Earlier this year Microsoft announced that they were going to offer free Windows 10 upgrades for a year to those running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. While Windows 10 for PCs isn’t launching until August, their marketing engine has been working hard to ensure everyone knows about it in advance!
We’ve recently had some questions on the free offer, especially now that information about the offer is being pushed out through the Automatic Updates process. The “Getting Windows 10” notification message is part of a Microsoft update released in March (KB3035583). This update offers users a simple process to sign up for the free software upgrade and then be notified once it actually becomes available for download. Originally this update was listed as an Optional update, however more recently it was switched to Recommended (meaning users would automatically receive it if they have Automatic Updates turned on).
While we appreciate the free offer, we do caution business users to be careful about installing a new operating system. Our recommendation is to leave Windows 10 alone for a while as this is a core operating system change that will have dramatic effects to how your computer runs. Most of our clients are quite happy with the stability and reliability of Windows 7 and 8.1 which have been tested properly with the existing line of business applications. The simplest is to leave the existing operating system in place and only move to a new operating system when purchasing a new computer. This ensures there are no hardware compatibility issues and will give vendors time to test the new operating system with the various complex applications used to operate our businesses.
Interested in learning more about the new Windows 10 and any upgrade processes? Feel free to contact us to discuss your needs and any questions you may have.
