When my HDD with Win 2000 on it physically died, it was about a week after support for 2000 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!) that my brand-new computer had recovery disks in the box: at this point, I had never heard of anything different) – MS basically said “sorry, we don’t support that product any more”, and HP generously offered to re-sell me the OS – you know, the product that I already had purchased a legal license for and registered.

If you try this process, leave a comment letting us know if it worked for you. If not, your only recourse would be to revert to your backup image or purchase a Windows 10 license key.

It’s unclear how long this approach will work, or if it even works in all situations. The result, after some time, should be a working and activated Windows 10 installation.

When prompted, select Upgrade this PC now.

Run the downloaded Windows 10 setup tool and follow its instructions.

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. The upgrade will result in the same edition - Home or Pro - you begin with. 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. In order for this scenario to work, you must have a working, installed, activated copy of Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. That way, if anything goes wrong, if the activation doesn’t take, or if you just don’t like the results, you can easily and completely revert to where you were when you started. Back upĮven if this wasn’t an unofficial scenario, I’d strongly recommend you take a complete image backup of your computer before starting. When prompted, select Upgrade this PC now. 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. If you have a working, installed, and activated copy of Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, you still can upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

Download windows 10 for free 2021