Those hoping for a Windows 12 release will need to wait at least another year: Microsoft on Friday finally confirmed that the next version of Windows is Windows 11 version 25H2. It’s not clear what took it so long to publicly commit to the obvious.

“Today, Windows 11 version 25H2 became available to the Windows Insider community, in advance of broader availability planned for the second half of 2025,” Microsoft’s Jason Leznek writes in the announcement post. “Get ready for a reset of the 36-month support lifecycle for Enterprise and Education editions and the 24-month lifecycle for Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstation editions.”

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Leznek is referring to yesterday’s release of cumulative update KB5060838 in the Dev channel, which upgrades Windows 11 version 24H2 to Windows 11 version 25H2 build 26200.5670. We had expected this eventually, of course: When Microsoft moved the Dev channel to the 26200-series build numbers back in March, it was pretty obvious that it had shifted from 24H2 to the next Windows version, though Microsoft continued identifying the OS as version 24H2 for some reason.

But now it’s official and Microsoft is, as expected, moving forward with a new Windows version in the second half of the year. Based on how the Dev and Beta channels, the latter of which is now testing new 24H2 updates, are still functionally identical, it appears that it is also continuing to keep all supported Windows 11 versions in lock-step.

Windows 11 version 25H2 is not a major upgrade from a technical standpoint: It’s built on the same codebase as its predecessor, 24H2, which was a major upgrade. This means there are no new compatibility issues to worry about. And for Microsoft, it means that it can more easily support both versions via its shared servicing scheme.

There are, however, new features. And as with previous versions, the plan here is to develop them for Windows 11 version 25H2 and make them available to 24H2 (and, presumably, 23H2, which is supported through November 2025 for consumers and November 2026 for the Enterprise and Education editions). Leznek says that new features will appear normally in 25H2 and will be added to 24H2 via the same monthly cumulative updates, but in a disabled state. Then, Microsoft uses its random Controlled Feature Release (CFR) feature to enable them over time.

Why it took until the end of June to communicate this will forever remain a mystery. But at least we know for sure what to expect in the second of 2025.