Begin with your licensed Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Especially for business deployments, the thinking has been that it’s best to do a clean install when upgrading to a new operating system.Įven though the free upgrade to Windows 10 offer has ended, you can still upgrade for free from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
The main reason an IT purist would do an in-place upgrade was to capture the free upgrade.
In case you are unable to obtain the license, you can enter your Windows 7/8/8.1 product key and manually activate the operating system.For many years, performing an in-place upgrade was something you only did to workstations - and even then, these upgrades were usually for consumer machines. Click on the ‘Activate’ button if required and your PC will be activated with a digital license after it establishes a connection to the Microsoft servers. 
Once the installation completes, connect your device or virtual machine to the internet and open Windows Update > Activation. A summary of available upgrade paths from Windows 7 or a later operating system to Windows 10 can be found here. Doing a fresh install via the Media Creation Tool may not get you Windows 10 for free, so be careful! Accept the terms and conditions and choose the upgrade option where you keep your files and information. Open the Media Creation Tool and select ‘Upgrade this PC now’. Alternatively, you can download the full ISO of Windows 10 from this page (may redirect to the Media Creation Tool download page if opened on Windows). Head over to the Windows 10 download page and download the tool to install the OS. Note that a corporate/volume licensed instance of Windows - even if it's genuine - isn't eligible. 
Make sure you are using a genuine copy of Windows 7/8.1 on your device or virtual machine. During the time Microsoft had also confirmed that there would be no more security updates, or emergency patches unless you’re a business that is willing to pay. 
This should be good news for Windows 7 users, especially since Microsoft ended support for the operating system in January 2020.
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