How Can I Upgrade To Windows 10

Microsoft'southward costless upgrade offering for Windows 10 ended more than than five years ago, but no one told the people who run the Windows activation servers. As a upshot, you lot tin can still upgrade to Windows ten from Windows vii or Windows 8.ane and claim a free digital license for the latest Windows ten version, without being forced to jump through any hoops.

That upgrade became more important than e'er when back up for Windows 7 officially ended in January 2020. And it turned out to be a great relief to household budgets when the pandemic made working from home (or going to schoolhouse via remote sessions) of a sudden popular. In the past two years, millions of people have taken old PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed quickly, cheers to these free upgrades.

As well: Windows 11 FAQ: Here'southward everything you demand to know

Y'all can besides still upgrade Windows x Dwelling house to Windows 10 Pro by using a production fundamental from a previous business edition of Windows 7, 8, or 8.ane (Pro/Ultimate). That can salve y'all equally much as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you lot buy a new PC with Windows ten Domicile preinstalled. (For details, see "How to upgrade from Windows x Domicile to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I depict in this commodity works the same for Windows eleven too, although well-nigh older PCs will be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft's newest operating system past the stringent Windows 11 hardware compatibility requirements. For those PCs, Windows 10 remains a viable selection until at least October 2025.

In this post, I'll encompass the basics of how to install Windows ten as an upgrade on older hardware. I'll also talk almost the licensing problems involved, which are (as always) disruptive.

I wrote and published the beginning version of this mail in early on 2017, several months after Microsoft's initial complimentary upgrade offering ended. The free upgrade offering had just ended, and when I downloaded the Windows 10 upgrade tool and ran it on an onetime Windows 7 PC, I fully expected that the upgrade would fail activation and I'd exist asked for a production primal.

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

1 digital license, no production cardinal required.

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

A modest 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 x upgrade offer still works. Hither's why - and how to go information technology." For aid decoding setup errors, see "Windows ten: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation problems."

Want your own digital license to the latest Windows 10 version? Follow these instructions.

How to upgrade an old PC to Windows 10

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If you have a PC running a "18-carat" copy of Windows seven/8/8.one (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.ten Home or Business organization, properly licensed and activated), you tin can follow the same steps I did to install Windows ten equally an upgrade.

Before getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that can caput off potential problems:

Ostend that your re-create of Windows is properly activated. This is peculiarly of import if yous recently reinstalled Windows.
Check for any recent driver updates, particularly for network and storage hardware.
Download and install any available BIOS updates for your hardware; this stride is especially of import for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or before, when hardware makers were all the same shaking out issues with Windows 10.
Back up your data files to an external hard bulldoze or cloud storage (or both). Consider doing a full system fill-in to an external hard drive using the Windows 7 fill-in plan, which is as well available in Windows 8.x and Windows x. Only run the command Sdclt.exe, and then cull the Create A Organization Prototype pick.
Temporarily uninstall third-political party security software and low-level arrangement utilities that can interfere with the upgrade. Yous tin reinstall those programs after the upgrade is complete.
Finally, disconnect whatever unnecessary external devices, particularly USB wink drives and external hard drives. (Several mutual installation errors tin can exist traced to the Setup program being confused past these additional drives.)

With those preliminaries out of the way, go to the Download Windows 10 webpage and click theDownload tool at present push. After the download completes, double-click the executable file to run the Media Creation Tool.

You tin upgrade straight using this tool, or create divide media.

If you've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the automobile yous programme to upgrade, and y'all plan to upgrade that PC and merely that PC, you can choose theUpgrade This PC Now option. That option installs the virtually recent version of Windows 10. It typically takes about an hour, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your system drive is the best way to speed upwardly the process.)

If y'all know you'll want to upgrade to Windows ten on more than i 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 piddling time only when it's complete, you can run the Windows Setup plan manually to install Windows 10 on any PC running any supported Windows version (sorry, this won't piece of work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). The verbal steps depend on which download option you chose:

USB flash drive Insert the USB wink drive you only created into a costless 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 x. Note that you lotcannot kicking from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10. You lot must run the Windows ten setup plan from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
ISO file After the download is complete, you lot'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 every bit a virtual drive. On a PC running Windows 7, you'll demand to install a third-political party utility such equally the complimentary, 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 x. You will non be asked for a product key, and when the upgrade is complete and you've continued to the net, you'll have a digital license to the most recent Windows 10 version, which yous tin 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 tin reformat the deejay and perform a clean installation of the same edition of Windows ten someday. (If you lot're thinking of upgrading your erstwhile 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 prototype or boot from the USB flash drive to do a clean install. You lot won't need a product key, and activation is automatic.)

Is your license valid?

And now the big question: If y'all avail yourself of this upgrade to Windows 10, is the resulting license valid?

The entire "free upgrade" offer was e'er accompanied by language that was, to put it politely, a chip squishy. And the language around the finish of that offer was similarly vague. For example, see the answers I've highlighted here on Microsoft's Windows ten Upgrade FAQ:

That'due south very odd language. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows ten app ended on July 29, 2016. Besides, the discussion of product keys says a key will exist necessary "for this tool to work" (non true) merely doesn't say a discussion about licensing.

And dissimilar 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 gratuitous upgrade offer was extended briefly, at least for people who use assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate page even called it a "gratis 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'k not a lawyer, and this cavalcade isn't legal advice. Just 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 retrieve, a very large nod and a wink, designed to go far piece of cake for those who wanted a Windows x upgrade to yet get information technology 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. sixteen, 2018. The page that formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant now returns an error message.

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

I go along to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If yous've used this technique on a PC, click my proper name at the elevation of this post and use the contact form to permit me know how it went for you.

Note:This article was originally published in Jan 2017. It has been updated multiple times since then to reflect the nearly current information.