After a busy few days we are catching our breath around here and continuing to learn more about the entire Windows 10 availability date on 29 July 2015.
We know that Windows 7 and 8.1 users started to see the Get Windows 10 App icon show up in their system trays over the weekend (See our gallery).
It is through this app that users can reserve their copy of Windows 10 when it is available as a free upgrade to those Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. This reservation is not necessary nor is Microsoft going to run out of Windows 10 upgrades either.
One benefit of the pre-order, which we suspected was the case yesterday and is now confirmed by the reservation emails Microsoft is sending out, is that the bits for the Windows 10 install will be downloaded ahead of the 29 July availability date.
That means no delay in waiting for an approximately 3GB file to download to being the installation.
The second use of the Windows 10 reservation system is that it will allow Microsoft to estimate the demand for the Windows 10 upgrade on day one of its availability. While pre-downloading the installation files ahead of time will ease the pressure on Windows Update as Windows 10 is delivered, Microsoft can also be ready to adjust to the expected demand and in turn make that a smooth experience.
Microsoft has let us know though that not all systems will see the Get Windows 10 App prompts on their systems. Any devices with an Enterprise SKU, that are domain joined or MDM managed will not see the Windows 10 reservation screens.
