Microsoft may repeat the mistakes of Windows 11 with Windows 12

Recent rumors say Microsoft will focus heavily on AI features on Windows 12, including requiring a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU). This may be reminiscent of what happened with the TPM feature request on Windows 11. This security chip made many users' PCs incompatible with Windows 11, forcing them to not be able to upgrade the operating system.

If NPU requirements happen, the same will come to Windows 12. Report from Windows Central suggests that the next version of Windows may focus heavily on AI, including enhanced Windows Copilot, advanced search using AI , AI upgrades for games and videos, and AI animated wallpapers, with the majority of which may require new NPU hardware to work.

The report doesn't say that the next version of Windows will require an NPU, but many features may be limited to that hardware. Notably, this is a feature that has not appeared on many CPUs that have hit the market when AMD only launched Ryzen AI with the Ryzen 8040 CPU. Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs also have an integrated NPU, in when Qualcomm even launched the Snapdragon X Elite chip for Windows PCs that also had an NPU. But that means many older systems don't have an integrated NPU.

More importantly, when AI PCs come with NPUs, they can be very expensive. It would be hard to imagine that users would need an NPU to use the operating system. However, that doesn't completely solve the problem. If AI features become the main attraction of Windows 12 and NPUs are not available on older PCs, Microsoft could create more fragmentation of the Windows user base. According to Windows Central, that is Microsoft's legitimate concern.

With AI considered Microsoft's biggest focus and some reports now claiming that Windows 12 will launch at some point in 2024, the question is whether users will need to upgrade their PCs. to use the upcoming operating system or not./.