Microsoft has formally started the rollout for Windows 10 for desktop PCs.
In a statement to the BBC, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared this statement:
Windows 10 is a huge milestone for us as a company, and quite frankly the industry.
The operating system will be the last to be released in this way, as the company plans to push updates automatically instead of reselling new OSes every few years moving forward. They have also opted to roll out the release, instead of making it available to everyone all at once, perhaps partly to keep distribution under control.
If you did want to get Windows 10 now, you do have several options. Before that, if you do have an older PC, you may want to know if it can handle the OS. Windows 10 is scalable but only to a limit. You can read the system requirements here:
- Processor:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
- RAM:
1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
- Hard disk space:
16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
- Graphics card:
DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
- Display:
800×600
And you will need the latest version of Windows 7 SP 1 or Windows 8.1.
While Redditors put together a hack to force your PC to update to the OS, Microsoft has taken it one step further. You can download executable installers to upgrade your PC, from Windows 7 to 8.1, up to Windows 10, via the media creation tool.
These files have been setup to optimize for download speed, and come with build in tools to use on USBs and DVDs and convert to ISOs. You can get the files and instructions here, but in case those links don’t work, you can get the 32-bit download tool here, and the 64-bit download tool here.
Are you upgrading to Windows 10 now? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.