Microsoft officially ended free upgrades to Windows 10 for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users on July 29th, 2016, but it still allowed customers that rely on assistive technologies to continue making the leap for free.
The kicker here, however, is that even if you don't use assistive technologies in Windows, you can still take advantage of the free upgrade. So, for anyone that wants a legitimate Windows 10 license without having to fork over any money, this is about as good as it gets.
Microsoft originally said that its free upgrade for assistive technologies users would end on December 31st, 2017. However, that date passed and customers were still able to download a free copy of Windows 10. Microsoft then updated the language on its site to state:
If you use assistive technologies, you can upgrade to Windows 10 at no cost as Microsoft continues our efforts to improve the Windows 10 experience for people who use these technologies. Please take advantage of this offer before it expires on January 16th, 2018.
Well, today is the day, which means that if Microsoft is true to its word, you will no longer be able to download the Windows 10 installer tomorrow. Freeloaders will have to either upgrade all of their machines by this evening or prepare to fork over $100+ for a license for each computer. In other words, the party's over pal... or is it?
It's likely that only techies and people who genuinely need assistive technologies even know that the free upgrade "loophole" still exists anyway, and most enthusiasts have probably already upgraded to Windows 10 (or at least have obtained their free license key by now). The majority of legacy Windows users who still need to upgrade will likely go through the normal channels to do so, forking over money for a digital download.
I'll use Win7 until it's EOL, then either switch to Win8.1 or switch straight to Linux.
Mason Diaz
Is it possible to grab a win10 key without updrading?
William Cruz
why would anyone want to use windows 10 though? Only reason anyone uses it at all is because they forced new prebuilts to come with it, and spent a year scamming 7 and 8 users into upgrading.
Connor Hernandez
>download win 10 iso via torrent or other source >install win10 >don't activate key >use KMspico >????? >free win10 it even installs all the updates. shit's retarded
Jaxson Gray
Win7 fags on suicide watch kek
Anthony Butler
this
Joseph Jackson
>Willingly installing Chinese rootkits on your fresh Windows installation
Besides, crackers are a huge pain in the arse and get deactivated all the fucking time. There is no arguing that a native activated Win10 copy is much, much better.
All self-respecting oldfags I know went with the pirated Win7 -> KMspico -> update to legit Win10 route
Gabriel Baker
>self-respecting oldfags >using Windows 10
Leo Long
>Besides, crackers are a huge pain in the arse and get deactivated all the fucking time
You're dumb.
Gabriel Campbell
All of the smart ones used Daz. It was the most reliable and just werked.
Carter Green
No, you're dumb or is too much of a newfag. The benefits of a native activated Win10 copy are obvious to anybody with a bit of experience.
Exactly, Linux is only valuable if you don't respect your free time.
Wyatt Edwards
Man, it's one mouse click and it never gets deactivated.
I personally use KMSauto NET.
Kayden Nguyen
windows 10 is shit too, to use maybe better than linux though
windows 7 was the only good GUI environment ever made
Josiah Fisher
Even if you never activate windows, it will not stop working, ever.
Joseph Bell
windows 10 is not expensive. either be a proper piratefag or just buy it. don't do this gay shit.
Jackson Hall
Why would you pay to be datamined by microsoft?
Aiden Bennett
How the fuck is this even an issue for people on Sup Forums
Dylan Russell
>upgrading Windows >not doing a clean install
>EVER
Lol.
Aaron Gray
You clean install after you get the valid license
Also win10 has better GUI than win7 and win8.1
Colton Parker
>"upgrade"
Ryan Watson
Downgrading to a new version.
Evan Hughes
>Also win10 has better GUI than win7 and win8.1
Gavin Green
>Exactly, Linux is only valuable if you don't respect your free time. Just like how Windows respects your productive time with a wild 3 hour update.
Carson Barnes
Today's the 18th dipshit
Parker Davis
You'd have to be fucking retarded to think that it's not better than 8.
Ian Gutierrez
...
Ryan Gonzalez
>Also win10 has better GUI than win7 and win8.1
t.Stevie Wonder
Alexander Powell
I literally just used my W7 Pro key on my clean W10 installation and it upgraded to W10 Pro.
Fuck off.
Jonathan Carter
That method will always works. It's the "Free" method that isn't not working for now
Noah Hughes
afaik this still works. So does clean installing using a windows 7 key.
>download windows 10 iso >go offline >on windows 7/8.1 run gatherosstate.exe that is on the windows 10 iso and it will give you a ticket file, save it somewhere >clean install windows 10, do NOT connect to the internet yet >Copy the ticket file from before to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket\ >reboot (important) >go online for the first time and it should be activated
Ian Reed
Has at least 2 years to upgrade free, doesn't, complains 2 weeks after it's no longer an option.
Ethan Gray
You can, with cripple key.
Eli Thompson
no wonder Sup Forums likes win7 more than win10
Ethan Carter
it all make sense now
Oliver Johnson
Does this mean my win 7 key won't work anymore if I do a clean install of win 10? IT has worked several times now. Does the system just count my win 7 key as an upgraded key or some shit?
Aiden White
a Win 7 key work but getting for free won't work
Hunter Johnson
Wait, you're meaning to tell me people still pay for Windows? That's cute lmfao.
Jaxson Flores
>rename a folder on usb >get that exact screen (except for the error message) as soon as I pressed enter Windows is the absolute epitome of trash. Fuck microsoft.
Julian Thomas
>He doesn't pirate Windows >>>>>>
Blake Anderson
trying to dl w8.1 enterprise but cant find any working links
Owen Evans
>buy a new computer >windows has an update waiting for you! >4gb >takes literally 5 hours to install
wow what a great new computer buying experience. Please note that this is not my personal experience as I am not a retard
Andrew Lee
>now you gotta pay for spyware instead of getting it for free
kek, implying this won't hurt microsoft more since they can't spy as much on windows 7 users
Chase Kelly
If you want Win10 and you couldn't upgrade, you can get a key for 5 dollars from ebay.
Grayson Richardson
>Implying they can't pack that shit in with a legitimate security update whenever they want
The power of closed souce software
Charles Mitchell
i wouldn't downgrade to windblows 10 if microshit payed me to do it
Camden Collins
You misunderstood the question. I already have Windows 10 that I got for free with an upgrade from Windows 7.
What I'm wondering is if I do a clean install of Windows 10, will I be able to use the same Win 7 key that I've been using?
Robert Rivera
Meant for
Julian Diaz
I can clean install Windows 10 Home at any time because I installed it previously. It is better to do a clean install.
Jack Cruz
>windows 10 >upgrade
Mason Jenkins
This. Unless you get a new motherboard
Joseph Cox
nice shitpost faggot, nobody wants winblows 10
Austin Turner
>implying that's a bad thing That's fucking great, you faggot. The paywall will prevent theses dumb folks who doesn't know the awfulness of 10, but are willing to upgrade regardless because they heard the keyword "upgrade".
Microsoft are shooting bullets to their own foot, and in a rightful way.
Jackson Gonzalez
>it's another luddites think Windows 7 is better than 10 episode All of the telemetry and none of the benefits
Wyatt Rivera
Oh boo fucking hoo.
I'm upgrading my mobo/CPU/RAM in 2020 so fuck them.
Jace Davis
Piss on your valid license. I haven't paid for software since the first and last time I bought Partition Magic 4.0. Piss on you, too. I have no problems with activation on bare metal or VMs and my activators never get deleted because they either live on my Linux host or get burned to finalized DVD along with other clean install tools.
MDL forums are full of rather interesting info on activation mechanisms and worth the read. It's more convenient to use an activator than activate online.
Lucas Brooks
Yeah until KB971033 came along and fucked their shit up and broke any Daz activation until you uninstalled it and then re-installed Daz. MS Toolkit and KMSpico are the proper way to do things now as it just uses a local KMS activation which MS can’t do fuck all about.
Logan Lee
So just uninstall and reinstall Daz, it's piss easy
Kayden Perez
you can download the creation tool directly from microsoft's website and use the 7 key without all your faggot "workaround" bullshit
Jack Morris
>The paywall will prevent lol
Wyatt Jenkins
KMspico has been working really well for me
Oliver Anderson
You also can’t use Daz on GPT formatted drives, which are required for UEFI booting.
Mason Gonzalez
Upgrade then revert back to Windows 7. This will reserve your Windows 10 digital license.
Gabriel Fisher
Werks on my machine ;^)
Camden Garcia
>100$ for a key sorry to burst your bubble but you can get a legit key for 10 bucks or less
Asher Powell
Daz loader team explicitly says it does not work for GPT partition tables. So no, it doesn’t work on your machine. Your drive is formatted as MBR.
Elijah Perry
...
Ethan Ward
So just format your drive as MBR, what's the problem?
Luis Edwards
Yes, it will prevent poorfags. In fact, that will also incentive them to spend wisely and save their money.
Lincoln Gonzalez
Oh no that suuuuuucks. Fuck W10.
Josiah Howard
>what’s the problem
#1 you can’t use UEFI if you do.
#2 it doesn’t support partitions over 2TB.
Why are you so insistent on using an ancient loader? Why is it so hard to use something else? KMSpico just werks and it doesn’t have to write anything to your boot sector.
Jordan Adams
Because I'm not too worried about saving 2 seconds on boot times >boot partitions over 2tb You're doing it wrong. Unless you can afford an NVMe SSD over 2TB in which case you wouldn't be using Daz loader in the first place
Easton Scott
WINDOWS 10 DOES NOT REQUIRE AN ACTIVATION TO USE, RECIEVE UPDATES AND OPERATE FULLY
you fucking ppl are idiots, i installed this shit over 2 years ago off their USB boot drive maker and never activated it, same for my moms pc
Isaac Ward
I don't give a shit. DX12 is not worth the insane amount of downgrades that system got.
John Thomas
Wanted to upgrades to Win10 to encrypt my system partition using Bitlocker (bad idea?).
Is it possible to properly disable all the spying on Win10? Just saw that Microsoft updated my Windows 7 to spy on me as well.
David Collins
This. There is absolutely no reason to ever "upgrade" from Windows 7.
James Reyes
Nice blog.
Nicholas Cooper
kek, I just literally updated to 10 from 8 last night on a used laptop I got on a sweet deal, I didn't had a chance to check if it was activated but I asume it was or why would they even allow me to update in the first place, I just did it for the license, I'm going to install 7 the moment I get a chance
Ryder Rogers
This sucks. I've been recovering old desktops, and laptops, and giving them to friends, and family. I must have had that upgrade 30 times last year. I don't have any pcs to work on anymore, but if I can take load 10 for free, and 7 literally doesn't want to find updates, it's gg for me.
Samuel Robinson
Nah, actually the contrary Bro.
Nathan Lewis
>No, you're dumb or is too much of a newfag. The benefits of a native activated Win10 copy are obvious to anybody with a bit of experience. Yeah, because legal spyware is SO MUCH better. There are no benefits at all to having any kind of Win10 copy.
Grayson Adams
>installer You can just grab the iso from a mirror, run the upgrade installer from a hacktivated Windows 7, and downgrade to Windows 10 and it will give you the key as always.
If you relied on some shitty installer then you're retarded. Personally I prefer a pirated Windows because it doesn't phone home every 30 days or stop working after 30 days of no internet like genuine goy machines do.
Grayson Gomez
beyond 2TB+ boot support, GPT has a checksum for itself and the partition table which allows the bootloader to detect mismatches and recover the partition table from the backup GPT header, MBR has no such backup and you're shit out of luck if the MBR itself is corrupted
Caleb Ortiz
you can buy a win10pro license for 30$ and save yourself all the hassle
Carson Torres
>There is no arguing that a native activated Win10 copy is much, much better. >his computer phones home to Microsoft every 3 weeks >failing to do will render his OS unusable I don't know how you people put up with this shit. It's your fucking computer, you OWN it. Why in the world do you think it's okay for it to turn itself off in contempt of your wishes? It's YOUR COMPUTER it should work for you!
Chase Perez
at the point where you're buying MSDN or dreamspark keys laundered that are subject to deactivation you might as well just use a free KMS based activator.
Colton Gomez
Never had that problem for 20 years, and someone pirating windows isn't worried about it either
Jackson Stewart
nope, just a phone call to microsoft and legal win10pro activated without those stupid activator trojans
Liam Long
Here you faggot: 1.- Open this on a non-windows OS: microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO 2.- Download your ISP of choice. 3.- Install 4.- (optional) Patch it. If W10 isn't activated it will not let you customize the start menu. Everything else (updates included) still works. 5.- there's no steep 5 you stupid faggot.
Elijah Long
*iso, fucking chink phone autocorrector
Jeremiah Thompson
most people building PCs are also too ignorant to switch their BIOS from the default settings to UEFI only boot or UEFI preferred, or use UEFI install media, or change the settings in their BIOS so the RAM they bought actually runs at the listed clock speed via the XMP profile, etc...
there are people who pirate windows who know what they are doing.
windows XP was dead easy because of VLKs, so long as you weren't on a huge volume license then you escaped detection
vista came out with KMS activation. for vista (OEM activation 2.0) and 7 (OEM activation 2.1) it was super easy to emulate OEM activation because every key was the same for a given edition of windows from a manufacturer. one command to load a digital certificate and emulating the SLIC table for the license in the BIOS and you were golden.
as microsoft tried to pick the BIOS loaders off in support packs and updates, some people instead modded the actual bios' they installed to contain the SLIC table instead. (SLIC is inert code, easy enough to edit the BIN and flash it with that table in). this survived updates like KB971033 fine.
windows 8 changed the game with OEM keys being issued tied to mobo serials, this killed OEM activation. KMS activation wasn't permanent but the grace period required for enterprise applications and to not bug the shit out of users (180 days) meant it was practical. also there are tons of valid KMS keys.
now on win10 with defender built into windows (as it was on 8) they try to remove some of the most popular KMS activators, but you can deactivate defender and user a 3rd party AV, or just whitelist the folder the KMS activator is in. from a detection perspective, the activator is easy to detect, reconciling a legitimate KMS server against a fake one is far harder (and not worth the effort).
tl;dr you can pirate and know the best way to do it + technology advantages under the hood.
Isaiah Robinson
technet, MSDN, dreamspark keys are subject to activation limits that normal retail keys are not. paying for a key acquired out of channel is pretty fucking dumb. in a business software audit you'll still get fucked because you violated the license agreement, in personal terms no one gives a shit.
there are utilities for KMS activation that are open source and Microsoft posts the hashes of the ISOs for windows media. hell, you can use microsoft tools to download the ISO/prepare a USB, and then modify a single file to change the channel (volume/retail/oem) and the edition (if required from home to pro to enterprise).
if you download install media from a non-microsoft source without verifying the hash against one published by MS, you're asking for botnet, but it is very easy to pirate windows with a KMS activator while having a legitimate uninfected copy.
Wyatt Evans
At least Microsoft is doing us a favor for once.
Brody Perry
>be a college student >get win10 for free without the botnet activator
Jackson Jones
I upgraded three computers in my house running pirated windows 7 64 bit ultimate. This was after using Win10nfor Andrew months are work and came to liking it.
Inused that assistive technology "loophole" and it gave me the highest 64 bit build for free.
One thing I was surprised about was how this was such a seem less upgrade. I didn't have to reinstall anything except a driver or two. Everything was just there and working.
Hats off to Microsoft... This time.
Jackson Cruz
TL;DR lol
Nolan Edwards
Exactly, everything just werks Fuck driver hunting with Windows 7
Colton Hughes
>win 10 Who the fuck gives a shit about this pile of garbage.