Windows 10: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is my PC eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free?

In order to get the free Windows 10 upgrade, your PC must be running Windows 7 with service pack 1 or Windows 8.1 update and must be activated. To check the hardware requirements to install Windows 10, check out this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-specifications

How do I upgrade to Windows 10?

If your PC meets the above requirements, then you can install Windows 10 through Windows updates or through the Media Creation Tool. All eligible PCs will get a notification to install Windows 10 automatically provided they have installed the latest Windows updates. Just click on the notification to reserve your copy of Windows 10 and it will start downloading through Windows update as soon as Windows 10 is available in your area.  If you don’t see the upgrade notification, the check out this article to find out why:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3081048

If you are an impatient geek like me who doesn’t like waiting to try out new things, then you can go ahead and download Windows 10 using the Media creation tool. You can check out my other post here to find out how I upgraded to Windows 10 using this tool.

Which version of Windows will I get if I upgrade?

Here is a concise version of the upgrade path showing which version of Windows 10 you will get.

Windows 10 upgrade path and editions

The above image is taken from the following page and you can refer to the section ‘Upgrade editions’ for more information.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-specifications

How do I clean install Windows 10?

Once you have upgraded to Windows 10 and have activated your copy of Windows 10, then you can perform a clean install anytime.

Note: Your activation status won’t be affected when you make hardware changes to graphic card or HDD/SSD, but making changes to hardware like TPM, Motherboard and might have a negative impact your activation status. In such cases, you can do a phone activation as explained in this article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/950929

You can also refer to this FAQ by Microsoft for additional information:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-faq

More Questions? Leave a comment and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.