Microsoft is continuing its quest to get Windows 10 installed on every PC on the planet. After it revealed last month that all new processors will only be compatible with the company's latest operating system, it's now been announced that Windows 10 has become a 'Recommended update' in the Windows Update application, rather than an optional one.

Microsoft did say back in October that it would change the Windows 10 listing so it would become a recommended update in "early 2016."

"As we shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10. We updated the upgrade experience today to help our customers, who previously reserved their upgrade, schedule a time for their upgrade to take place," a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat.

The change means that anyone using Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 that has automatic updates activated with recommended updates automatically selected will have Windows 10 downloaded without requesting it.

Microsoft has stressed that users will have a say on whether or not they want Windows 10 installed; it isn't a mandatory update and users will be able to stop the install process. There will also be a 30 day period where users can roll back to the previous version of Windows.

Microsoft aims to have Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices over the next two or three years, and the company is doing everything it can to increase uptake. The OS recently passed Windows 8.1 and Windows XP to become the second most-used operating system in the world.

While the newest iteration of Windows has been generally well-received by most users (barring some privacy issues), there are those who say Microsoft's tactics at getting people to install Windows 10 sometimes verge on the excessive.