Windows 10 Arrives on July 29

It's official: Microsoft's Windows 10 will be available on July 29.

By the end of next month, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free or buy a new PC with the new OS pre-installed.

The initial OS release will be limited to PCs and tablets. A Windows 10 upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 devices will vary by phone makers and carriers.

Starting today, those on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be able to reserve an upgrade via a prompt that should appear in the PC's taskbar. Click "Reserve your free upgrade" when it appears, add an email for confirmation, and you're all set. When it's ready, the upgrade will require 3GB of space.

Those who pick up a Windows 8.1 device before the end of July, meanwhile, can also take advantage of the gratis upgrade.

Get the Windows 10 Insider Preview

More annoyingly, perhaps, Microsoft has also changed how updates will work with Windows 10. Although the Pro and Enterprise editions will both be able to defer updates, Windows 10 Home users will not have the option. Updates will instead be downloaded and installed automatically as soon as they're available. System requirements for the new OS have also been detailed, with PCs and tablets needing to pass a fairly low bar: a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a display resolution of at least 1,024 x 600 are required. These specs are a bit higher for the 64-bit version of Windows 10 but for these details and more, you can check out Microsoft's full specs page.