If you have not (yet) upgraded to Windows 10 from, for example, Windows 8 or Windows 7, then you are officially late. Microsoft’s free upgrade offer has since expired. But the upgrade tool can still be downloaded. For now, at least. You can still update to Windows 10 for free.
From January 14, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7. No updates or other support to protect your PC will be released for this operating system. Fortunately, there has been a way to switch to Windows 10 for free for a year now.
In 2015, Microsoft already offered the possibility to upgrade for free from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10. That upgrade offer is officially over, but Microsoft has another upgrade option for you.
Supporting technologies
Microsoft has made a free upgrade available for users working with so-called supporting technologies since 2016. Supporting technologies are no more than programs that help the disabled to use the computer. Consider the Screen Keyboard or the Narrator. The difference with this upgrade method and the one mentioned earlier is that you can only install it directly over an existing Windows 7 installation, and cannot run it as a clean version. The tool also did not check whether your supporting software was actually being used.
Download tool via direct link
To perform the upgrade, you had to go to the special Microsoft website and you could use the tool Windows10Upgrade24074.exe to download. The download button has now been removed, but the executable itself can still be downloaded. Yes, you can still download the Windows10Upgrade24074.exe file via this direct link. (https://download.microsoft.com/download/0/1/6/01677C03-1D89-49FD-B49B-87B0F36B00D1/Windows10Upgrade24074.exe).
Don’t want to upgrade now? Then you save the file in a separate place, for example on a usb stick, so that you can still perform the upgrade later. It is not known whether the tool also checks whether you are eligible for the free upgrade.
Windows 8.1
Do you still use Windows 8.1? Even then you would be wise to upgrade to Windows 10. This is because Microsoft has stopped providing basic support for Windows 8.1, which means that only patches are released, but no new features.
In Windows 10, many new features have been added over the years, making it worthwhile to upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
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