The Next Windows 11 Update (Premium)

There's a lot to talk about in the wake of today's Microsoft Special Event, but I'd like to first hit on something near and dear to my heart.

I am referring, of course, to Windows.

If you follow me in any way---reading Thurrott.com, watching Windows Weekly, whatever---you have surely observed my frustration with the ever-changing ways in which Microsoft updates Windows in this modern era. And today's event … triggered something.

First, the history.

These changes started over a decade ago, when Steve Sinofsky was forced out of Microsoft in late 2012. Because Windows 8 was so reviled by Microsoft's customers, it halted the normal updating cadence and entered what it called a "rapid release cycle," whereby it would quickly fix everything that was wrong with the product via a succession of updates starting with Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1 was unique for two reasons. It was the first---and, as it turns out, only---Windows update delivered via the Windows Store, not Windows Update. For some reason. And … it was free. To be clear, Windows 8.1 was an upgrade for Windows 8 only, but it also wasn't a service pack. It was a full Windows release. And it was free.

After Windows 8.1, things got weird for a different but familiar reason. There were at least two meaningful updates to Windows 8.1, each of which further walked back the mistakes of Windows 8, and each of which was delivered through Windows Update. And each was named differently. Because Microsoft.

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced further changes. It would ship three major releases of this system each year, but then quickly changed the cadence to twice per year. It would be a free upgrade, but not just for one previous version: Those with Windows 7, Windows 8.x (any version), or even Windows Phone 8.x would get it for free. And the update lifecycle, which had long been ten years with five years of mainstream support and five years of extended support, shifted to something vague that was never explained: It was supported for "the lifetime of the device." Whatever that meant.

Over Windows 10's active years, Microsoft shifted its updating strategy repeatedly. At first, both releases each year were major updates, but after some failed to live up to that term, it changed to a major/minor schedule where it shipped a major release in the Fall (H2) and a minor release in the Spring (H1). The naming silliness continued, with an Anniversary update, a series of Creator Update releases, and then month/year releases (October 2108 Update, etc.).

The only hint we ever got about that "lifetime of the device" line came in late 2015 when Microsoft bungled the release of the Skylake-based Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, and incorrectly placed the blame on Intel. In retribution---Intel refused to fix the problems, as they were Microsoft's responsibility---Microsoft stopped supporting older Intel chipsets with Windows 10, suddenly triggering a customer support crisis when millions...