Microsoft has today confirmed that it will be bringing new Windows 10 features to 350 million devices on August 2nd with its Anniversary Update. The software technology giant made a slight error of judgment yesterday when it accidentally let the date of the Anniversary Update slip with a blog post that was accidentally published too early and then quickly removed from public sight.
Windows 10 device owners have known since March that the Anniversary Update was due in the summer after Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, confirmed its existence during the company’s annual Build conference.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update will start rolling out to all existing Windows 10 users just over a year after the initial software went public on July 29th, 2015. The most notable update to the Windows 10 platform to date will be made available by Microsoft to existing Windows 10 users as an entirely free-of-charge update, offering significant user-facing improvements.
This includes Windows Ink, Windows Hello, Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana, and even bringing extensions support to the relatively new Edge web browser. Moving ahead of personal consumption, Microsoft is adding two new improved security measures to Windows 10 Enterprise, while also bringing forth the Set up School PCs app which “will enable teachers to set up devices in three easy steps with a Shared Cart of Devices.”
There will, of course, be additional under-the-hood stability and performance improvements, as well as a range of smaller user-facing additions. Microsoft has also published a complete list of the new features and improvements that users can look forward to come August 2nd, as shown below.
350 million devices and their respective owners who have chosen to either purchase a device running Windows 10 out of the box, or upgrade entirely free-of-charge to the platform from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 , they will all be benefiting from the first major Windows 10 update without any additional charge come August 2nd.
However, for those who are yet to upgrade to Windows 10 from an earlier Windows version, things are about to change. Come July 29th, which is exactly a year after the initial Windows 10 launch, Microsoft will be shredding the free-of-charge offer and “moving to a $119” price, says Myerson.
Microsoft has made no secret of its lofty and potentially ambitious plans to try and get more than 1 billion devices running Windows 10. Moving to a $119 upgrade pricing point could seriously dent those plans as the company looks to capture another 650 million devices in the coming months and years. Myerson has conceded that “there will be Xbox Ones and mobile devices that will be upgraded for free after July 29th”, so maybe the dream of hitting one billion devices isn’t entirely out of Microsoft’s reach.
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