Windows 11 (original release)

Windows 11 is an upcoming major version of Microsoft Windows that was announced on 24 June 2021, and will succeed the Windows 10 family of operating systems. Its initial Cobalt-based release is expected to be generally available in October 2021 as a free upgrade over Windows Update. It includes a refreshed user interface based on the Sun Valley effort, as well as other minor improvements over the Windows 10 May 2021 Update.

The new version drops support for 32-bit x86 systems, leaving only the AMD64 (x64) and ARM64 target platforms, although 32-bit user applications are still supported via WoW64. The AMD64 version now also requires a system with UEFI firmware that supports the Secure Boot specification and includes a Trusted Platform Module, which has been subject to controversy as it leaves many older systems that fully support Windows 10 ineligible for the free upgrade.

History
Rumors of a new major version of Windows were initially sparked by comments made by Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, and Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, both talking about a next generation of Windows. "Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators. I’ve been self-hosting it over the past several months, and I’m incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows. Our promise to you is this: we will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetize applications. We look forward to sharing more very soon."

- Satya Nadella at Microsoft Build 2021

References to a potential new version leaked in Microsoft documentation weeks before the official announcement, including a mention of "Windows Sun Valley" in a description alongside Windows 10, telemetry documentation showing two separate updates both bearing the 21H2 version number, or a Windows 11 reference in accidentally published internal Azure taxonomy documentation. The aka.ms/windows11 redirect has also been found to exist in late May 2021, similarly to redirects for other major Windows releases.

A special event was held on 24 June 2021 where Microsoft officially announced Windows 11. Despite the company's great efforts to prevent any leaks prior to the event, build 21996 was leaked online on 15 June, nine days before the keynote. The build includes Windows 11 branding, as well as a new Start menu and taskbar reminiscent of Windows 10X together with redesigned user interface widgets.

Criticism
Following the announcement of Windows 11, the new version has been criticized for its large increase in minimum system requirements. According to Microsoft, the new operating system requires a 64-bit system with UEFI firmware that supports Secure Boot and includes a TPM 2.0 module. Additionally, the company has released a list of compatible processors, which notably only includes Intel's Coffee Lake family CPUs and newer, as well as AMD's Zen 2 processors (including select Zen+ models) and newer. The new requirements have been called out as artificial as they exclude many older computers from the Windows 11 upgrade on the premise of being old, even though they would likely be able to run Windows 11 with little to no performance issues.

Microsoft explained the new requirements as being guided by security, reliability and compatibility principles, although the company promised to reevaluate the list of eligible systems, with the currently unsupported Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Zen 1 architectures being considered in particular. The TPM 2.0 and CPU requirements are also temporarily unenforced for users enrolled in the Dev Channel as a limited exception in order to collect more data regarding the system requirements.

Development
The development process of Windows 11 is considerably different from previous releases. Microsoft has been working on Cobalt since October 2020, with preview builds being released to the Dev Channel channel with a weekly cadence for the most part. The channel has been switched to the release branch in April 2021 with Windows 10 build 21354. Around this time, the company has also started work on the Windows 11 user experience in a separate  branch, which has been bumped to the 216xx build range, while   was in the 213xx build range.

After the release of Windows 10 build 21390 in May 2021, the release branch was bumped to the 219xx build range and the main user interface work from the  was merged to it. The Cobalt core was declared complete with build Windows 11 build 22000.1, although work on the user experience further continues in the refresh branch, now bumped to the 221xx range. This work is being continuously merged to the  branch and released in the form of cumulative updates for build 22000 to the Dev Channel. The distinction between the two branches appears to be purely organizational as both groups receive the same new features.

List of known builds

 * For builds that predate the development of Windows 11-specific features, see the list of Windows 10 post-20H1 builds.