I should imagine that it has something to do with making money. 
Cool.
PS- this won’t apply to you (or if it does, by then its too late):
If your machine ever does upgrade to Windows 10 (by error, magic, terrorist attack, or Act of One Truly Vindictive Og ) one of the things that happen when you get your Windows 10 license is that Microsoft stops recognizing your Windows 7 license.
We’ve had a few “So, Have You Heard About Windows 10…?” adventures in my household already.
Considering it’s free to upgrade, how are they making money?
I assure you that Microsoft would not do this unless there is profit to be had.
Rumor has it that this is the Home version, not the Professional, so I can be stuck with a version of Windows my Mother would use, or fork over money for an upgrade.
Perhaps they will out Google Google by swiping our user information. Perhaps they will send us advertising based or what we search for, read about or converse in emails about.
May they will collect our stuff and sell mailing lists.
But it’s gonna make money for Bill.
Consumer upgrades to new versions of Windows were only ever a tiny fraction of Microsoft’s business. Windows makes money through OEM licences, and the volume licencing agreements with corporate customers. That isn’t going to change.
No, the upgrade is on a like-for-like basis eg Win 7 Pro upgrades to Win 10 Pro. Here’s the relevant page:
So please stop it with your ill-informed “Rumor has it” shite.
Thanks.
IMHO, MS has placed themselves between you and the internet. Now they can keep track of where you go and what you do. This is, of course, for your benefit as they can now offer you things that are of more interest to you. I think that was their excuse.
I see it as a ink jet printer company giving away printers but over charging for the ink and supplies.
They also make money by not having to support Windows 7 and Windows 8 for as long as they had to support WinXP.
If it’s free, you’re not the consumer… you’re the product. All those things you have to check which tell it not to track every single thing you do with your company and report back to the mother ship? That’s so they can pipe gigabunches of advertisements specifically catering to your browing history directly to your computer.
There’s a commercial advertisement on the television about how this toddler will be able to sign into his computer with his smile, because he is growing up with Windows 10.
If he is growing up with Windows 10, how is he supposed to manage a smile?
I keep thinking Windows could not possibly become more fiendish, and they keep doing it. They must have a crack team of psychiatrists and comedians to come up with this stuff.
I think it quite unlikely that the upgrade will just happen all by itself. It’s an interactive install process. The installer needs the user to make a series of decisions about what to keep, etc.
Now, MS might rewrite the installer specifically to omit those choices, but that’s comic-book-badguy evil just for the sake of it. I don’t think any reasonable person thinks Microsoft is deliberately evil.
They want to make lots of money.
There isn’t much difference.
“You’re Getting Windows 10 Whether You Want It Or Not!!!”
Not me! I’ve used a Chromebook exclusively for the past year and I’ll never go back to Microsoft.
Yes, thank God for Google, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving your privacy rights and providing ad-free products and services.
I uninstalled that update on my Windows 7 Pro machine. It screwed it up. I honestly don’t recall exactly how it was screwed up (I think I could only boot into safe mode), but I know that I had to do a restore back to before I uninstalled it and I’m loath to try it again.
So I’m stuck with that little “Get Windows 10” icon and I refuse to install it. I don’t like the idea of essentially being a beta tester, especially when it’s an in place upgrade of a machine I depend on.
Which one is it?
Oops, I see that’s already been answered. Sorry, I’m using my “smart” phone.
Accidents can happen, no one is perfect, somone might use the OP’s machine, etc. Its a non issue though as the OP has all his data backed up, stored & sorted.
I’m not saying Microsoft is evil; I don’t have any cite at all to support that assertion.