Leak suggests Microsoft going to borrow design ideas from macOS for Windows 12

No matter how recently Microsoft has launched a new version of Windows or released a significant update, talk about "the next version of Windows" is always babbling in the background. At the recent Microsoft Ignite conference, however, the company gave good reason for people to start looking to and talking about the future by seemingly leaking an update look for Windows -- Windows 12, maybe?

There is not a huge amount to go on, but a still from the video of the opening keynote speech from Ignite shows a version of Windows with a different look. A version of Windows that looks heavily inspired by macOS. A version of Windows with a floating taskbar and a macOS-style menu bar at the top of the screen.

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Microsoft -- perhaps accidentally -- shared footage showing a previously unseen look for Windows. In a video about Microsoft Teams and immersive experiences for Meta Quest, there is a very brief glimpse of a Windows desktop that looks very much like Windows 11, but with a few tweaks here and there.

The new look was shared on Twitter by FireCube Studios:

If you skip through the video below to the 42 minute 44 second mark, you can see what all the fuss is about.

Pretty much everything is unknown. It is not clear whether this is a concept that Microsoft is considering, or if it is the future design of the Windows desktop. It could be that whoever recorded the footage was using third-party tools to customize the look of their desktop, but as Microsoft has said nothing about it, we can only speculate.