Windows 10 FAQ : all about Windows 10
Windows 10 has been available since July 29, 2015, if you know absolutely nothing about the latest operating system from Microsoft, you are in the right place ! So that you can know everything and understand everything, I have put a Frequently Asked Questions which I hope is as exhaustive as possible.
If you have a question that I did not answer in this FAQ, don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments, I will answer it with pleasure!
Summary
Is Windows 10 free ?
No, Windows 10 is paid software. To install it on your PC, you must purchase one of these two licenses:
- Windows 10 Home at $ 119.00.
- Windows 10 Professional at $ 199.00.
You will get a Windows 10 Retail license accompanied by a product key which will allow you to install Windows 10 on any PC, provided you comply with the user license which stipulates to use a license on a computer at that time.
Windows 10 was available for free for users with Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 licenses.
This free update was valid for one year from the official release date of Windows 10, from July 29, 2015 to July 29, 2016.
This means that users had one year to claim the free upgrade to Windows 10.
As you could sometimes hear wrongly, you didn’t only have a year of free Windows 10 but a year to decide. If you had made the update during the twelve months following the release date of Windows 10, your computer hardware (PC, tablet or smartphone) had a Windows 10 digital license valid for life.
Users of Windows Vista, Windows XP, or an earlier version of Windows could not take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10. To install Windows 10 on their PCs, these users had to purchase a Windows 10 license.
Subsequently, Microsoft allowed users using assistive technologies (voice control, dictation, narration of visual content, magnifying glass, etc.) to update Windows 7 / 8.1 to Windows 10 for free until December 31, 2017.
Can we update Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10 ?
Yes, it’s even possible to upgrade a copy from Windows 7 / 8.1 to Windows 10 for free.
Windows 10 free: how does it work ?
As we have seen, Microsoft allowed users of Windows 7 / 8.1 to install Windows 10 for free on their computer until July 29, 2016 and then until December 31, 2017 (for users using assistive technologies ). To do this, you had to use the media creation tool, the upgrade utility or Windows 10 ISO.
However, in practice, no verification is made on the date and it is still possible today to update Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 for free using the tools mentioned above.
For more information :
What are the minimum requirements to run Windows 10 ?
Here is the minimum configuration that the Windows 10 installer will use to check whether your system can accommodate Windows 10 or not:
- Processor: 1 GHz or faster.
- RAM: 1 GB (32 bit) or 2 GB (64 bit).
- Available disk space: 16 GB (32 bit) or 32 GB (64 bit).
- Screen resolution: 800 × 600.
- Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver.
This Microsoft minimum configuration is very optimistic! Certainly, you will be able to install Windows 10 on a PC with such configuration, but the system will not be optimized. and the use will be a little difficult.
Here is the minimum configuration that I recommend to use Windows 10 comfortably:
- Processor (for desktop PC):
- AMD Ryzen 3 2200G (4 cores – 3.5 GHz – 4 MB cache)
- Intel Core i3-8100 (4 cores – 3.6 GHz – 6 MB cache)
- RAM: 4 GB.
- Storage: 256 GB SSD (or 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD).
- Screen resolution: 1980 × 1080 (Full HD).
Optimize windows 10 to make it faster.
How to install Windows 10 on my PC ?
If you have a computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, follow this guide:
All versions of Windows 10
Two major Windows 10 updates are released each year: a first in the spring and a second in the fall. For example, in 2019, we had version 1903 released in May and version 1909 released in November.
The table below shows all the versions of Windows 10 currently available:
| Version | Build | Nom de code | Nom commercial | Date de sortie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1507 | 10240 | Threshold 1 | – | 29 Jul 2015 |
| 1511 | 10586 | Threshold 2 | November Update | 10 Nov 2015 |
| 1607 | 14393 | Redstone 1 | Anniversary Update | 2 Aug 2016 |
| 1703 | 15063 | Redstone 2 | Creators Update | 5 Apr 2017 |
| 1709 | 16299 | Redstone 3 | Fall Creators Update | 17 Oct 2017 |
| 1803 | 17134 | Redstone 4 | April 2018 Update | 30 Apr 2018 |
| 1809 | 17763 | Redstone 5 | October 2018 Update | 2 Oct 2018 |
| 1903 | 18362 | 19H1 | May 2019 Update | 22 May 2019 |
| 1909 | 18363 | 19H2 | November 2019 Update | Nov 2019 |
