Does Windows 8 Still Get Updates

Microsoft's costless upgrade offer for Windows ten ended more than five years ago, but no one told the people who run the Windows activation servers. As a result, you can even so upgrade to Windows ten from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and claim a complimentary digital license for the latest Windows 10 version, without being forced to jump through any hoops.

That upgrade became more important than ever when back up for Windows 7 officially ended in January 2020. And it turned out to exist a not bad relief to household budgets when the pandemic made working from home (or going to school via remote sessions) suddenly pop. In the past two years, millions of people have taken old PCs out of storage and gotten up to speed quickly, thank you to these costless upgrades.

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

Yous tin as well nonetheless upgrade Windows x Dwelling to Windows ten Pro by using a product key from a previous business edition of Windows 7, 8, or viii.ane (Pro/Ultimate). That can save you as much as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled. (For details, see "How to upgrade from Windows 10 Dwelling house to Pro without hassles.")

Every technique I depict in this article works the same for Windows 11 too, although virtually older PCs will be blocked from upgrading to Microsoft'south newest operating system by the stringent Windows 11 hardware compatibility requirements. For those PCs, Windows ten remains a viable 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 besides talk about the licensing problems involved, which are (as always) confusing.

I wrote and published the kickoff version of this post in early 2017, several months subsequently Microsoft's initial free upgrade offer ended. The free upgrade offer had only ended, and when I downloaded the Windows 10 upgrade tool and ran it on an old 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.

I digital license, no production key required.

Over the side by side four-plus years, I repeated those steps on test PCs at regular intervals and confirmed that the gratis upgrade tool still works. I go along to receive email letters regularly from readers offer firsthand reports that their free upgrades were successful, with no buy or product fundamental required.

A small number of readers have reported that the upgrade fails considering of a Setup mistake or a compatibility block. For details on how to troubleshoot these errors, see "This free Windows 10 upgrade offer all the same works. Hither's why - and how to become information technology." For help decoding setup errors, encounter "Windows 10: Use setup log files to troubleshoot installation problems."

Want your own digital license to the latest Windows x version? Follow these instructions.

How to upgrade an sometime PC to Windows 10

ZDNet Recommends

The best tablets

Whether you're looking for a tablet to stream videos or to replace your laptop, here are some compelling options.

If y'all have a PC running a "genuine" copy of Windows seven/8/8.ane (Windows 7 Home, Pro, or Ultimate edition, or Windows 8.ten Domicile or Business, properly licensed and activated), you can follow the same steps I did to install Windows x as an upgrade.

Before getting started, I recommend a few preliminary tasks that tin head off potential problems:

Confirm that your copy of Windows is properly activated. This is especially important if y'all recently reinstalled Windows.
Bank check for whatsoever recent driver updates, especially for network and storage hardware.
Download and install whatever available BIOS updates for your hardware; this step is especially important for systems that were originally sold in 2017 or earlier, when hardware makers were still shaking out bug with Windows 10.
Back upwards your data files to an external hard bulldoze or deject storage (or both). Consider doing a full organization backup to an external difficult drive using the Windows seven fill-in program, which is also bachelor in Windows eight.x and Windows x. But run the command Sdclt.exe, and then cull the Create A System Image option.
Temporarily uninstall 3rd-party security software and low-level arrangement utilities that tin can interfere with the upgrade. You can reinstall those programs later on the upgrade is consummate.
Finally, disconnect any unnecessary external devices, especially USB wink drives and external hard drives. (Several mutual installation errors can be traced to the Setup program being confused past these additional drives.)

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

You tin upgrade straight using this tool, or create carve up media.

If you lot've downloaded the Media Creation Tool on the car yous plan to upgrade, and you lot program to upgrade that PC and only that PC, you tin can choose theUpgrade This PC Now option. That option installs the about recent version of Windows 10. It typically takes almost an hour, depending on your hardware. (Having an SSD as your system drive is the best mode to speed up the procedure.)

If you know y'all'll want to upgrade to Windows 10 on more than i PC, or if you just desire more flexibility in the event that the instant upgrade fails, choose the second selection and save the installation files to a USB drive or as an ISO file. The download takes a footling fourth dimension but when it's complete, you lot can run the Windows Setup plan manually to install Windows 10 on any PC running any supported Windows version (sorry, this won't piece of work with PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP). The exact steps depend on which download choice you chose:

USB wink drive Insert the USB wink drive you just created into a complimentary USB slot on the PC yous want to upgrade. Then open File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and double-click Setup to install Windows 10. Annotation that youscannot kicking from the newly created USB drive or DVD to perform an upgrade to Windows x. You must run the Windows 10 setup program from your currently installed and activated copy of Windows.
ISO file After the download is complete, you'll need to mountain the ISO file and open it in a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window. On a PC running Windows 8.1 or Windows ten, you can double-click the ISO file to open it equally a virtual drive. On a PC running Windows 7, yous'll need to install a tertiary-political party utility such as the gratis, open up-source WinCDEmu. After mounting the ISO file, double-click Setup to start the install process.

And then just follow the prompts to complete the upgrade to Windows 10. You will not exist asked for a production key, and when the upgrade is complete and you lot've connected to the internet, you lot'll have a digital license to the most contempo Windows 10 version, which you can confirm past going to Settings > Update and Security > Activation. All your apps and data files volition exist bachelor.

The digital license is associated with that specific device, which ways you tin reformat the disk and perform a clean installation of the aforementioned edition of Windows 10 anytime. (If you're thinking of upgrading your erstwhile organization drive to an SSD, perform the upgrade to Windows ten on the quondam hardware; afterward confirming that the new Windows 10 version is properly activated, install the SSD and then either restore from a backup image or kicking from the USB flash drive to do a clean install. You won't need a product fundamental, and activation is automated.)

Is your license valid?

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

The entire "free upgrade" offer was ever accompanied by language that was, to put it politely, a flake squishy. And the language around the end of that offer was similarly vague. For example, run into the answers I've highlighted hither on Microsoft'south Windows ten Upgrade FAQ:

That'due south very odd language. The free upgradethrough the Get Windows 10 app concluded on July 29, 2016. Likewise, the give-and-take of product keys says a key will exist necessary "for this tool to work" (not true) but doesn't say a word about licensing.

And different the weaselly "Genuine Windows" label on older upgrades, the activation screens for a Windows 10 upgrade specifically ostend the being of a "digital license."

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

Of course, I'm non a lawyer, and this column isn't legal advice. Simply 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 still 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 concluded on Jan. sixteen, 2018. The folio that formerly ran an Upgrade Assistant now returns an fault message.

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

I go along to hear from readers sharing their experiences. If you've used this technique on a PC, click my name at the meridian of this post and use the contact form to let me know how it went for you.

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