At this point, we’re not sure who is more confused, consumers who are interested in Windows 10 or Microsoft itself. Microsoft has made countless excuses as to why it wants to offer Windows 10 for free, but can’t say much. Gabriel Owl, head of Microsoft’s operating system group, posted an official blog update to make it clear that anyone who wants to build the final build of Windows 10 will need to upgrade from the legally registered version of Windows 7 or 8 / 8.1.

Even if you are currently in Windows 10 Insider / Technical Preview, you will only get the final Windows 10 build if you install the preview build on the legal copy of Windows 7/8 / 8.1. However, if you decide to run Windows 10 Preview / Beta / Test build permanently, you can continue for free without installing Insider Preview on the legal copy of Windows 7/8 / 8.1. In this case, you will never be in the final build of Windows 10 and will be automatically updated to the latest test builds when they become available.

Owl further clarified that these test builds will expire but when this happens, there will always be a new test build that you will be updating. In short, you can either buy a licensed version of Windows to get the final version of Windows 10, or run the always experimental builds of Windows 10 for free.

The latest clarification comes in the wake of an earlier Owl post where he said that anyone in the Windows 10 Technical / Insider preview will be updated to the final Windows 10 build on July 29, when it launches. This presents an obvious flaw for people who are currently running unauthorized versions of Windows because they can only install the Insider Preview version of Windows 10 and are guaranteed to get the final version of Windows 10 for free. The latest blog post that closed the whole thing.

[ALERT: RAMPANT SPECULATION BELOW]

One has to wonder why Microsoft is putting itself in the ring when it is clear that it desperately wants to give Windows 10 to everyone for free. We can only assume that since Microsoft is a publicly traded company, any announcement about the release of Windows 10 would put its stock price at great risk as it still earns a lot of money from OS licenses. However, considering that Android has now become the most used consumer OS in the world, Microsoft can only fight if it can ensure widespread adoption for Windows 10, which will ensure a free Windows 10. The current dilemma of whether Windows 10 is actually ‘free’ refers to the confusion over how Microsoft wants to move forward on its own.

Windows 10 will launch on July 29 (this is not expected).