How To Windows 10 To Windows 8.1

Microsoft's free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended more than five years ago, but no i told the people who run the Windows activation servers. As a result, you lot tin however upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows vii or Windows eight.1 and claim a complimentary digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to bound through whatever hoops.

That upgrade became more important than ever when support for Windows seven officially concluded in January 2020. And it turned out to exist a great relief to household budgets when the pandemic made working from home (or going to schoolhouse via remote sessions) suddenly pop. In the past 2 years, millions of people have taken old PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed quickly, cheers to these free upgrades.

Also: Windows 11 FAQ: Here's everything you need to know

You tin can as well still upgrade Windows 10 Domicile to Windows ten Pro by using a product key from a previous business organization edition of Windows seven, 8, or 8.1 (Pro/Ultimate). That tin relieve yous as much as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you buy a new PC with Windows ten Home preinstalled. (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 likewise, although nigh older PCs volition be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft'due south newest operating system by the stringent Windows eleven hardware compatibility requirements. For those PCs, Windows 10 remains a viable option until at least October 2025.

In this post, I'll cover the basics of how to install Windows 10 equally an upgrade on older hardware. I'll likewise talk about the licensing bug involved, which are (as always) disruptive.

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

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

Ane digital license, no production key required.

Over the side by side four-plus years, I repeated those steps on test PCs at regular intervals and confirmed that the complimentary upgrade tool nonetheless works. I go along to receive email messages regularly from readers offering firsthand reports that their gratuitous upgrades were successful, with no purchase or product key required.

A minor number of readers have reported that the upgrade fails because of a Setup fault or a compatibility block. For details on how to troubleshoot these errors, see "This free Windows ten upgrade offer still works. Hither's why - and how to get it." For help decoding setup errors, see "Windows 10: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation bug."

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

How to upgrade an sometime PC to Windows 10

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If you have a PC running a "genuine" copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 (Windows vii Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.x Dwelling or Business, properly licensed and activated), y'all 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 bug:

Ostend that your re-create of Windows is properly activated. This is especially important if you recently reinstalled Windows.
Cheque for any recent driver updates, especially for network and storage hardware.
Download and install whatsoever available BIOS updates for your hardware; this footstep is especially of import for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or before, when hardware makers were still shaking out problems with Windows x.
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 bulldoze using the Windows seven backup program, which is also available in Windows viii.ten and Windows 10. Only run the command Sdclt.exe, and and then choose the Create A System Epitome option.
Temporarily uninstall 3rd-political party security software and low-level organization utilities that can interfere with the upgrade. You tin can reinstall those programs after the upgrade is complete.
Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB flash drives and external hard drives. (Several mutual installation errors can be traced to the Setup program being dislocated by these boosted drives.)

With those preliminaries out of the fashion, become to the Download Windows 10 webpage and click theDownload tool now button. Afterward 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 yous've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the machine you plan to upgrade, and you plan to upgrade that PC and merely that PC, y'all tin choose theUpgrade This PC Now option. That option installs the most recent version of Windows 10. Information technology typically takes well-nigh an hour, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your system drive is the best manner to speed up the process.)

If you know you'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more than one PC, or if you lot simply want more flexibility in the event that the instant upgrade fails, choose the 2d option and relieve the installation files to a USB drive or every bit an ISO file. The download takes a little fourth dimension just when information technology's consummate, 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 lot chose:

USB flash drive Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a free USB slot on the PC y'all want to upgrade. Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows 10. Notation that you lotcannot boot from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10. Yous must run the Windows 10 setup program from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
ISO file After the download is complete, you lot'll need to mountain the ISO file and open it in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window. On a PC running Windows 8.i or Windows ten, you can double-click the ISO file to open it equally a virtual bulldoze. On a PC running Windows 7, you'll demand to install a 3rd-party utility such equally the free, open-source WinCDEmu. Later mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to showtime the install process.

Then just follow the prompts to consummate the upgrade to Windows 10. You will not exist asked for a product key, and when the upgrade is complete and y'all've connected to the internet, you'll have a digital license to the most recent Windows ten version, which you can confirm by going to Settings > Update and Security > Activation. All your apps and data files will exist available.

The digital license is associated with that specific device, which means you tin can reformat the disk and perform a clean installation of the same edition of Windows x someday. (If y'all're thinking of upgrading your old organization drive to an SSD, perform the upgrade to Windows ten on the old hardware; later confirming that the new Windows 10 version is properly activated, install the SSD and so either restore from a backup image or kick from the USB flash bulldoze to do a clean install. You lot won't demand a product central, 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 past language that was, to put it politely, a scrap squishy. And the language around the end of that offering was similarly vague. For instance, encounter the answers I've highlighted hither on Microsoft's Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ:

That'south very odd language. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows 10 app ended on July 29, 2016. Likewise, the discussion of production keys says a cardinal will be necessary "for this tool to piece of work" (non truthful) but doesn't say a word almost licensing.

And dissimilar the weaselly "Genuine Windows" label on older upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows 10 upgrade specifically confirm the being of a "digital license."

Anyway, the free upgrade offer was extended briefly, at least for people who use assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate page fifty-fifty called it a "free upgrade offering extension" and pointedly noted that information technology was non limited to specific assistive technologies. (I regularly use the Magnifier utility in Windows, which is indisputably an assistive engineering.)

Of grade, I'one thousand non a lawyer, and this column isn't legal communication. Merely I volition 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 recollect, a very large nod and a wink, designed to make information technology easy for those who wanted a Windows 10 upgrade to still get information technology while placating the OEM partners who were none too happy about the twelvemonth-long emphasis on upgrades rather than new PC sales.

Alas, I say "was," considering the extension (which was itself extended) officially concluded on Jan. 16, 2018. The page that formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant now returns an error message.

The big question now is whether Microsoft will ever plow off the code on its activation servers that dispenses digital licenses later on an upgrade from an earlier Windows version. I've continued to test that scenario, and I can ostend, long after the end of support for Windows seven, 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 pinnacle of this post and apply the contact form to permit me know how information technology went for you.

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

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

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