Microsoft finally offers roadmap for new features coming to Windows 11

Microsoft now provides a roadmap for new features and changes expected to come to Windows 11. Since the company switched to Windows as a service development model, one of the problems (not counting the system bugs and other issues) has been tracking the new features and changes being tested through the different pre-release channels.

Sure, the development team regularly publishes preview builds of the operating system and release notes, but they’re always all over the place. Sometimes, improvements skip the Windows Insider Program entirely, and we don’t know their existence until a new feature or quality update is released.

Other times, the company announces an experimental feature, but it then gets removed or delayed. In addition, sometimes, the team forgets to mention new changes in the shipping of new preview builds of Windows 11.

In other words, the current state of developing and shipping new features isn’t transparent for users, especially for network administrators who are in charge of managing a large number of workstations.

However, it now appears that Microsoft has finally realized the problem and plans to mitigate the issue with the new “Windows roadmap” web page.

The website offers a list of the experimental features available through the Windows Insider Program. In addition, Microsoft also provides information for features that are gradually rolling out and those that are already available.

Furthermore, the page will also provide details, such as target release dates, how to access specific features, supported platforms (such as Copilot+ PCs or traditional desktop computers or laptops), and more, which should help developers and network administrators to prepare accordingly.

As per usual, Microsoft notes that the company reserves the right to make changes to delay or remove improvements from the roadmap.

It’s important to note that the features roadmap is only available for the desktop version of Windows 11. The page won’t include information for Windows Server or other products. Also, the company says that this is just the beginning, and more changes will come at a later time.

Although it’s a move in the right direction, it’s odd that it has taken this long for the company to realize that this type of transparency was needed. However, I’m still doubtful that Microsoft will publish every improvement in this list, and we’ll have to rely on ourselves to keep digging into every preview build to find out about every change the development team is working on.

What are your thoughts about the Windows roadmap page? Let me know in the comments.