Occasionally, when marketers have to sell something, they resort to strange phrases.

Microsoft is no exception.

This year, the software company is releasing the largest new version of its operating system in six years - and the whole thing is being advertised with words that sound like breathing exercises and yoga: “Windows 11 offers a calm and creative space in which you can express your passions through a new experience can pursue. "

Thiemo Heeg

Editor in business.

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    Many users would be satisfied if it said: The new Windows is the most beautiful, safest, fastest and easiest Windows of all time - and maybe it was exactly what the advertising strategists wanted to express.

    Because, according to Microsoft, Windows 11 is not just about a “new perspective”, but also about “maximizing” your “productivity” and doing “several tasks at the same time”.

    Nobody can say at first hand whether this will succeed.

    The new operating system will only be available in notebooks and desktop PCs around the world in the course of the year - free of charge for owners of the predecessor Windows 10.

    "The Microsoft of 2021 is the best Microsoft ever"

    Currently, interested parties can only make an initial judgment on the basis of screenshots and a few manufacturer information. You can see a newly designed, airier appearance. Easier program connections as well as new tools, sounds and apps are announced. One of the most surprising innovations is the fact that Android smartphone apps will also run on Windows in the future. Microsoft's office conference program Teams is integrated directly into the operating system.

    The in-house games subscription, Games Pass, is also installed via a new Xbox app. The Americans are reacting to the sharp increase in the use of video conferences and computer games during the corona pandemic. Changes have been made to important control elements such as the start button and the associated menus, which will in future be found in the middle of the taskbar by default instead of on the edge.

    Microsoft boss Satya Nadella had already made it clear in the past how important the new Windows, which comes onto the market six years after Windows 10, is for the software company from Redmond. Now he again chose formulations that indicate the far-reaching strategic importance: “The world today needs a more open platform. One that allows apps to become platforms themselves. ”Microsoft claims that Windows 11 will become the platform for the next web or a groundbreaking new software category.

    Nadella's calls for more openness and choice have a special meaning in the debate about the business model of Apple and Google. The two competitors are faced with allegations of unfair competition: As platform operators of iOS and Android, they divert up to 30 percent of the revenues of the app software developers active there. The game provider Epic Games ("Fortnite"), which wants to operate its own app store on the iPhone, took it to court. A verdict is still pending after the recently completed trial in California. Epic had received support from Microsoft in the process. Now Epic boss Tim Sweeney tweeted: "The Microsoft of 2021 is the best Microsoft ever."

    App developers can integrate their own payment methods on the Windows platform, as the group explained.

    That shouldn't cost them anything.

    With such innovations, the software giant wants to position itself as the “model student in the classroom”, while the other technology companies are the bad guys, commented observers.

    At least everywhere this is not the case: With the integration of teams - which stands against competing offers like Slack, for example - the old era seems to be dawning again when Microsoft integrated many of its own programs into Windows for free and thus outperformed competitors.

    Windows 10 will only be supported with updates until October 2025

    The apps for the Google system Android come via a detour to the Windows PCs.

    They come from Amazon's Android store and are made to work with the help of technology from the chip company Intel.

    Microsoft is following a trend: Apple is already making it possible for developers to bring iPhone apps to their Mac computers.

    With the new Windows 11 and the new functions, Microsoft is at least demonstrating that the operating system, which some critics had already declared dead in the past, wants to live for a long time.

    In the pandemic with the boom in home office workplaces, notebooks and desktop PCs received a new impetus - and most of these computers run Windows.

    Forrester Research's industry analyst JP Gownder pointed out that the new Windows is coming in an era of hybrid office and home office work. The new operation gives the software a chance to stand out. At the same time, he welcomed the fact that the basic software code still came from Windows 10. This reduces the risk that previous programs and device drivers no longer work as they did with Windows Vista.

    Windows 11 should hit the market this fall, with new devices from PC manufacturers that have the operating system preinstalled. Upgrades for devices with Windows 10 will be introduced from the end of 2021 and will continue until 2022. Users do not have to upgrade - but the lifespan of Windows 10 is limited: the manufacturer will only support it with updates until October 14, 2025.