![Windows 10](http://www.mobipicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Win-10.jpg)
Hello Steemit community! 

My friend's computer recently went heywire and needed a system restore. In helping him out I also took the time to upgrade him to Windows 10 (as he wasn't a big fan of Windows 8). Just this week I found out the free download for Windows 10 provided by Microsoft is only available until July 29th, 2016 and so I though I'd share that + a little more with you all for anyone who's interested. 

## System requirements for Windows 10
* Your computer must meet the minimum physical requirements for Windows 10. You will need at least: 1GHz CPU, 1GB (32-bit) or 2GB of RAM (64-bit), 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB of open hard drive space (64-bit) and a DirectX 9-capable video card with WDDM driver.
* You must be running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. You can check your current operating system on [Microsoft's website](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13443/windows-which-operating-system).
 * You must be running the latest version of your operating system. To update Windows 7, go to **Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update**. To update Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, go to **Start > PC Settings > Update and recovery > Windows Update**.
* You should probably back up your computer. Here's [how to prepare your PC for Windows 10](http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-prepare-your-pc-for-windows-10/).

## How to upgrade to Windows 10
1. Go to the [Windows 10 download page](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10). At the top of the page, you'll see a button that says **Upgrade now**. Click this button to download the Windows 10 download client.
2. Double-click the Windows 10 download client to run it. A User Account Control (UAC) window will pop up asking if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer; click OK to proceed.
3. The client will download Windows 10 and walk you through the setup process. The process could take up to an hour and your device will restart several times while you're setting up Windows 10.

If you upgrade and realize you absolutely hate Windows 10, no sweat -- you have 30 days to [go back to your previous version of Windows](http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-how-to-roll-back/).

## Increase Windows 10 performance
Below are a couple videos I highly suggest watching. I've found them to be very helpful and dramatically improve the performance of Windows 10. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mbrw1x0LzU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_K2SmxTIvE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbC7QIia8AY

## Personal Review
I've been on Windows 10 for more/less 2 months now?? (can't remember exactly when I upgraded) and have personally found it to be a better OS than Windows 8 or 8.1. You can tell they are still very much keeping tablet (Surface Pro) at the forefront of their design but Windows 10 is much less "hand held feel" as I'd describe it and more like a PC should be. Performance wise, I did find there to be some issues regarding back end processes (hence the videos above) but overall I like the aesthetics of the design and find the Windows/menu key to easy to use - I'd give it a 7.5/10. 


### Thanks for taking the time to check out my post and please leave a comment & upvote if you found this helpful.