In a very brief appearance during an Ignite 2021 session today, Windows chief Panos Panay finally discussed the future of Windows. Vaguely and in passing.

“I haven’t talked about the next generation of Windows and what’s coming next, but I can tell you I am so pumped,” he said, invoking his favorite catch-phrase. “We’re not talking about that today.”

It’s not clear what Panay was talking about today: The session in which he made this comment, called The heartbeat of modern work: A Windows fireside chat with Panos Panay & Roanne Sones, was less than 15 minutes long. And he didn’t really say much of substance.

“I know that the future of Windows is incredible, what we’re bringing to the table for sure,” he continued. “But ultimately, we’re here today to talk about Windows 10 and what Windows 10 brings to the table, and how we can support our customers and partners here at Ignite.”

I will just throw out this one observation: It is interesting to me that he refers to “the next generation of Windows” when he refers to the future, but he explicitly calls the current version “Windows 10.” This might just be because there is something called Windows 10X coming soon. But it might also suggest that a branding change is coming for what we think of as Windows 10 version 21H2.

We’ll know soon enough.