

Microsoft has also put several Windows applications on their own release schedule, refreshing them with the Windows 11 look and feel or adding new functionality.įor consumers, the new changes can be a bit unsettling, as the ground shifts beneath them and the operating system they have become accustomed to. Microsoft said it would do this through the use of “experience packs,” pieces of code that would actually just appear in Windows Update. Microsoft said in February that it was exploring new ways to roll out new features for Windows according to its own arbitrary schedule. (So far, those release dates don’t seem to have been set.) Normally, Microsoft releases feature updates for Windows 10 and 11 twice a year, in the spring and fall. According to Windows Central, Microsoft plans to roll them out in what it calls “Moments,” or bundles of features delivered at certain times of the year. The other interesting consequence for consumers is that Windows feature updates are becoming more frequent. However, Microsoft has not yet confirmed any of these details. However, if the Windows Central report is true, it places the next major release of Windows in 2024, three years after Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021. When a Microsoft employee made a confusing statement claiming that “Windows 10 would be the last Windows,” it was assumed that Windows 11 was a one-time release.

First, that would make Windows 11 less of an anomaly and merely a return to a more normal release schedule. But instead of releasing groups of features for the current version of Windows in both the fall and spring (normally referred to as, say, “22H2” or as the “Windows 11 May Update”), Microsoft can increase the pace to as many as four times a year. Microsoft may be going back to a three-year release cycle for major versions of Windows, such as Windows 11. Microsoft teams up with Netflix for new subscription for consumers
