Microsoft officially released Windows 11, a big update to the operating system software that runs millions of PCs and tablets around the world. The company also updated its Surface Pro line of tablet computers, bringing features from existing products together and beefing up performance.
Unlike Google and Apple, which drop new, named versions of their operating systems every year around this time, Microsoft’s last milestone release came in 2015, with Windows 10. The company has been updating that software regularly since then, a little at a time. But is Windows 11 an important update for customers or is it, as some have charged, intended to incentivize people to buy new computers?
Tech expert Omar Gallaga told Texas Standard that Windows 11 is more about supporting newer computers than it is about major new features for current Windows 10 users.
Highlights from this segment:
– Unlike Windows 10, which Microsoft used as a way to encourage all PC users to upgrade to the current operating system, Windows 11 features performance and design updates that aren’t urgently needed by most users. Windows 11 is free to download.
– Users whose computer processors are less than two or three years old are good candidates for Windows 11, while older computers are not.
– The new Surface Pro 8 tablet is the company’s flagship device. Microsoft wants users to run Windows 11 on the Surface Pro, which combines better features and higher performance than were available in either of the company’s previous lines of Surface tablets.
