The ISO images for Windows 10 Technical Preview has gone live for free public download via Windows Insider Program as scheduled at 9am PST on October 1st, 2014. Windows 10 was announced by Microsoft in an event in San Francisco a day before.
Here’s how you can download and install Windows 10 Technical Preview:
- Visit https://insider.windows.com/ to sign up for the Windows Insider Program. A Microsoft account is required.
- Optionally, read the system requirements, which is pretty much similar to Windows 8/8.1.
- Download the Windows 10 ISO from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-download?ocid=tp_site_downloadpage (in fact, you should be able to visit this page and start the download without signing up).
- Burn the ISO to DVD or USB flash drive (with tool such as Rufus and Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool), or mount it in virtual machine if you intend to install Windows 10 in virtual environment.
- Double-tap or double-click setup.exe, or boot from the installation media, and then follow the steps.
In addition to Windows Insider Program for general public, Microsoft also makes available Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise for evaluation purpose by IT professionals and business users. Windows 10 Technical Preview for Enterprise is available from
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-technical-preview-for-enterprise. If you’re
MSDN subscriber, Windows 10 TP, Windows 10 TP for Enterprise, Windows 10 Server TP, Windows 10 Server Datacenter TP and Windows 10 Hyper-V Server TP are also available for download.
Currently, only Windows 10 in English (United States), English (Great Britain), Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazil) are available.
Also note that Windows Update will be set to automatically install important updates as they become available. You won’t be able to turn off automatic updates in Windows Technical Preview.
For those who want to directly download the Windows 10 Preview ISO, here’s the direct download links, together with the SHA-1 checksum for the files. Note that the download size is in decimal (1000), and not binary (1024).
Most importantly, the product key you need to install and activate Windows 10: NKJFK-GPHP7-G8C3J-P6JXR-HQRJR (note: the product key is served just as backup purpose, it’s not required for install and Windows 10 is auto-activated upon installed)
Windows 10 Professional
Windows 10 Enterprise
The installed Windows 10 Preview has the build version of 6.4.9841.0.140912-1613, but should be updated pretty soon. The Technical Preview version of Windows 10 expires on April 15, 2015, giving you about half a year free usage.