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Free Upgrade To Windows 10

Free Upgrade to Windows 10

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39 views

Free Upgrade To Windows 10

Free Upgrade to Windows 10

Uploaded by

perzaklie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 9

zdnet.

com

Ed Bott

11-14 minutes

Microsoft's free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended more than


four years ago, but no one told the people who run the Windows
activation servers. As a result, you can still upgrade to Windows
10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and claim a free digital license
for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to jump
through any hoops.

That upgrade is more important than ever, now that support for
Windows 7 has officially ended. And it could be a great relief to
your budget if you're required to work from home (or go to school
via remote sessions) and you need to take an old PC out of
storage and get up to speed quickly.

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You can also still upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro


by using a product key from a previous business edition of
Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 (Pro/Ultimate). That can save you as much
as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you buy a new PC with
Windows 10 Home preinstalled. (For details, see "How to upgrade
from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles.")
In this post, I'll cover the basics of how to install Windows 10 as an
upgrade on older hardware. I'll also talk about the licensing issues
involved, which are (as always) confusing.

I wrote and published the first version of this post in early 2017,
several months after Microsoft's initial free upgrade offer ended.
The free upgrade offer had just ended, and when I downloaded the
Windows 10 upgrade tool and ran it on an old Windows 7 PC, I
fully expected that the upgrade would fail activation and I'd be
asked for a product key.

Imagine my surprise when, instead, I was greeted with this screen.

One digital license, no product key required.


Laying out vital information and providing answers to frequently
asked questions about flash storage, this guide points you in the
right direction.

Assisting you in choosing the solution that will best fit your
company's requirements and give you a strong, competitive
advantage.

Over the next four-plus years, I have repeated those steps on test
PCs at regular intervals and confirmed that the free upgrade tool
still works. I continue to receive email messages every day from
readers offering firsthand reports that their free upgrades were
successful, with no purchase or product key required.

A small number of readers have reported that the upgrade fails


because of a Setup error or a compatibility block. For details on
how to troubleshoot these errors, see "This free Windows 10
upgrade offer still works. Here's why - and how to get it."

Want your own digital license to the latest Windows 10 version?


Follow these instructions.

How to upgrade an old PC to Windows 10

If you have a PC running a "genuine" copy of Windows 7/8/8.1


(Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.x Home
or Business, properly licensed and activated), you can follow the
same steps I did to install Windows 10 as an upgrade.

Before getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that


can head off potential problems:

Confirm that your copy of Windows is properly activated. This is


especially important if you recently reinstalled Windows.
Check for any recent driver updates, especially for network and
storage hardware.

Download and install any available BIOS updates for your


hardware; this step is especially important for systems that were
originally sold in 2015 or earlier, before the release of Windows 10.

Back up your data files to an external hard drive or cloud storage


(or both). Consider doing a full system backup to an external hard
drive using the Windows 7 backup program, which is also
available in Windows 8.x and Windows 10. Just run the command
Sdclt.exe, and then choose the Create A System Image option.

Temporarily uninstall third-party security software and low-level


system utilities that can interfere with the upgrade. You can
reinstall those programs after the upgrade is complete.

Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially


USB flash drives and external hard drives. (Several common
installation errors can be traced to the Setup program, being
confused by these additional drives.)

With those preliminaries out of the way, go to the Download


Windows 10 webpage and click the Download tool now button.
After the download completes, double-click the executable file to
run the Media Creation Tool.
You can upgrade directly using this tool, or create separate media.

If you've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the machine you


plan to upgrade, and you plan to upgrade one and only one PC,
you can choose the Upgrade This PC Now option. That option
installs the most recent version of Windows 10. It typically takes an
hour, more or less, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD
as your system drive is the best way to speed up the process.)

If you know you'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more than


one PC, or if you just want more flexibility in the event that the
instant upgrade fails, choose the second option and save the
installation files to a USB drive or as an ISO file. The download
takes a little time but when it's complete, you can run the Windows
Setup program manually to install Windows 10 on any PC running
any supported Windows 10 version (sorry, this won't work with
PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). The exact steps
depend on which download option you chose:

USB flash drive Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a
free USB slot on the PC you want to upgrade. Then open File
Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup
to install Windows 10. Note that you cannot boot from the newly
created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10.
You must run the Windows 10 setup program from your currently
installed and activated copy of Windows.

ISO file After the download is complete, you'll need to mount the
ISO file and open it in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window.
On a PC running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, you can double-
click the ISO file to open it as a virtual drive. On a PC running
Windows 7, you'll need to install a third-party utility such as the
free, open-source WinCDEmu. After mounting the ISO file, double-
click Setup to start the install process.

Then just follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows


10. You will not be asked for a product key, and when the upgrade
is complete and you've connected to the Internet, you'll have a
digital license to the most recent Windows 10 version, which you
can confirm by going to Settings > Update and Security >
Activation. All your apps and data files will be available.

The digital license is associated with that specific device, which


means you can reformat the disk and perform a clean installation
of the same edition of Windows 10 anytime. (If you're thinking of
upgrading your old system drive to an SSD, perform the upgrade
to Windows 10 on the old hardware; after confirming that the new
Windows 10 version is properly activated, install the SSD and then
either restore from a backup image or boot from the USB flash
drive to do a clean install. You won't need a product key, and
activation is automatic.)

Is your license valid?

And now the big question: If you avail yourself of this upgrade to
Windows 10, is the resulting license valid?
The entire "free upgrade" offer was always accompanied by
language that was, to put it politely, a bit squishy. And the
language around the end of that offer is similarly vague. For
example, see the answers I've highlighted here on Microsoft's
Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ:

The wording here is remarkably vague.

That's very odd language. The free upgrade through the Get
Windows 10 app ended on July 29, 2016. Likewise, the discussion
of product keys says a key will be necessary "for this tool to work"
(not true) but doesn't say a word about licensing.

And unlike the weaselly "Genuine Windows" label on older


upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows 10 upgrade
specifically confirm the existence of a "digital license."

Anyway, the free upgrade offer was extended, at least for people
who use assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate
page even called it a "free upgrade offer extension" and pointedly
noted that it was not limited to specific assistive technologies. (I
regularly use the Magnifier utility in Windows, which is indisputably
an assistive technology.)

Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and this column isn't legal advice. But I
will say that I am personally confident in the activation status of
any PC upgraded using the tool on that page during the eligibility
period.

This extension was, I think, a very large nod and a wink, designed
to make it easy for those who wanted a Windows 10 upgrade to
still get it while placating the OEM partners who were none too
happy about the year-long emphasis on upgrades rather than new
PC sales.

Alas, I say "was," because the extension (which was itself


extended) officially ended on Jan. 16, 2018. The page that
formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant now displays a message about
the expiration of the offer.

The big question now is whether Microsoft will ever turn off the
code on its activation servers that dispenses digital licenses after
an upgrade from an earlier Windows version. I've continued to test
that scenario, and I can confirm, long after the end of support for
Windows 7, that it still works.

I continue to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If you've


used this technique on a PC, click my name at the top of this post
and use the contact form to let me know how it went for you.

Note: This article was originally published in January 2017. It has


been updated multiple times since then to reflect the most current
information. This revision was published on March 3, 2021.
Windows 10

Microsoft to unveil what's next for Windows on June 24

Windows 10: Ed Bott's five favorite free utilities

Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade

Windows 10 privacy guide: How to take control

Seven Windows 10 annoyances (and how to fix them)

Windows 10 update: The complete guide

The ultimate Windows 10 information hub: Everything you need in


one place

Ready to run Linux on Windows 10? Here's how (ZDNet YouTube)

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