Why Windows 11 Won't Be Another Windows 8

Microsoft has a plan to reveal and potentially release Windows 11 this year, the year 2021. When you get your first look at the operating system, courtesy of leaked Beta builds and teasers, you might be shocked. You won't be shocked because the OS looks so shockingly different from what's available now in Windows 10 – you'll more likely be shocked by how similar it all looks to what you already have on your computer right now.

You've got a big blank space where icons for applications and shortcuts to processes appear available for clicking or tapping. You can likely arrange these icons as you see fit, and change your wallpaper and theme.

You've got a bar at the bottom of the screen with tiny icons of apps that are either already open or are pinned for easy access. On the right you'll see a chat bubble with a number that indicates how many pending notifications you have available. There's a clock, a date, an audio level indicator, and a space for icons giving you statuses – like battery level.

This OS has "recommended" bits – this is likely the way of the future for basically all major operating systems, desktop or mobile, from this point forward. They'll "recommend" courses of action or apps that they suggest will be beneficial for you to access.

Images (save the first image in this article) in this latest leak come from Baidu, where a developer of some sort gained access to an early build of Windows 11. More information on this leak can be found in our earlier look at the leak as such.

Also in the bar at the bottom of the screen you'll see an icon that'll show you all open windows. There's another button for Search – likely replacing the current always-present search bar "Type here to search" situation currently present in Windows 10. There's a Windows icon that'll likely relatively simply replace the Windows Home button currently constantly stuck in the lower left-hand corner of your display.

Microsoft won't likely ever make another move like they did with Windows 8. When Windows 8 was released, it was exciting, it was fun and new, but it was too drastic a change for most users. Windows is an operating system that's used by people who use it as a tool – a tool that should either work the way it's always worked or give access to new ways to do work in addition to the ways that remain as available as they've always been.

That's the way Windows continues to function – that's the way Windows 11 will likely be released. It's extremely unlikely that Windows 11 will interrupt any users' workflow when released this year, as it'd be a massive and unnecessary risk for Microsoft to release a product as such.