If you already own Minecraft for the PC, you are eligible for the new Windows 10 Edition beta for free. Mojang has a post detailing how to get your free copy. This is a new version of Minecraft, coming after Microsoft purchased Mojang.

Windows 10 – Microsoft’s shiny new operating system – launches tomorrow. As announced at MINECON 2015 a few weeks ago it features a brand-new Edition of Minecraft. We’re calling it Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta.

For those that aren’t going with the standard route of automatically upgrading, or you want a physical media to use, Microsoft has a tool that will download Windows 10 to your external media for install on your PC (or create an ISO for future use or virtual machines). Remember, if you have a legit Windows 7 or 8.1 install you can upgrade for free.

Use the media creation tool to download Windows. This tool provides the best download experience for customers running Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. The tool includes:

• File formats optimised for download speed.
• Built-in media creation options for USBs and DVDs.
• Optional conversion to ISO file format.

For many people on various forums, including reddit & Microsoft Answers, the upgrade to Windows 10 has already started to download. It is slowly releasing to many people so that it is not bogging down the servers all at once.

To see if you’re one of the lucky ones that gets a quick upgrade tomorrow, you can see if you have a $windows.~BT folder on your main drive.

This meme seems appropriate for this announcement:

Gizmodo has been playing with Windows 10 and the new search. They’ve concluded that it doesn’t suck anymore. However, their assessment that you’re never going to need a start menu again is a stretch. Yes, the new search is very powerful. It gives much more relevant results than in Windows 8.1.

The tricks don’t stop there: there’s also some natural-language-processing abilities to play with. I was trying to find a spreadsheet earlier, and thanks to my lack of organization, Excel files are scattered across about three hard drives. I’d normally need to fire up Explorer and run a long search for .xlsx files; with Windows 10, you just type ‘show me my spreadsheets’. ‘Show me photos from last month’ also works, as does my favorite, ‘open the last document’.

Windows 10 utilizes computer resources very well. To help prove it, the folks at Softpedia have installed the new OS on a 7 year old Acer Aspire One netbook powered by an old Intel Atom N450 CPU. Amazingly, the netbook handled it well, other than a 40 second boot time (which is to be expected). Once in the OS, it operated fast and wasn’t noticeably slow. I’m sure this would change when doing anything processor intensive, of course. But, for those with older systems that are wanting to update, it’s definitely an option!

Installation was performed via a USB drive and completed in approximately 15 minutes, plus a couple of minutes needed to set up the user account.

Once this came to an end, Windows 10 not only installed all drivers automatically but it also changed the resolution to 1024×600 pixels, which is actually the default resolution that the device supports.

All supported versions of Windows, including Windows 10 & Windows RT, will be getting an out-of-band patch to fix a critical zero-day vulnerability. Make sure you check Windows Update for the new patch and get your boxes fixed today! For those that like the manual route, grab the appropriate patch for your OS here.

This security update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits an untrusted webpage that contains embedded OpenType fonts.

Recent rumors have surfaced on Digitimes of the new Surface 4 Pro model. Coming in with a similar form factor, but an Intel Skylake processor, a Samsung 256GB SSD and unknown RAM inside. As usual, it’s just a rumor at this time, but it’s fun to entertain them at times. Sounds like a great new system if they are true, though.

The sources noted that Microsoft’s Surface Pro shipments were 200,000-250,000 units per month in the first quarter and after releasing the Surface 3 at the end of the first quarter, the software giant’s monthly tablet shipment volume rose to above 300,000 units. With the new Surface, the sources expect Microsoft’s monthly tablet shipments to have a chance to reach 500,000-600,000 units.

Surface RT owners will not be getting Windows 10. Instead, they will be getting Windows 8.1 Update 3 in September. No word yet as to what this will include as far as new features or functionality. At least there is some support for these older devices.

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Windows 10 build 10240 (Windows 10 to Microsoft’s 40th anniversary) is available for both fast and slow ring Insiders.

Hi everyone, today we are releasing a new build to both the Fast and Slow rings. We’re just about two weeks away from beginning to offer Windows 10 to the world, as Terry detailed here. Over the past few days we’ve been preparing our release pipelines and processes, and this build is one step closer to what customers will start to receive on 7/29. For example, you’ll notice with this build that the desktop watermark is no longer there (you can still do Search > Winver to see your version number.

Windows 10 has a new EULA out now. Nothing to say that you’re going to pay a subscription fee after any given time. If you get in while it’s free, it’s free.

Two weeks ahead of the global launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has finalized the terms of its license agreements for the new operating system. I’ve had several days to study the documents in detail, and I can report that there are no surprises, no gotchas, and no hidden subscription traps waiting to be sprung in two or three or four years.