Microsoft's Launch Date For Windows 11 Has Allegedly Been Revealed

However, we're now beginning to hear rumblings that the operating system will launch in October. Several of Microsoft's press images for Windows 11 have the date set to October 20^th, with the time dialed in at 11:11 am. Even if the October 20^th date doesn't hold up, for whatever reason, Microsoft seems locked in on the month of October regardless.

"Good luck today, Panos! Excited to turn it up to 11...can't wait for October," read a Microsoft Teams message from Stevie Bathiche during Microsoft's Windows 11 announcement. The October launch means that Windows 10 will have reigned supreme as Microsoft's flagship consumer operating system for over six years. That's a remarkably long run for a Windows operating system, even beating out Windows XP (which was well-loved by consumers and a frequent target for hackers).

But even if Windows 11 does launch in October, or specifically on October 20^th, it will only be for a specific subset of PCs. Microsoft confirmed in a tweet that Windows 11 "will be delivered over several months [to newly shipping PCs]." However, it added that "the rollout of the upgrade to Windows 10 devices already in use today will begin in 2022 through the first half of that year."

So, unless you're a Windows Insider that hops in to test pre-release versions of Windows 11 to eventually gain access to the Release Channel build of the operating system, you'll be waiting a while for an upgrade.

While you wait, you might want to know that you'll need an AMD Ryzen 2000 (or newer) or Intel 8^th generation Core (or newer) system and a TPM 2.0 module to meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11. Other requirements like at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage aren't likely to be an issue for most users.