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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 as of October 2025. Windows 11 now stands alone in the market, with a billion active users, according to Microsoft's most recent quarterly earnings report. In October 2026, Windows 11 will celebrate its fifth anniversary -- which is traditionally the halfway point in Microsoft's 10-year support lifecycle.
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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. In fact, this week PCWorld, a reliable source of technology news, published a startling report (translated from its German counterpart, PC-Welt) claiming that Windows 12 would be arriving in 2026. On Reddit, a post discussing the article went viral, gathering 18,000 upvotes and inspiring nearly 7,000 comments.
Then, a few hours later, executive editor Brad Chacos posted an apology and a retraction: "This article ... does not meet PCWorld's standards and should not have been published." (Full disclosure: I was once managing editor of PC World, when it was a print magazine. Having to write that sort of retraction would have been my worst nightmare,)
Long story short: No, Windows 12 is not coming in 2026. Microsoft has already announced that Windows 11 will receive its normal feature update -- version 26H2 -- later this year. Confusingly, there's also a brand-new version 26H1 that will arrive in the next few months, built for the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 processors. Earlier this year, the head of the Windows division, Pavan Davuluri, publicly apologized to angry and frustrated Windows 11 customers: "This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows."
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But that doesn't mean Microsoft isn't working on the next generation of Windows. Last December, I put together this post, offering my best guess as to what we're likely to see in that product -- and when it's likely to arrive.
Let me warn you: You're probably not going to like my predictions.
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