Get Your Free Windows 10 Upgrade While You Still Can!
If you are running eligible versions of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 you can still grab your free Windows 10 upgrade, but only for another 6 weeks or so! Microsoft will be pulling the plug on free upgrades, as per the original plan, one year after it was launched. This means that after 29th July 2016 you will no longer be able to upgrade for free. On the official Microsoft web page on how to upgrade you can see this date in the terms.
I have been using Windows 10 properly since the launch date. I took the opportunity and used the free Windows 10 upgrade on my laptop and desktop having been running Windows 8.1 on both of those devices previously. I had initially upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 but as with most people I hated the interface. Windows 8.1 improved on that a little bit and I got used to that pretty quickly. I tried Windows 10 during the testing stages and found that it was faster and looked a lot slicker. I love the tile feature on the start menu as I used to have to put all my most frequently used software either on the desktop or the start bar which became cluttered and unorganised. I now have tile groups based on what I use the software for.
You should be able to upgrade from within Windows. There should be an icon in the notification area near the clock which will allow you to run an in-place upgrade. Alternatively you can visit the official Microsoft Windows 10 download page.
Bear in mind that the process is reversible so if you do upgrade and decide that Windows 10 isn’t for you then you can reverse the process by restoring your system back to how it was before the upgrade1. This has to be done within 2 – 4 weeks after upgrading. If you wait longer than that you will need to completely re-install Windows in order to go back to your old operating system. I have had to reverse the installation on someone’s computer as they had powered the machine off part way through and corrupted the Windows 10 installation. The restore process was quite fast and easy and after running it I was then able to upgrade the computer to Windows 10 properly.
A particularly important point is to make sure that any software that you use is compatible with Windows 10 before you upgrade. If you upgrade without confirming this the software may be uninstalled during the upgrade process and you will not be able to re-install it. I did find that some software is uninstalled during the upgrade but there is then a list of that software on your desktop so that you can find and re-install it.
Before you go ahead and upgrade, check out our article on Windows 10 Privacy Settings You Want to Know About.
1.The restore facility is one method of reversing the upgrade but may not be available. If this is not available you may need to re-install your old operating system from the manufacturers restore facility or the Windows re-installation disk. This may erase your software and files. Always take backups before attempting major upgrades to your system. This site and it’s author cannot be held responsible for any data lost due to upgrading or downgrading Windows.
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