How To Change To Windows 10 Home

Microsoft's complimentary upgrade offer for Windows 10 concluded more five years agone, just no 1 told the people who run the Windows activation servers. Every bit a effect, you can still upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows viii.one and merits a free digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to leap through any hoops.

That upgrade became more important than ever when support for Windows seven 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 school via remote sessions) suddenly popular. In the past two years, millions of people have taken old PCs out of storage and gotten upwardly to speed rapidly, thank you to these free upgrades.

Too: Windows 11 FAQ: Hither's everything you demand to know

You tin also however upgrade Windows 10 Dwelling house to Windows 10 Pro by using a product primal 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 yous buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled. (For details, see "How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I describe in this commodity works the same for Windows eleven equally well, although about older PCs will be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft's newest operating organization by the stringent Windows xi hardware compatibility requirements. For those PCs, Windows 10 remains a feasible option until at least October 2025.

In this mail service, I'll cover the basics of how to install Windows x as an upgrade on older hardware. I'll as well talk about the licensing issues involved, which are (as always) confusing.

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

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

One digital license, no product central required.

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

A small number of readers take reported that the upgrade fails because of a Setup mistake or a compatibility block. For details on how to troubleshoot these errors, see "This free Windows x upgrade offering still works. Here's why - and how to become information technology." For help decoding setup errors, meet "Windows x: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation problems."

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

How to upgrade an old PC to Windows ten

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If you accept a PC running a "genuine" re-create of Windows 7/8/8.1 (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.ten Home or Business organization, properly licensed and activated), you tin follow the same steps I did to install Windows ten as an upgrade.

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

Confirm that your re-create of Windows is properly activated. This is especially important if you recently reinstalled Windows.
Bank check for whatsoever recent driver updates, specially for network and storage hardware.
Download and install any bachelor BIOS updates for your hardware; this footstep is specially important for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were nevertheless shaking out issues with Windows 10.
Support your data files to an external hard bulldoze or cloud storage (or both). Consider doing a full system backup to an external hard bulldoze using the Windows 7 backup programme, which is too bachelor in Windows 8.10 and Windows 10. Only run the command Sdclt.exe, and then choose the Create A System Image pick.
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, peculiarly USB flash drives and external difficult drives. (Several common installation errors can exist traced to the Setup programme being dislocated by these additional drives.)

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

Yous tin can upgrade directly using this tool, or create separate media.

If y'all've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the machine yous plan to upgrade, and you plan to upgrade that PC and only that PC, you can choose theUpgrade This PC At present selection. That option installs the most recent version of Windows 10. It typically takes about an hour, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD every bit your system drive is the all-time style to speed upward the procedure.)

If yous 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 bulldoze or as an ISO file. The download takes a little time but when it's complete, you tin 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 verbal steps depend on which download option you chose:

USB flash bulldoze Insert the USB flash drive you lot just created into a free USB slot on the PC you lot want to upgrade. And then open up File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows vii) and double-click Setup to install Windows ten. Note that youcannot boot from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows ten. You must run the Windows ten setup programme from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
ISO file After the download is complete, you'll demand to mount the ISO file and open it in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window. On a PC running Windows 8.ane or Windows 10, you can double-click the ISO file to open information technology as a virtual drive. On a PC running Windows 7, you'll need to install a third-political party utility such as the free, open-source WinCDEmu. After mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to start the install process.

And so only follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows 10. You will not be asked for a product fundamental, and when the upgrade is complete and you've connected to the internet, you'll have a digital license to the most recent Windows ten version, which you tin can confirm by going to Settings > Update and Security > Activation. All your apps and data files will be bachelor.

The digital license is associated with that specific device, which means you can reformat the deejay and perform a clean installation of the aforementioned edition of Windows 10 someday. (If you're thinking of upgrading your former organisation 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 and so either restore from a fill-in image or boot from the USB wink drive to exercise a clean install. You won't need a product fundamental, and activation is automated.)

Is your license valid?

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

The unabridged "complimentary upgrade" offer was always accompanied by language that was, to put information technology politely, a bit squishy. And the language around the end of that offer was similarly vague. For example, see the answers I've highlighted here on Microsoft'due south Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ:

That's very odd language. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows x app ended on July 29, 2016. Likewise, the discussion of production keys says a key volition be necessary "for this tool to piece of work" (not true) merely doesn't say a word about licensing.

And dissimilar the weaselly "18-carat Windows" label on older upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows x upgrade specifically confirm the existence of a "digital license."

Anyway, the free upgrade offering was extended briefly, at least for people who utilise assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate page even called information technology a "gratis upgrade offering extension" and pointedly noted that it was not limited to specific assistive technologies. (I regularly apply 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. Merely 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 menstruation.

This extension was, I recollect, a very large nod and a flash, designed to make it easy for those who wanted a Windows ten upgrade to nevertheless get it while placating the OEM partners who were none too happy near the twelvemonth-long emphasis on upgrades rather than new PC sales.

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

The large question now is whether Microsoft volition 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 tin can confirm, long afterwards the end of support for Windows 7, that it still works.

I continue to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If y'all've used this technique on a PC, click my name at the top of this post and apply the contact form to allow me know how information technology went for yous.

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