Windows 10 confirmed to be available for free for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 users

It looks like most of the rumors surrounding Windows 10 are slowly but surely starting to get confirmed by Microsoft. The tech giant announced at the Consumer Preview event held in Redmond on Tuesday that the upcoming version of their popular operating system will be available at no cost whatsoever for those who already own one of the previous versions. In other words, Windows 10 will be available for free to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. In addition, this also applies to those who own a Windows Phone 8.1 mobile device. The latter announcement seems a bit strange since mobile users don’t really have to pay for newer OS versions, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Microsoft meant by that.

Anyway, as it’s more often than not the case in this situations, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news was already mentioned and those who own Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 (even Windows Phone 8.1 apparently) should definitely rejoice because of it. The bad news is that this deal is only temporary. Microsoft says that free upgrades will only be available for one year after from the moment Windows 10 launches. After that, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 owners will also have to pay if they want the operating system, just like everyone else. That said, we’re still at least a few months away until the launch of Windows 10 and this plan might very well change in the future.

The folks over at Microsoft seemed a bit undecided in regards to their next move after one year from launch passes, but they said that a follow-up announcement regarding the matter will be made in the coming months. In related news, Microsoft also confirmed that Windows Phone will be discontinued and replaced with Windows 10 on all compatible mobile devices. Stay tuned for more news.