There has been quite a lot of news about Windows 10 over the past few days. For those who might have missed an important piece of information or want a quick recap, here you go. Windows 10 is slated to arrive on July 29th. It’s been a long road for those of you who have been testing the operating system as part of the Windows Insider Program. The fruits of your labor are finally about to pay off as Microsoft is nearing the completion of Windows 10.
“On July 29, you can get Windows 10 for PCs and tablets by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer, or on a new Windows 10 PC from your favorite retailer. If you purchase a new Windows 8.1 device between now and then, the Windows 10 upgrade will be available to you and many retail stores will upgrade your new device for you,” Microsoft stated.
By July 29th of 2016, the free upgrade offer will expire. Those who are not eligible (have an older version of Windows pre-7) or who wish to purchase a copy of Windows 10 can do so as well. Microsoft will be offering Windows 10 Home for $119 and Windows 10 Pro for $199, along with a Pro Pack that lets you upgrade from Home to Pro for $99.
Those of you on Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium can upgrade to Windows 10 Home. Those of you on Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. The same goes for Windows 8.1 — those on Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 Home, while those on Windows 8.1 Pro can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Windows Phone 8.1 will eventually be upgradable to Windows 10 Mobile. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows XP, you will have to purchase Windows 10.
Are you using a non-genuine version of Windows? Microsoft has confirmed that while pirated versions of Windows 7 and 8 with non-genuine licenses can be upgraded to Windows 10, they will not be upgraded to a genuine license. In fact, a desktop watermark will haunt them.
For those wondering if Microsoft is ready to release Windows 10 on July 29th, here is what the company had to say. “Our Dev team is done with feature development and is focused on bug fixing. We’ll be working super hard to make sure it’s great,” Microsoft’s Gabriel Aul stated on Twitter.
Microsoft has already begun advertising Windows 10 to Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users. The notification appears via the taskbar and allows users to ‘reserve’ their free upgrade to Windows 10. Once Windows 10 is available, it’ll start downloading immediately via Windows Update.
You can get a free upgrade for each of your eligible Windows devices. All you need to do is make a separate reservation for each device you want to upgrade. In order to reserve your free copy, make sure your Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 device is up to date with the latest updates, allowing you to have the “Get Windows 10” app.
Here are the system requirements for Windows 10:
- Latest OS: Make sure you are running the latest version either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
- RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
- Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
- Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
- Display: 1024×600
Here is a list of features that are depreciated in Windows 10:
- If you have Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, or Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center and you install Windows 10, Windows Media Center will be removed.
- Watching DVDs requires separate playback software
- Windows 7 desktop gadgets will be removed as part of installing Windows 10.
- Windows 10 Home users will have updates from Windows Update automatically available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.
- Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts Games that come pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released our version of Solitaire and Minesweeper called the “Microsoft Solitaire Collection” and “Microsoft Minesweeper.”
- If you have a USB floppy drive, you will need to download the latest driver from Windows Update or from the manufacturer’s website.
- If you have Windows Live Essentials installed on your system, the OneDrive application is removed and replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive.
For those of you who purchased a Windows 8.1 device right now, you can upgrade to Windows 10. New qualified PCs can run Windows 10, since the operating system is designed to be compatible with the Windows 8.1 laptop, tablet or desktop PCs that are for sale now. You can read more FAQs about Windows 10 here.
