Free Windows upgrade – to take or not to take?

If you are running a PC or laptop with Windows 7 or 8 operating system you may have noticed a new icon with the four windows boxes. Clicking on this icon leads you to information on how to reserve your “free*” upgrade to Windows 10 once it is available (currently listed as sometime after 29 July).

I am naturally a little skeptical about anything that claims to be free especially when there is an asterisk after the word “free” and you have to read the fine print for the conditions! However this does appear to be a genuine free upgrade for those who already have Windows 7 or 8. The question then is, whether to download automatically or wait until later to get your upgrade, or indeed, whether you need to upgrade at all (even though it’s free).

Naturally, Microsoft encourages you to take the upgrade because they’ve spent a lot of time and effort developing it and enhancing it with all sorts of new functionality, but it will still have bugs no matter how rigorous their testing. If you take up the free upgrade option, it will apparently download to your computer as soon as it is available, and you will then be able to choose when to install it.

Windows 10 looks like it will be fairly different from what you may have been used to in the earlier versions and my advice is to take your time and not to upgrade until you are ready and have some time to spend learning how it works. No-one needs to arrive at their computer and find a whole new operating system to come to grips with before even starting work! I expect Microsoft will be offering the free upgrade for some considerable time to come – it is in their interests after all – so there’s no need to rush in.