Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 will start to become available through a free upgrade on eligible Windows 10 PCs and on new PCs pre-installed with Windows 11. 

As the PC continues to play a more central role in our lives than ever before, Windows 11 is secure and designed to be centred around the user, empowering one to be more productive and creative. 

“Windows 11 marks the start of a new generation of Windows, a platform and home for over a billion people to do their jobs, pursue their passions and connect with the people they love. With Windows 11, we reimagined the entire user experience to bring you closer to what you love, empower you to produce and inspire you to create. It’s an open platform that enables our partners in the SEA New Markets to innovate, providing customers with the broadest choice of devices—across form factors, styles and features—whether they are working, learning, creating or gaming. We look forward to seeing their dreams and ideas come to life with our new platform,” said Microsoft APAC General Manager Southeast Asia New Markets Sook Hoon Cheah.

Windows 11 bringing users closer to what they love
Windows 11 brings users closer to what they love and is designed to support users in every part of their life with ease whether that’s at work, home or school. 

From the new Start menu and Taskbar to each sound, font and icon available, users can expect Windows 11 to bring them a more modern, fresh and beautiful experience. With Start at the centre, users have quick access to the content and apps they care about and through the power of the cloud and Microsoft 365 (sold separately), they can view recent files they have been working on regardless of which device they were using, even if it was an Android or iOS device.  

Chat from Microsoft Teams will deliver an incredible new experience that helps bring users closer to the people they care about. With a simple click, users can instantly connect through chat, voice or video call with personal contacts regardless of the device or platform they’re on, Windows, Mac, Android or iOS. Users also get faster access to information they care about with Widgets, a new personalised feed powered by AI. 

Empowering productivity and inspiring creativity through new experiences
Windows 11 features powerful new experiences whether users are working on a school project, collaborating on a presentation for work, building a new app or creating your next big idea. Windows 11 features such as Snap Layouts and Groups offer a more powerful way to multitask and optimise screen real estate in a way that is visually clean. Desktops will provide users the ability to create individual Desktops that display different sets of apps to help stay organised and focused. 

Accessibility was also considered from the start in the development of Windows 11 and it offers familiar assistive technologies like Narrator, Magnifier, Closed Captions and Windows Speech Recognition to support users across the disability spectrum. Microsoft has also improved the experiences for touch and voice typing with Windows 11.  

Windows 11 is built for gaming
Windows 11 was made for gaming, with innovative new features that can take a user’s PC gaming experience to the next level. If a PC has an HDR capable display, Auto HDR will automatically upgrade over 1000 DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games to high dynamic range, rendering a much wider range of colours and brightness. Microsoft believes that player choice is important, so Windows 11 includes the ability to turn Auto HDR on or off on a per-game basis.

Windows 11 also includes support for DirectStorage, a feature first introduced on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles. When paired with an NVMe solid state drive and DirectX 12 GPU, games that implement DirectStorage can benefit from reduced load times and render more detailed and expansive game worlds.

Enabling hybrid workforces and classrooms of tomorrow
Microsoft also believes that Windows 11 is the operating system for hybrid work and learning. It has been built on the consistent, compatible and familiar Windows 10 foundation that is easy for IT to manage. Windows 11 is designed for chip-to-cloud protection to meet the challenges users will face in this new work environment and beyond. Beginning today, organisations can begin moving to Windows 11 on powerful PCs and through the cloud with Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop.