“You’ll be able to upgrade free of charge,” Microsoft says

Jun 15, 2015 07:10 GMT  ·  By

Starting June 1, Microsoft is displaying Windows 10 upgrade notifications on computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, trying to convince users to reserve their free upgrade to the new operating system and be prepared for July 29, when the new OS comes out.

There is a good reason Microsoft hopes to see all current users of Windows reserve the free upgrade to Windows 10: if they do that, the necessary files for installing the new operating system are automatically downloaded in the background before July 29, so on Windows 10’s launch day, all computers out there can automatically start installing the new software.

But what happens if you, the Windows 7 user, forget or don’t want to reserve the free upgrade to Windows 10? Are you going to miss the promo?

You can still upgrade at no cost

Microsoft says that even if you don’t reserve, you’ll still be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 because the “Get Windows 10” app that’s currently in your system tray will start notifying you that the new OS is ready.

“Once Windows 10 is available, we’ll begin notifying devices that their free upgrade is available. Just open the Get Windows 10 app to schedule your upgrade. Note: Some notifications will go out as soon as Windows 10 is available; others may go out in the weeks or months following,” Microsoft explains.

So no matter how hard you try it, you can’t really miss the free Windows 10 upgrade offer if you’re currently on Windows 7 or 8.1. Even if you remove the Get Windows app, you can still upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available using Windows Update.

Windows 10 will be launched on July 29, and if you reserved your upgrade, the install should be automatically started on that day. Otherwise, you might have to manually download the necessary files to get you started.