FAQ ON WINDOWS 10

Now that Windows 10 is available for public download and installation people have more questions than ever about the new version of Windows. We’ve rounded up the questions we get most frequently here at How-To Geek and compiled them to help you get up to speed about Windows 10.
Every week we get hundreds of questions to our ask@howtogeek.com email inbox and we field dozens more from friends and family that know we work for a tech publication. People across the board are very curious about Windows 10.Further, because it’s a free upgrade for millions upon millions of users across the globe there is a huge amount of interest in everything from the upgrade process to changes in the operating system.
For all our curious readers, neighbors, and people searching for more information about Windows 10 we’ve rounded up to most frequently asked questions we’ve come across here for your convenience.

Is Windows 10 Really Free?

There has been significant confusion regarding the pricing (or lack there of) of Windows 10 over the last year. Don’t be ashamed if you’re confused, Microsoft themselves changed their story regarding the upgrade and pricing schedule more than a few times during the development and beta testing of Windows 10.

For a huge number of people Windows 10 is really, truly, free-as-in-beer free. If you are currently running any legitimate (non-pirated) version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 you will be upgraded for free to an equivalent version of Windows 10. Windows 7 Home/Basic/Premium users and Windows 8.1 users will be upgraded for free to Windows 10 Home. Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate users and Windows 8.1 Pro users will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.
You’ll note we didn’t say Windows 8; if you have a Windows 8 machine you first need to perform the free upgrade to Windows 8.1 before upgrading to Windows 10. The vast majority of current Windows users fall under the umbrella above. Your Windows 7 desktop, your Windows 8.1 laptop, as long as it has a legitimate Windows license it is eligible for upgrade. It’s also worth noting that the Windows 10 free upgrade key is tied to the hardware. You can’t upgrade a machine and roll back and keep the key to do a clean install on another computer.
There is a minor catch: the upgrade is only free for the first year Windows 10 is available. Windows 10 was officially released in 07/29/2015 and the upgrade will remain free for qualifying users until 07/28/2016.
If you’re building a new PC and need a brand new Windows license you can purchase Windows 10 for $119 (or Windows 10 Pro for $199). Practically speaking though, buying a full price Windows 10 key, of either flavor, is a bad deal considering that you can purchase a cheaper key for Windows 7 and upgrade (or just scrounge it off the bottom of an old laptop or computer). You could, for example, buy a horribly dated (and possibly broken) Windows laptop at a garage sale for next to nothing and use the key to upgrade.
Even if you don’t want to gamble on using a key off an old laptop that somebody else might have recorded for their own use, it’s still cheaper to buy an old version of Windows and upgrade it. You can buy a brand new copy of Windows 8.1 Pro for $131, for example, and upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro (saving yourself ~$70 in the process).
In short, even when Windows 10 isn’t free (as it is for nearly everyone) it’s still pretty economical because you can use old (and cheaper) Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys to perform the free upgrade to Windows 10.