Can you still get a free upgrade to Win10?

[pkcable]

Can you get a free upgrade to Windows 10? Apparently YES! According to ZD-Net, the process for activating and upgrading which was supposed to end July 2016, actually still works! They explain how in this article.....

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

 

[spicypadthai]

Good to know, I guess they'll do anything to get to 1 billion devices...

 

[Ryujingt3]

That's interesting that it still works. Thanks for the link!

 

[TechFreak1]

Microsoft probably has patched this by now as the article is arounds 2 months old or maybe not lol the only way to know if it works still is to try it.

 

[nate0]

What is even more bizarre on this topic from my end...is I recently installed Windows 10 Pr 64 bit on a new PC build and was able to activate with one of my oem Windows 7 pro license keys. This was a clean install....So if all else fails activating or upgrading to Windows 10 do not give up. Sometimes you can try the same key multiple times and all of a sudden it works.

 

[tgp]

I recently installed Windows 10 Pr 64 bit on a new PC build and was able to activate with one of my oem Windows 7 pro license keys. This was a clean install....

AFAIK this has always worked. From what I recall, the official free upgrade period was one year after Windows 10 was released, which means it would have ended in 2016. Then Microsoft said that anyone using the assistive technologies would still be eligible. Well, that means you could you use features like magnifier or sticky keys and get the upgrade free. Also, that was on an honor system, no proof required. (I'm not sure how they would have proved it anyway!) I don't know what the official status is now, but I do know that it "just works".

Anyway, the upgrade has never not worked that I know of. I usually do a clean install and activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7 product key. One time I bought a new laptop that had Windows 10 Home. I had a Windows 7 Pro product key. I decided to see if I could just upgrade my laptop's W10 from Home to Pro. It worked! I just entered the W7 Pro product key through "Change product key or upgrade your edition of Windows", and my laptop's version instantly changed from Home to Pro. I did it after I had owned it awhile, and I didn't do a clean install. Nothing was lost.

It appears that Microsoft has loosened up activations quite a bit. For one thing, they want everyone on Windows 10. Also, maybe they need to compete with Apple who no longer charges for OS X version upgrades.

 

[nate0]

AFAIK this has always worked. From what I recall, the official free upgrade period was one year after Windows 10 was released, which means it would have ended in 2016. Then Microsoft said that anyone using the assistive technologies would still be eligible. Well, that means you could you use features like magnifier or sticky keys and get the upgrade free. Also, that was on an honor system, no proof required. (I'm not sure how they would have proved it anyway!) I don't know what the official status is now, but I do know that it "just works".

Anyway, the upgrade has never not worked that I know of. I usually do a clean install and activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7 product key. One time I bought a new laptop that had Windows 10 Home. I had a Windows 7 Pro product key. I decided to see if I could just upgrade my laptop's W10 from Home to Pro. It worked! I just entered the W7 Pro product key through "Change product key or upgrade your edition of Windows", and my laptop's version instantly changed from Home to Pro. I did it after I had owned it awhile, and I didn't do a clean install. Nothing was lost.

It appears that Microsoft has loosened up activations quite a bit. For one thing, they want everyone on Windows 10. Also, maybe they need to compete with Apple who no longer charges for OS X version upgrades.

Probably anything they could allow within means to try to reach that billions of users quota... Even though the deadline ended a while back. None the less the more the merrier I'm sure from their perspective...

 

[Lee_Bo]

Back during the official Windows 10 upgrade, you had the option to download the updater to a USB drive.

I used it twice yesterday to upgrade two Windows 7 pc's to Windows 10. Yep, still works.