OT :Microsoft Quietly Kills Free Windows 10/11 Upgrades from Windows 7/8

[wasbit]

FYI Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.

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[Brian Gaff]

Really? would seem a little odd. Of course I can see that it might not indeed be actually possible to seamlessly update 7 to 10 with the current version of ten, as its become so much more complex and has recently had some registry alterations that might ruin it. Never mind, I'll just go on using 7 till it loses support from dropbox or other useful software, then have to put my hand in my pocket for new hardware and spend a month manually reconstructing all the settings changes we blind need. Brian

[Jethro_uk]

Thank god for that. I can sleep easy now, knowing it's much less likely a colleague will come in one Monday saying "great news, I saved you a job of upgrading ..."

[Brian Gaff]

Surely that should not happen if the upgrade was sound. Brian

[Scott]

On 29 July 2016.

[Brian Gaff]

From reading that article, It is certainly less than clear, for example if I go to anytime upgrade in 7, whether I'll be able to update to windows 10 or not without a new key. I am eternally perplexed why perfectly simple instructions cannot be used for this sort of thing. Its a bit like Windows help in the way it sidesteps the actual question and gives you other examples that do not wholly cover your situation. Its a bit like interviewing politicians, where you get an answer to a different question to the one you asked as it sounds like they know what they are talking about! Bullshit baffles brains. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

LOL!

[Paul]

This is really a job for a sighted assistant, because installing is hard. There are innumerable road blocks, and there is always something that comes from left field you were not expecting.

You should make a backup of the entire drive, just in case.

A clever user, hides the backup from the assistant, so they can't erase it :-) Like, when dealing with computer shops for installation, that's a key bit of advice, back up the computer before taking it to the shop. There are many stories of computer shops erasing drives they were not supposed to erase.

*******

You could download the Win10 ISO (matching the 32-bit or 64-bit nature of what you have got currently).

"Create Windows 10 installation media

Download tool now "

Modern Windows has the ability to mount an ISO as a virtual DVD drive. Win7 does not have that. But the Passmark-written OSFMount can mount an ISO file and make a virtual DVD drive.

# Go here for a 32-bit version or for Win7 perhaps. This page # has both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version.

# The current page has only a 64-bit version, for W10/W11.

Mounting the media and making a virtual DVD drive, saves on having to burn an installer optical disc.

Then, run Setup.exe from the virtual DVD drive. That should be all it takes, and about four reboots or so.

Making a USB key with the MediaCreationTool is likely easier, but I'm not making any assumptions about what media you own. The virtual DVD drive idea, does not need an optical disk or a USB flash stick.

When you are finished, the

slmgr /dlv

command can tell you whether your license activated OK.

If for any reason, the attempt fails, restore from the backup you made. W10 22H2 does have a hardware requirement - it did not like the GMA x4500 graphics on my Optiplex 780 refurb, for example, and the install rolled back when I tried. I got a graphics card out of the junk room, and the install then worked. The stupid software did not check the graphics early on, and figure it out. It waited until install was half-done, then it rolled back to original state. The W10 OS from the previous year, 21H2, runs just fine with GMA x4500. The processor in that case, is an E7500 Core2 Duo, which is pretty old stuff. The OS would work with a Pentium 4 (one of the very last models made with that name, maybe a 965), but I have not read any accounts of someone doing that. I don't have proof that would work.

Paul

[John Rumm]

I get the impression that what has changed is the ability to do an "in place" upgrade. Previously you could download the Win 10 media creation tool, and it gave options to create bootable DVD or a USB installation media. However it also gave the option to "upgrade this PC". That would if selected, install Win 10 on a system running Win 7 or 8.1 retaining all your apps and many of your settings.

It sounds like that option has been removed.

However you could also do a clean install from the media, and then activate that using a win 7 or 8.1 key - so long as the key was of the appropriate version (so win 7 home to win 10 home, win 7 pro to win 10 pro etc). That sounds like it still works.

Note you don't even need to enter the key during the install, you can leave it blank and enter it later at run time. That also allows system builders to side step the "Out of the Box Experience" (OOBE), so they can setup drivers etc, and then return the machine to a "new" state for the first proper owner to go through setup etc and possibly enter the key themselves (which at one time was on a scratch off label on the case)

It is also probably still worth keeping copies of old win 7 and 8 activation keys if they have not been used to update to 10 yet.

[Theo]

They are removing that option:

(the reason for the strange dates is the official free upgrade path ended

2016, but they are now pulling the plug on unofficial upgrades which still worked. Officially pulling the plug, anyway)

Theo

[Brian Gaff]

They keep on saying this of course. I guess we will only believe them when it happens. I see it is in their interests to leave it intact, since there are a lot of windows 7 machines out there, held hostage by drivers for hardware that those running them cannot afford to replace, the NHS being one of the biggest of course. Brian

[David]

I assume that if you have already upgraded then rolled back then that might still work?

Might have a try on a W8.1 machine if/when I'm bored.

Cheers

Dave R

[Paul]

One reason for "upgrading" is to record your activation.

The license for Windows 10 is stored on the server. Any time you re-install Windows 10, the server recognizes you and the OS is activated. The Personalization menu then works, if you are activated. You can use this to check your activation status.

slmgr /dlv # In an Administrator terminal window # Check W10 after install finishes.

You can restore from backup, as it's faster to do it that way, than to do a "revert" option using C:\Windows.old contents.

(Free Upgrade program) Upgrade Install Win7SP1 -----------------> Win10 installed and Activated

Restore from backup if you wish, and run Win7SP1 some more.

Later... either one of these cases will then work, because your Activation is recorded.

Upgrade Install Win7SP1 -----------------> Win10 installed and Activated

Win10 Clean install -----> Win10 installed and Activated (could switch from 32 bit to 64 bit, this way)

*******

The secret, is to do a backup first.

Do your Upgrade install. You don't even need to burn media to do it. You will need an ISO mounter program, if using an ISO9660 file from the Windows 10 download and MediaCreationTool.

# Go here for a 32-bit version or for Win7 perhaps. This page # has both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version.

Otherwise, if that seems like too much work, follow the instructions the MediaCreationTOol gives you (either use an 8GB USB flash stick or a single or dual layer DVD blank). Note that one of the ISO files, was a bit bigger than 4.7GB and that would mean using a dual layer DVD blank. With the USB flash stick, it doesn't matter about the size (the 8GB stick handles both sizes of files).

After the ISO is mounted and you have a virtual DVD drive showing in File Explorer, go to the window there and double click Setup.exe . That is how you can do the Free Upgrade with minimal fuss. But no matter how "safe" an install method is, a backup image can pay dividends in an emergency. I have lost all the contents of a disk drive (twice I think), while doing OS installs. Just to give some idea how often it can happen.

Debian wiped out my Linux drive (With three Linux OSes on it). There is a bug in Win2K installer CD, whereby it will erase the drive.

Paul