WinHec 2015: Windows 10 release date, system requirements and beating piracy

Yesterday the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHec) in Shenzen, China kicked off and there were several interesting announcements made by the Windows team.

First up was Terry Myerson and you can see all of the news he shared at the Blogging Windows site but here is the big stuff:

- Windows 10 will be launched this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. Now the definition of summer on the calendar here in the United States is from 21 June until 23 September so it is a very big window. Myerson did not provide any specific date for the Windows 10 RTM or General Availability.

- Microsoft will team up with partners in China to help deliver the free Windows 10 upgrade to users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 to the hundreds and millions of customers there.  According to an interview Myerson did with Reuters the Redmond company will upgrade “all qualified PC’s, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10” in an effort to “re-engage” with those users in China who have pirated past versions of Windows. Speculation is that this could extend worldwide during the one year free Windows 10 upgrade window.

- Xiaomi will be testing a Windows 10 for phones upgrade with a selection of their power users moving towards a release later this year on their hardware.

- Lenovo has committed to building Windows Phones that should be available sometime this year in China. No word on availability in the US or other parts of the world.

Myerson also previewed Windows Hello and discussed Microsoft’s support for the Internet of Things on Windows 10 which we covered yesterday here on the site.

In another session at WinHec, Paul Reed a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft who manages the Windows Hardware Certification Program, shared details about the hardware requirements for Windows 10.

One interesting tidbit from his brief is that there will be at least three versions of Windows 10. Consumer, Pro and of course Mobile.  Add to that the expected Enterprise version and another for the Internet of Things style devices and that brings us to at least five Windows 10 SKU’s not including the server side.

If you are interested in seeing more of Reed's slides be sure to check out his entire PowerPoint Deck online.

We will continue to keep an eye on events at WinHec and let you know if any new items come out.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.