By Aaron Woodman

Microsoft  Windows 11 will be available on 5 October 2021. On this day, the free upgrade to Windows 11 will begin rolling out to eligible Windows 10 PCs, and PCs that come pre-loaded with Windows 11 will be available for purchase. A new Windows experience, Windows 11 is designed to bring you closer to what you love.

As the PC continues to play a more central role in our lives than ever before — Windows 11 is ready to empower your productivity and inspire your creativity.

Here are 11 highlights of this release

1. The new design and sounds are modern, fresh, clean and beautiful, bringing you a sense of calm and ease.
2. With Start, we’ve put you and your content at the centre. Start utilises the power of the cloud and Microsoft 365 to show you your recent files no matter what device you were viewing them on.
3. Snap layouts, Snap groups and desktops provide an even more powerful way to multitask and optimise your screen real estate.
4. Chat from Microsoft Teams integrated into the taskbar provides a faster way to connect to the people you care about.
5. Widgets, a new personalised feed powered by AI, provides a faster way to access the information you care about, and with Microsoft Edge’s world class performance, speed and productivity features you can get more done on the web.
6. 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.)
7. Windows 11 comes with a new Microsoft Store rebuilt with an all-new design, making it easier to search and discover your favorite apps, games, shows and movies in one trusted location. We look forward to continuing our journey to bring Android apps to Windows 11 and the Microsoft Store through our collaboration with Amazon and Intel; this will start with a preview for Windows Insiders over the coming months.
8. Windows 11 is the most inclusively designed version of Windows with new accessibility improvements that were built for and by people with disabilities.
9. Windows 11 unlocks new opportunities for developers and creators. We are opening the Store to allow more developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to bring their apps to the Store, improving native and web app development with new developer tools, and making it easier for you to refresh the look and feel across all our app designs and experiences.
10. Windows 11 is optimised for speed, efficiency and improved experiences with touch, digital pen and voice input.
11. Windows 11 is the operating system for hybrid work, delivering new experiences that work how you work, are secure by design, and easy and familiar for IT to deploy and manage. Businesses can also test Windows 11 in preview today in Azure Virtual Desktop, or at general availability by experiencing Windows 11 in the new Windows 365.

Thank you to the Windows Insider community

The Windows Insider community has been invaluable in helping us get to where we are today. Since the first Insider Preview Build was released in June, the engagement and feedback has been unprecedented. The team has also enjoyed sharing more behind the scenes stories on the development of Windows 11 in a new series we launched in June, Inside Windows 11. We sincerely appreciate the energy and enthusiasm from this community.

Rolling out the free upgrade to Windows 11 in a phased and measured approach

The free upgrade to Windows 11 starts on October 5 and will be phased and measured with a focus on quality. Following the tremendous learnings from Windows 10, we want to make sure we’re providing you with the best possible experience. That means new, eligible devices will be offered the upgrade first. The upgrade will then roll out over time to in-market devices based on intelligence models that consider hardware eligibility, reliability metrics, age of device and other factors that impact the upgrade experience. We expect all eligible devices to be offered the free upgrade to Windows 11 by mid-2022. If you have a Windows 10 PC that’s eligible for the upgrade, Windows Update will let you know when it’s available. You can also check to see if Windows 11 is ready for your device by going to Settings > Windows Update and selecting Check for Updates*.