Microsoft finally announced the long-anticipated release date for Windows 10. Early this morning, Windows users around the world started noticing a distinctive Windows-like tile sitting in their system tray.
This system tray lets you sign up for your free copy of Windows 10. Yes, that’s a real free copy of Windows 10 with no strings attached.
Sitting tucked away in that notification was a simple explanation that Windows 10 will be released on July 29.
Here’s how the Windows 10 upgrade works:
Step 1) You reserve your copy of Windows by clicking on that icon in your system tray. That free copy is available to Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8/8.1 users. You just enter your contact information and email address to secure your copy.
Step 2) You will get a notification prompting you to install Windows 10 on July 29, after which it will begin installing itself on your device
Step 3) “After it’s installed, Windows 10 is all yours.”
The download size of Windows 10 is expected to be 3GB, which is surprisingly small for an operating system.

You also have the option to perform a clean install of Windows 10, wiping out all your existing data from previous versions of Windows. Or, you can upgrade your edition of Windows to keep all your data intact.

Are You Ready?

In the minds of many PC users, Windows never released anything past Windows 7.
If you look at it from that perspective and ignore Windows 8 (which currently sits at around 15% market share compared to the 58% market share of Windows 7) then it’s been 7.5 years since Microsoft debuted a good Windows operating system.
That’s a long time to wait. You’re going to have to wait a few more weeks – but the time is finally here.