Regret not taking advantage of the free upgrade offer to Windows 10? A loophole in the Windows 10 Free Upgrade offer lets you freely upgrade your Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 installations to the latest Windows 10, five months after the free upgrade offer expired. Apparently, Microsoft is keeping the free upgrade offer open to people who use assistive technologies. These could include people who use screen narrators or magnifiers. You can now simply head over to Microsoft Accessibility website , and on checking an undertaking that you do use assistive technologies, avail the free Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft reportedly isn't checking if you actually use these features.

33 Comments on Loophole Lets You Freely Upgrade to Windows 10 After Offer Expiry

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#1 R-T-B

I'm amazed this wasn't posted in TPU news sooner, honestly. It's been known for months... Posted on Dec 29th 2016, 23:18 Reply

#2 XiGMAKiD

A while back I upgraded a Windows 7 PC to Windows 10 using ISO downloaded directly from Microsoft and it still works, then I tried to do a Windows 10 clean install on the same PC using the Windows 7 key and it also works. Posted on Dec 29th 2016, 23:38 Reply

#3 KainXS

I tried this a while back and it worked, I thought they fixed it though:confused: Posted on Dec 29th 2016, 23:43 Reply

#4 Mussels

Moderprator this has been known and leaked for a long time, it's been discussed in the forums and on GN a few times. Posted on Dec 29th 2016, 23:53 Reply

#5 cdawall

where the hell are my stars All you have to do is run Windows 10 install media on a 7/8 machine and it doesn't ask for another key... Hell the 7 key still works on clean installs Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 0:38 Reply

#6 RejZoR

If you have the "Upgrade now" installer from when the upgrade deal was still official, you can still use it to upgrade. It's how I upgraded sister's laptop which she received like 3 days after the deal has officially ended... Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 1:21 Reply

#7 JayCan73

Anyone know if this will work with an OEM win 7 key? Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 1:58 Reply

#8 Meeliskt

JayCan73 Anyone know if this will work with an OEM win 7 key? Worked for me week ago with old HP laptop and OEM key. Worked for me week ago with old HP laptop and OEM key. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 2:31 Reply

#9 JayCan73

Meeliskt Worked for me week ago with old HP laptop and OEM key. Cool, thanks. Cool, thanks. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 2:44 Reply

#10 Ferrum Master

Old news. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 3:25 Reply

#11 FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!" Who doesn't use Mangifier? Pretty handy program. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 3:30 Reply

#12 dj-electric

Are there any people out there who don't know that u can use an older installations of win10 with win7 keys to get a full win10 license? Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 7:10 Reply

#13 Dammeron

I just used an old HDD to install Win7 and upgrade it to Win10, then switched back to my SSD with my main system on it. Licence reserved for the future... Even if You change the hardware, You can always contact MS and say You wrecked Your PC and need to transfer the licence to a new one. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 7:14 Reply

#14 Ferrum Master

Dj-ElectriC Are there any people out there who don't know that u can use an older installations of win10 with win7 keys to get a full win10 license? Probably Linus Torwalds doesn't know that :D Probably Linus Torwalds doesn't know that :D Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 7:14 Reply

#15 AsRock

TPU addict HAHA, i think they done this on purpose so they can say we had xxxxxxxxx amount of users to join the Win10 experience after the trail.. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 8:50 Reply

#16 newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder I just did a fresh install of Windows 10 using a Windows 7 Key that ha never been upgraded before. If you do a fresh install, you can still upgrade. And this was with the Anniversary Update ISO. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 9:28 Reply

#17 Ikaruga

R-T-B I'm amazed this wasn't posted in TPU news sooner, honestly. It's been known for months... Honestly it's been known since win10 upgrade exists, but it's never the news why we come to TPU (I can't even think of a site which is slower tbh), we just come because we love it how it is

:toast:



ps.: Iirc MS even apologized recently for its malware like win10 upgrade procedure. Honestly it's been known since win10 upgrade exists, but it's never the news why we come to TPU (I can't even think of a site which is slower tbh), we just come because we love it how it is:toast:ps.: Iirc MS even apologized recently for its malware like win10 upgrade procedure. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 11:09 Reply

#18 TheOne





Also this is kind of news, the fact that it's still free after about 5 months, I also think some were worried about talking about the accessibility option so that might be why this is so late. Ikaruga ps.: Iirc MS even apologized recently for its malware like win10 upgrade procedure. I read that off of Guru, so not sure how accurate it was, but it seemed to be less an apology and more of them admitting that they had gone to far.



And the "those two weeks were pretty painful", the first news reports I saw talking about forced installation were around Feb/March, and in May it was confirmed that they had changed the way the upgrade software worked, in June they merely gave a second prompt to cancel the install, and in July they finally stopped the automatic installation, so about Feb-July.



www.guru3d.com/news-story/microsoft’s-agrees-windows-10-upgrade-was-pushed-too-aggressively.html After the free upgrade offer expired the only thing that really changed was they stopped pushing the OS through Windows Update, all the other methods were reported as still working.Also this is kind of news, the fact that it's still free after about 5 months, I also think some were worried about talking about the accessibility option so that might be why this is so late.I read that off of Guru, so not sure how accurate it was, but it seemed to be less an apology and more of them admitting that they had gone to far.And the, the first news reports I saw talking about forced installation were around Feb/March, and in May it was confirmed that they had changed the way the upgrade software worked, in June they merely gave a second prompt to cancel the install, and in July they finally stopped the automatic installation, so about Feb-July. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 13:19 Reply

#19 Konceptz

Actually I haven't came across a single windows 7 key that couldn't be used to activate windows 10.



As long as you match home with home and pro with pro you'll be fine. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 14:48 Reply

#20 Antykain

Yeah, this 'loophole' has been around for some time but, I kinda forgot about it myself. I did take advantage of it and upgraded my other WCG cruncher from Win8.1 to Win10. Still have not been able to upgrade my old lappy running Win7 using the OEM key I have for it.. No biggie though, as it's about to be retired. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 16:08 Reply

#21 ManofGod

You do not need any loophole at all. Just download the Media Creation tool, create a usb install drive, run setup on top of Windows 7 or 8.1, done. The free Windows 10 upgrade is fully available, it is just not being pushed anymore. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 16:21 Reply

#22 Ikaruga

TheOne I read that off of Guru, so not sure how accurate it was, but it seemed to be less an apology and more of them admitting that they had gone to far.



And the "those two weeks were pretty painful", the first news reports I saw talking about forced installation were around Feb/March, and in May it was confirmed that they had changed the way the upgrade software worked, in June they merely gave a second prompt to cancel the install, and in July they finally stopped the automatic installation, so about Feb-July.



www.guru3d.com/news-story/microsoft’s-agrees-windows-10-upgrade-was-pushed-too-aggressively.html The actual quote is below, and yes it's more like a aknowledgement than a apology, but that's why I used "iirc", because I wasn't sure about the exact wording.



"We know we want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective, but finding the right balance where you’re not stepping over the line of being too aggressive is something we tried and for a lot of the year I think we got it right, but there was one particular moment in particular where, you know, the red X in the dialog box which typically means you cancel didn’t mean cancel.



And within a couple of hours of that hitting the world, with the listening systems we have we knew that we had gone too far and then, of course, it takes some time to roll out the update that changes that behavior. And those two weeks were pretty painful and clearly a lowlight for us. We learned a lot from it obviously." The actual quote is below, and yes it's more like a aknowledgement than a apology, but that's why I used "iirc", because I wasn't sure about the exact wording. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 16:39 Reply

#23 Mussels

Moderprator I may have a folder with every release of W10, so i can abuse all these tricks :P



like upgrading W7/8.1 with the original RTM release, then upgrading with the RS1 iso. Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 19:09 Reply

#24 drade

Okay, this may be a really n00b question... But I hated windows 10 initially when I installed it for free five months ago.



I run windows 7. Do I really need to upgrade, like, can't I run windows 7 like I did XP for years? Posted on Dec 30th 2016, 22:39 Reply

#25 Pruny

Yes you can. I still use Xp also :) Posted on Dec 31st 2016, 2:27 Reply