When is Windows 11 coming out?

When Microsoft released the Windows 10 OS, close to six years ago, they also released a statement that this would be their last-named update and the versions that would follow would only be minor upgrades with one major upgrade every year, but not so significant that it would warrant a version change. However, all of this changed when news started spreading that the company was actually working on a new version of Windows and that they were looking to continue with this platform in the long run. Initially, the rumors indicated that the version would be called Windows 10X, which sparked arguments among the Microsoft loyalists, with a few of them coming to the conclusion that the version ’10X’ sounded more like a minor performance bump, rather than a complete overhaul.

Around a year ago, news started circulating yet again, that Microsoft’s new OS was indeed an overhaul, and rumors heated up, indicating that the version was actually ’11’ and not 10X, as it was previously reported. Microsoft made this official and after a lot of back forth between release dates, the official build of Windows 11 was released to the public on October 5th, 2021. But, there is a catch in all this.

 

 

Microsoft announced at the time of launch, that the Windows 11 upgrade would be free for everyone who was running a legal copy of Windows 10, which was also a free upgrade on Windows 8.1. However, if you have an older version of the Windows OS, or own a laptop or PC that features any other operating system, then you would have to purchase a copy of Windows 11. But that’s not all. While Microsoft has mentioned that the upgrade is free for eligible PCs, there will be some PCs that may have the required specifications but will be deemed ineligible for the free upgrade. In this case, you will have to purchase a licensed copy of Windows 11. Now, the hardware manufacturers have been given a benchmark price, but as always, they will always try to sneak in a little extra profit. Whatever the case, the benchmark that has been set by Microsoft for stand-alone copies of Windows 11 is as follows –

  1. Windows 11 Home – $139
  2. Windows 11 Pro – $199.99

Also, if your device is eligible for the free upgrade for Windows 11, the package was not released for all eligible devices at the same time, as Apple does for example. Instead, the newer devices that were released, were shipped with Windows 11 out of the box, while the existing devices were put on a schedule by the respective OEMs. Some devices have received the upgrade to date, but there are still a lot of eligible devices left waiting, and if you own one such device, the best approach is to visit the manufacturer’s website and look for news on the Windows 11 upgrade schedule.

We have been fortunate with Windows 11 since we had the preview build, and although there is a visible overhaul in terms of the UI, the OS itself behaves a lot like Windows 10, but there are still some features that are yet to arrive, so we will reserve our final thoughts for later.

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