There is still a free upgrade to Win 10 if you are on Win 7

[Deleted member 94047]

Hello all!

I have an oldish ThinkPad T420 running Windows 7 which has been gathering dust for a few years now and I wanted to see if I could run Resolve on it and discovered that Resolve requires Windows 10. I upgraded it to Windows 10 but unfortunately, Resolve spat on it's graphics card and threw a fit that amounted to telling me what I was thinking trying to run it on a system that does not have a dedicated GPU. Good news is I managed to upgrade the system to Windows 10 Pro, installed an additional SSD, and made this old system my new photo editing platform. Both LR and PS run reasonably well on it.

Any way, I will cut to the point. Remember Microsoft had a free upgrade offer for Windows 10? According to Microsoft's own FAQ list, that program is dead and buried (see snapshot below).



But I looked around and found a few sites which asserted that this was not so and that you could in fact upgrade your Windows 7 system to Windows 10 for free by downloading the installation iso from Microsoft's website through their Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. And I can confirm that it is indeed true. For anyone interested, here is a link with detailed instructions on how to go about it.

Can you still get a Windows 10 upgrade for free in 2025? Short answer: Maybe

Microsoft kept giving away free upgrades to Windows 10 on old hardware for more than eight years. The upgrades officially ended in 2023, but I've seen scattered reports that it still works for some people. But should you even bother?

www.zdnet.com

 

[nenad83]

That is technical option to do, but it is not free, and it is not legal

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Care to elaborate a little?

 

[nenad83]

What to elaborate? You got tool for it, because is is used for other scenarios, but you do not have license for upgrade, you did not pay for it. Technically you can do lot of stuff that are not legal to use...

 

[Johnmcl7]

That is technical option to do, but it is not free, and it is not legal

This is both free and legal, Microsoft will allow you to upgrade to Windows 10 if you have an activated and legal version of Windows 7 or a valid W7 key. Microsoft want people to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 now that W7 is end of life and it's been a thorn in their side for many years, getting people onto Windows 10 doesn't just get them off Windows 7 but also onto a much smaller refresh cycle.

I don't know why Microsoft even bothered licensing Windows 10 home as they make no money from it since most people will get it with a PC where the manufacturer will have paid pennies for it. They make their money through their cloud software as a service systems and their eye watering enterprise licensing.

 

[umanbean]

This is both free and legal, Microsoft will allow you to upgrade to Windows 10 if you have an activated and legal version of Windows 7 or a valid W7 key.

THAT is the correct answer. A legal Windows 8 key # will also work. I upgraded dozens of Windows 7/8 computers towards the end of last year and so far this year.

The download link is right there on the Microsoft website, how much more legal could it get?

I've done this for many people and no one yet has been asked for money...

So that makes it legal and free.

Can't figure out why people spread misinformation on the internet if they don't know what they're talking about.

 

[zeusfl]

Search for Microsoft toolkit 2.6.8 this will allow you to experiment with the local KMS server. Please use this for educational purposes only. ?
You can experiment (activate) Windows, office.

 

[umanbean]

Search for Microsoft toolkit 2.6.8 this will allow you to experiment with the local KMS server. Please use this for educational purposes only. ?
You can experiment (activate) Windows, office.

No way!

There is absolutely no way I'm going to install something like that - and from an unknown website - on any of my computers. And especially would not condone, install or recommend it on any of my customers' computers.

 

[zeusfl]

I agree. As I mention this is for experiment and educational purposes. ? ?

 

[nenad83]

This is both free and legal, Microsoft will allow you to upgrade to Windows 10 if you have an activated and legal version of Windows 7 or a valid W7 key. Microsoft want people to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 now that W7 is end of life and it's been a thorn in their side for many years, getting people onto Windows 10 doesn't just get them off Windows 7 but also onto a much smaller refresh cycle.

I don't know why Microsoft even bothered licensing Windows 10 home as they make no money from it since most people will get it with a PC where the manufacturer will have paid pennies for it. They make their money through their cloud software as a service systems and their eye watering enterprise licensing.

I do software licensing professional, MS gold partner, etc...
It is how you can do it, but you did not pay upgrade license for it. It was free only for the first year when 10 comes out. Now it is not free. Lot of things you can do, but not all are legal.

 

[Johnmcl7]

I do software licensing professional, MS gold partner, etc...
It is how you can do it, but you did not pay upgrade license for it. It was free only for the first year when 10 comes out. Now it is not free. Lot of things you can do, but not all are legal.

If Microsoft didn't want people upgrading their W7 or W8 licenses their activation servers wouldn't accept the keys, it's hardly an oversight or mistake that it's happening. The problem with the forced GWX upgrade was they ended up causing too many problems unsurprisingly and ultimately they still want people off Windows 7 and onto Windows 10, hence their activation servers still accept the upgrade.

 

[zeusfl]

You can download the Windows 10 installation Media tool. Download Windows 10
and create an ISO file or a USB. If you decide from ISO to USB you can use Rufus to do this.

When you install just skip the CD-KEY and continue. If you don't activate windows you cant modify your desktop theme. The rest will work. but starting from cero is my recommendation. If you need to transfer your profile you can backup using USMT (User State Migration Tool) and they restore on W10.