Dubai: On July 29, only a few, just over five million, will be able to get their hands on Microsoft’s latest operating system — Windows 10.

It will be available for the people who have participated in the beta testing and have provided feedback to refine the operating system.

The software will be released in 190 countries and 111 languages this summer. It will be available as a free upgrade to current users of Windows 7 and later versions.

The company did not disclose when others will get it but it will be in a phased manner.

Windows 10 launch in Dubai

Microsoft has selected 13 cities around the world for the launch of Windows 10 operating system on July 29, and Dubai is again one of them.

The other cities are Sydney, Singapore, New Delhi, Nairobi, Berlin, Johannesburg, Madrid, London, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Beijing and New York City.

Dubai was also one of the six cities to have Windows 8 launch on October 26, 2012. The other five were Paris, Shanghai, New Delhi, New York and Hong Kong.

The official Windows launch starts in Dubai at 7pm on July 29 and it will be followed by product demos.

The software will be released in 190 countries and in 111 languages this summer. It will be available as a free upgrade to current users of Windows 7 and later versions.



Last Windows version

Microsoft has also confirmed that this will be the last version of the Windows operating system and a future naming convention will be different.

According to Microsoft’s blog, the launch events held around the globe “will offer hands-on opportunities, experiential demos, entertainment and opportunities to meet the Windows team.”

Windows 7 version is still the widely used operating system and attains a higher market share than Windows 8.1.

Manufacturers are expected to launch machines preloaded with Windows 10 immediately after the launch date.

Narayanan Venkataraman, PC category manager for printing and personal systems at HP Middle East, said that HP will come out PCs preloaded with Windows 10 in early September.

“We will continue to sell Windows 8.1 version in the commercial space as the adoption of new operating system will take time but the transition to full Windows 10 will happen by December in the consumer space,” he said.

Other manufacturers were not available for comments due to the holidays.

Satya Narayana Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, told media recently that Windows 10 is going to run on everything from phones to tablets to surface hubs as well as to the HoloLens, Microsoft’s first fully untethered, see-through holographic computer.

There will be “one unifying platform, one unifying experience” and “that to me is the clear differentiator of what Windows stands for. Windows 10 will be the platform on which all future Windows products would be based,” he said.

The company has set a goal of one billion Windows devices in use by the end of June 2018.

New features like Cortana (similar to Siri), Microsoft Edge, Hello (allowing users to sign into a machine with just face or finger recognition), Microsoft Edge (browser) and Xbox integration are added into it along with a ‘start menu” button to make it more interactive and simple.