Microsoft Reportedly Aiming To Launch Windows 10 In June

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Microsoft is reportedly aiming to release Windows 10 in June so that it can have the new OS in stores in time for back-to-school sales

If you’re eager to switch to Windows 10, but you’d rather not take the risk of relying on what is still a technical preview, you may not have to wait much longer. Microsoft is aiming for June release of Windows 10 so that it can setup OEM licenses in time for back to school PC sales, reports Brad Sams for Neowin.

Microsoft may be targeting back-to-school sales

Sams doesn’t say where he heard that June is the target (he doesn’t even explicitly claim to have an inside source, though it’s implied), so you should definitely take the June deadline as a rumor for now, but it makes a lot of sense. Microsoft already has a big, open technical preview with fairly regular releases. At some point it will stop calling Windows 10 a preview and start selling it as a finished product, but where you draw the line in the sand is fairly arbitrary.

But the business rationale behind a June release is pretty clear. Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 were all released in the late summer and became widely available in the fall because there is a lag before OEM licenses are worked out and a new OS actually makes it into retail channels. Windows Vista was released on a different schedule, but the less said about it the better, and Windows 9 of course was skipped entirely. That meant they were ready for the holidays but just a bit late for back-to-school sales. Releasing in June means that Microsoft should be able to get Windows 10 onto new PCs in before school starts in September. Even if they decide that the new OS isn’t ready for primetime, pushing it back a few months wouldn’t be the end of the world since they’d still be on time for Christmas.

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade when it comes out

Whenever Microsoft officially makes Windows 10 available it will be a free upgrade for Windows 8.1 users (though apparently not for businesses) for a year. And even if some of the new features like the HoloLens, which is supposed to let people control their PC by interacting with holograms, is still a little buggy on release, just getting back all the popular features that Windows 8 killed off (Start menu anyone?) will be an improvement for many users.

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