Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January 2020. The company has since been advising holdouts to upgrade to Windows 10 for both the smooth running of their PCs and security reasons.
Upgrading to Windows 10 is important to ensure that your Windows device continues to run securely and smoothly. But the OS may not seem cheap for everyone – Windows 10 Home costs $139, and the Pro version costs a whopping $199. That is darn expensive to some.
Fortunately, the good news is, you don’t have to pay a dime to upgrade to Windows 10. You can switch for FREE! This free upgrade method was offered by Microsoft in 2016, but still works even in 2021.
How to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 for free
Step 1. Go to the Windows 10 download website.
Step 2. Click Download Tool Now button under Create Windows 10 installation media
Step 3. Give it some time to finish the download then double click the file to run. (You need to have administrative permission to run the file)
Step 4. A license agreement page will show up next, select Accept
Step 5. On the next What do you want to do? page, choose Upgrade this PC now
N/B: If you need to upgrade a secondary PC, not the one you’re surfing the web on, select the second option, “Create installation media for another PC,” and follow the prompts.
Step 6. Follow the prompts.
At some point, you’ll be asked to choose whether you would like to choose whether to keep either personal files and apps or personal files or Nothing at all. If you’d like to keep everything, select Keep personal files and apps.
You can also choose to keep personal files only or let Windows clear everything during the installation process to start on a clean slate. We don’t advise the latter, though. Only choose to start from scratch if you’re backed up all your files.
During the installation process, your PC or laptop will restart several times, so don’t worry when you see such behavior. Also, don’t turn off your PC during the process – it might crash your computer totally.
You can confirm that your upgrade is activated when you go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation.
Read Next:
