Microsoft this week managed to get official: it’ll start distributing Windows 11 on Oct. 5, five weeks away just, to eligible PCs.

“With this day, the free upgrade to Windows 11 will start rolling out to eligible Windows 10 PCs and PCs which come pre-loaded with Windows 11 will begin to become available,” wrote Aaron Woodman, general manager of Windows marketing, within an Aug. 31 post to a ongoing company blog .

Although Windows 11’s rollout will start Oct. 5, the procedure could have an long tail extraordinarily. “We expect all eligible devices to be offered the free upgrade to Windows 11 by mid-2022,” Woodman said.

At the launch of 11’s delivery, the operating-system shall be wanted to “new eligible devices,” although Microsoft didn’t explain how new a PC should be to snatch a first-in-line spot. Fresh machines on and after Oct. 5 should come with Windows 11 pre-installed, again though, Microsoft wasn’t all set all-in, saying, “PCs which come pre-loaded with Windows 11 will begin to become available.”

The implication:  some  PCs will be equipped with 11, but likely not absolutely all.

The vagueness here was unusual for Microsoft at the debut of a fresh OS, but 11’s succession of 10 changes than previous upgrades: Windows 11, even considering a UI (interface) and UX (user experience) revamp, might have been dubbed Windows 10 21H2 or easily, if following older practice, Windows 10.1 . Microsoft arbitrarily bumped up the numeral with considerably less justification than other name changes (apart from several moves from X to X-dot-1 ).

Next to have the Windows 11 will undoubtedly be in-use devices that Microsoft’s modeling predicts will undoubtedly be probably to successfully execute the upgrade. The Redmond, Wash. developer has deployed updates and upgrades for quite some time using the same or perhaps a similar system that now, generally terms, prefers newer over older devices with newer, than older rather, components like the graphics and CPU processor.

That the upgrade offer shall extend nine months hints at a careful deployment, perhaps due to the stricter system requirements Microsoft has laid down for significantly, among other reasons, future and present security needs.

Windows Update shall notify users when their PC could be upgraded to windows 11, if it’s eligible at all. Alternately, users can trigger an upgrade query manually, which may or might not bring about Windows 11 being installed and downloaded.

Managed devices shall, as is standard for upgrades, stick to their current OS – Windows 10 for the overwhelming majority – until IT admins decide differently.

September update to Endpoint Manager is slated to supply admins with information regarding eligible-for-11 PCs a, Microsoft said in a separate post on Tuesday . Month next, the Windows portion of Endpoint analytics will show “the readiness of most your managed devices for upgrading to Windows 11.”

Administrators are not necessary to boost their organization’s PCs to Windows 11, at the very least not yet. Windows 10, Tuesday – will be supported until October 2025 microsoft has said previously – and Woodman reiterated the point.

Woodman dedicated a big part of his post to a device-by-device sales page touting new systems in a position to run Windows 11. He trumpeted Microsoft’s own Surface device in addition to machines from famous brands Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and Samsung. If proportionality of Woodman’s post is any indication, Microsoft’s primary rationale for Windows 11 is selling new hardware.

Microsoft in addition has pledged to release a feature upgrade for Windows 10 this fall, but have not set a romantic date for that launch. Woodman didn’t elaborate on the timing of the Windows 10 21H2, this season nor explain whether Windows 10 would receive additional feature and functionality updates after.