Windows 10 will be offered free of charge to consumers running genuine Windows 7 or 8.1 on their computers, and once installed, the operating system will continue to receive updates at absolutely no cost during the entire supported lifetime of the device.

Microsoft first made this statement in January, during its Windows 10 event at the Redmond headquarters, when it announced with much fanfare that the new OS would be free, but it’s no secret that the “supported device lifetime” phrase caused quite a lot of confusion among users.

Essentially, this means that, as long as the device you are running Windows 10 onto is supported and gets updates from its manufacturer, Microsoft also provides you with fixes and improvements for the operating system.

But in a recent meeting with investors, Microsoft detailed this new approach, explaining in a slide spotted by CW that Windows 10 would receive free upgrades for 2 to 4 years.
The estimated device life

As you can see for yourselves in the presentation (download it here), Microsoft says that the estimated supported lifetime of each device is ranging between 2 and 4 years, and this makes sense. In most of the cases, manufacturers keep providing updates for their devices for an average of 3 years, but with this range, Redmond is trying to cover most of the devices on the market.

But what’s more interesting is how exactly the company is planning to determine the supported lifetime of your device, given the fact that there will be thousands of PCs, tablets, and laptops on the market from various manufacturers.

In a slide included in this presentation, Microsoft says that it will determine the supported lifetime by customer type, which in its turn, starts a completely new debate about how important the device you are running Windows 10 on is actually for getting updates for a longer or shorter period of time.

The customer type tag most likely means that Microsoft could make a difference between Windows 10 Home and Pro, so if you’re running the latter, for example, the company could provide you with updates for a longer period of time. But if this is the case, how is the supported lifetime of the device related to the Windows 10 update plan, as the upgrade policy would mostly rely on the version of Windows 10 you are running.

Another unclear topic of the Windows 10 upgrade is what happens when this supported lifetime of the device comes to an end and users no longer receive updates. Microsoft says that it will be offering Windows as a Service, meaning that updates will be delivered when they are ready at a continuous pace, but what happens when your device reaches EOL? Do you have to purchase a new Windows license with a new device? Are you upgraded free of charge?

Answers to all these questions are expected to be provided on July 29, when Microsoft will officially unveil the new Windows 10 operating system and start shipping the free upgrades to consumers.