Link to Free Windows 10 Upgrade HERE

[VK3DRB]

For those who waited too long to upgrade and "use assistive technologies". Stock standard Windows 10 upgrade for free, for now anyway. It works fine.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade?tduid=(14c348e893a91089cb2980533c6ee123)(256380)(2459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-0FBZfNm6YPFXNhiu3o52rA)()

[ataradov]

What is an "assistive technology" for the purposes of this upgrade extension?

W10 support for devices that are used by the people with disabilities sucks. MS knows it, so they gave a bit more time to manufacturers of those devices to provide support and drivers. So if you pretend to be disabled (or you are actually disabled), then you can do this free upgrade.

[Ampera]

I am emotionally disabled with the crippling condition of can't be arsed to get off my fat American ass and do shit of any sort. Am I eligible? Before you respond, I will take any answer that is not immediately and positively in my favour as an insult and an act of bigotry, and will proceed to gather my other fat lazy American friends to go on an internet cavalry raid to post a few offended comments and forget about the situation a few days afterwards.

Or I can just grab a copy of Linux.

[VK3DRB]

Most engineers people I have known are unbalanced - they have a low EQ but a high IQ. So they need "assistive technology", for example, to find a girlfriend. I met my future wife whilst at uni studying communications and electronic engineering almost 40 years ago. But she say I have a low EQ, so I immediately downloaded the Windows 10 update.

A former engineering colleague of mine at the age of 48 asked me, "How do you go about finding a girlfriend?" He had never had one, never been out on a date, had no idea how to socialise. He might qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 10, because he needs assistive technology to meet a socially inept woman online. Actually he does have eyesight problems, so he definitely qualifies.

[george graves]

Most engineers people I have known are unbalanced

I find this a really interesting topic. There seem many "engineering types" self-define their personalities with some sort of ________ (personally flaw that makes them not good with people)

[amyk]

No thanks. It's "free" because it's adware that spies on you.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/106424/windows-10-tip-turn-off-file-explorer-advertising

[Zero999]

Yes, I've known about that for awhile.

I still often consider upgrading my parent's PC to Windows 10 but will steer clear of it for now. Perhaps I'll do it when MS stop supporting 7.

[andy2000]

They never actually turned of the free upgrade (although they said they did).  I've upgraded Windows 7 PCs as recently as this month (using the normal Windows 10 boot media) without an issue activating.  You can either upgrade from within 7, or do a clean install by entering the Windows 7 key when prompted.  For 8 and 8.1 it will pick up the key from BIOS and doesn't even ask for a key.  If you do the upgrade from within 7, you must be connected to the Internet during the entire upgrade.

[rdl]

I might consider installing Windows 10 if Microsoft offers to send me a monthly payment check for using their "free" spyware.

[Zero999]

They never actually turned of the free upgrade (although they said they did).  I've upgraded Windows 7 PCs as recently as this month (using the normal Windows 10 boot media) without an issue activating.  You can either upgrade from within 7, or do a clean install by entering the Windows 7 key when prompted.  For 8 and 8.1 it will pick up the key from BIOS and doesn't even ask for a key.  If you do the upgrade from within 7, you must be connected to the Internet during the entire upgrade.

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

[andy2000]

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

You have to actually perform the upgrade to get the license, but once you do, it's tied to the motherboard forever.  MS will recognize your PC in the future if you ever have to reinstall (I think it's based on LAN MAC address plus some other things).  Minor upgrades like a new CPU, hard drive, or video card don't seem to affect it.  If you think you might want 10 in the future, you can do the upgrade on a spare hard drive, then put the original drive back in.  It doesn't deactivate your old version of Windows.

[amspire]

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

You have to actually perform the upgrade to get the license, but once you do, it's tied to the motherboard forever.  MS will recognize your PC in the future if you ever have to reinstall (I think it's based on LAN MAC address plus some other things).  Minor upgrades like a new CPU, hard drive, or video card don't seem to affect it.  If you think you might want 10 in the future, you can do the upgrade on a spare hard drive, then put the original drive back in.  It doesn't deactivate your old version of Windows.

This is what I did prior to the end of the free upgrade period a year after the release. I put a Windows 10 sysprep image on a spare disk and booted my Windows 7 machines with it. Did the activation, shut it down, and went back to the Windows 7 disks. I can now install and activate Windows 10 on these PC's and notebooks any time I want.

Microsoft has not made it hard to get Windows 10 install or upgrade ISO images. There will be a new one coming out in a month for the Windows 10 Creators Edition (the next W10 release).

The other thing you have to realise with the Windows ISO's is there really is only two versions - 32 bit and 64 bit. You can change the  version you install by adding a tiny ei.cfg file to the install disk, and in that you can specify OEM or RETAIL installs, and also the type of installation - Home, Pro, etc.

You can do a clean install from a Windows upgrade ISO.

As it has been mentioned, the point of this thread is to show how you can still get your Windows 7 or 8.1 license and your hardware accepted by Microsoft as a valid licensed Windows 10 platform Once you have that, you can install and activate W10 whenever you want.

[edpalmer42]

They never actually turned of the free upgrade (although they said they did).  I've upgraded Windows 7 PCs as recently as this month (using the normal Windows 10 boot media) without an issue activating.  You can either upgrade from within 7, or do a clean install by entering the Windows 7 key when prompted.  For 8 and 8.1 it will pick up the key from BIOS and doesn't even ask for a key.  If you do the upgrade from within 7, you must be connected to the Internet during the entire upgrade.

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

You can, but you should always try to 'refresh' your copy before you do an install.

Go here:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Download the tool.
Run the tool.  It asks if you want to:
 A) Upgrade this PC now
 B) Burn to a disc
 C) Write to a stick

The result is an image on disc or stick with all updates included.

I've never used the 'upgrade now' option, but I've burned a disc and written a stick with no problems.

Couldn't be simpler!

Ed

[amspire]

<snipped> The "tool" is entirely superfluous and just makes it impossible or very difficult to get windows updated if you're not already running windows and/or not having the intended PC online.  Brilliant Microsoft.

Doesn't updating imply you already have Windows? It would be installing otherwise.

I updated by creating a USB stick and it worked well. But I did need an internet connection to download the ISO. There must be very few people who want to upgrade/install Windows 10 who do not have at least access to the means to download from the internet and creat a bootable USB stick. Most of them would be getting Win10 on a new PC purchase I would have thought.

People who want to get the ISO do not necessarily have a W7 or W8.1 machine handy. I take the attitude that when I can get a Microsoft ISO, I get it and store it in case I need it for a Virtual Machine or something. You can get it on a friends PC, a parents, a W7 VM you are running (not sure if the tool will work if W7 is not activated). People are sending old W7 pc to the tip.

I learnt the lesson after Microsoft pulled all the W7 and server ISO's from Digital River. If it is available - get it because it might not be there tomorrow.

[Iwanushka]

can someone share links to virgin 64bit pro Win10 ISO from m$ website? need to install some W10 in external HDDs, at this moment they accept wW7/W8 keys, would be nice to keep them for the future.

[rrinker]

They never actually turned of the free upgrade (although they said they did).  I've upgraded Windows 7 PCs as recently as this month (using the normal Windows 10 boot media) without an issue activating.  You can either upgrade from within 7, or do a clean install by entering the Windows 7 key when prompted.  For 8 and 8.1 it will pick up the key from BIOS and doesn't even ask for a key.  If you do the upgrade from within 7, you must be connected to the Internet during the entire upgrade.

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

 Yes, when you install there is an option to create an ISO for future reinstallation. I have used this to create a Hyper-V VM on my work machine so that when I need to connect to customers with really crappy VPN solutions (Fortigate, I'm looking at you) which mess up the normal TCP/IP stack, I can do so in the VM instead of breaking my main machine. And then roll back to a snapshot to ditch the crapware and reset the VM for next time.

[andy2000]

If I decided to upgrade my parent's PC to Windows 10, can I download it to a USB stick or CD for installation later on? One thing which concerns me is, if in the future, the computer's hard drive needs to be wiped and the OS reinstalled in future, when the Internet is down or MS have stopped providing the Windows 10 upgrade for free. I have a genuine Windows 7 CD, which was purchased separately from the PC, not a shitty OEM install.

You have to actually perform the upgrade to get the license, but once you do, it's tied to the motherboard forever.  MS will recognize your PC in the future if you ever have to reinstall (I think it's based on LAN MAC address plus some other things).  Minor upgrades like a new CPU, hard drive, or video card don't seem to affect it.  If you think you might want 10 in the future, you can do the upgrade on a spare hard drive, then put the original drive back in.  It doesn't deactivate your old version of Windows.