# "Microsoft" wants to give me Windows 10 for free
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 28, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722 "2015-06-28T18:25:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/1 "2015-06-28T18:25:52Z")
There’s a new icon on my computer. When I click on this icon it asks me if I want a free copy of Windows 10. It claims to be from Microsoft. Is this legit?
The main problem I have with Windows 8 is every time I move the mouse it brings up the settings menu. Is Windows 10 any better?
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### Author:  [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/2 "2015-06-28T18:27:05Z")
> [@furryman](#):
>
> There’s a new icon on my computer. When I click on this icon it asks me if I want a free copy of Windows 10. It claims to be from Microsoft. Is this legit?
> The main problem I have with Windows 8 is every time I move the mouse it brings up the settings menu. Is Windows 10 any better?
Yes. [Google](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CATAAB_enUS627US632&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=free%20windows%2010)
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/3 "2015-06-28T18:28:32Z")
Yes, it’s legit, and yes, Windows 10 is probably better. And yes, it’s free.
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/4 "2015-06-28T18:31:11Z")
[Yes, it’s legit.](http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/28/why-microsoft-corp-is-willing-to-give-away-windows.aspx)
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/5 "2015-06-28T20:14:00Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Yes, it’s legit, and yes, Windows 10 is probably better. And yes, it’s free.
[By the way; they’re real, and they’re spectacular](https://youtu.be/aQNkeugaAMc?t=20).
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/6 "2015-06-28T20:35:50Z")
Right click on the icon and you will get info as to what you need to do before the free install, such as temporarily disabling your antivirus.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/7 "2015-06-29T06:14:31Z")
It’s legit, but oddly, Windows Defender flagged it as a trojan on one of my machines!
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/8 "2015-06-29T10:20:46Z")
How is it, is it worth upgrading from Seven?
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/9 "2015-06-29T11:23:45Z")
> [@furryman](#):
>
> The main problem I have with Windows 8 is every time I move the mouse it brings up the settings menu. Is Windows 10 any better?
Windows-8 shouldn’t do that. But if you have a touchpad, swiping from the right edge will bring up the settings menu. Just try to avoid swiping from the edge, or [follow these instructions](http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-disable-metro-edge-swipes-and-touch-charm-gestures-for-trackpads-touchpads-in-windows-8-1-and-windows-8/) to disable this feature.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/10 "2015-06-29T11:26:10Z")
It’s legit, but it doesn’t do anything yet. Windows-10 is coming out on July 29. Until then, clicking on this icon will only let you “reserve your copy” - “It will download once available.”
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/11 "2015-06-29T13:08:03Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> It’s legit, but it doesn’t do anything yet. Windows-10 is coming out on July 29. Until then, clicking on this icon will only let you “reserve your copy” - “It will download once available.”
And then you have the option to install or not.
There’s a quite recent thread on Windows 10 free download somewhere on this board but I couldn’t find it.
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### Author:  [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/12 "2015-06-29T13:11:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> And then you have the option to install or not.
>
> There’s a quite recent thread on Windows 10 free download somewhere on this board but I couldn’t find it.
Here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=758290&highlight=windows](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=758290&highlight=windows)
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/13 "2015-06-29T13:49:18Z")
I’m worried about drivers. I’d hate to install 10 and not be able to find drivers for the NIC or my older HP printer.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/14 "2015-06-29T13:55:43Z")
My guess is that before Windows 10 is installed, there will be a driver check, and it will note any issues with stuff for which drivers are unavailable.
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### Author:  [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/15 "2015-06-29T14:10:32Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> How is it, is it worth upgrading from Seven?
Probably in the long run. Under the hood, 8 is a substantial improvement on 7, but also comes with a lot of intensely disliked changes to the user interface. 10 is essentially undoing a lot of the more drastic user interface changes. However, it’s still a fairly substantial change compared to 7. Expect to spend some time and effort re-learning tasks you know how to do automatically in 7.
I’ve got Windows 8 on a tablet (where its interface actually works pretty well, IMO) but still have 7 on my desktop. I plan to upgrade both to 10, but I’ll wait at least a few months after the launch for most of the bugs to be fixed.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/16 "2015-06-29T14:29:02Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> How is it, is it worth upgrading from Seven?
Or will my old PC be handle Windows 10. [I was recommended not to upgrade to Windows 8 from people here on this board due to the questionable benefit of changing over.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=676432&highlight=Windows) Anything different with Windows 10?
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### Author:  [@TallTrees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TallTrees)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/17 "2015-06-30T02:28:08Z")
I agree with the prior advice. The biggest risk with OS version upgrades with old PCs is lack of availability of hardware drivers for old installed components - drives, graphics processors, maybe sound cards, maybe even old peripherals like printers you have installed. Leave well enough alone, don’t fix something that works.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/18 "2015-06-30T02:40:18Z")
> [@TallTrees](#):
>
> I agree with the prior advice. The biggest risk with OS version upgrades with old PCs is lack of availability of hardware drivers for old installed components - drives, graphics processors, maybe sound cards, maybe even old peripherals like printers you have installed. Leave well enough alone, don’t fix something that works.
Amen, brother.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/19 "2015-06-30T06:27:33Z")
> [@TallTrees](#):
>
> I agree with the prior advice. The biggest risk with OS version upgrades with old PCs is lack of availability of hardware drivers for old installed components - drives, graphics processors, maybe sound cards, maybe even old peripherals like printers you have installed. Leave well enough alone, don’t fix something that works.
However, don’t expect something unfixed to continue working indefinitely. You are quite right that upgrading carries risks, but so does staying behind.
At some future point, security patches won’t be available for the older OS version, and it may also later become impossible to keep up with the current versions of your favourite software.
For example, the latest versions of Microsoft Office can’t be installed properly on Vista, and not at all on XP. At some point, Win7 will suffer the same problem.
IMO, the risk of upgrading any machine that currently runs Win7 is pretty small. I’ve actually upgraded a dozen XP machines to Win8.1(plus Classic Shell for user comfort) without any problems - and they actually perform much better. Win10 is not Win8.1, but it’s very similar, so the impact and risk will be similar.
We took a snapshot of the hard drive using Clonezilla first, so if it all went wrong, we could just back out.
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### Author:  [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-wants-to-give-me-windows-10-for-free/723722/20 "2015-06-30T09:43:46Z")
From [Windows 10 FAQ](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq)
> [@](#):
>
> Will my devices and apps work with Windows 10?
>
> Windows 10 is designed to be compatible with the vast majority of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices – so your device is most likely compatible.
>
> For details on your specific device and apps, you can use the Get Windows 10 app to do a compatibility check. Click the menu in the upper left of the app, and select “Check your PC” or “Your PC is good to go.” This displays any compatibility issues we find and recommends a resolution; while we don’t have info on every app or device in existence, it provides a comprehensive list of all known potential compatibility issues.
So click on the “Get Windows 10” in notifications, and then click on the menu (the three bars in the top right), and it’ll check compatibility.
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