You'll need a Microsoft account to download Minecraft but that's no sweat to do. Choosing between the two versions, Java and ...

Somewhat confusingly, there was an old launcher called 'Minecraft Unified Launcher', which was specifically for Windows 7 and 8 and only launched Java Edition and Minecraft Dungeons.

Minecraft Java Edition players can only cross-play with people on the same version, which is relegated to PC, Mac, and Linux.