It seems we only have a few years left with Windows 10 and by few I mean only four years since support will end in October 2025. Information about Windows 10 end-of-life or EOL dates has been released along with leaked screenshots of what looks like to be Windows 11 Pro. This means that Microsoft has big changes planned in the coming years.
Reports of a Windows refresh called Sun Valley have already been circulating on the internet for months but people didn’t really think much of them. A visual upgrade isn’t really new in the OS space but these recent leaks might suggest that maybe bigger changes are coming. The Sun Valley update is coming this Summer but it might just be Microsoft’s way of setting the mood for Windows 11.
Windows 10 is already a Windows as a Service, and the Sun Valley update might make Windows 10 21H2 look very different from the current Windows 10 21H1. Windows 10 Home and Pro are listed as being retired on October 14th, 2025. Retired means that Microsoft will pull support entirely.
The recent screenshot leaks suggest that Windows 11 might be nearer than we think. There were rumors going around the internet for months that the Sun Valley update was actually the next Windows. The screenshot showed up on Baidu and the build it shows is visually identical to Windows 10X that was canceled.
I personally like Windows 10 so why fix what isn’t broken? It will be interesting to see what new innovation Microsoft brings to the newer version. I hope it’s not something like windows 8 that looked more like a tablet OS than a PC operating system. The upgrade policy might even be the same as it was for Windows 7 to Windows 10 as Microsoft is usually keen on getting users to their new operating systems as fast as possible.
The screenshot shows a very weird taskbar that has most of its icons centered with the search bar apparently gone. Maybe they are going for a Mac-ish look since macs usually have something similar in the top center. The start menu looks more like an App Drawer which is a big change since the start menu has had the same base design from Windows XP to Windows 10.