How to get free Windows 10 upgrade

Microsoft has provided a release date for Windows 10 and it’s July 29th. If you are currently using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 you will start seeing a new Windows icon on your taskbar or traybar. When the new icon is clicked on it will invite you to register Windows 10 for free. If you register for the free Windows 10 upgrade, Windows will reserve your free Windows 10 upgrade and notify you when Windows 10 is downloaded so that you can chose to install it right away or pick another time to.

The free Windows 10 upgrade is only available for the first year, so it is suggested that all users of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 reserve their free Windows 10 upgrade now.

If you do not see the new free Windows 10 upgrade icon on your Windows taskbar it might be because of one of these reasons:

• Your device isn’t up-to-date with at least Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update
• Windows Update is turned off or is not set to received updates automatically
• You’ve blocked or uninstalled the necessary Windows Update functionality.
• Your device is not running genuine Windows
• Your device is running Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, or Windows RT/RT 8.1, which are excluded from this reservation offer.
• Your device is managed as part of a school or business network.  (Check with your IT administrator.)
• PCs that we determine cannot run Windows 10 will not see the Get Windows 10 app before July 29^th.  After July 29^th, we’ll enable the icon in the system tray.  This is to help ensure that you can easily check your PC’s compatibility if you choose.

You will need to take steps to install available Windows updates or you can follow the steps below to claim your free Windows 10 upgrade by using Task Scheduler or Command Prompt.

How to get free Windows 10 upgrade with Task Scheduler

1. You will need to locate and access the Task Scheduler. Open the Control Panel, choose Administrative Tools, and open the Task Scheduler or open this file: C:\Windows\System32/mmc. You can also search for the Task Scheduler on your computer.

2. On the side of the window expand Task Scheduler Library, then Microsoft, then Windows, and finally scroll down to expand Setup or Windows Update (depending on your version).

3. In the list select GWXTriggers or Scheduled Start and on the far right hit Run in the actions section.

How to get free Windows 10 upgrade with Command Prompt

1. Open the Notepad. program

2. Copy and paste the following text into Notepad:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Appraiser" /v UtcOnetimeSend /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

schtasks /run /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience\Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser"

:CompatCheckRunning

schtasks /query /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience\Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser" | findstr Ready >nul

if NOT "%errorlevel%" == "0" ping localhost >nul &goto :CompatCheckRunning

schtasks /run /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Setup\gwx\refreshgwxconfig"

3. Click File, and then click Save As

4. In the File name enter ReserveWin10.cmd

5. Click the dropdown selection next to Save as type, and select All files (*.*)

6. Select the folder you want to save the file in.  For this example, let’s choose to save the file to theC:/Temp folder.  Then click Save.

7. Open an elevated command prompt.  (On Windows Start Screen or Start Menu type Command Prompt in the search field and click enter. In the list of results, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.)

8. Finally, run the file path you previously saved in Step 6 using the Command Prompt window.  For this example, you would type the following path in the Command Prompt window and hit Enter: Run C:/Temp/ReserveWin10.cmd