Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free  

goopy said:

Oh well, but thanks for the kind reply.

I must say I'm glad I really did. I gained so much space and my pc runs so much better and faster. I kept a spare HDD win my win 7 on it until I was up and running smoothly on 10. Win 7 is history now. love 10 so much better.

I've read through the tutorial a few times before posting this. My Win7 Ultimate 64-bit desktop will adequately meet the W10 specs (though I still might decide to upgrade the video card in advance), so I intend to perform the upgrade sometime in the next few months. I've already downloaded the MCT 1903 tool and created a USB that has been used to upgrade a different machine (a laptop with plenty of storage) from Win10 1809 Home 64-bit to 1903 that went well. I've had no luck so far with a different 32 Gb eMMC storage-constrained laptop/tablet -- installing 1809 from 1803 took forever to achieve success after almost everything non-OS had been uninstalled, and in the end I reinstalled the original out-of-box 1511 image and performed the upgrade to 1809 directly instead of going through the intermediate versions. That tablet is now probably a lost cause because of the 1903 space requirements that simply can't be achieved, even with external storage that is properly recognized.

I may wait long enough for 1909 to be released and vetted before making a final decision on whether to use its MCT version on a new, different USB stick for the desktop, but whether 1909 or 1903 is used for the W7U upgrade my approach would be comparable: perform a full backup/disk image, then right-click on the USB drive's "setup.exe" and select "run as administrator". That approach seemed to produce happier outcomes with prior upgrades on both the W10 machines until the 1903 space requirements precluded success on the tablet.

When I do finally take that step, I'll report back but am curious on whether there are any other considerations that might be advised now before I start. AFAIK from reviewing the MS FAQ, since the 1903 USB was created with the option "for a different computer" it will still be relevant for the desktop OS conversion and produce an upgrade from W7U 64-bit to Win10 Pro 64-bit 1903, but would like assurance or confirmation before launching.

I am thinking about doing this. I still have the same system Brink had back in the day:

Intel Core i7 930 @ 2.80GHz

ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6X58D-E (LGA1366)

6.00GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 785MHz

931GB Western Digital WDC HDD
465GB Hitachi HDD

When Microsoft was giving out free upgrades to Windows 10, I upgraded my Windows 7 installation only to find it was performing frustratingly slow and poorly.

Now, I am thinking if I should try a fresh complete install to see if that will make any difference. I don't recall what I did with my Windows 10 key.

What are the best keeping things as simple with minimal steps and straightforward as possible.

Is this do-able and practical especially since I have multiple HDDs?

Sammy888 said:

When Microsoft was giving out free upgrades to Windows 10, I upgraded my Windows 7 installation...

...Now, I am thinking if I should try a fresh complete install to see if that will make any difference. I don't recall what I did with my Windows 10 key....

When you took the free upgrade a digital licence was stored on the Microsoft activation servers and linked to your PC's unique hardware ID. The hard drive is not part of this hardware ID, so providing you haven't changed the motherboard your PC still has a digital licence for Windows 10. This means you can clean install the same edition of W10 as you had before (Home or Pro), skipping entering a key when asked, and it will activate automatically from the digital licence.

What are the best keeping things as simple with minimal steps and straightforward as possible.
Is this do-able and practical especially since I have multiple HDDs?

Best practice would be to disconnect all but the HDD you want to install W10 on before doing a clean install. Sometimes if multiple drives are available Setup may use the other drives for things like the recovery or boot partitions. You can reconnect the other drive once Windows is installed.

Temporarily disconnect all non OS hard drives until Windows installation has finished. This is to avoid Windows Setup from installing the boot configuration files to the wrong hard drive by mistake.

Clean Install Windows 10

Bree said:

When you took the free upgrade a digital licence was stored on the Microsoft activation servers and linked to your PC's unique hardware ID. The hard drive is not part of this hardware ID, so providing you haven't changed the motherboard your PC still has a digital licence for Windows 10. This means you can clean install the same edition of W10 as you had before (Home or Pro), skipping entering a key when asked, and it will activate automatically from the digital licence.



Best practice would be to disconnect all but the HDD you want to install W10 on before doing a clean install. Sometimes if multiple drives are available Setup may use the other drives for things like the recovery or boot partitions. You can reconnect the other drive once Windows is installed.

Clean Install Windows 10

Thanks for the info. I'm still on the fence though if I should even bother attempting to upgrade using the clean install method given the terrible performance issues when I took advantage of the free upgrade and Windows 10 upgraded my Windows 7 (not clean install).

Sammy888 said:

Thanks for the info. I'm still on the fence though....

Well, your PC has a digital licence and that will not expire. You could clean install W10 any time you wish. If you have a spare HDD you could swap in, you could try a clean install to see how it performs.

Bree said:

Well, your PC has a digital licence and that will not expire. You could clean install W10 any time you wish. If you have a spare HDD you could swap in, you could try a clean install to see how it performs.

Yeah, but my time is valuable to me. Unless it's a sure thing, I won't do it considering my past experience with Windows 10.