On June 24th, 2021 Microsoft introduced Windows 11, a free upgrade to Windows 10

On June 24th, 2021 Microsoft introduced Windows 11, a free upgrade to Windows 10

Yesterday, June 24th 2021 Microsoft unveiled Windows 11. While they struggled to get the live stream going (it went down several times during the unveiling) Windows 11 itself still had an impressive range of features, many of which we think will shake the PC industry as we know it.

To start, they revealed that Windows 11 will be faster than past versions and updates will be 40% smaller. These features are a nod to what came later in the stream in our opinion. Faster and more agile seems to be the name of the game with Windows 11.

Windows 11 will have many user adaptive features, including window “snapping” that will allow users to arrange their desktop environment exactly how they like. They showcased grids that had even 4 or 5 squares of varying sizes. If you dock your laptop to a second monitor then remove it, it will even “remember” your setup when you plug it back in.

Also, in the same vein is the new widgets feature that will show users a custom set of data specific to them and how they’re using their device. If you’re sensing that Microsoft is aiming to bridge the gap between PC and mobile devices with Windows 11, you wouldn’t be wrong. With it’s slick appearance widgets seem to be a much improved version of the the “Interest feature” that was released to Windows 10 in April.

Windows 11 Widgets

Speaking of bridging the gap between PC and mobile devices, one of the biggest ways Microsoft is aiming to do that is by allowing Android applications to downloaded and used on Windows 11 PCs. We plan to do a deep dive on this later on when more is known, but Android applications will be available in the Microsoft store powered by Amazon’s Appstore.

The combined efforts of these two tech behemoths seems like a move squarely aimed at taking a piece of Google’s mobile pie – and a large pie at that with the Android phone market making up 72% of the market share as of 2021.

Converting mobile users to PC seems to have been a concerted effort of Microsoft for a while now and it will be interesting to see what effort merging their various services together (Xbox will also be more accessible through Windows 11 with the addition of Xbox Game Pass for PC being expanded upon) will have on those efforts.

They also plan on making the Microsoft store more accessible for developers, who if they bring their own eCommerce solution will not even have to share a cut with Microsoft.

We haven’t even touched on Microsoft 11’s appearance, which seems much sleeker and perhaps slight Apple-esque with the slim task bar with centered icons. One of those center icons was a built in Microphone mute button, which Microsoft used as a segue to announce Teams as a built in Windows 11 integration.

Microsoft Teams Windows 11

With that we only assume Microsoft is moving away from Skype and trying to make a move that again takes aim at a competitor, namely Zoom. Teams will even work across non-Microsoft platforms including iOS. We’re eager to see what features are added to Teams as not too much was showcased in this demo.

There’s not currently a release date set for Windows 11 other than later this year, but the speculation is it will be released sometime in October which would fall in line with Microsoft’s typical major update release schedule.

We’ll be following this topic closely, as a Microsoft partner new Window’s releases can be both an exciting yet daunting prospect for our customers. If your business needs assistance in getting your office “Windows 11 ready”, we can help. Schedule a free consultation here.

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This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.