Get Windows 10 for Free After July 29th, with a Little Prep Now

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10’s free upgrade offer will expire on July 29, 2016. After that, you’ll have to pay $119 to upgrade on any computer that hasn’t already made the leap. But with a few simple steps, you can “reserve” that free copy now, so you can upgrade after July 29 without paying.

We know not everyone wants to upgrade to Windows 10 right now, and that’s fine. But one day, you’ll probably have to. And you don’t want to have to pay $119 for it. By upgrading a computer now and then rolling back to Windows 7 or 8, you’ll get to keep your original version of Windows, but “reserve” that free Windows 10 license for all your PCs.

How This Works

When you upgrade to Windows 10 from a PC running a genuine and activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system, your PC receives a “digital entitlement.” Basically, Microsoft notes on its servers that your particular PC’s hardware is eligible for Windows 10 going forward.

Once your PC is eligible, it’s always eligible–you can reinstall Windows 10 from scratch and it’ll automatically activate, without you even entering a product key. You can even install a different operating system–like Windows 7 or Linux–and reinstall Windows 10 later, fully activated and genuine.

Note that this is tied to your computer’s specific hardware, not your Microsoft account. The free Windows 10 license you receive will only work on that PC–if you upgrade the motherboard or try to install Windows 10 on another PC that doesn’t have the digital entitlement, it won’t work.

So, in order to “reserve” Windows 10, we’re going to walk you through the steps of upgrading to Windows 10 on your machine, then reverting to Windows 7 or 8. You get to keep the version of Windows you love, but your PC will be entitled to Windows 10 at any point in the future, without having to pay $119.

We’ll walk you through two methods: A simple method that involves upgrading and rolling back, and a slightly more complex method that involves cloning your current disk, so everything isexactly how you left it.

The Easy (But Imperfect) Method: Upgrade and Roll Back

The easiest way to do this is use the “roll back” feature to uninstall Windows 10 and get your old Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system back. However, this may not always work perfectly. Some programs may be removed during the upgrade and you may have to reinstall them afterwards, for example. If you want to be extra sure everything stays exactly as you left it, head to the next section for the slightly more complicated option.

However, if you’d like to live dangerously (and don’t want to waste much time), the upgrade and roll back method is simple. First, download the Windows 10 upgrade tool, run it, and agree to upgrade your PC to Windows 10.

After Windows 10 is installed, click the “Start” button and select “Settings.” Navigate to Update & Security > Activation. Ensure it says “Windows 10 on this device is activated with a digital entitlement.” If it does, your PC is registered with Microsoft and you can install Windows 10 on it whenever you like. You may need to wait a while for Windows to contact the activation servers.

Once your activation looks good, go to the Recovery tab and click the “Get started” button under “Go back to Windows 7” or “Go back to Windows 8.1.”

Windows 10 will automatically uninstall itself and restore your old Windows system to your hard drive. Congratulations! You’re now back to Windows 7 or 8, but are eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, even after the July cutoff date.

The Complicated (But More Exact) Method: Image and Restore Your System Drive

For maximum safety, you’ll want to create an image your Windows 7 or 8.1 system drive before upgrading. Then, after upgrading, you can restore that cloned image to your computer, ensuring you’ll get your system in the exact state it was in before.

You’ll need an extra hard drive to accomplish this, at least as big as the one in your computer. (Alternatively, you can use several discs, but that could take a very long time.)

You’ll also need a third-party tool to image your drive. We recommend Macrium Reflect for this. So download and install the free version on this page and launch it. You’ll be prompted to create rescue media, which you can use to restore your backup image later. If you aren’t, click Other Tasks > Create Rescue Media. Go through the wizard, selecting the default options and then choosing the device you want to use for your boot media. You can either create a bootable USB stick or burn this rescue media to a disc.

Next, in the main Macrium Reflect window, click the “Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows” option in the sidebar. On the Disk Image window that pops up, make sure the entire disk is checked under “Source”–you don’t want to miss any of those partitions. Under Destination, choose your spare hard drive as the “Folder”.

Click “Next” to go through the wizard, ignoring all the advanced settings about templates and scheduling. Click “Finish” at the end of the wizard and then wait for Macrium Reflect to image your drive.

When Macrium Reflect is done cloning your drive, download and run the Windows 10 upgrade tool. Allow it to upgrade your PC to Windows 10. This may take a while, so give it time.

Once the upgrade finishes, your computer should, in theory, be permanently eligible for Windows 10.

To make sure, click the “Start” button in Windows 10 and select “Settings.” Navigate to Update & Security > Activation. Ensure it says “Windows 10 on this device is activated with a digital entitlement.” If it does, your PC is registered with Microsoft and you can install Windows 10 on it whenever you like. You may need to wait a while for Windows to contact the activation servers.

All good? Good. Now it’s time to roll back to your old setup.

Boot your computer from that Macrium Reflect recovery drive we created during the initial setup. You can do this by entering the boot menu when your computer starts, or changing your computer’s boot drive order.

Once in the recovery tool, connect the external drive you backed up to. Select the “Restore” tab and use the “Browse for an image file” option to select the image you created earlier. Click “Restore Image” to restore the cloned image back to your computer.

Now, carefully select the system drive you imaged earlier–the original one you had Windows installed on. If your computer has multiple disks, be sure you’re restoring the image back to the same drive you originally cloned. If you don’t, you could lose data!

Use the “Copy selected partitions” option to copy the partitions from your image back to the disk. Finally, click “Next” and finish going through the wizard. Macrium Reflect will restore your image, overwriting Windows 10 with your original Windows installation.

The Clean Slate Option: Upgrade to Windows 10, then Reinstall 7 or 8

If you don’t mind reinstalling Windows fresh and losing everything on your computer, you can always upgrade to Windows 10, then do a fresh install of Windows 7 or 8 afterward. Be sure you have backups of your important files before doing this!

Just download and run the Windows 10 upgrade tool and let it upgrade your PC. After you’re done, download Windows 7 or 8.1 installation media from Microsoft’s website, place it on a USB flash drive or DVD, and boot from it. Go through the normal process of reinstalling Windows and wipe your hard drive, replacing Windows 10 with the older version of Windows.

You’ll need a valid Windows product key for this. The Windows product key that came with your computer should usually work, but Microsoft doesn’t guarantee that “OEM” or “Original Equipment Manufacturer” keys can always be used to reinstall Windows. (If you run into errors, try activating it with Microsoft over the phone–that often works.)

How to Uninstall Windows 10 and Downgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1

Don’t like Windows 10? As long as you’ve upgraded within the last month, you can uninstall Windows 10 and downgrade your PC back to its original Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system. You can always upgrade to Windows 10 again later.

Even if it’s been more than a month, you should be able to reinstall the version of Windows that came with your PC using fresh installation media and its product key.

Go Back to Windows 7 or 8.1

If you’ve upgraded a PC to Windows 10 — not performed a clean install, but an upgrade — you’ll have an easy option that lets you revert to the last version of Windows. To access this, open the Start menu and select Settings. Click the “Update & security” icon and select “Recovery.”

You should see a “Go back to Windows 7” or “Go back to Windows 8.1” option. Click the Get started button to get rid of your Windows 10 install and restore your previous Windows install. Microsoft will ask you why you want to go back.

If it’s been over a month — or if you’ve run the DIsk cleanup tool and removed the “Previous Windows installations” files or deleted the C:\Windows.old folder by hand — you’ll no longer see this option. Windows 10 appears to automatically remove the old Windows installation files after a month to free up space.

This Uses the Windows.old Folder

This works because Windows 10 stores your old Windows installation in the folder named “C:\Windows.old” on your computer. You can see this folder in File Explorer, though you shouldn’t attempt to delete it from here. You can also browse the Windows.old folder and restore files from it.

Obviously, storing every single file from your old Windows installation takes a lot of space. If you open the Disk Cleanup application, you’ll see just how much space it uses. Click the Start button, type “Disk cleanup” to search for it, launch it, and click the “Clean up system files” button.

Find ‘Previous Windows installation(s)” in the list, and you’ll see just how much space it’s consuming on your hard drive. If you’re sure you don’t want to go back to your previous version of Windows, use Disk Cleanup tool to remove those files and immediately free up space.

How to Downgrade if Windows 10 Doesn’t Give You The Option

Assuming you have an old computer you upgraded to Windows 10, that computer previously had Windows 7 or 8.1 on it. That means that computer came with a product key that allows you to use Windows 7 or 8.1 on it. To get back to an older version of Windows, you’ll have to perform a clean install of Windows — something PC geeks often do on new computers, anyway.

Thankfully, Microsoft now offers easy downloads for Windows 7 and 8.1 ISO files. Download the Windows installation media and burn the ISO file to a disc or copy it to a USB drive using Microsoft’s Windows USB/DVD download tool. You can then boot from it and reinstall Windows 7 or 8.1 fresh, telling it to overwrite the Windows 10 system already on your hard drive. Be sure you have backup copies of all your important files from your Windows 10 PC first.

You’ll have to find your PC’s product key if you do this. On a Windows 7 PC, examine your PC for a “certificate of authenticity” sticker with a key on it. They sticker may be on the underside of your laptop, in the battery compartment under a removable battery, or even on a laptop’s power brick. On a Windows 8 PC, you may not have to do this at all — the key may be embedded in your computer’s firmware and Windows 8.1 will automatically detect it and allow you to reinstall Windows 8.1 without even asking you to enter a key.

If you bought a new PC that came with Windows 10 and you want to go back to a previous version of Windows, that’s tougher. To do this legitimately, you’ll need to purchase a Windows 7 or 8.1 license and install it from scratch, entering the product key you purchased during the install process.

If an important program or hardware device you use doesn’t work on Windows 10, you’ll want to downgrade. If Windows 10 just seems unstable, you’ll want to go back to your previous version of Windows and wait a while longer before attempting an upgrade. Or, if you’d just rather hang onto Windows 7 for a while longer, you can downgrade.

Windows 10 will remain a free upgrade for the first year, after all.

Switchable Graphics Cards on Windows 10

Some laptops come equipped with dual graphics cards, namely a high-performance standalone one (also known as a discrete graphics card) to run graphic intensive programs, and an integrated graphics chip built into to the motherboard. 

Integrated graphics cards are usually sufficient when it comes to running your OS (desktop), and performing basic tasks such as web browsing, video playback and document editing. However, in order to run games or graphic-intensive programs such as video editing, 3D animation, and CAD software, it is recommended that you switch to the discrete graphics card. This process is usually done by your operating system, but Windows 10 also allows you to launch program with the graphics card of your choice. 

The actual procedure of changing your graphics card is very easy. Simply right-click on the program shortcut > Run with graphics processor. You may then click on your desired option to designate the correct graphics card: 

How to Change Your Local IP Address

Your Public IP address is what identifies your computer when you to connect to the internet. It is assigned by your ISP and depending on the type of service you have subscribed to, your public IP may remain the same (Static IP) or is periodically updated (Dynamic IP). Basically if you want to change your public IP then the only way is to get in touch with your ISP or use a proxy service such as Tuxler or Hotspot Shield to hide/spoof your IP address. 

Each computer also have the local IP address. The local IP which is also referred as Private IP address is used to identify computers on the local network (behind the same router) and it is managed by the operating system. If required, the local IP of a machine can be changed via the router settings (refer to the manual provided with the router or check on the manufacturer's website) or you can change it via the Windows Control Panel.

Refresh your IP

There exists a simple command in Windows to refresh your current IP, which can be useful to fix IP address conflicts when two computers present on the same DHCP network share the same IP. But it should be noted that this procedure generates a "random IP" (within the allowed range). 

Click on Start > Run > type cmd and press Enter to open the Command Prompt. Next, type ipconfig
 to view the current address. Type  ipconfig / release , followed by ipconfig / renew
. 

Change your local IP

Open the Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings > Network Connections. A list of known connection will be displayed (Ethernet or Wi-Fi). Right-click on the desired connection and select Properties from the contextual menu. Under This connection uses the following items select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4) and then click onProperties: 

Select the Use the following IP address option instead of Obtain an IP automatically (default) and register the IP address (within the pool of acceptable IP addresses and which is not already in use by another computer), Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and DNS Server addresses:

Click on Apply > Ok.

How to Train Siri, Cortana, and Google to Understand Your Voice Better

No two people sound exactly alike. Different people have different accents and ways of pronouncing words, and computer voice recognition systems like Siri, Cortana, and Google’s voice search aren’t as good as actual human beings at understanding every voice. Train your voice assistant and it’ll be better at understanding you.

Traditionally, computerized voice recognition systems have required some training before they understood you. Modern voice assistants are designed to “just work,” but you can still make them recognize the words you say more often by training them.

Siri on IOS 9.1

Apple added some voice training features to Siri in iOS 9. Activate the “Hey Siri” feature — which allows you to say “Hey Siri” and start talking to Siri from anywhere — and you’ll be prompted to perform some voice training.

(On most iPhones, this only works while your screen is on or while your phone is plugged in. If you have an iPhone 6s, you can also say “Hey Siri” while your screen is off to start a voice search.)

To activate this feature, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, tap the “General” category, and tap “Siri.” Activate the “Allow “Hey Siri”” option and you’ll be prompted to train Siri.

Siri will have you say “Hey Siri”, “Hey Siri, how’s the weather today?”, and “Hey Siri, it’s me.” This will improve Siri’s ability to understand you.

Cortana on Windows 10

Cortana includes a voice-training feature so you can help Cortana understand your voice better. Like Google, Cortana will upload your voice activity and store it to help Cortana learn your voice over time and understand you better — that’s what the “Speech, inking, & typing” privacy setting controls. You could disable it and tell Cortana to “Stop getting to know me,” but then it would have a harder time understanding you.

To start training Cortana, click or tap the Cortana bar on the taskbar, click the “Notebook” icon at the left of the Cortana pane, and select “Settings.” Activate the “Let Cortana respond to “Hey Cortana” option and then click the “Learn my voice” button. Cortana will walk you through saying a variety of phrases to learn your voice. All of these are things you can actually do with Cortana

.

Google on Android, Chrome, and Elsewhere

Google doesn’t include a special training process on Android. However, some manufacturers do offer this feature on their devices. For example, the Moto Voice application on Motorola phones will prompt you to train it by saying several things the first time you open the Moto Voice app.

Instead, Google captures and keeps all the voice searches, voice actions, and voice dictation activities you perform on your phone. It stores this with your “Voice and Audio Activity,” which is tied to your Google account and used on Android, in Chrome, and in Google’s apps on iOS. You’re free to delete or halt collection of this information at any time, but leaving it enabled means Google will learn how to recognize your voice and the way you pronounce words over time.

To choose whether or not your Android device reports this information, use the “Activity controls” pane in the Google Settings app.

None of these training processes are mandatory, but they’ll help the service in question understand you better. If you find yourself annoyed that your phone, tablet, or computer doesn’t understand you as well as it should, it may just need some training.

Other similar programs — for example, speech-to-text programs — generally have their own integrated training features, too. For example, the Speech Recognition feature that’s been part of Windows for years can be trained to work better.

How to Mute Individual Browser Tabs in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox

Web pages can automatically play audio thanks to HTML5, even if you’ve set Flash and other browser plug-ins to click-to-play. Most modern web browsers include an audio indicator that will show you which tab is playing sound. Most modern browsers also let you mute individual tabs.

This feature was available behind a hidden flag in Chrome for a while, and is now stable. Apple’s Safari was the first web browser that actually enabled it by default, and Mozilla is working on adding it to Firefox.

Google Chrome

This feature is now part of the stable version of Chrome and doesn’t require enabling any hidden flags to use. Just locate a tab playing audio — you’ll see a speaker indicator to the left of the “x” on the tab itself. Right-click the tab and select “Mute Tab.”

The audio indicator will turn to a crossed-out speaker icon, informing you that the tab isn’t allowed to play audio. Right-click it again and select “Unmute Tab” to change your choice.
This feature is now part of the stable version of Chrome and doesn’t require enabling any hidden flags to use. Just locate a tab playing audio — you’ll see a speaker indicator to the left of the “x” on the tab itself. Right-click the tab and select “Mute Tab.”

The audio indicator will turn to a crossed-out speaker icon, informing you that the tab isn’t allowed to play audio. Right-click it again and select “Unmute Tab” to change your choice.

Apple Safari

This is also possible in Safari — Safari was the first browser that made this feature available to all its users.

As in Chrome, you’ll see a speaker icon to the left of the “x” button on an individual browser tab when it’s playing audio. You can click the speaker icon to mute the tab, and click it again to unmute the tab. You can also right-click or Ctrl-click the tab and select “Mute Tab” to mute that individual tab.

Unlike in Chrome, there’s no way to preemptively mute a tab. This option is only available when a tab is already playing audio.

Mozilla Firefox


Firefox is on the verge of adding built-in audio indicators on its tabs and a way to mute them. According to the bug report, this feature should be part of Firefox 42. It’s part of the latest experimental “nightly” builds of Firefox, too.

It works similarly to Safari and Chrome. If a tab is playing audio, you’ll see an audio indicator to the left of the “x” button on the tab. You can click that little speaker icon to mute a tab or right-click the browser tab and select “Mute Tab.”

Like Chrome, Firefox also allows you to preemptively mute tabs before they start playing audio — just right-click a tab and select “Mute Tab.”

If you’re still using an old version of Firefox, you can do this by installing an extension like “Mute Tab.” However, this extension doesn’t work as well — it only works with HTML5 audio. Thankfully, it’s possible to prevent plug-ins from automatically playing by setting them to click-to-play in Firefox.

Microsoft Edge 

Microsoft Edge does at least include audio indicators on its tabs. Unlike all other browsers, however, those audio indicators are located at the left side of each tab.

Edge doesn’t yet offer a built-in way to mute tabs, and it doesn’t support browser extensions. Browser extensions — or Microsoft itself — may one day bring this feature to Edge. For now, Edge is still stuck playing catch-up to the features offered by established browsers.

You can always mute your entire browser to prevent all web pages from playing audio until you change your mind — assuming you’re using Windows or Linux. On Windows, right-click the volume icon in your system tray, select “Open Volume Mixer” and use the mixer to mute the browser or at least lower its volume. On Linux, you’ll usually find this option in your desktop’s sound settings, too — it’s offered by PulseAudio. Mac OS X doesn’t offer this feature.

How to Disable Internet Explorer

There's no doubt that Internet Explorer has been a prime target of attack for spyware merchants and other ill-intentioned goons. That's why many folks have turned to alternate browsers for their web surfing.

If you are using another browser and don't use Internet Explorer anymore, there's a case to be made that you should remove it from your system. It is, after all, a potential security threat so, if you don't need it, why not get rid of it?

Except, getting rid of IE is not that easy. In fact, with later versions of Windows there's no satisfactory way of removing it completely without risking crippling Windows itself.

That hasn't stopped folks from trying to remove IE, however, and you can find several techniques documented on various web sites. Instead of removing IE I favor the simple and safer approach of disabling it. Sure, it may not provide the same degree of security as complete removal but that's a small price to pay compared to the cost of potentially de-stabilizing Windows.

There are several disabling techniques but I suggest the method below as it's simple, easy to reverse and doesn't interfere with the operation of the Windows Update service. Furthermore it should work with any modern version of IE.

Step 1. From IE select Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings.

Step 2. Put a tick in the check box next to "Use a Proxy Server for your LAN ...”

Step 3. Type in "0.0.0.0" in the address box and "80" in the Port box. Don't type in the quote marks of course, just what's inside them.

Step 4. Click OK.

What you've done is set up a dummy proxy server 0.0.0.0 that goes nowhere. With these setting IE cannot make an HTML connection to the internet and vice versa. You have simply and effectively disabled IE.

There's no magic in the 0.0.0.0 address, any dead proxy address would work just as well. I've used that particular address to keep things simple.

If you ever need to re-enable Internet Explorer start it up and select Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings from the toolbar and un-check the box "Use a Proxy Server for your LAN ...”

If you really want to remove IE more completely then you can check out these resources but, as I said, I don't recommend it.

How to Use your Macbook in a Windows-only Workplace

You use a Macbook at home and would prefer to use the same Mac laptop at work but the corporate IT department will only support computers that are running the Windows OS. How do you get your Macbook to play nicely with the Windows-only workplace?

Well, there’s nothing to worry here as you can take your Mac to office or in team meetings without requiring support from the support staff. You can easily access network drives, connect to shared printers, check your Exchange server email and access other resources in all all-Windows network right from the Mac. Here’s a complete guide:

Share files and folders between Mac & Windows

Macs can work seamlessly in a windows network. However, you might need to enable sharing explicitly for this to work. To enable sharing, go to System Preferences on your Mac, click on Sharing and check File Sharing.

To share a folder on the network for others to see, click on the + icon below theShared folders section, choose the Mac folder you want to share and change the permissions suitably for Everyone (the default is Read Only). Click on Optionsand select Share files with SMB.

Other users on the Windows network can now access your Mac shared folders as usual by clicking your computer in their Network neighborhood on their Windows computers.

Access Network Drives from a Mac

To access a network shared drive (or a folder) at your workplace, open Finder and from the menu bar, select Go followed by Connect to server. In the popup window type:

smb://servername/folder_name (e.g. smb://fileserver01/finance)

In some cases, you might have to use the IP address of the Windows server or you can even see the server by clicking theBrowse button.

Click on the + icon to save a bookmark and press Connect. Repeat this for other network drives. You should now be able to see all the network drives in your Finder sidebar.

Email on Microsoft Exchange Server

If your Mac is running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later, you can use the included Mail program to connect to your corporate email account automatically using an Exchange account.

Open the Mail app and go to Preferences -> accounts. Click + icon to add a new account and select Exchange from the list of account types. Next enter your name, email address and password, then click Continue and fill in the details of your Exchange server like the Server Address, etc. Your mail account should now be configured.

The other option is to use Microsoft Outlook on your Mac which you can get through Microsoft Office 2016 or a Microsoft Office 365 subscription.

How to Access Internet on your Mac

If your organization does not use proxy servers, you should be able to access internet by simply plugging the Ethernet cable in your office to the Mac. If you have Wi-Fi around, the available wireless networks will automatically show up on your computer – select the network you want to join, enter a password, and you’re connected.

However, if are required to use proxies for web access, you will have to configure them on your Mac as well.

You will need to contact your system administrator for obtaining the details of the Proxy Server. It can be just a server name or a script. Or you can can look up the proxy settings yourself from the Windows PC by looking at the ‘Connection’ details under Internet Explorer->Tools->Internet Options.

Once you have the details of the proxy server, go to System Preferences on your Mac and select Network. Depending on the way you connect to the network, usually Ethernet, select Ethernet option from the Network window. Click onAdvanced and select Proxies tab.

Select the proxy services you want to use – usually Web Proxy (HTTP) and FTP Proxy are all you need. Fill in the details of the proxy server and username and password if necessary. You might have to write the the proxy username indomain/user format.

If you are configuring the proxy with a script, you can select Using a PAC fileinstead of Manually.

Enter the URL of the script or browse the file yourself by clicking Choose file. While entering URL, use the format smb://servername/script.pac. You should now be able to access internet on your Mac at office.

How to Add Printers at Work

The process of adding a network printer to your Mac is very similar to that of adding a network drive. Go to System Preferences and select Printers and Scanners. Click the + icon to add a new printer.

Click on the IP tab and under Address, enter the name of the print server and printer name in the format printserver/printer. You might need to use the IP address of the print server.

Mac OS X will try to detect the printer type automatically but you can also specify the printer type manually by selecting the Protocol dropdown. Click Add.You can repeat these steps to add other printers in the Windows network to print from Mac.

Your Web Bookmarks on Mac

Once you have the Mac up and running in your office, you can import your Intranet and other bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Firefox on your “official” Windows PC to Safari or Firefox in Mac. Just choose the appropriate export option from the web browser to save your bookmarks to you file, copy that your Mac and then import it in your Mac’s web browser.

If want to continue using your Windows PC along with the Mac, you should go for some web based service that can automatically sync your bookmarks across any platform. Google Chrome is a good choice as it works flawlessly across platforms.

One more thing. If possible, always create a separate user account on your Mac for work apart from your personal account. This will help you to keep the files separate and avoid accidental sharing of your personal files over the office network.   You can add additional accounts on a Mac from System Preferences -> Accounts and then enable Fast User switching.

Can I Upgrade my Computer to Windows 10 for Free?

Windows 10, the latest version of Windows, will be released on 29^th July. The new Windows OS has received rave reviews from people who are currently testing it as part of the Windows Insider program but there has been some confusion around the upgrade path. Will you be eligible to download a free upgrade of Windows 10 or will you have to pay for the license?

Who Can Download Windows 10 for Free?

This quick flowchart breaks it down in simple English.

If you have a computer that is running a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you will get a free upgrade license of Windows 10. If you are running a pirated copy of Windows, or if you have Windows Vista or XP installed on the machine, you’ll buy a new license for Windows 10 and perform a clean install.

The Windows 10 Home license will be $119.99 while the Windows 10 Pro version would cost $199.99.

If you would like to try Windows 10 but without affecting your existing Windows installation, you can join the Windows Insider program, download the Windows 10 ISO and install it as a Virtual Machine using VirtualBox. These preview builds will however expire after some time and the fresh builds are automatically installed as and when they become available.

You can follow the official Windows blog to learn more about the upcoming Windows 10 release or join the Windows Insider program to download and use the Windows 10 beta before it is generally available.

How To Install Windows 10 Insider Preview (Build 10130)

While Microsoft is working on the next version of Windows, you can get your hands on the latest preview that's available for free to anyone. You can sign up for this program, download the latest test version and install it on your computer or in a virtual machine. Here's how to get Windows 10 (Build 10130) and how to install it on your computer:

Signing up for the Windows Insider program

In order to download Windows 10 Insider Preview, you must sign up for the Windows Insider program. You need to have a Microsoft account to do this.

Go to the Windows Insider website and click or tap the Get Started button. Sign in with your Microsoft account.

You are shown the Participation Agreement and the Privacy Statement. You need to accept them to finish your registration. Scroll down and accept the Program Agreement, select your areas of interest and press the Submit button.

After submitting, you will be officially enrolled in the Windows Insider program. To download the ISO image file for installing Windows 10 from scratch, go to this address: Download Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO.

But, before you download Windows 10, read the next section in this guide.

Things to Keep in Mind

The Insider Preview version is a test version. Windows 10 still has many bugs, unfinished features and other issues like this. We strongly recommend that you do not install this as your main operating system on your computer. We recommend installing it in a dual-boot configuration, on a secondary PC or in a virtual machine.

The best virtualization applications that we have tested, which are capable of running Windows 10 are VMware Player, VMware Player Pro and VMware Workstation. VMware Playeris the only free product in this list.

Before you decide whether or not to install Windows 10, be sure to read the FAQ section on the Windows Insider website, and review its system requirements. Windows 10 demands the following:

• Processor: 1 GHz or faster, single core or multi core
• RAM: 1 GB for the 32-bit version or 2GB for the 64-bit one
• Free hard disk space: 16 GB
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
• A Microsoft account and Internet access

Basically, if your PC can run Windows 8.1, you're good to go.

After you review the requirements, you can decide if you need a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of Windows 10. Scroll down the download page, click the language that you want the system to be in and then download the appropriate ISO file.

Also, write down the product key mentioned on the download page. You may be asked to enter it, in order to validate your test version of Windows 10. At the time this article was written, the Windows 10 product key was: 6P99N-YF42M-TPGBG-9VMJP-YKHCF. This will work only until the final version of Windows 10 is released, and only with Insider Preview versions of Windows 10.

How To Install Windows 10 Insider Preview

After you have downloaded the ISO file, you should burn it onto a DVD or use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to copy it onto a USB flash drive. You'll want to use this if your computer does not have an optical drive or you simply want the installation to go faster. If you are installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine, you don't need to burn the ISO or copy it, you'll just mount it before you start the virtual machine.

Now it's time to turn on your virtual machine or boot your computer using the DVD or the USB flash drive that you created, with the Windows 10 setup.

Once the necessary files are copied, the setup starts by asking what language, time, currency and keyboard input settings you want to use. Make the selections you prefer and click Next.

Click or tap Install now to start the installation.

As we mentioned earlier, you may be asked to enter the product key for Windows 10. If that happens, enter it. If not, you'll be shown the license terms. Click or tap "I accept the license terms" and then Next.

Next, you are asked for the installation type. As you are installing Windows 10 from scratch, click or tap "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)".

Now you are asked to select where you want to install Windows. Select the partition that you want to use for Windows 10 and press Next.

The installation starts. The setup takes a few minutes to copy all the required files and install the Windows 10 operating system.

Once the installation is done, the setup program will automatically reboot your system several times, to run the first-time configuration scripts. You just need to wait patiently for the process to finish.

How To Personalize Your Windows 10 Installation

After the reboots are finished, you are greeted with a first-time setup message, where you can select whether you want to use the Windows 10 recommended settings or customize each setting individually. We prefer to customize everything, so let's press Customize settingsand review each setting together.

Windows 10 asks you if you agree to send information such as contacts and calendar details, typing data or your location to Microsoft and/or some of their trusted partners. For each type of information, you can use the appropriate switch in order to send it or not. When you're done, press Next.

You are now able to set the default behavior of your browser, networks and error reports. You can enable the SmartScreen online services, choose if you want Windows browsers to preload pages, automatically connect to open hotspots and so on. Change the things you are interested in and click or tap Next.

You are now asked to confirm the ownership of your Windows 10 device. If you are its owner, select I do. If the device belongs to an organization (for example, the company you work at), select My organization, and you will be able to use your company account in order to sign in and access your resources. We chose the I do option.

You are asked to sign in with your Microsoft account. Enter your credentials and click or tapSign in.

After entering your email and password, in order to sign in, Windows 10 recommends that you create and use a PIN, instead of your password. We also recommend that you do that, because the PIN you create only works for the device you're installing Windows 10 on now. If you use your Microsoft account on more than one device, each of them has its own PIN. To create a PIN, click or tap PIN me!. Otherwise, select Skip this step.

You will have to enter the PIN you want twice, for confirmation. Note that, by default, a PIN has 4 digits. However, if you want to use more (or fewer) digits, you can deselect the option to "Use a 4-digit PIN". Once you're done, press OK.

And then… you get to meet Cortana, your personal assistant. This screen is purely informative, so after taking a quick look at what Cortana can do for you, click or tap Next.

Windows 10 takes a while to prepare your computer, your apps and all the settings. The process may also involve a restart. When it’s done, you are logged into Windows 10 and you can view the Desktop.

Congratulations, you have installed Windows 10 Insider Preview!

Conclusion

At least so far, the Windows 10 installation process is similar to that of Windows 8.1. Things may change in upcoming test builds so this may not be how the final setup process will look like. Before you go, we would like to remind you that you should not install the Insider Preview as your main operating system. It is best to use it as a secondary operating system or to install it in a virtual machine. We hope that you found this guide useful and, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments section below.