More recent clues suggest this may really be Microsoft's Next Valley (Windows 12) prototype

Although Microsoft's Next Valley (which is casually referred to as Windows 12), according to estimates and reports, is still about a year away from general availability, we may already have a pretty good idea of what the next-gen Windows version will look like.

Last year, around October, Microsoft, perhaps accidentally, had revealed a new Windows 11 UI but with a floating taskbar and the notification area on top. While it wasn't as clear with the first leaked image, an updated, enhanced version distinctly showed the texts "Next Valley Protoype Design".

Interestingly, Microsoft, it seems, is gradually making its way towards such a design goal. The company had quietly added strings in Dev build 25300 which added the options to:

• Hide taskbar clock
• Hide time and date in the System tray
• Turn this on to hide your time and date information in the corner of your taskbar

Brad Sams, who is the Vice Principal and General Manager of Stardock software, pointed out this in his recent YouTube video titled "Windows 12 in the Daylight". Sams believes that this change was introduced as Microsoft may be testing the floating taskbar UI for Next Valley, and when you think about it, it does tend to make a lot of sense.

Here's how Windows 11 looks with those strings enabled:

Aside from the the UI of Windows 12, Microsoft seems to also have made some slight progress in terms of functionality. Senior exec Panos Panay explained that the next-gen Windows 11 and Windows 12 will be a blend of cloud-powered and AI-driven experiences, and Microsoft is slowly making some progress toward it. In aspects of security, the company is killing off legacy components like MSDT, as well as VBScript, which has been exploited in the past.

In case you are wondering what kind of hardware requirements could be awaiting us, we may already have some hint of that, and thankfully, it seems quite similar to what we have on Windows 11.