Windows 11 will ship to new and existing PCs on October 5

Microsoft officially announced Windows 11 back in June and since then the company has delivered multiple Windows 11 updates to Windows Insiders. After a couple of months of testing, Microsoft has confirmed the Windows 11 release date.

In a blog post today, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will start shipping to new and existing PCs on October 5. Unfortunately, the company also confirmed that Windows 11 will not come with Android app support at launch. Microsoft has further confirmed that Windows 11 will roll out to users in phases meaning not everyone will get the update on October 5. The company will roll the update out to "new eligible devices" first and will use intelligent models to decide the roll the update out to other devices. Microsoft is eying mid-2022 to complete the Windows 11 roll out to all the eligible devices.

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.

As expected, Microsoft will provide Windows 11 as a free upgrade to eligible existing Windows 10 users. The update will start rolling out on October 5 and users can go to Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update and click on 'Check for Update' to download the Windows 11 update. Microsoft has also re-released the PC Health Check app so you can check if your device is meeting the minimum requirements to download and install the Windows 11 update. Fortunately, there is a way to get Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, but Microsoft reportedly will not seed Windows updates to unsupported devices.

Lastly, the blog post also lists the new Windows 11 compatible laptops that will be coming to market in the near future. These include Acer Swift X, Asus Zenbook Flip 13, Dell Alienware’s X and more.

For more information on Windows 11, you can check out our article on minimum system requirements. Apart from the general requirements, Microsoft has also listed out specific feature requirements for Windows 11 including webcams, Bluetooth, and Precision Touchpad on all upcoming laptops. Several manufacturers have published a list of hardware that will be compatible with Windows 11.

If you are still out of the loop, then you can check out our hands-on video. If you want to get in-depth information about Windows 11 then you can check out our article covering all the new features and changes.