Upgrade for Windows 9
Upgrade for Windows 9
You generally won't be able to, though they've provided free upgrades a few times before. It's typically a short-term deal, so stay alert.
Probably not; if it's not a free upgrade, I'm confident Microsoft offers discounts for those using the older version.
I haven't come across that situation, though honestly I don't rely much on Windows these days. At least not in terms of software applications. Microsoft earns nearly all its revenue by selling Windows licenses. It would be great if they offered it for free like OS X does, but they can't risk losing their profits. They released version 8.1 to ease the negative publicity around the original 8 and to temporarily please power users.