Writing on the Windows blog yesterday, Microsoft’s Terry Myerson explains that Windows 10 will be rolled-out “in phases to help manage the demand.” It is easy to see why this may be required as providing downloads to the “millions of reservations” may be too much for Microsoft’s servers to handle.
It does mean that the supposed July 29 “launch” may come and go for you without any upgrade in sight though. The roll-out will begin on that date but primarily for Windows Insiders. Microsoft will then begin to scale up the release and notify reserved systems in waves. It says that it will “listen, learn and update the [upgrade] experience” every day of the continuing roll-out.
Windows 10 will become available to your device as soon as Microsoft is confident that it is fully compatible. For any unresolved compatibility issues, such as with older hardware or software that won’t run on Windows 10, you will still be offered the upgrade but will be warned that some of your devices or programs may not work once installed.
If you have placed a reservation, you will still be getting it as soon as possible — even if the “launch day” could end up becoming a period of weeks. Microsoft has not said how many “waves” there will be or how long the upgrade process will actually take before all reserved devices are running Windows 10.
With just four weeks to go until July 29 and the first wave of final release updates, Microsoft is still hard at work polishing and streamlining the next evolution of Windows. It has released three new builds to Windows Insiders this week alone as it steps up the pace to ensure that everything is ready in time. The emphasis is now on delivering the update to your machine as soon as possible.