Domain is the name of a network of computers. But this is Windows, it is not a “Workgroup”, that is a collection of PCs sharing files and printers with each other.
I believe the “Home” versions are limited to networking with four other PCs. I don’t know if that is five PCs in the same domain, or sharing printers and files with four other PCs in a workgroup.
You won’t get the icon if your computer is part of a domain, but it’s still eligible for the free upgrade if it’s Home or Professional. Enterprise editions of Windows aren’t eligible.
You probably have the home edition of Windows 7, unless you obtained it through work or specifically configured another option when you bought it. People with Professional or Enterprise generally have chosen that specifically. If you don’t know, it’s probably Home. You can look at the computer properties (right-click the computer name in Windows Explorer or your desktop, select properties), and it will tell you the version.
You can set up a Homegroup to share resources with your wife’s computer without using a domain. A domain is used in work environments for things like centralized authentication, security principals, and administration of all members (among other things). It is generally not used in a home network.
ETA to expand on **carnivorousplant’s **post: the main distinction between a domain and workgroup is that things are centralized in a domain (a domain controller handles authentication, security principals, etc.) while each computer handles these individually in a workgroup. Home editions of Windows can’t join a domain but can still share resources through a workgroup (or Homegroup as they started calling it at some point). I’m not familiar with the limitations on how many computers are allowed in a Homegroup.
That’s not what a domain is - at least, not for the purposes of this discussion.
Put simply, a windows domain is a network of computers that is controlled by a central server - this controls user login details, file locations, etc. Unless you’re a computer geek, you won’t see, or need, a domain setup at home - it’s more of a business thing.
For most home users, the ‘Home’ version is fine. The clue is kind of in the name. 
ETA: As far as I know, there is no limit on the number of computers you can connect to in the home versions. I’ve taken my home laptop into work and could see all the work PCs there - about twenty or so. There is a limit of twenty concurrent connections, but that’s not something an average user would ever need to worry about.
I have my updates reserved, but the icon didn’t show up till I uninstalled and reapplied a Microsoft patch (I think it was KB3035583, but I’m not sure).
I realize there are umpteen ways to upgrade without receiving the notification, but despite any evidence to the contrary I’m not in any particular hurry.
ETA (response to TroutMan): both systems are members of a workgroup, not a domain.
I mean that I have 7 Home Premium and have only seen 10 Home offered free. Maybe if I had 7 Pro I’d see 10 Pro offered.
Yep, the free upgrade is on a like for like basis.
Thanks, Troutman and Angrybadger.
I’ve got a brand new ASUS cheap as fuck notebook. It came with Windows 8 installed, but I upgraded it to 10. I’m perfectly happy with it, and I never used Win8 except on a short term Win8 phone.
I’ve got an Acer road netbook that has a cheapo 1Ghz processor, 500GB harddrive and 2GB ram. Microsoft tells me that it is upgradable to Win10. It’s got Win7 on it. Will it run with about the same speed if I upgrade to Win10?
I am not at all happy with Edge. Most of my forite online porn videos won’t play. I’ve reinstalled Google and I dont use Edge at all.
I did the free Windows 10 on both my computers (an HP desktop and a Dell laptop). In both cases there were major post-upgrade annoyances resulting from forced driver upgrades; Windows 10 replaced old but functional drivers with newer, problematic ones. My laptop also seemed to be running much hotter than usual after the upgrade, but it’s an old machine so I don’t really blame MS for that.
After struggling with the driver issues for a few days, and reading about the privacy concerns others have cited, I decided to roll back both computers to Windows 7. Well, guess what … if you burn a Windows 10 backup DVD, which I had done on my laptop, that breaks the rollback feature. After getting the “Sorry, you can’t go back” message, I checked the Windows 10 Reddit and learned that this was a known issue that MS doesn’t seem particularly interested in solving. I had to go through the nuisance of a clean install on the laptop.
I might try again just before the free upgrade offer expires next year, but probably not. MS will be providing updates for Windows 7 until January 2020, and my present computers probably won’t last that long anyway.
Just an update after two weeks or so: everything is working as smoothly after the upgrade as I could wish. Lots of small bugs in the Win-7 installation have been eliminated. (Gahd, it’s nice to have full file search back!)
Only glitch was yesterday, when a prompted Nvidia driver update stalled. I went to download a fresh copy only to find there had been a micro-update (+0.03), and it installed without a hitch.
I upgraded my mom’s computer to Windows 10 over the weekend from 8.1. It is a significant improvement and much less confusing for my mother to use than 8.1 was. I configured it to function and feel more like 7, which she loves.
I can’t speak at all about 10’s security, but it is a Microsoft product after all, so I go in expecting problems and do what I can to inoculate against them.
Might run better. Win7 was fast in comparison to XP. Win8.1 was really lean and fast; Win10 is a little less zippy, but probably still lighter and faster than Win7 overall - especially if you had full aero theme turned on.
That’s actually the single most reassuring thing yet in this thread. I’ll sit pat a while longer!
(Slight highjack, but what’s the latest version of MS Office? I’ve got Home and Business Office 2010. At what point should I upgrade to Office 365? And, sheesh, I am disgusted by the year-to-year licensing. I much prefer the old model of buying/licensing a copy. Still, ultimately, WTF; there isn’t that much difference.)
Office 2013 is the latest version (but 2016 is out soon).
It’s not very different to Office 2010. It has a bunch of cloud-oriented stuff baked and some of the wizards are a bit easier to use - more intuitive and transparent and halpful.
You can still buy non-subscription licences for 2013. I don’t know if 2016 will be subscription-only.
I’ve upgraded our households four PCs to W10 now, and I couldn’t be happier. They all ran Win7, either home or ultimate. No particular issues so far. The two laptops are pretty old, and they were the ones that had the most noticeable performance boost. Both had a clean install of 7 Ultimate a few weeks before the upgrade.
You can always try the upgrade, and if you don’t like it you can roll back to your previous installation which is backed up during the upgrade.
As for Office, see the Wikipedia page.
Among other things it says that for office 2010, mainstream support ends this year, extended in 2020. It will run on 8.1 so I think you can comfortably assume it will work with 10.
I’ve been using Win10 for about a week now and like it more every day. Thanks for the security articles. I’ve read them plus a few more and I’m pretty sure I have things battened down as much as possible.
My mom’s computer has Office 2003 installed. I was afraid there’d be problems with it after I upgraded her to Windows 10, but nope, works like a charm.
That’s actually a bit discouraging. I was hoping they would stay lean.
One of my major annoyances with Windows 7 is that I can’t have both Firefox and GIMP running at the same time without it swapping and taking 20 years. I can do that easily on Linux–as I have no swap.
Note, this Linux runs a RAMDisk in 4GB–though it worked fine on 2GB. I’d assumed upgrading to 4GB would bring Windows up to snuff–nope.