Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's operating systems group
Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft’s operating systems group

People waiting for Windows 10 won’t have much longer to go. Terry Myerson, the executive vice president of Microsoft’s Operating Systems group, announced at the Windows Hardware Engineering Community summit in China that the next version of the company’s operating system will be available this summer.

According to a blog post Myerson made summarizing his remarks, the upgrade will be available then in 190 countries and 110 countries for free to anyone who has a copy of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Microsoft is pushing hard to get maximum penetration in China, and Windows 10 will launch with some features tailored for that market, like a Mandarin version of Cortana.

Win10_Windows_ProductFamily_WebIn addition to the new features, Microsoft has signed up a laundry list of partners to help boost Windows 10 in China. Lenovo will be offering free upgrade services at 2,500 locations in the country, and has also committed to making phones that run Windows 10 by the middle of this year.

Tencent, the massive gaming and online services conglomerate that operates the popular QQ messaging app, said that it will offer a Windows 10 upgrade pack to its customers that bundles Microsoft’s OS with its software. In addition, the company will make sure that its games, including “League of Legends,” “Cross Fire” and “Dungeon Fighter” will run on Windows 10. Internet security company Qihu 360 will be offering upgrades to its customers, and smartphone maker Xiaomi will give selected owners of its Mi 4 smartphone the ability to test Windows 10 early.

In an additional move to appeal to customers in China, Myerson told Reuters that the free upgrade will be available for people who pirated earlier versions of Windows. He said that Microsoft wanted to “re-engage” with those customers in the Middle Kingdom who don’t have a genuine version of Microsoft’s OS, but didn’t provide further details.

To a certain degree, today’s announcements hearken back to the question looming over Windows 10: how will Microsoft make money from it? If the company is offering free upgrades to all users, even those running pirated software, there has to be something up its sleeve if it wants to make money.

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