What will Next Valley look like? Microsoft accidentally reveals user interface of next Windows

We are unlikely to see a new version of Windows with the working title Next Valley until 2024. However, at Ignite conference Microsoft accidentally showed a prototype user interface of the new operating system.

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was talking about Microsoft Teams Immersive Meeting Experiences for Meta Quest, a slightly different operating system appeared in the frame than we are used to (42:42 minute video below).

In general, it is similar to Windows 11, but here you can see the "floating" taskbar with rounded corners, which cannot be created in vanilla operating system. Also in the footage shown you can see the system tray icons in the upper right corner, the search bar in the top center, and the weather widget in the upper left corner.

Since the footage shown was not of high quality, the Windows Central portal recreated the UI layout in high quality, so that we can get a better idea of how it should look.

In fact, what we were shown in this footage could be anything from a new version of Windows which is still under development, to a mistake by the designer who forgot to turn off third party mods that change the look of the UI before recording the footage.

It's not even clear whether we've been shown a desktop or mobile version of the OS, though the battery indicator suggests that it's still a handheld device. The handwritten look of some of the displayed text may indicate stylus input, but the cables that can be seen at the bottom of the frame point to the desktop screen.

If this is the future Windows 12, also known as Next Valley, then the designers of its user interface must have taken inspiration from macOS.