Taking the sweet time! There is a bit of a mystery surrounding the Windows 11 rollout, and when users will actually get their hands on the shiny new operating system.
This mystery has been exacerbated by the silence from Microsoft regarding its plans.
The company has said that the new OS will see daylight later this year, but that is very likely for OEMs and hardware vendors that want to sell their new devices with Windows 11 loaded on top straight out the box.
Users, eligible users, will probably have to wait a bit to have their current machines updated to the new operating system. That’s because the rollout will likely commence early next year.
Microsoft details this on the official Windows 11 page, where it explains that most computers that are eligible for this free upgrade will actually get it in early 2022. The company is apparently still working on the specifics, and will provide additional information at a later time.
This is what it says:
“If your existing Windows 10 PC is running the most current version of Windows 10 and meets the minimum hardware specifications it will be able to upgrade to Windows 11.
The upgrade rollout plan is still being finalized, but for most devices already in use today, we expect it to be ready sometime in early 2022. Not all Windows 10 PCs that are eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 will be offered to upgrade at the same time. To see if your PC is eligible to upgrade, download and run the PC Health Check app. Once the upgrade rollout has started, you can check if it is ready for your device by going to Settings/Windows Updates.”
Being finalized, be the operative word here.
Pun always intended.
Redmond seems to have embraced the same approach as previous versions of the operating system. That being, rolling out in waves. Releasing an upgrade like this in stages allows Microsoft to detect possible bugs in early stages and prevent them from hitting more devices.
Safeguards and checks can be put in place, and certain computer configurations can be prevented from upgrading to the new OS if they might be impacted by a specific problem.
