Microsoft Confirms Major Windows 10 Update Will Arrive In August

Microsoft announced that the next big update to Windows 10, dubbed the Anniversary Update, will be available on Aug. 2—a few days after the end of Microsoft’s free upgrade offer to Windows 10 for Home and Pro users.

The announcement Wednesday confirms Microsoft’s apparent accidental disclosure of the date this week.

[Related: Decision Time: 10 Reasons To Upgrade To Windows 10]

The Anniversary Update will be available as a free upgrade to users that are running Windows 10 as of Aug. 2. Microsoft’s deadline for Home and Pro users to get a free upgrade to Windows 10 from earlier versions is July 29.

Microsoft said the Anniversary Update will have new features geared toward both businesses and consumers. The update will ’bring Windows Ink and Cortana to the mainstream,’ include a ’faster, more accessible and more power-efficient Microsoft Edge browser,’ and bring ’new tools for the modern classroom,’ Microsoft said in its news release.

’To help protect businesses from today's modern threats, Microsoft also announced two new security features for enterprise customers: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection and Windows Information Protection, formerly referred to as enterprise data protection,’ Microsoft said.

Microsoft said more than 350 million devices are currently running Windows 10. (Read more on the Windows Blog.)

Not all solution providers are recommending that their customers upgrade to Windows 10 from earlier versions, however, on account of concerns about compatibility and the learning curve associated with upgrading from versions such as Windows 7.

Joe Balsarotti, president of St. Peters, Mo.-based Microsoft partner Software To Go, said he's advising that Windows 7 users wait to get Windows 10 until they buy a new computer that's made for the operating system. "For someone who has a three-year-old Windows 7 machine, and now [they want] to throw [Windows] 10 on it, it's bad on so many levels--except for Microsoft," he said.