Windows event: Microsoft is leaking names and more

For more than a year, Microsoft has been providing only small functionality updates to Windows 10, whose innovations are almost negligible. Insiders have known for months that this will change with the Fall 2021 update 21H2. Aside from several new features, the next Windows will have a unified surface design called Sun Valley, which differs from the previously familiar look with rounded corners and floating information bars. As an erroneously published support article shows, “Sun Valley” represents not only the major innovation but also the name of the next Windows. The article contains a description of “Learn about managing applications in Windows 10 and Windows Sun Valley” – this allows even to conclude that there will be another version called “Windows Sun Valley” in addition to Windows 10 in the future. Microsoft has since deleted the article in question, but it is still available on GitHub.

The rumor that Microsoft is working on two copies of Windows is not new. The software giant originally planned to bring out the entry-level Windows 10X operating system these days, but all of a sudden they canceled the whole thing and announced that it would port functionality from Windows 10X to regular Windows instead. Microsoft has yet to reveal whether this means Windows 10 or another version of the operating system – the community will likely only find out on June 24th. However, the leak indicates that Sun Valley will be a replacement for “Windows 10” – not its end. The recently leaked name for a beta version of the next update but one 22H1, which still has the build number 10 and codename ‘OneCore’, also fits this. It is possible that the group is currently implementing its plans for a modular CoreOS window. This means that it can offer new features and designs like ‘Sun Valley’ as usual as functionality updates for private users, while in sensitive corporate territory, however, ‘Core Windows 10’ can remain the tried and tested. It is also fitting that Microsoft did not introduce any new functionality with the latest 21H2 updates, but only tested the update mechanism.

Observers have been expecting the Windows 10 name to disappear at some point for quite some time. The operating system has had the same name since its introduction in 2015, although the current 21H1 update is already the twelfth version of Windows 10. However, if the version number as the name of the platform takes a backseat to design and feature updates such as “Sun Valley” , the code name is gaining importance. Similar to its rival Apple, which has been naming major versions of the macOS desktop operating system for years after popular areas of the US Pacific Coast, “version number” will likely take a back seat at Microsoft, too. So far, Windows job updates work titles like “Iron” for version 21H1 have been under the radar: The name “Sun Valley” sounds more like “Monterey” or “Big Sur”…