Can You Download Windows 10 For Free

Microsoft'south free upgrade offering for Windows 10 ended more than than v years ago, only no 1 told the people who run the Windows activation servers. Every bit a result, y'all can still upgrade to Windows ten from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and claim a gratis digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to spring through whatsoever hoops.

That upgrade became more important than ever when support for Windows 7 officially ended in Jan 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) all of a sudden pop. In the past ii years, millions of people have taken sometime PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed quickly, thanks to these gratuitous upgrades.

Also: Windows 11 FAQ: Here'due south everything you lot need to know

You can also notwithstanding upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro by using a product key from a previous business concern edition of Windows 7, eight, or viii.1 (Pro/Ultimate). That can relieve yous as much as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if y'all buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled. (For details, meet "How to upgrade from Windows x Home to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I depict in this article works the same for Windows 11 also, although most older PCs volition 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 post, I'll cover the basics of how to install Windows 10 as an upgrade on older hardware. I'll also talk nearly the licensing issues involved, which are (as e'er) confusing.

I wrote and published the first version of this post in early 2017, several months after Microsoft'due south initial costless upgrade offer concluded. The free upgrade offering had just ended, and when I downloaded the Windows ten upgrade tool and ran information technology on an erstwhile Windows seven 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.

I digital license, no product key required.

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

A small number of readers take reported that the upgrade fails because of a Setup error or a compatibility block. For details on how to troubleshoot these errors, come across "This free Windows ten upgrade offer still works. Here'southward why - and how to become it." For assist decoding setup errors, come across "Windows 10: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation bug."

Want your own digital license to the latest Windows ten 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" copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows eight.x Domicile or Business, properly licensed and activated), y'all can follow the same steps I did to install Windows x as an upgrade.

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

Ostend that your copy of Windows is properly activated. This is especially of import if y'all recently reinstalled Windows.
Cheque for whatever recent driver updates, peculiarly for network and storage hardware.
Download and install any available BIOS updates for your hardware; this stride is specially important for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were still shaking out bug with Windows 10.
Support your data files to an external hard bulldoze or cloud storage (or both). Consider doing a full organisation backup to an external hard bulldoze using the Windows 7 fill-in program, which is too bachelor in Windows viii.x and Windows 10. But run the control Sdclt.exe, and and so cull the Create A System Paradigm option.
Temporarily uninstall 3rd-party security software and low-level organization utilities that tin interfere with the upgrade. Y'all 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 tin can be traced to the Setup plan being dislocated by these additional drives.)

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

Y'all tin upgrade direct using this tool, or create dissever media.

If you've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the motorcar you program to upgrade, and you programme to upgrade that PC and only that PC, you can choose theUpgrade This PC Now selection. That selection installs the well-nigh recent version of Windows x. It typically takes about an hr, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your organisation drive is the best way to speed up the procedure.)

If you know you'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more than ane PC, or if you lot just want more than flexibility in the event that the instant upgrade fails, choose the second option and relieve the installation files to a USB drive or every bit an ISO file. The download takes a petty time simply when information technology'south complete, you can run the Windows Setup programme manually to install Windows 10 on any PC running any supported Windows version (sad, this won't work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). The verbal steps depend on which download option y'all chose:

USB wink drive Insert the USB flash drive yous just created into a free USB slot on the PC you want to upgrade. Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows ten. Annotation that you lotcannot boot from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows 10. You lot must run the Windows 10 setup program from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
ISO file After the download is complete, y'all'll need to mountain the ISO file and open information technology in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window. On a PC running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, you can double-click the ISO file to open information technology every bit a virtual bulldoze. On a PC running Windows 7, you'll need to install a tertiary-party utility such as the free, open-source WinCDEmu. After mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to start the install process.

Then just follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows 10. You volition not be asked for a production cardinal, and when the upgrade is complete and you lot've continued to the internet, you'll have a digital license to the almost 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 lot tin can reformat the disk and perform a clean installation of the same edition of Windows 10 anytime. (If y'all're thinking of upgrading your one-time system bulldoze to an SSD, perform the upgrade to Windows 10 on the quondam hardware; afterward confirming that the new Windows 10 version is properly activated, install the SSD and then either restore from a fill-in image or kicking from the USB flash drive to practice a clean install. You won't need a product fundamental, and activation is automatic.)

Is your license valid?

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

The unabridged "free upgrade" offering was always accompanied by language that was, to put information technology politely, a fleck squishy. And the linguistic communication around the cease of that offering 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. Too, the discussion of product keys says a key will be necessary "for this tool to piece of work" (not true) but doesn't say a word nigh 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."

Anyway, the free upgrade offering was extended briefly, at least for people who use assistive technologies. The FAQ on a separate page even chosen it a "costless upgrade offering extension" and pointedly noted that it was not express to specific assistive technologies. (I regularly use the Magnifier utility in Windows, which is indisputably an assistive technology.)

Of course, I'1000 non 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 page during the eligibility period.

This extension was, I think, a very large nod and a wink, designed to make it easy for those who wanted a Windows 10 upgrade to nonetheless 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 say "was," because the extension (which was itself extended) officially ended on Jan. sixteen, 2018. The page that formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant at present returns an error message.

The big question at present is whether Microsoft will ever turn off the code on its activation servers that dispenses digital licenses after an upgrade from an before Windows version. I've continued to examination that scenario, and I can ostend, long after the end of support for Windows 7, that it still works.

I keep to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If you lot've used this technique on a PC, click my name at the elevation of this post and utilize the contact grade to let me know how information technology went for you.

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