Although Microsoft announced at the end of July 2015 that legally licensed Windows 7 and Windows 7 users could upgrade to Windows 8 for free within the next year, it has in fact repeatedly allowed users to upgrade for free. Even this year, users can still obtain the free upgrade service through a specific link. However, Microsoft recentlydisplayAll channels for free upgrades from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10 have been closed, leaving only the option to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11.
In fact, in order to attract more people to upgrade their operating system to Windows 10, Microsoft has postponed the upgrade several times in the past, and even allowed users to upgrade their Windows 7 and Windows 8 devices to Windows 10, and further upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 for free, thereby expanding the usage ecosystem of the Windows operating system.
The announcement of a complete closure of the free upgrade channels for Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10 is obviously related to the fact that the majority of devices in the market are using Windows 10 and above operating systems.
Statistics from market research firm Statcounter show that as of the end of April this year, Windows 11's market share had reached 4%, while the combined market share of Windows 23.01 and Windows 10 reached 11%. Even statistics from the Steam platform show that the majority of operating systems currently installed on devices used for gaming use Windows 94.46 or later, and those using operating systems prior to Windows 10 are almost a minority.
However, even if Microsoft still retains the option of allowing Windows 10 operating systems to upgrade to Windows 11 for free, in addition to complying with legal authorization, the computer hardware used for installation must also meet minimum specification requirements, such as a processor with an operating clock speed of more than 1GHz, 64-bit compliance, and dual-core or higher specifications. It must also be equipped with more than 4GB of memory and more than 64GB of storage space.
During Computex 2022 last year, Microsoft announced that the number of users of Windows 10 and above operating systems has exceeded 14 billion. The current number of users of Windows 11, which is designed for hybrid work and other types, is growing at twice the upgrade rate of Windows 10.
