No, the window to upgrade only lasts for a year. Once you upgrade, it is your's indefinitely. And how does it have less features than 7. What are the missing / different features?

They finally axed Hearts? Minesweeper was changed to be less of a war simulation? (Seriously, the UX is all over the place, but I think that might be worked out.)

hope its good. :-)

Its not just a number. Your getting Directx 12. When those game support that you will need windows 10 to take advantage. Like mantel api improvements are very different than dx 11. For gaming it will be a must have down the road. So since mantel will move to Vulkan and DX12 is simliar to it. DX12 is the future for gaming. If your only interested in old games sure stick with win 7 even XP.

I never like windows 8 but 10 is a nice balance. Its a good improvement and its free.

I'm using WIndows 8.1, apart from the lack os a start menu (which I fixed with Classic Shell) and bothersome tablet oriented functions, I haven't really noticed any lack of features in day-by-day use comparing to 7, what I did notice are a few interesting interface tweaks, like an improved Task Manager.

As for Windows 10, I'm not so confident to make a day 1 update on what is basically my only operating system right now...

As someone who has been using Windows 10 for about the last month and half, I enjoy it a lot. It's a huge step up over Windows 8, I like how they combined parts of 8 & 7 together. I personally like the apps, I however hated having to go to a completely different screen to use them. Windows 10 makes using apps are far more enjoyable experience. Performance is also a huge improvement and backwards compatibility has been pretty good so far. Out of nearly 100 GOG games, only like 2 or 3 had issues.

Having said that my biggest complaint would have to be the forced updates. Not because I don't want to be forced to whatever MS has coming, but rather because as someone who is on a limited net this makes it more of a pain for me. There is a lot less control. Granted I understand why they are doing this. This is the new MS, and Windows 10 as a service could end up getting many new builds down the road. Providing support for all of these different builds would be a nightmare because there will be plenty who would have failed to update all the time. Trying to provide support for someone on a build 10 builds old while the issue was fixed on build 5 just isn't productive. There are also clear benefits to MS where us users can become their testers for free.

Thankfully they do provide an option to disable updates on a metered connection, which helps, as I can wait to update in the early morning when I have an unlimited period. But it's all or nothing. You either get updates or you get none. I've also read if you go a long time without updating (like 8 months or something) you might not be able to get security updates when you do try to update. Still not very clear on this part though.

Yes.

MS wants you to get updates as soon as their available. You can defer installing them until later on when your not on your PC.

The only option is setting your connection to a metered connection while on WiFi to stop ALL updates, which can be risky because your not getting security fixes. If you do this for a long time I'm not sure what would happen.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Reveals-How-Users-Will-Get-New-Features-on-Windows-10-484234.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-10-Pro-Users-Will-Have-8-Months-to-Install-Updates-484286.shtml

Yes, I get the point of forced (security) updates as well, it's just that the updating process of previous versions of Windows is so slow and it gets in the way of actually using the OS when needed. I'm not primarily a Windows user but I'll probably get to see this wondrous thing at work at some point anyway :)

THIS Is really good news thank you GOG getting the tech guy at Staples to do the upgrade to windows 10 if i tired to upgrade myself i would only mess it up and then not even the tech guy at Staples could fix it.

Well good. Desperados is unplayable on Win 10.

Does this work also after the first year? As I keep hearing that "you must upgrade to Windows 10 during the first year, or else!" (related to the free upgrade).

So basically I am asking, can I reserve the free Windows 10 update, but apply it over my Windows 7 e.g. 2-3 years from now? If I don't like Windows 10 for some reason, can I go back to Windows 7 (install it from the scratch), and then later upgrade again to Windows 10 if I so wish?

I think I'll reserve Windows 10 for now, but I doubt I really want to upgrade to it during the first year. If I have to (in order to receive the free Windows 10 license), I guess I'll do it, as long as I have the option to go back to Windows 7, and much later update to Windows 10 when I see fit.

If, however, this is a scheme to try to "force" me to upgrade to Windows 10 during the first year (because only then it is free for me) and leave Windows 7 behind for good, then I'll probably pass it.

God damn it, why is this made so complicated? With Linux I don't have to ponder over "am I eligible to upgrade, will this upgrade path work, oh it requires me to have an earlier Linux installed before I can install and activate this newer release blaa blaa blaa". Frankly, nowadays installing Windows yourself seems far harder than installing Linux, due to those license restrictions and whatnot.

From my point of view that is probably irrelevant, as those future DX12 games wouldn't probably run that great on my current Windows 7 PCs. I'll probably have to get a new PC anyway for them, which naturally comes preloaded with a new Windows 10 license anyway. I presume the free Windows 10 license is not transferable to newer PCs, you need a separate license for them.

Is that possible, a clean install (with the free upgrade)? So it doesn't require that you must have Windows 7/8 installed first, and then it only upgrades on top of it?

That's at least how I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro (when they offered the cheap Windows 8 Pro licenses to Windows 7 users, in retrospect it was wasted money as I went back to Windows 7). I am unsure if it would have been possible to install that W8 upgrade to a clean PC, I would have certainly preferred that.

Considering how widespread Windows 7 (and even 8/8.1) is, it will take quite awhile before anyone starts making games that run only on Windows 10. Not until either 7/8 userbase becomes miniscule, and/or Windows 10 support ends from MS side (at which point the userbase is probably quite low already, due to security concerns and shit, and also because Windows 10 is the OS that PC vendors ship with their new computers).

Basically, what happened with Windows XP support in games. It was supported quite long even after Vista and DirectX 10 came out. Halo 2 PC was an exception, as it was Microsoft's own scheme to get people to upgrade from XP to Vista.

Unfortunately MS seems to do that. See how they forced Metro UI and full-screen WinRT applications on desktop PC users, trying to convince us that yes that is really what you want even if it feels overly cumbersome and restricted.

With the exception of wanting to reserve Windows 10, your last 3 posts starting with the one I'm quoting pretty much hit the nail on the head about how I think about forced upgrades, carrot on a stick dangling, DX12 not really that big of a deal because it wont be mandatory for the majority of things for years to come and even when it is eventually I can wait it out because I have 1000+ games in my backlog that don't need it anyway, etc.

There's a recurring pattern to new operating system versions coming out and the features they provide and what compels a given person to upgrade or not. I'm one in the "not" camp and that has worked great for me for years so I'm not about to change it any more than someone who is in the "upgraded and it worked great" camp might be unlikely to change their own way of doing things and hold off on upgrading.

Anyone who has lived through decades of OS upgrades by now knows the common pros and cons that come with the experience and likely has ample experience with the whole process to know what choice is likely to lead them to a situation they can be most comfortable with in the end, and which pros and cons of the decision matter most to them. I personally favour the pros of sticking with what works for me as long as I possibly can so long as I still perceive it to work well for me, whether it is a computer, an operating system, a particular piece of software, an electric can opener, a television, a telephone, or a pair of socks. At the same time there are some things that I anxiously await to get too.

In the end it's all about one's own needs and preferences on a case by case basis, and individual perception of the best way to have those needs met.