that the next version of Windows -- let's call it Windows 12 -- will be here before you know it, ready or not. So, what can we expect? I've got some ideas, but let me warn you: You're probably not going to like my predictions.
Everything old is new again
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you want to know what's coming next from Microsoft, just look at its past failures.
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Look at the first release of Edge, which was built on a heavily modified version of the Internet Explorer engine. It failed miserably, so Microsoft killed it and replaced it with a browser built on the open-source Chromium codebase, while keeping the name. It's now a core part of Windows 11 and is tolerated by web designers and end users in a way that its predecessors never could manage.
Or how about Cortana? That was Microsoft's attempt to build a digital assistant to compete with Apple's Siri. It launched with great fanfare in 2014 and belly-flopped. It was unceremoniously deprecated in 2020. But Microsoft didn't give up on the idea of a smart assistant, which now exists in a much more prominent capacity as Copilot. You may have heard of it.
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