Fan-made concepts are always fun to look at as they often offer a drastically different version than what the official one is. Part of the charm of such concepts is that they highlight what the fans of that product deeply desire to have. As such, at Neowin, we cover some of these interesting ideas as our community consists mainly of Windows enthusiasts who generally love going through the abstracts presented.
Recently, YouTuber AR 4789, who is a prolific Windows concept creator, presented one where Windows XP was showcased in the style of Windows 11. The same creator has now published their latest work, and this time, instead of going the retro route, they took up the challenge to imagine the next version of Windows, "Windows 12," as the next revolutionary operating system from Microsoft in their next concept video named "Windows 12 - The Revolutionary."
The concept imagines that the hypothetical Windows 12 combines a minimalistic approach with intuitiveness and clean, gorgeous visual effects, an OS that marries aesthetics with functionality.
The Start menu is simplified and launches from a small main button menu at the bottom. The power, settings, and other options are at the top of the Start menu. The design, of course, has rounded corners, which is one of the hallmarks of Windows 11.
You will also notice that the taskbar is at the top with a tiled Quick Settings Action Center that is customizable according to user needs.
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Up next, we have the File Explorer (on the left) and the Settings app (on the right). Note that the creator has mislabeled the Settings app as "Files" as well.
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Here is the concept of Windows 12 in its full glory with the Start menu and Widgets.
Finally, we have AI-generated wallpapers for the desktop. If you recall, Microsoft has worked on AI-based desktop effects for Windows 11, even though most of its efforts have undoubtedly gone towards Copilot.
You can watch the video in full below:
Bear in mind, though, that this is just an animated concept, and making a real thing like this without all sorts of bugs and issues is probably going to be a far more difficult task, even for a company the size of Microsoft.