How to reserve Windows10 free upgrade for Windows7 & Windows8/8.1

Hello to all, we are back with one more story from the tech world, and this time it’s from Microsoft. Back in September 2014 at San Francisco Microsoft announced its next update for Windows ‘Windows 10’. Microsoft’s mantra was “One product family, One platform and One Store”. With Windows 10 Microsoft has moved in direction of One OS for all screen sizes, whatever the screen you use, there is a Windows 10 for it. The code running would be same but UX and UI would be made compatible for its respective screen size. One store would mean developers now will be able to code an app once and it would run on PC, laptops, tablets and even Windows Mobile. Yes, Windows Mobile is back, but again one great writer whose name I don’t remember once said “What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” I know its William Shakespeare ;).

Enough talks of literature now we move back to the task at hand  i.e. about Windows 10. In this article I am not going into details about Window 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. For that, you can read my earlier blog posts on Microsoft’s Build 2015 event where I have detailed about the latest Windows from Microsoft. You can find them here and here.

Here I would inform you about how you can get Windows 10. With Windows 10 Microsoft did something unprecedented in tech world. Even before OS was completed they opened OS for public with Windows Insider Program where general public could register for Windows Insider and get access to early builds of Windows 10. Microsoft built in Windows feedback app, with which users can give feedback to Microsoft for improvements ranging from UI to in built app working. This is something amazing as this is the first time any company has released an unfinished OS for general public and listened to feedbacks. Well, very brave move by Microsoft which has always been called as slow giant in tech media. Since release of Windows Insider, Microsoft has released many builds for Windows10 Preview, each build bringing new features and bug fixes. After using preview Windows 10 on PC and mobile I can definitely say company is moving in right direction. For full features of Windows10 for both PC and Mobile I’ll be writing a blog post soon.

Now enough of waiting for the good news for Windows10 enthusiasts. This week Microsoft confirmed official release date for Windows10 for PCs. The date is 29^th July 2015 and this is not the only good news from Microsoft. Also released is Get Windows10 app, with this you can reserve your copy of Windows10 and just relax, rest of the work will be done by Microsoft. Files will be downloaded on your system and once the OS is released, you will have the option of installing it at once or you can choose another suitable time for installation.

For getting Windows10 you will be getting notification in your Windows7 and Windows8/8.1 systems. You can read more about here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-upgrade. If you don’t see Get Windows10 app, this may be due to some reasons which Microsoft has pointed out. So here are those :

• 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 29th.  After July 29th, 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.

By running Windows Update and installing any updates which are available will resolve first three issues. Even after doing this you are not seeing the app in notification you can reserve by some other methods. Below I’ll explain the methods, I did reserve my Windows10 from my Windows7 laptop by the second method. So these are trusted methods, but if you are not sure about doing these I would recommend you to wait for the notification to pop up in your system.

Now onto how to fast proceed to GET WINDOWS10 app.

• Open Notepad
• Copy the following text and paste it into Notepad:

REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\UpgradeExperienceIndicators" /v UpgEx | findstr UpgEx

if "%errorlevel%" == "0" GOTO RunGWX

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"

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

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

:RunGWX

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

• Now in Notepad, click Save As and in file name box, change the file name to ReserveWin10.cmd. 
• Open the dropdown next to Save as type and select All files (*.*). 
• Select the folder where you’ll save the file. I saved it it C:/Temp. 
• Open Command Prompt from start menu or type in search box, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. 
• Run the saved Notepad file from the location where it was saved. For that, type the following C:/Temp/ReserveWin10.cmd in command prompt and hit enter. 

This will check your system meets all prerequisites and then will turn on Get Windows10 app. This can take  10-30 minutes to run.

There is another method for doing the same, which I will show below and this is a much simple way of checking if your device is supported or not.

• Open Control Panel and go to Administrative Tools.
• Double click on it and then open Task Scheduler
• In Task Scheduler library go to Microsoft>Windows>Setup
• Click on Setup and select GWXTriggers, in the right side click on run and voila its done.

See the below images for better clarity.

This will check for your system's updates and prerequisites for Get Window10 app. Once it is done you will get a Windows Icon, which is the Get Windows10 app. Click on Get Windows10 and there you have it, a new window will open and there you will enter your e-mail. Now you to just relax, Windows10 files will be pre downloaded on your system and then after the release of Windows10 on 29^th July, you just need to install the downloads and immerse yourself into the joys of Windows10.

So there you have it, you can reserve your Windows10 copy beforehand. Windows 10 is a free upgrade for users having genuine Windows7 and Window8 for first year of the OS’s release. Once you get Windows10 in first year you will continuously get updates for your OS for lifetime. Isn’t it great, so what are you waiting for get reserve your Windows10 now.