It's official – HP really will get you a Windows 10 PC on July 29 (barely)

HP got on the phone with The Register on Wednesday to shed light on how it plans to roll out PCs with Windows 10 preinstalled. The IT giant said you can expect at least some of its hardware to be available with the new OS on the day that it launches – July 29.

There's been some confusion on the matter. Earlier this week, HP issued a press release that indicated it didn't expect its existing offerings to start shipping with the new OS preinstalled until "mid-August into October."

On Wednesday, Mike Nash, product strategy veep for HP Personal Systems, explained that this delay would only apply to HP's offerings for businesses, and that there's really no mystery behind it.

"It's more the way that channel works," Nash said. "With the retail channel, you just walk into a store. It's just not the same way that enterprise PCs get bought."

Mind you, you still won't be able to walk into a retail store on July 29 and pick up an HP laptop with Windows 10, but Nash said you should give it just a couple of days. Select retailers should have the hardware in-store beginning on August 2, he said.

If you can't wait that long, he added, the answer is to preorder devices from HP's website. According to Nash, any Windows 10 PC that you preorder direct from HP today will be on your doorstep on July 29 – at least in the US – and HP will even pick up the cost of shipping.

Orders shipped to other markets might take longer to arrive, but not by much, Nash said.

Naturally, this initial push only applies to select HP products. The Palo Alto firm is currently only offering HP15, Envy x360, and Spectre x360 laptops in four different Windows 10 configurations, and HP Pavilion 550 and HP All-in-One desktops in three different configurations. More models will come later.

But the point Nash most wanted to stress was that it shouldn't really matter whether you can buy a Windows 10 PC on the day the OS ships or a few days later.

"No one should go crazy over three days," he said. "People buy PCs for years. We want to make sure we get them the right PC."

When asked whether Microsoft's release schedule for Windows 10 wasn't cutting it a little close for OEMs like HP, however, Nash agreed that HP had to do things a bit differently this time.

"There is no question, this is the fastest we've ever had," Nash told El Reg. "In some sense, having an embargo date this early has changed the overall approach. What made it possible, honestly, is the great communication and the great co-engineering [with Microsoft] that got us bits constantly throughout the spring."

He added that he couldn't speak for what's going on at any other OEMs. ®