Next Windows: Windows 11, Windows Sun Valley or what?

[German]Microsoft has announced an event on the topic of "next Windows" on June 24, 2021, where the future development of the operating system from Redmond is to be discussed. Until then, Windows Insider Previews will no longer be available for testing (see the article at deskmodder.de). In the meantime, the speculations revolve around the question of how Microsoft will name the upcoming Windows versions starting in the fall. Besides Windows 11, a new naming scheme of the Windows Sun Valley kind has now been brought into the discussion.

Short review: Windows 11 or what?

In May, Windows 10 21H1 (May 2021 Update) was introduced as a feature update, and according to the development so far, a Windows 10 21H2 can be expected in fall 2021. So far, so unspectacular, if Microsoft had not recently announced something. On June 24, 2021, Microsoft officially invites to an event that is supposed to be about the next Windows..

The tweet above links to this Microsoft page, where you can watch the livestream of the conference from 17:00 German time on June 24. There is only the hint that you can "see what's next for Windows" (see also my blog post On June 24, 2021, the new Windows (11) will be introduced).

Since this invitation, the guesswork has begun as to what Microsoft might introduce and whether Windows 10 would remain 10 as a name. The time chosen (11 a.m. in the U.S.), the shadow of the window in the image above, all gave fuel to speculation that Microsoft might introduce a Windows 11 as the name for the revamped Windows 10. I had briefly reported on this in the blog post Is Microsoft teasing Windows 11?.

Windows Sun Valley and beyond?

It has been known for a long time that the user interface refresh that was expected for Windows 10 21H2 is running under the code name Sun Valley at Microsoft. Now there is the assumption that this code name could also be used as a product name later. So instead of Windows 10 or Windows 11, there would then be a Windows Sun Valley. The Windows version planned for 2022 could then be named like Windows Monatana, or Windows Lands End or similar.

Windows Sun Valley as a name is not completely out of the air. Windows Latest recently noticed that Microsoft had released a documentation for UWP apps by mistake, where the note "Learn about managing applications in Windows 10 and Windows Sun Valley" appeared.

Reference to Windows Sun Valley, source: Microsoft/GitHub

This reference to Sun Valley was removed again shortly afterwards (but the name can still be found in the commit entries on Github). The colleagues from Bleeping Computer discuss here that Microsoft could switch to a naming scheme like Apple's macOS. There macOS also comes with the version number 10, but is traded in public as macOS Catalina, macOS Big Sur, macOS Montery etc.. In this article, the colleagues from deskmodder.de go by other codenames like Cherry Hill (for redesigned apps and experience packs) or Fire Steel (explorer and internal apps).

Or is it Windows 11 after all?

Occasionally I feel like an art forger, tasked with interpreting the secret messages the painter left in the original. Someone put a protractor over the painting shown in the above tweet and found that the floor visible through the window is exactly at an 11 degree angle.

The 11 degrees floor behind the window

The colleagues at Bleeping Computer dug that up in this article. And a few hours ago Microsoft published a video with the startup sounds of Windows XP etc. on YouTube.

(Source: Youtube)

And this video has a precise length of 11 minutes. So it remains exciting until 5/24/2021.