Windows 11 was officially released to the public on October 5, 2021.

Quick Scoop

  • Initial announcement event: June 24, 2021.
  • Microsoft later confirmed the general availability date as October 5, 2021.
  • It rolled out as a free upgrade to eligible Windows 10 PCs, in phases, starting from that date.

In forum-style discussions and tech blogs, you’ll usually see it phrased simply as: “Windows 11 was released on October 5, 2021, as a free upgrade for supported Windows 10 devices.”

Extra context and “latest news”

  • Version 21H2 (the original Windows 11 release) carries the October 5, 2021 date in Microsoft’s version history.
  • Later Windows 11 feature updates (22H2, 23H2, 24H2, 25H2, etc.) have continued to roll out yearly or semi‑yearly, but the core answer to “when was Windows 11 released” is still October 5, 2021.

TL;DR: When someone asks “when was Windows 11 released,” the accepted date is October 5, 2021.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.