Today Windows 10 was released and it's a free upgrade for most modern Windows machines. Microsoft is rolling out the upgrade across the planet in waves, but with the instructions below you can force your PC to upgrade without waiting. It's still at the "Preparing for installation" step on my computer now.



Instructions to Upgrade to Windows 10 Without Waiting in 4 Steps:

1. Make sure your computer is fully updated using Windows Update - that's how the Get Windows 10 app is installed; you'll see a little white Windows icon in your system tray (by the clock)
2. Open that Get Windows 10 app and reserve your free copy of Windows 10
3. Open a cmd.exe window as Administrator (right-click and choose Run as Administrator)
4. In Windows Update click "Check for updates" and before it's finished checking, quickly go back to the cmd prompt and enter: wuauclt.exe /updatenow
   Windows Update will immediately start downloading Windows 10

If that doesn't work, you can just download the Windows 10 installer.

[edit]

I was getting some error with the Windows Update method, so I opted to just download. I don't know why everyone doesn't just do that to begin with.

In any case, I'm fully upgraded to Windows 10!



So far so good. Not really exploring it because I'm busy working, but I freaking love the virtual desktop feature. Finally I don't have to fill up my task bar with all my many tabs. I now have a different desktop for each different set of apps I'm working on together. This is life-changing for me.