Awesome news: Windows 10 will be completely free for Windows 8 and Windows 7 users

Brad Reed
Microsoft’s next major Office release set for later this year

Here’s some awesome news for Windows users: You’ll be able to upgrade to Windows 10 if you’re still using Windows 7. This is particularly significant because before Microsoft only confirmed that upgrading from Windows 8.1 would be free. However, Microsoft is determined to end fragmentation in its Windows empire and there’s no better way to do that than by giving away its newest software to users for free.

There is a slight catch for Windows 7 users, however: You’ll have to upgrade to Windows 10 within a year of its release to get it for free. After that, Microsoft will charge you money to upgrade. All the same, one year should be plenty of time for most Windows 7 users to make the switch.

In the past Microsoft has been able to charge people money for upgrading their computers. However, in an age when both Apple and Google offer the latest software to users for free, Microsoft has had to adjust its practices.

Windows 10 represents Microsoft’s attempt to correct some of the issues that many longtime PC users had with Windows 8 and is making the platform more friendly to desktop users. At the same time it’s keeping a lot of the touch-centric features it introduced with Windows 8 and has thus decided to make Windows 10 more context aware of whether it’s being used on a tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com