How Can I Download Windows 10 For Free

Microsoft's free upgrade offering for Windows x ended more than five years ago, but no i told the people who run the Windows activation servers. As a event, you can however upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.i and claim a complimentary digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to jump through any hoops.

That upgrade became more than important than e'er when support for Windows vii officially ended in January 2020. And information technology turned out to be a great relief to household budgets when the pandemic made working from home (or going to school via remote sessions) of a sudden pop. In the past ii years, millions of people have taken quondam PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed speedily, thanks to these gratis upgrades.

Also: Windows eleven FAQ: Here'southward everything yous demand to know

You can also notwithstanding upgrade Windows ten Habitation 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 y'all as much every bit $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 Dwelling to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I depict in this article works the same for Windows eleven as well, although most older PCs will 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 mail service, 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 (equally always) confusing.

I wrote and published the beginning version of this post in early on 2017, several months later on Microsoft's initial free upgrade offering concluded. The free upgrade offer had but 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 production central.

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

One digital license, no production key required.

Over the next iv-plus years, I 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 immediate reports that their free upgrades were successful, with no buy or product fundamental 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 complimentary Windows 10 upgrade offer still works. Here's why - and how to go information technology." For help decoding setup errors, see "Windows 10: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation issues."

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

How to upgrade an quondam PC to Windows 10

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If you have a PC running a "genuine" copy of Windows vii/viii/eight.1 (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.ten Home or Business, properly licensed and activated), you can follow the same steps I did to install Windows ten as an upgrade.

Before getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that can head off potential issues:

• Confirm that your re-create of Windows is properly activated. This is especially important if you recently reinstalled Windows.
• Check for any recent driver updates, peculiarly for network and storage hardware.
• Download and install any available BIOS updates for your hardware; this step is particularly important for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were still shaking out issues with 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 difficult drive using the Windows 7 backup program, which is also bachelor in Windows 8.x and Windows 10. Only run the control Sdclt.exe, and then choose the Create A Arrangement Epitome selection.
• Temporarily uninstall third-party security software and depression-level organisation utilities that can interfere with the upgrade. Y'all tin can reinstall those programs afterwards the upgrade is complete.
• Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB wink drives and external hard drives. (Several common installation errors tin can exist traced to the Setup plan being confused by these boosted drives.)

With those preliminaries out of the manner, get 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 Cosmos Tool.

You lot can upgrade direct using this tool, or create carve up media.

If you've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the automobile y'all plan to upgrade, and you program to upgrade that PC and only that PC, you can choose theUpgrade This PC Now option. That option installs the most recent version of Windows 10. It typically takes about an hr, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your system bulldoze is the all-time way to speed upwards the process.)

If you lot know you'll desire to upgrade to Windows ten on more than than one PC, or if yous simply want more flexibility in the event that the instant upgrade fails, cull the second pick and save the installation files to a USB drive or every bit an ISO file. The download takes a little time only when it's complete, yous 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 selection you chose:

• USB wink drive  Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a free USB slot on the PC you want to upgrade. So open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows 10. Note that youcannot kicking from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10. Yous must run the Windows ten setup program from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
• ISO file  Subsequently 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 eight.1 or Windows x, yous can double-click the ISO file to open up it as a virtual drive. On a PC running Windows 7, y'all'll need to install a tertiary-party utility such as the free, open-source WinCDEmu. Afterwards mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to start the install process.

Then just follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows x. Yous volition non be asked for a production 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 10 version, which yous can ostend 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 can reformat the disk and perform a clean installation of the aforementioned edition of Windows ten anytime. (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 and then either restore from a backup image or boot from the USB flash drive to practice a clean install. You won't need a production key, and activation is automatic.)

Is your license valid?

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

The entire "gratis upgrade" offering was always accompanied by linguistic communication that was, to put it politely, a chip squishy. And the linguistic communication around the stop of that offer was similarly vague. For example, see the answers I've highlighted here on Microsoft's Windows ten Upgrade FAQ:

The diction here is remarkably vague.

That's very odd language. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows ten app ended on July 29, 2016. As well, the discussion of product keys says a key volition be necessary "for this tool to work" (not true) simply doesn't say a word virtually licensing.

And unlike the weaselly "Genuine Windows" characterization on older upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows x upgrade specifically ostend the existence of a "digital license."

Anyhow, the free upgrade offering was extended briefly, at least for people who apply assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate folio fifty-fifty called it a "free upgrade offer extension" and pointedly noted that information technology was not express to specific assistive technologies. (I regularly use the Magnifier utility in Windows, which is indisputably an assistive applied science.)

Of grade, I'm not a lawyer, and this cavalcade isn't legal advice. Just I will say that I am personally confident in the activation status of whatsoever PC upgraded using the tool on that page during the eligibility catamenia.

This extension was, I think, a very big nod and a flash, designed to arrive easy for those who wanted a Windows 10 upgrade to still get it while placating the OEM partners who were none likewise happy almost the yr-long accent on upgrades rather than new PC sales.

Alas, I say "was," because the extension (which was itself extended) officially concluded on January. xvi, 2018. The folio that formerly ran an Upgrade Banana at present returns an fault bulletin.

The big question now is whether Microsoft will ever plow 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 cease of support for Windows 7, that it nevertheless works.

I proceed to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If y'all've used this technique on a PC, click my proper name at the superlative of this post and use the contact grade to let me know how it went for yous.

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

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

Posted by: goodsonsentes.blogspot.com

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