Is anyone else getting this message? I had Win 7 Home on my PC. I went through the upgrade 2 weeks ago and it worked. It did take time, much of which occurred after I went to bed. In the morning I had Win 10 Home, my desktop was the same except for the loss of the calendar and clock widgets, and my programs worked. Even the alternate administrative user logons and passwords were preserved, which is nice, since I use a logon without administrative rights almost all the time. I have a cousin who is disabled and missed the original download deadline as he was getting extended hospital treatment. Apparently he was able to upgrade to W10 pro from W7 pro through a particular link for free very recently. He mentioned that there was no proof required from Microsoft in order to get the update. Just in case anyone wants to check that out.

Leo, this worked just fine for me, with a twist. I put a 1TB SSD in it because it was painfully slow with the fastest HDD I could find. It was time for a new laptop, and I got one about two months ago. I have a lot of scripts that run from the Task Scheduler, and a good number of them had to be updated to run with W Most of the changes had to do with paths to things like excel. exe and with minor differences in how powershell runs in W10 vs. Only one problem took me more than a few minutes to diagnose and correct. That one, though, took me a couple of days. So now I have an old W7 laptop with a nice SSD that is really of no use to me. Then using the procedure you described, upgrade to W10 Pro. It worked flawlessly.

Farewell, Windows 7. You served me well. I miss you already. I think you were more stable than Windows 10 right out of the starting gate. I followed your instructions on an old laptop with windows 7 on it and it did it without any problem. This information may be useful to your readers especially Tom Wales above. My computer was upgraded from Windows 8. Since it was organizational upgrade, recently I started receiving messages to activate it. I took it to a professional. All he did was to get the windows 8 licence number and reloaded it. Windows 10 started working okay without any further messages. Of course, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I recently mid-December upgraded a Dell Win 7 laptop to Win 1p, essentially following the steps Leo has outlined here. The upgrade seems to have been successful. no hitches discovered yet. It retained all my files, desktop shortcuts, and programs. I do a lot of PC refurbishing, and to date I can install Windows 10 clean and use the Windows 7 key on the sticker to activate it. Also, I can make an image of a model Dell etc. And Windows 8 keys embedded in the BIOS work too. Breaking a couple of programs for people who really rely on those programs, or some expensive peripheral can be a deal breaker when a new OS breaks them. I just upgraded an old desktop with Windows 7 Home Premium that I have hooked up to my tv.

Everything seems to be working great. I almost feel like I have a new computer. Thanks Leo! Just for info I tried installing W7 on a Mac and that was fine — it worked. The free Win 10 upgrade worked for me, flawlessly. It took six hours due to slow internet but I lost none of my programs or files in the transition. I just tried it yesterday, and it worked. no problem. Followed your directions above. I had a legal version on Win 7 Home. I did multiple Windows 7 machines over the summer. I had one problem. Updated to Windows 10 and indicated I had a digital license. One Win 10 was installed I was able to do the updates. I have one machine left to do next week. Upgraded Win 7 Home Premium to Win 10 Home on my notebook and Win 7 Professional to Win 10 Pro on my desktop using described process. Apart from some locally determined issues, the transition went smooth. Both machines have now been running Win 10 for a couple of weeks. A few people have been writing their success stories of upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 in the Ask a Question form, so there are a few more success stories than listed in these comments.

Instead of posting those stories as Questions where only we get the message, it might be more useful or other readers if you post your success or failure stories here as comments. I have a Client who had previously resisted Win Now being the time to do it, I wanted to test first by doing an upgrade from Win7 Pro to Win10 Pro and it was activated digitally OK.. Having proven the activation, I then did a fresh install of Winows 10 Pro. All good. I downloaded and installed W10 and all seems to be working fine but I have my backup just in case. Thanks Leo for all that you do! No sooner was this process concluded when I saw the notification that Windows was activated. I just finished doing a Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade on the last of my machines. It took a while, but it did work and it is showing that Windows is activated. This machine has only local accounts no Microsoft accounts , so I would expect this to work for anyone else.

I had a couple Windows updates to do for. NET and a device driver, but the process was very smooth. All my installed apps worked out of the box except one. Just had to make one change to the shortcut to get that to work. Had to go into the shortcut properties and tell it to run as administrator. I did the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 about a week ago. Follow the directions and be patient. And I would add that it would be a good idea to have all your Product Activation codes handy for when you first use the associated software after the upgrade.

Classical Catch Fortunately there was another computer in house so the file could be opened on that. Unless the Excel file is encrypted, it can be opened with Libre or Open Office and a few other office suite programs. Just finished an upgrade from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro. Went smoothly and was activated with a free digital license. It worked. I had previously upgraded that computer to win 10 back when it was promoted as free but reverted to back to Win 7. I used the link to successfully update from Windows 7 today. I was not asked for a key. So glad to have found this, thanks for providing it! In other words, all of our other software and personal files will be overwritten — correct?

HOWEVER I strongly recommend that you then immediately back up and perform a clean install of Windows Try Open Shell, previously known as Classic Shell. It tames Windows 8 and I just went through the process of creating a backup and upgrading to Windows Very simple process following along to your instructions. So far the only problem I seem to have is using MS Office that I have installed. I have Office I use Office for almost all my work. Do you know of a way to correct this? Thanks, Darryl. JSYK, I updated my laptop this week week 51 of flawlessly — made the iso image — went to the website — downloaded installer — worked perfectly. Thank you very much. Both computers were vintage. I like Win10 with the exception of Cortana and the ads in solitaire. I got rid of Cortana. How Do I Disable Cortana? Get Rid of Cortana Completely. I used the upgrade tool to upgrade from windows 8.

I was not asked for a key laptop has a bios embeded 8. As far as I can tell, all installed programs work, including Office. It took about 2 hrs. with basically no user imput after it started installing. Is there anything I can do besides buying a new computer? Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read. Get the Newsletter! The Ask Leo! Store Get Help Important Recent Best Newsletter Glossary Contact My Account 0. The above method is the best way to get Windows 10 for free — at least for now. There are other ways you can get Windows 10 if you need it, including free and low-cost options that may be worth exploring. Buy a copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft. Please read our guide on how to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows Note that if you're a student, or work at a large organization, you might be eligible for free or discounted Windows. Microsoft has more on that in a support page. It turns out this is safer than it sounds because Microsoft is pretty lax about enforcing activation. We want to stress that using an unactivated version of Windows 10 is not permitted by Microsoft.

Better safe than sorry. In the end, if Microsoft wanted to stop people from using these versions, they could do it. You can find third-party vendors who sell Windows 10 manufacturer keys at a bargain. Going through these companies enables you to purchase the keys at half or even lower of the full Microsoft price. While it may sound like a scam, you can find reliable vendors who just happen to have a good price, but you need to stay on your toes. What customers need to do is hunt for trustworthy key vendors who offer incredible bargains. Easier said than done, though. But overall, we still suggest shopping around.

As you can guess, it is very much possible to still upgrade and get Windows 10 for free in You just need to follow our methods covered above -- from using your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8. Our tips and tricks are in line with Microsoft's terms, too. This means you don't have to worry about if it is legal to get Windows 10 for free. And, if you're worried about if you can upgrade to Windows 11 if you already got WIndows 10 for free, well, it's just as easy and painless. Your upgrade to Windows 10 will give you a digital entitlement to Windows, which means if your hardware fits Microsoft's requirements to run Windows 11, you can download Windows 11 at any time for no extra cost. Trending: Portal RTX GPU Prices RX XTX Review iPhone 14 Pro Review Best Movies on Netflix Unlock Augments in Fortnite Best Nintendo Switch Games.

Difficulty Easy. Duration 15 minutes. What You Need Valid product key or digital license Windows account. Best Microsoft Surface Pro deals for December How to delete a page in Word. Norton Antivirus Free Trial: Get a week of protection. Adobe Photoshop Free Trial: Get a month of editing for free.

YouTube - Patron Perks - Books - Ask - About. Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing! There are reports of being able to upgrade existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 installations without needing to purchase a new Windows 10 license. With Windows 7 end of support impending, it might be time to consider trying it. Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free! If you have a working, installed, and activated copy of Windows 7, 8, or 8. Backup first, then visit the Windows 10 Download page , click on Download tool now, run the downloaded Windows 10 setup tool and follow its instructions.

When prompted, select Upgrade this PC now. Back up first. In order for this scenario to work, you must have a working, installed, activated copy of Windows 7, 8, or 8. In addition, this process reportedly only works for the Home and Pro editions of Windows, and an upgrade or downgrade from one to another is not possible. The upgrade will result in the same edition — Home or Pro — you begin with. The anecdotal information reported by several tech news outlets is that downloading Windows 10 and upgrading your Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation in place will result in a properly activated Windows 10 with a new digital license for that specific machine. If not, your only recourse would be to revert to your backup image or purchase a Windows 10 license key.

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week. Are you certain Microsoft is closing this option down in ? They previously had an end date for upgrades that turned out to be soft. They may extend the deadline BUT without confirmation of it, an international reporter can only speak to the facts. Of course, not. This is an upgrade for existing eligible versions of Windows installed on your machine. I already had windows 10 when a repair to my motherboard was performed, now a pop up messages is telling me to activate windows10 even although it is running as such. Would I be able to use your download upgrade to have it properly installed?

If your system is not activated, and it was previously, that implies a different motherboard or replacement laptop. Read the Win10 User agreement carefully. Some people consider Windows 10 an invasion of privacy. I had the Windows 10 upgrade shoved down my throat by Microsoft back when they were doing the sneaky upgrades. You have said that most new PCs now come with Windows 10 installed. Since I find W10 rather horrible, if I bought a new laptop with W10 as the operating system, may I have it re-configured to Windows 7 Pro with no further cost or is that a step too far for Microsoft? When my HDD with Win on it physically died, it was about a week after support for had ended, and neither MS nor my hardware vendor would replace the OS this was back when they first started putting in recovery partitions rather than providing disks; I had assumed yeah, I know!

This is the part where I feel obliged to suggest looking into Linux as a replacement, unless you truly need Windows for something. Good luck! i did install the free win 10 download when it came out. so i did a DBAN wipe and clean re-install with a win 7 ult disk. so obviously win 10 was gone. is that free installation still mine and can i get it back? i did not save anything from free the installation. Note that from Win10, keys are no longer on the PC. The real one is saved by the Microsoft servers. I have an older laptop model which came with Windows 7 Home pre-installed. I took the free upgrade to Windows Recently it began overheating even though I had blown the dust out.

I downloaded a copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft and installed it on the laptop. It activated with no problem. In theory, yes. I get a report and upgrade faulure that says the api-ms-win-cor-libraryloader dll is missing and I should reinstall the application. You need to copy the file Wimgapi. Leo suggested installing windows 7 or 8 on a new machine and then upgrading to W10 before the end of the year. Be more productive and get your work done with Windows 7 or 8. Do you really care about Paint 3D or 3D Builder or is being able to work uninterrupted and and productivity more important? I mean, with 7 or 8. I was looking at the differences between the Home and Pro version via the link you provided and it says that Remote Desktop is not available in Windows Home, however, I see it IS included on my Windows Home mstsc.

exe and works when I run it I have used it to connect to other computers in my house. Are there some features of Remote Desktop that are disabled in the Home version? I cannot, however, I only ever want to remote INTO other machines and that still works. It has unlocked the pro version for me too. I guess coming from Ultimate. I just went thru this process on 20 Windows 7 Pro PCs and they all activated with a digital license. if i were to do a DBAN wipe and reinstall from my win 7 ultimate disk, can i assume MS would automatically give me the win 10 pro i installed when the download was still free? will they guide me through the upgrade? I have been running Win 7 and just hired a tech to upgrade me to Win 10 because of the imminent end of security updates for 7. He downloaded the Win 10 update to a flash drive and then installed it to my computer from there.

Everything is working fine. Hi Leo Yes, it still works. I have just completed upgrading 4 of my computers this past week, and will celebrate Christmas day doing the last one, as soon as I swap out the one failing drive it has in it. Did it on both a Core-2 Duo and a Core-2 Quad processor, as well as the 2 i5 machines. Merry Christmas! When they were trying to push Windows 10 on me, I kept my Windows 7. What kind of crap is that? Is anyone else getting this message? I had Win 7 Home on my PC. I went through the upgrade 2 weeks ago and it worked. It did take time, much of which occurred after I went to bed. In the morning I had Win 10 Home, my desktop was the same except for the loss of the calendar and clock widgets, and my programs worked. Even the alternate administrative user logons and passwords were preserved, which is nice, since I use a logon without administrative rights almost all the time. I have a cousin who is disabled and missed the original download deadline as he was getting extended hospital treatment.

Apparently he was able to upgrade to W10 pro from W7 pro through a particular link for free very recently. He mentioned that there was no proof required from Microsoft in order to get the update. Just in case anyone wants to check that out. Leo, this worked just fine for me, with a twist. I put a 1TB SSD in it because it was painfully slow with the fastest HDD I could find. It was time for a new laptop, and I got one about two months ago. I have a lot of scripts that run from the Task Scheduler, and a good number of them had to be updated to run with W Most of the changes had to do with paths to things like excel. exe and with minor differences in how powershell runs in W10 vs. Only one problem took me more than a few minutes to diagnose and correct.

That one, though, took me a couple of days. So now I have an old W7 laptop with a nice SSD that is really of no use to me. Then using the procedure you described, upgrade to W10 Pro. It worked flawlessly. Farewell, Windows 7. You served me well. I miss you already. I think you were more stable than Windows 10 right out of the starting gate.

To get started, you will first need to have a licence to install Windows Is there a Surfshark free trial? Comment on the article. Save an ISO file to your PC, which you can use to create a DVD. When they were trying to push Windows 10 on me, I kept my Windows 7. It took a while, but it did work and it is showing that Windows is activated.

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