14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is making some changes to the way Windows 10 upgrades are performed on PCs already running Windows 7 and 8.1, but the company still maintains some of the previously used methods to make the process as smooth as possible.
Terry Myerson, head of the Windows team, has explained that Windows 10 will soon be marked as a recommended update in Windows Update, but despite this change, users will still be allowed to choose whether to upgrade or not.
What's more, because the reservation process will no longer be used, Windows 10 will be automatically downloaded in background, just as it happened before, when Windows 7 and 8.1 users reserved the upgrade.
Once all Windows 10 files are downloaded on your PC, you should be prompted to upgrade to the new operating system, but once again, nobody will be forced to do it.
31 days to downgrade
In case you start the upgrade because you accidentally click the option in Windows Update or Microsoft starts the install by mistake, you will have 31 days to downgrade and go back to your previous Windows version without losing apps or files.
“Depending upon your Windows Update settings, this may cause the upgrade process to automatically initiate on your device. Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue. And of course, if you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous Windows version if you don’t love it,” Myerson has pointed out.
Microsoft wants to install Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2017, and the company says that the new OS is already running on more than 110 million PCs, tablets, and laptops across the world, so chances are that this goal can be reached by the end of the next year.
Forcing users to upgrade, however, is a double-edged sword: while some might actually like Windows 10, others could be outraged with this approach and decide to go back to Windows 7 or a non-Windows OS altogether.