Windows 9 due in April next year (2015)

Microsoft have let their close sources in on a somewhat big-ish secret. That Windows 9 will be released a full year ahead of the normal schedule and instead of coming out in late 2016 will now be released in the first half of next year—most likely around April.

Now Microsoft did not say this (as far as I know), but I think I know why Windows 9 has been brought forward by over a year. At least one of the reasons anyway. By and large the big corporates are not liking Windows 8 as a corporate operating system. And the changes put in by the recent 8.1 upgrade did not improve things very much. Corporates account for over half of the income from Windows license sales.

So, if you are Microsoft, what do you do?

You could address all the issues that corporates have with Windows 8 and produce a Windows 9, and then release it as soon as you can get it ready; let’s say in the first half of next year. The, maybe, if they like it, corporates will start to plan to adopt Windows 9 after Windows 7.

Even if this is not the primary reason Microsoft are bringing Windows 9 forward I am sure it is a contributing factor. They do not want Windows 7 to become another Windows XP. Windows XP was released late in 2001 and it is still installed on a third of computers in use; and over half of these are in corporate environments. Microsoft have tried to force corporates to upgrade to Windows 7 by dropping all support and maintenance for Windows XP in April this year. Even so, many corporates are going to take the gamble and continue to use Windows XP.

So what do we know about Windows 9?

Well we don’t know anything really, for sure; but one assumption is that Microsoft will bring back a fully functional Start Menu. Not to be confused with the completely useless Start button plugged into the Windows 8.1 upgrade. If someone tries to tell you that the Windows 8.1 upgrade has the Start Menu … don’t believe them. It has a Start button but all it does is swap you back to the Metro touch interface. It does what tapping the Windows key does. Not really what was expected.