In a post on the Windows Blog, Microsoft General Manager of Windows Marketing Aaron Woodman shared that Windows 11 will launch on October 5, 2021.
Many Windows 10 machines purchased recently have Windows 11 pre-loaded and will automatically become eligible for a free upgrade on that date.
Windows 11 marks the largest visual departure since Windows xp debuted on October 25, 2001, almost exactly 20 years ago. Woodman shares 11 highlights (cheeky bugger!) of the latest version of Windows, including some great improvements to gaming.
Windows 11 delivers the best Windows ever for gaming and unlocks the full potential of your system’s hardware with technology like DirectX12 Ultimate, DirectStorage and Auto HDR. With Xbox Game Pass for PC or Ultimate you get access to over 100 high-quality PC games to play on Windows 11 for one low monthly price. (Xbox Game Pass sold separately.)
The upgrade itself will be rolled-out in stages, according to “intelligence models” that take factors such as your machine’s configuration and age into account, and the post cites a mid-2022 target for every device to be upgraded.
Truthfully, this seems like a complicated approach to distribution of what should otherwise be essentially just a software package. The post does also mention no fewer than 13 notebook models that, if purchased today, would allow for upgrades beginning on October 5th.
Regardless of the deployment strategy, Windows 11 is shaping up to be a major change and have a tremendous series of improvements over Windows 10, and if there is an improvement to gaming to be had anywhere, we’ll take it.
Windows 11 starts rolling out October 5th to eligible devices.