There is no difference except for old IP stacks that still work under classful routing rules. (10 is a class A network, 172.16-31 are class B networks, and 192.168.0-255 are class C networks.)

Windows boxes that fail to receive a DHCP address get assigned an address in the Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) range of 169.254. These are also referred to as Link Local addresses, and have also been reserved by IANA.