At this point there may still be one or two options to get the free Windows 10 upgrade on your PCs that are running licensed versions of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. While the widely publicized free Windows 10 upgrade deadline closed on July 29, 2016, users may still be able to download and install Windows 10.
Qualifying users can do one of two things at this point:
First, the free Windows 10 upgrade is still available for assistive technology users as far as we know. We covered this and how to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 if you’re already on a licensed older version of Windows. Read the article here.
The second way – whether or not you have a licensed version of Windows – is to get the Windows 10 ISO file (disc image) and then do a clean install. Microsoft offers this option for those whose systems don’t support the media creation tool.
The ISO file is typically used to create a bootable DVD or a USB flash drive. You don’t need a product key to download this file. However, during the installation process you will be asked to enter a product key. If you skip this step you can still get Windows 10, but the product won’t be activated. But that should be alright, as we’ll explain.
Just head over to this URL…
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
…and you should be able to download the file. But you’ll need to first check if your PC meets the system requirements, and check which version you need. Unfortunately there’s no default choice for these options so you will need to know exactly which disc image (ISO file) you require.
We haven’t tried this ourselves because our devices are already on Windows 10, but it should work for users of older versions of Windows. If it doesn’t work this way for you, then the only option is to go to the assistive technologies page on Microsoft’s site and upgrade your Windows 10 that way. We know that it works, so you shouldn’t have any problems.
The only issue you may face with the ISO installation method is that if you don’t have a valid product key, then your version of Windows 10 won’t be activated, as we mentioned earlier.
As far as we know there aren’t that many restrictions other than a few things like watermarks, lack of personalization, constant notifications to activate the OS and so on. However, you should be able to use most of the utilities with no problems. Think of it as a free demo version of Windows 10 that does pretty much everything an activated version would.
If the free Windows 10 upgrade works for you using this method, please let us know in the comments section so other users can benefit from this as well.
Thanks for reading our work! Please bookmark 1redDrop.com to keep tabs on the hottest, most happening tech and business news from around the world. On Apple News, please favorite the 1redDrop channel to get us in your news feed.
