The free upgrade offer had just 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. I wrote and published the first version of this post in early 2017, several months after Microsoft's initial free upgrade offer ended. I'll also talk about the licensing issues involved, which are (as always) confusing. In this post, I'll cover the basics of how to install Windows 10 as an upgrade on older hardware. (For details, see 'How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro without hassles.') That can save you as much as $100 in OEM upgrade charges if you buy a new PC with Windows 10 Home preinstalled. You can also still upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro by using a product key from a previous business edition of Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 (Pro/Ultimate). And it could be a great relief to your budget if you're required to work from home (or go to school via remote sessions) and you need to take an old PC out of storage and get up to speed quickly.Īlso: Windows 11 FAQ: Here's everything you need to know That upgrade is more important than ever, now that support for Windows 7 has officially ended. Here are ZDNet's current top picks for a variety of use cases.
