Microsoft’s free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended more than five years ago, but no one told the people who run the Windows activation servers. As a result, you can still upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8. 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 windos 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 fre 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 windkws hardware. I’ll also talk about the licensing issues involved, windowws are as always confusing. I wrote and published the first version of this post in earlyshortly after Microsoft’s initial free upgrade offer ended.

When I downloaded по ссылке 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 windows 10 accessibility free download free download 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, windows 10 accessibility free download free download 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 windos 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 windows 10 accessibility free download free download a USB drive or as an ISO file.

The download takes a little time but when it’s dowwnload, 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 Dowload 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 Wineows, 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 windows 10 accessibility free download free download 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 windows 10 accessibility free download free download, a bit squishy.

And the language around the end of that offer was similarly vague. That’s very odd language. The free upgrade ffee the Get Windows 10 app ended on July 29, Likewise, the discussion of product keys says a key will be necessary “for this tool to windows 10 accessibility free download free download not true but doesn’t say a word about licensing.

And unlike 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 free upgrade offer was extended briefly, at least for people who use assistive technologies.

The Doanload on a separate page even called it a windows 10 accessibility free download free download 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’m not a lawyer, and this column isn’t legal advice. But I will say that I am personally confident in the activation status of any PC upgraded using the tool on that windows 10 accessibility free download free download during the eligibility period.

This extension was, I think, a very large nod and a wink, designed to make it по этому адресу for those who wanted a Windows 10 upgrade to still get it while placating the OEM partners who were none too happy about the year-long emphasis on upgrades rather than new PC sales. Alas, I accessibillity “was,” because the extension which was itself extended officially ended on Jan.

The page that formerly ran an Downloaf Assistant now returns an error message. The big question now is whether Microsoft will ever turn off the code on its activation servers that dispenses digital licenses after an upgrade from an earlier Windows version. I’ve continued windows 10 accessibility free download free download test that scenario, and I can confirm, long after the end of support for Windows 7, that it still works. I continue to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If you’ve used this technique on a PC, send a note to edbott at realworldwindows dot com to let me know windows 10 accessibility free download free download it went for you.

Note: This article was originally published in January It has been updated multiple times since then to reflect the most current information. Home Business Enterprise Software.

Microsoft’s /37634.txt free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended years ago, right? Not exactly. One digital license, no product key required. You can upgrade directly using this tool, or create separate media. Ed Bott’s 10 most popular Windows 10 tips. The wording here is remarkably vague. Show Comments. Log In to Comment Community Guidelines.

Related How to create and manage Windows accounts for your family. How to create and manage Windows accounts for your family. Hackers are still finding – and using – flaws in Internet Explorer. Windows 11’s screenshot tool gets a screen recorder.

 
 

 

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Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories? No, thank you Accept. Tech Computing. Lance Whitney. Lance Whitney Contributing Writer. Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He’s the author of two tech books–one on Windows and another on LinkedIn. Assistive Technologies Offer Microsoft is offering Windows 10 for free for customers who use “assistive technologies”.

Reinstall Windows 10 If you took advantage of the free upgrade offer, or you obtained Windows 10 using the methods in this article, you can reinstall Windows 10 on that same machine however many times you’d like without providing a product key. How satisfied are you with this article? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. Previous Next. Now on to my next machine, my daughter’s Lenovo S netbook, running Windows 7 Starter.

AS part of this process, the checker tells me It takes a long time on such a slow machine so I cant be sitting next to it for the whole process. I have let it try to upgrade twice by following the prompts and once by using the USB. I cant even get the first upgrade to complete to take a clean install option. Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. How satisfied are you with this comment? In reply to TimWG’s post on July 31, In reply to aakkam22’s post on August 1, I have also been getting the c error when trying to do the update through windows update.

It now says that it is ready to install. Cross your fingers, I’ve been at this for two days with no luck. There’s got to be a solution!! When you download Windows 10 this way, your PC will receive a digital license valid for the life of the device, exactly the same way as if you had taken advantage of last year’s offer.

First, you’ll need to find your product key. See my article ” How to recover your Windows product key ” for more information. When you’ve found your product key, head over to the Download Windows 10 website and click the Download tool now button.

When the tool finishes downloading, open it, accept the license terms, and hit Upgrade this PC now. If you prefer, you can also select Create installation media for another PC to download an. If you choose to create installation media, make sure to download the correct version of Windows Either way, after Windows 10 installs, you can use your Windows 7 or Windows 8. Microsoft is offering Windows 10 for free for customers who use “assistive technologies”. All you have to do is visit their Accessibility website and hit the “upgrade now” button.

A tool will be downloaded that will help you upgrade your Windows 7 or 8. The process is the same as last year’s free upgrade process. According to the terms, anyone who uses “assistive technologies” qualifies for the upgrade.

These technologies can range anywhere from magnifiers and content readers to simply using a high contrast Windows theme or mouse pointer. Despite the terms being clearly laid out, Microsoft is not checking that whomever downloads Windows 10 this way uses assistive technologies. And despite confusion when this loophole was discovered long ago, Microsoft has not hidden or withdrawn the offer.

They also have not specified when it will end. If you took advantage of the free upgrade offer, or you obtained Windows 10 using the methods in this article, you can reinstall Windows 10 on that same machine however many times you’d like without providing a product key. This is because Windows 10 registers your hardware IDs with Microsoft’s servers, so that when you reinstall Windows, your hardware is automatically matched with the servers and activated.

Windows 10 also allows you to upgrade various hardware components like RAM or storage devices without requiring reactivation. Microsoft Visual C 9. Free Windows application creator for personal computers Microsoft Visual C is a standard software package which has been used for nearly a decade to create PC-based applications. Windows c c compiler c programming c programming for windows languages. Microsoft Loop varies-with-devices 3. Fresh collaboration tool from Microsoft Microsoft Loop is a premium project management program that is specially designed for team collaborations.

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