When Microsoft announced Windows 11 last week, it said that it would be coming this holiday season. As it turns out, the firm may have teased a specific Windows 11 launch date, which would be October 20, 2021. That was the date seen in the taskbar in the press images, as spotted by The Verge.

There are some other hints as well. In a screenshot showing the notification center, there was a message from Stevie Bathiche that said, "Good luck today, Panos! Excited to turn it up to 11...can't wait for October!"

Bathiche is probably most famous for working on the display technology in Microsoft's Surface PCs, although he's been with the company for 22 years and has done quite a bit. When he mentioned October, he could be talking about a Surface launch. While there aren't any specific rumors around new hardware in October, this is something that will likely happen.

With the Windows 11 launch, there's going to be some hero devices that go alongside it. We saw it with Windows 10, when Microsoft held that big bang launch that included the Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL, Lumia 550, and Band 2. The original Surface lineup, the Surface Pro and Surface RT, launched alongside Windows 8.

It's unlikely that at this stage of development, Microsoft has a specific release date planned for Windows 11. That could be the date of a launch event where devices are announced, along with the actual Windows 11 release date.

Either way, this fall and winter are certainly going to be fun for Microsoft fans. Between Windows 11 and likely new hardware, there's going to be a lot going on. OEMs are also going to launch PCs that are aimed at Windows 11, so it should be an interesting time.

Windows 11 is set to launch in preview sometime this week, so if you just can't wait to get your hands on it, you'll be able to test it out soon.