Skip to main content

Intel’s Compute Stick will soon come with Windows 10 pre-installed

Intel Compute Stick in hand
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The Intel Compute Stick, one of the better received and more popular stick PCs on the market, currently ships with Windows 8.1 installed out of the box. Like all PCs with a legitimate copy of Windows, it’s eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10, but for users afraid of doing the upgrade themselves, it appears that the Intel is set to start shipping the sticks with Windows 10 installed.

Listings for the new stick, which already has a slight change to its model number, now reading BOXSTCK1A32WFCL, are appearing on various online retailers with a price point of around $150, which is the same price as the original. That L at the end of the model number and Windows 10 being installed seem to be only difference between the new model and the old one, but that could of course change once Intel officially announces something.

Recommended Videos

The hardware, which should be the same when the Windows 10-toting stick hits the market, features 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and an Intel Atom Z3735F Bay Trail quad-core processor. Presumably, Windows 10 should run just as well as, if not better than Windows 8.1 on lower-end devices like this one, and users have already been upgrading on their own with no particular reports of problems.

Other notable specs of the Intel Compute stick include 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a micro USB port, a USB 2.0 port, HDMI, and a microSD slot for expanding the storage.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any information for when the slightly upgraded version of Intel’s stick PC will hit the market. In the mean time, for those who already have an Intel Compute Stick and are reluctant to get Windows 10, check out some of the best reasons why you should upgrade.

Dave LeClair
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dave LeClair has been writing about tech and gaming since 2007. He's covered events, hosted podcasts, created videos, and…
The Surface Pro 10 sounds amazing, and it may be coming soon
The back of the Surface Pro 9, with the kickstand pulled out.

Microsoft could be getting ready to reveal the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 sooner than expected. Reporting from Windows Central's Zac Bowden indicates the devices might be announced on March 21, and could feature both Intel Core Ultra and Snapdragon X Elite chips under the hood, along with some design tweaks.

These new Surface devices are expected to go all-in on AI features in Windows 11. More important is that we could see the next Surface Laptop in a new ARM-based variant in addition to one with a traditional Intel Core Ultra CPU. This change in chips should not only bring more choice like the Surface Pro 9 did, but also performance gains that can help the devices rival what Apple has accomplished with the iPad Pro, as well as the new MacBook Pro with the M3 chip.

Read more
Intel may have a monster new CPU coming soon
Pins on Intel Core i9-12900K.

The Core i9-13900KS was a milestone product for Intel, as it was the first consumer processor capable of reaching an impressive 6GHz straight out of the box. This year, Team Blue is expected to take it up a notch.

A recent leak reported by Tom's Hardware has unveiled crucial details about Intel's upcoming flagship CPU, the Core i9-14900KS. If these leaked benchmarks are to be believed, this beast of a processor will boast eight powerful P-cores alongside 16 efficient E-cores, offering a total of 32 threads and a whopping 68MB of cache. But what truly sets it apart is its clock speeds.

Read more
Microsoft plans to charge for Windows 10 updates in the future
Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating system logos are displayed on laptop screens.

Microsoft has confirmed it will offer security updates for Windows 10 after the end-of-life date for the operating system for consumer users but for a fee.

The brand recently announced plans to charge regular users for Extended Security Updates (ESU) who intend to continue using Windows 10 beyond the October 14, 2025 support date.

Read more