Posted on 11/26/2019 7:26:55 PM PST by dayglored
Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade offer still works for many Windows 7 and 8 users.
With support for Windows 7 ending in January 2020, Microsoft is encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10 to keep devices running securely and smoothly. On Microsoft's website, the Windows 10 Home operating system costs $139 to download. However, you don't necessarily have to shell out the cash: A free upgrade offer from Microsoft that technically ended in 2016 still works.
When Windows 10 was first released in July 2015, Microsoft offered an unprecedented free upgrade offer for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users, good through July 2016. But in 2017, reporter Ed Bott from CNET sister site ZDNet reported that the free upgrade tool was still functional. As of November 2019, readers still report that it works, Bott confirmed to CNET. I tried it out, and was able to upgrade a 2014 Dell OptiPlex 9020 desktop machine from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Agreed. Win8.x was an unmitigated disaster, a toxic dumpster fire. Win10 has some nice capabilities in amongst the detritus, but Win7 will always have my admiration as the Best of Breed.
Looks like I was wrong. Trying it on a spare laptop tonite. I’ll let you know if it blows up.
I assumed they were broken out of VLPs. But I wouldn’t call that ‘illegal’; they’re still legit licenses, just being used in an unapproved way.
We had two Macintoshes in our office in the mid-80’s that were basically unused while we were all using our IBM’S and Compaqs.
“It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that large numbers of otherwise sane individuals started losing tons of productivity at work and home to the curse of trying to make a personal computer work as expected”
They actually worked as expected.
“If you want to solve issues with time, run Linux.”
It isn’t Linux so much as the crap I have to go thrugh to install it.
Last time around converting a Win 7 box to Linux Mint with Legacy Boot I had no difficulties during or after the installation as a dual-boot system and later full blown LM only. Plug and play and no need for the terminal at the time or since. I will go so far as to describe the experience as orgasmic.
Sadly, that box needed to be replaced and thinking it would be just as simple as before I replaced it with an HP box using AMD Ryzen and Radeon graphics. Run of the mill machine. UEFI is in the way and a month later I still haven’t found the solution although procedural instructions abound and were followed in every attempt. Once solved LM will once again be my home OS. Updates in 10 to 20 minutes max for major upgrades is to good to lose.
Windows sucks as well as the monitoring by HP.
Bookmark
What you prescribe is useful, and do-able, for some people who can maintain high focus while using their computer. FWIW, I do a variant of the same thing, and like you, I've been extremely careful, and fortunate, for over 25 years.
Most users lose focus at some point while computing. I've seen it happen SO many times, to co-workers, family members, friends. They forget for just a moment.
And it's like losing your situational awareness while flying a plane, or in combat. A few seconds of letting yourself get wrapped into a state of mind that's not 100% focused could cost you everything.
I applaud your care, and second your list of cautious instructions. But we have to recognize that not everybody can do it.
And the link to that is not that but https://www.ojrq.net/p/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fmicrosoft.msafflnk.net%2Fc%2F1243925%2F433017%2F7593%3Fsharedid%3D0JlRymcP1YU-VnlXMTJQuDvCTEP8SpuhzA%26subid2%3D24542%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.microsoft.com%252Fen%252Dus%252Fsoftware%252Ddownload%252Fwindows10%253FranMID%3D24542%2526ranEAID%3D0JlRymcP1YU%2526ranSiteID%3D0JlRymcP1YU-VnlXMTJQuDvCTEP8SpuhzA%2526epi%3D0JlRymcP1YU-VnlXMTJQuDvCTEP8SpuhzA%26level%3D1&cid=7593&tpsync=yes
Do NOT go to that, though for me it just results in "Firefox can’t find the server at www.ojrq.net."
Problem turned out to be that the docking station has its own embedded GPU (graphics controller), and the Linux drivers apparently can't handle the offboard GPU under certain conditions of power/reset and removal from the dock. I eventually got it stable, but it requires that I leave it in the dock whenever powered up. If I want to remove it and carry it, I have to turn it off, remove power from the dock (unplug the power adapter), then separate them. Same in reverse when reconnecting. Otherwise, at some point it will spontaneously lose its mind and it's hell to get it back. Insane.
Wow, I just realized that a bunch of the links in the article got re-written as FreeRepublic links, because the embedded “A HREF” path is relative to the “current website”, not an absolute path. Sorry about that.
I want to upgrade from win 10 Home to Pro...for free
BFLR
Going from windows 7 to windows 10 is DOWN grade
This stupid Alienware they stuck me with didn’t come with a physical disc.
I have done something with a thumb drive that’s supposed to be like a bootable recovery option but I *hate* that and worry it won’t work.
How can I get a full install of [yuck!!!] Windows 10 Pro?
[God I hate this OS SO bad]
What webcam? :-)
First thing I do with a new laptop is tape the camera. And my workstations simply DO NOT have one.
I think ‘gray market’ is probably a better description than illegal.
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