The only way to get free Win 10 is to "upgrade" an existing Win 7 or Win 8/8.1 system.

hmmmmm....

An issue to consider is that you only upgrade to the equivalent version to the one you have in Win 7 or 8. So if you have the pro version you get the pro version or home to home. If you bought the Win 8 Pro upgrade for the preorder price  but never installed it, you could install it just prior to the 10 upgrade and get the pro version of Win 10 free. Or you can buy a Win 7 pro install disc for $60-$70. An upgrade from Win 10 home to Win10 pro  will cost about 100 bucks. Also if you just do the upgrade online from 32 bit you will get a 32 bit version or 64 bit to 64 bit. You may be able to do a clean installation of the 64 bit version deleting your 32 bit version at some point, but that area is unnecessarily murky at this point. Some commentators have said that you will have to do the online upgrade to get a working activation key, but that an iso may be available to use to do a clean installation using that key at some point. There does not seem to be a system builder license for Win 10 as there was for Win 7  that let you legally install it on your home built PC or move the OS to another machine. As usual Microsoft is treating such issues as though they are military secrets. Confusion breeds mistakes, mistakes can be costly, and costs build profits.
 

I guess I might have to see how this plays out. Even if installing an upgrade, I would think that would not invalidate the prior S/N. The original C drive in this machine is sitting in a spare bay unplugged, so is the simplest "solution" for me, but not sure how MS is treating the licenses?
 
I backed out of installing Win8 immediately when "This process cannot be undone" came up. Sacrificing "what is stable" for "what may (one day) be stable" is never a choice that takes long to decide.
 
 

John T
It's free to all users of Win7 and Win8 for a year from release. Anyone upgrading after that date will have to pay.

The following editions are excluded and are ineligible for the free upgrade: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1

http://www.pcworld.com/ar...ows-7-and-8-users.html

mettelus
That would affect my GTX 580 as well. Hmmm, can you redeem Win10 but not install it?

I installed the Windows 10 preview and my NVidia 550 Ti works great with the latest Nvidia driver.
 
Also, from what I understand, if you reserve your Windows 10 free upgrade, it will automatically download to your computer. It will notify you when it is ready to be installed. You don't have to install it right away. However, you won't get your new CD Key until you do install it, so I would assume that you would have to install it before the deadline of the free upgrade in July, 2016. That's just an assumption on my part.

DarinBad
it will automatically download to your computer. It will notify you when it is ready to be installed.

I sure hope that doesn't happen during a session!

It will only download when the computer is idle. Microsoft isn't that stupid!

I've been running it and it works great.
All  my DAW's work, all my hardware works...

No glitches...that's scary...we'll see how the finished product
turns out...

cclarry
I've been running it and it works great.
All  my DAW's work, all my hardware works...

No glitches...that's scary...we'll see how the finished product
turns out...

Are you thinking they saved the bugs for the release?