Here is what the Windows 10 preparation tool for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 really does

Windows 10 pink background

Microsoft recently released a Windows 10 Preparation tool for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 that validates if your system can receive to the January Technical Preview upgrade.

If you run this tool on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, depending if you meet the minimum system requirements, you’ll get a message that reads “Your PC is now ready for Windows Technical Preview”, “Windows Update will let you know when the latest preview build id ready to install on this PC in early 2015.”

However, up until now, we didn’t really know what the tool does and check. According to a new post at the WinSuperSite, the tool verifies if the operating system is eligible to upgrade. It does this by checking if the system is a Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows 8.1 with Update 1 (KB2919355).

Interesting enough, the tool also checks for the system language, as it appears the January Technical Preview version of Windows 10 will support a limited range of languages including:

  • en-us
  • zn-cn
  • pt-br
  • en-gb
  • ja-jp
  • ru-ru
  • de-de
  • fr-fr
  • ko-kr
  • it-it
  • es-es
  • zh-tw
  • sv-se
  • fi-fi
  • tr-tr
  • ar-sa
  • nl-nl
  • cs-cz
  • pl-pl
  • th-th

If the minimum requirements are not met, you’ll get the following message: “We can’t prepare this PC for Windows Technical Preview. Make sure it’s using either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update and a language supported in Windows Technical Preview.”

Running the tool once more on your system the following message will display: “This PC has already been prepared for Windows Technical Preview. Windows Update will let you know when the latest preview build is ready to install on this PC in early 2015.”

Windows 10 Technical Preview system requirements

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
  • Free hard disk space: 16 GB
  • Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
  • A Microsoft account and Internet access

Once the tool goes through all the check list and your Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 PC meets the requirement, a new registry key is created:

SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\WindowsTechnicalPreview

Finally, it creates a value inside a key named “Signup” with the value “924EADEB-2472-490D-9203-5D0A1FD5CC73”

According to Microsoft, when the day comes, Windows Update will prompt you to install the version of Windows 10, the company is readying for January through the FBL_AWESOME branch, which will technically be the Windows Consumer Preview with many new features, some of which are already known from the build 9901 leak.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.