Is Microsoft Still Supporting Windows 7

Microsoft'southward free upgrade offer for Windows 10 ended more than five years ago, but no one told the people who run the Windows activation servers. Every bit a outcome, you can however upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows eight.1 and merits a complimentary digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without existence forced to jump through any hoops.

That upgrade became more important than ever when support for Windows seven officially concluded in January 2020. And it turned out to be a great relief to household budgets when the pandemic fabricated working from abode (or going to school via remote sessions) suddenly popular. In the past two years, millions of people have taken one-time PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed speedily, cheers to these free upgrades.

Also: Windows 11 FAQ: Hither's everything you need to know

You tin can also still upgrade Windows x Home to Windows x Pro past using a product primal from a previous business organization edition of Windows seven, 8, or viii.ane (Pro/Ultimate). That can relieve yous equally much equally $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled. (For details, meet "How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I describe in this article works the same for Windows eleven likewise, although well-nigh older PCs volition be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft'due south newest operating organisation by the stringent Windows 11 hardware compatibility requirements. For those PCs, Windows 10 remains a feasible option until at least October 2025.

In this post, I'll comprehend 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 always) disruptive.

I wrote and published the first version of this postal service in early 2017, several months after Microsoft's initial gratuitous upgrade offer ended. The free upgrade offer had just ended, and when I downloaded the Windows 10 upgrade tool and ran it on an erstwhile Windows 7 PC, I fully expected that the upgrade would fail activation and I'd be asked for a product key.

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

One digital license, no product primal required.

Over the next 4-plus years, I repeated those steps on test PCs at regular intervals and confirmed that the gratuitous upgrade tool still works. I continue to receive email messages regularly from readers offering firsthand reports that their free upgrades were successful, with no buy or product key required.

A small number of readers have reported that the upgrade fails because of a Setup error or a compatibility cake. For details on how to troubleshoot these errors, see "This free Windows 10 upgrade offer still works. Here'due south why - and how to get it." For assistance decoding setup errors, see "Windows x: Employ setup log files to troubleshoot installation problems."

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

How to upgrade an old PC to Windows 10

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If you lot have a PC running a "genuine" copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 (Windows 7 Domicile, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.x Dwelling house or Business, properly licensed and activated), you can follow the same steps I did to install Windows 10 as an upgrade.

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

Confirm that your copy of Windows is properly activated. This is especially of import if you lot recently reinstalled Windows.
Check for any contempo driver updates, peculiarly 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 before, when hardware makers were still shaking out issues with Windows x.
Back up your data files to an external difficult drive or cloud storage (or both). Consider doing a full system backup to an external hard bulldoze using the Windows seven backup program, which is as well available in Windows 8.10 and Windows 10. Only run the control Sdclt.exe, and and so cull the Create A Arrangement Paradigm option.
Temporarily uninstall third-party security software and depression-level organisation utilities that tin interfere with the upgrade. Y'all tin can reinstall those programs after the upgrade is consummate.
Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB flash drives and external hard drives. (Several common installation errors can be traced to the Setup program beingness confused 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.

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

If you've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the machine you plan to upgrade, and you lot plan to upgrade that PC and only that PC, you can cull theUpgrade This PC Now option. That option installs the near recent version of Windows 10. Information technology typically takes most an hour, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your system drive is the all-time way to speed upwardly the process.)

If you know you'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more one PC, or if yous just desire more flexibility in the result that the instant upgrade fails, choose the second option and save the installation files to a USB drive or as an ISO file. The download takes a little time simply when information technology's complete, you can run the Windows Setup programme manually to install Windows ten on whatsoever PC running whatever supported Windows version (sorry, this won't work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). The verbal steps depend on which download pick yous chose:

USB flash drive Insert the USB flash drive you just created into a free USB slot on the PC you lot want to upgrade. Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows ten. Annotation that you lotcannot kick from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows ten. You must run the Windows 10 setup programme from your currently installed and activated re-create of Windows.
ISO file Afterward the download is complete, you'll need to mount the ISO file and open it in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window. On a PC running Windows eight.ane or Windows x, yous can double-click the ISO file to open up it equally a virtual drive. On a PC running Windows vii, you'll need to install a third-party utility such as the free, open up-source WinCDEmu. After mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to start the install process.

And then merely follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows x. You will not be asked for a product key, and when the upgrade is complete and you've connected to the net, you'll have a digital license to the nigh contempo Windows x version, which y'all can confirm by going to Settings > Update and Security > Activation. All your apps and information files volition exist available.

The digital license is associated with that specific device, which means yous tin can reformat the disk and perform a clean installation of the aforementioned edition of Windows 10 anytime. (If you're thinking of upgrading your old arrangement bulldoze 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 then either restore from a backup image or boot from the USB flash drive to practise a make clean install. You won't need a product primal, 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 "free upgrade" offer was always accompanied by language that was, to put it politely, a fleck squishy. And the language around the end of that offer was similarly vague. For case, run into the answers I've highlighted here on Microsoft's Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ:

That's very odd linguistic communication. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows 10 app ended on July 29, 2016. Also, the discussion of production keys says a primal will exist necessary "for this tool to work" (not true) but doesn't say a word about licensing.

And unlike the weaselly "Genuine Windows" characterization on older upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows 10 upgrade specifically confirm the beingness of a "digital license."

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

Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and this column isn't legal communication. But I volition say that I am personally confident in the activation status of whatever PC upgraded using the tool on that folio during the eligibility menstruation.

This extension was, I think, a very big nod and a wink, designed to make it piece of cake for those who wanted a Windows ten upgrade to nonetheless go it while placating the OEM partners who were none also 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. 16, 2018. The page that formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant now returns an error bulletin.

The big question now is whether Microsoft will always plow off the code on its activation servers that dispenses digital licenses afterward an upgrade from an earlier Windows version. I've connected to test that scenario, and I can confirm, long after the stop of support for Windows vii, that information technology still works.

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

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