That upgrade became more important than ever when support for Windows 7 officially ended in January And it turned out to be a great relief to household budgets when the pandemic made working from home or going to school via remote sessions suddenly popular. In the past two years, millions of people have taken old PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed quickly, thanks to these free upgrades.

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. For details, see “How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles. Every technique I describe in this article works the same for Windows 11 as well, although most older PCs will be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft’s newest operating system by the stringent Windows 11 hardware compatibility requirements.

For those PCs, Windows 10 remains a viable option until at least October 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 , shortly after Microsoft’s initial free upgrade offer ended.

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. For the past five-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 regularly 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. Whether you’re looking for a tablet to stream videos or to replace your laptop, here are some compelling options. Before getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that can head off potential problems:.

With those preliminaries out of the way, go to the Download Windows 10 webpage and click the Download now button. After the download completes, double-click the executable file to run the Media Creation Tool. That option installs the most recent version of Windows It typically takes about an hour, 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 version sorry, this won’t work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP. The exact steps depend on which download option you chose:. Then just follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows 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. 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. When you purchase an operating system from Microsoft or any retailer, it comes with a product key to unlock it.

A digital license connects your installed Windows platform to a key embedded in prebuilt systems from Acer, Dell, HP, and so on. For a long time, these manufacturers printed product keys on labels stuck on PCs or printed and inserted them into product packaging. However, Microsoft also moved Windows 7 over to this method. This license becomes locked to your Microsoft account.

Sites like Amazon also keep a record of purchased downloads, but these rarely include the product key itself, though it may help narrow down where it could be. Finally, you can download Windows 10 and perform a clean install. Despite officially ending the free update promotion in mid, Microsoft quietly keeps this option available so all Windows PC owners can run the latest version. Again, unless you have a valid digital license or product key to get a free upgrade, you will be required to pay for a new Windows 10 Home product key.

Disconnect any unnecessary accessories to help reduce the chance of errors. As shown above, you have two options: Upgrade the current PC, or create installation media that will either upgrade another PC or perform a clean install on the current PC.

However, in both cases, the tool will temporarily download a disk image of Windows 10, so be sure you have enough space for the file — around 4GB, at least. Step 5: Select the Upgrade this PC now option and follow the prompts.

Step 6: With all issues resolved, the installer will try to port over all the data it can. Keep in mind, however, the vast gap between Windows 7 and Windows 10 in terms of the software you use. Back up or convert any crucial data before you continue.

Step 9: As the installer progresses, your PC will restart a few times. The above method is the best way to get Windows 10 for free — at least for now. There are other ways you can get Windows 10 if you need it, including free and low-cost options that may be worth exploring. Buy a copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft. Please read our guide on how to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows Note that if you’re a student, or work at a large organization, you might be eligible for free or discounted Windows.

Microsoft has more on that in a support page. It turns out this is safer than it sounds because Microsoft is pretty lax about enforcing activation. We want to stress that using an unactivated version of Windows 10 is not permitted by Microsoft.

Microsoft windows 10 professional upgrade licence free download

 
You’ve got a new PC running Windows 10 Home. You want to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Here’s how to get that upgrade for free. Microsoft’s much-hyped free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended years ago, right? Not exactly.