Loophole Lets You Freely Upgrade to Windows 10 After Offer Expiry

btarunr · Dec 30, 2016

Regret not taking advantage of the free upgrade offer to Windows 10? A loophole in the Windows 10 Free Upgrade offer lets you freely upgrade your Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 installations to the latest Windows 10, five months after the free upgrade offer expired. Apparently, Microsoft is keeping the free upgrade offer open to people who use assistive technologies. These could include people who use screen narrators or magnifiers. You can now simply head over to Microsoft Accessibility website, and on checking an undertaking that you do use assistive technologies, avail the free Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft reportedly isn't checking if you actually use these features.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

R-T-B · Dec 30, 2016

I'm amazed this wasn't posted in TPU news sooner, honestly. It's been known for months...

XiGMAKiD · Dec 30, 2016

A while back I upgraded a Windows 7 PC to Windows 10 using ISO downloaded directly from Microsoft and it still works, then I tried to do a Windows 10 clean install on the same PC using the Windows 7 key and it also works.

KainXS · Dec 30, 2016

I tried this a while back and it worked, I thought they fixed it though :confused:

Mussels · Dec 30, 2016

this has been known and leaked for a long time, it's been discussed in the forums and on GN a few times.

cdawall · Dec 30, 2016

All you have to do is run Windows 10 install media on a 7/8 machine and it doesn't ask for another key... Hell the 7 key still works on clean installs

RejZoR · Dec 30, 2016

If you have the "Upgrade now" installer from when the upgrade deal was still official, you can still use it to upgrade. It's how I upgraded sister's laptop which she received like 3 days after the deal has officially ended...

JayCan73 · Dec 30, 2016

Anyone know if this will work with an OEM win 7 key?

Meeliskt · Dec 30, 2016

JayCan73 said:
Anyone know if this will work with an OEM win 7 key?

Worked for me week ago with old HP laptop and OEM key.

JayCan73 · Dec 30, 2016

Meeliskt said:
Worked for me week ago with old HP laptop and OEM key.

Cool, thanks.

Ferrum Master · Dec 30, 2016

Old news.

FordGT90Concept · Dec 30, 2016

Who doesn't use Mangifier? Pretty handy program.

dj-electric · Dec 30, 2016

Are there any people out there who don't know that u can use an older installations of win10 with win7 keys to get a full win10 license?

Dammeron · Dec 30, 2016

I just used an old HDD to install Win7 and upgrade it to Win10, then switched back to my SSD with my main system on it. Licence reserved for the future... Even if You change the hardware, You can always contact MS and say You wrecked Your PC and need to transfer the licence to a new one.

Ferrum Master · Dec 30, 2016

Dj-ElectriC said:
Are there any people out there who don't know that u can use an older installations of win10 with win7 keys to get a full win10 license?

Probably Linus Torwalds doesn't know that

AsRock · Dec 30, 2016

HAHA, i think they done this on purpose so they can say we had xxxxxxxxx amount of users to join the Win10 experience after the trail..

newtekie1 · Dec 30, 2016

I just did a fresh install of Windows 10 using a Windows 7 Key that ha never been upgraded before. If you do a fresh install, you can still upgrade. And this was with the Anniversary Update ISO.

Ikaruga · Dec 30, 2016

R-T-B said:
I'm amazed this wasn't posted in TPU news sooner, honestly. It's been known for months...

Honestly it's been known since win10 upgrade exists, but it's never the news why we come to TPU (I can't even think of a site which is slower tbh), we just come because we love it how it is
:toast:

ps.: Iirc MS even apologized recently for its malware like win10 upgrade procedure.

TheOne · Dec 30, 2016

After the free upgrade offer expired the only thing that really changed was they stopped pushing the OS through Windows Update, all the other methods were reported as still working.

Also this is kind of news, the fact that it's still free after about 5 months, I also think some were worried about talking about the accessibility option so that might be why this is so late.

Ikaruga said:
ps.: Iirc MS even apologized recently for its malware like win10 upgrade procedure.

I read that off of Guru, so not sure how accurate it was, but it seemed to be less an apology and more of them admitting that they had gone to far.

And the "those two weeks were pretty painful", the first news reports I saw talking about forced installation were around Feb/March, and in May it was confirmed that they had changed the way the upgrade software worked, in June they merely gave a second prompt to cancel the install, and in July they finally stopped the automatic installation, so about Feb-July.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/mi...s-10-upgrade-was-pushed-too-aggressively.html

Konceptz · Dec 30, 2016

Actually I haven't came across a single windows 7 key that couldn't be used to activate windows 10.

As long as you match home with home and pro with pro you'll be fine.

Antykain · Dec 30, 2016

Yeah, this 'loophole' has been around for some time but, I kinda forgot about it myself. I did take advantage of it and upgraded my other WCG cruncher from Win8.1 to Win10. Still have not been able to upgrade my old lappy running Win7 using the OEM key I have for it.. No biggie though, as it's about to be retired.

ManofGod · Dec 30, 2016

You do not need any loophole at all. Just download the Media Creation tool, create a usb install drive, run setup on top of Windows 7 or 8.1, done. The free Windows 10 upgrade is fully available, it is just not being pushed anymore.

Ikaruga · Dec 30, 2016

TheOne said:
I read that off of Guru, so not sure how accurate it was, but it seemed to be less an apology and more of them admitting that they had gone to far.

And the "those two weeks were pretty painful", the first news reports I saw talking about forced installation were around Feb/March, and in May it was confirmed that they had changed the way the upgrade software worked, in June they merely gave a second prompt to cancel the install, and in July they finally stopped the automatic installation, so about Feb-July.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/mi...s-10-upgrade-was-pushed-too-aggressively.html

The actual quote is below, and yes it's more like a aknowledgement than a apology, but that's why I used "iirc", because I wasn't sure about the exact wording.

"We know we want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective, but finding the right balance where you’re not stepping over the line of being too aggressive is something we tried and for a lot of the year I think we got it right, but there was one particular moment in particular where, you know, the red X in the dialog box which typically means you cancel didn’t mean cancel.

And within a couple of hours of that hitting the world, with the listening systems we have we knew that we had gone too far and then, of course, it takes some time to roll out the update that changes that behavior. And those two weeks were pretty painful and clearly a lowlight for us. We learned a lot from it obviously."

Mussels · Dec 31, 2016

I may have a folder with every release of W10, so i can abuse all these tricks

like upgrading W7/8.1 with the original RTM release, then upgrading with the RS1 iso.

drade · Dec 31, 2016

Okay, this may be a really n00b question... But I hated windows 10 initially when I installed it for free five months ago.

I run windows 7. Do I really need to upgrade, like, can't I run windows 7 like I did XP for years?

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 16GB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 4070 Ti EX
Storage	Samsung 990 1TB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen 9 9950X
Motherboard	MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk Wifi
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon, Phanteks and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	128GB (4x 32GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-4000(Running 1:1:1 w/FCLK)
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	Intel 5800X Optane 800GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, 1x 2TB Seagate Exos 3.5"
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64

System Name	Skypas
Processor	Intel Core i7-6700
Motherboard	Asus H170 Pro Gaming
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212X Turbo
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB
Video Card(s)	MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6GB
Storage	Corsair Neutron GTX 120GB + WD Blue 1TB
Display(s)	LG 22EA63V
Case	Corsair Carbide 400Q
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2 w/ Deepcool XFan 120
Mouse	Logitech B100
Keyboard	Corsair Vengeance K70
Software	Windows 10 Pro (to be replaced by 2025)

Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 9900x / AMD Epyc 7773x
Motherboard	Gigabyte B850 Gaming X/ ASROCK ROME
Cooling	Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4(Custom) / Custom Air
Memory	64GB Crucial Pro 6400 / 384GB
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RTX 3080 / Radeon Instinct
Storage	Adata SX8200 1TB NVME/WD Black 1TB NVME
Display(s)	Dell 27 Inch 165Hz
Case	Lian Li A3 Mini
Audio Device(s)	IFI Zen Dac/JDS Labs Atom+/SMSL Amp+Rivers Audio
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x
Mouse	Logitech G502 SE Hero
Keyboard	Corsair K70 RGB Mk.2
VR HMD	Samsung Odyssey Plus/ Quest 3
Software	Windows 11

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Loophole Lets You Freely Upgrade to Windows 10 After Offer Expiry

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

R-T-B

XiGMAKiD

KainXS

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

RejZoR

JayCan73

Meeliskt

JayCan73

Ferrum Master

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

dj-electric

Dammeron

Ferrum Master

AsRock

TPU addict

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

Ikaruga

TheOne

Konceptz

Antykain

ManofGod

Ikaruga

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

drade

System Name	Moving into the mobile space
Processor	7940HS
Motherboard	HP trash
Cooling	HP trash
Memory	2x8GB
Video Card(s)	4070 mobile
Storage	512GB+2TB NVME
Display(s)	some 165hz thing that isn't as nice as it sounded

System Name	Dark Monolith
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling	Arctic Cooling Freezer II 240mm + 2x SilentWings 3 120mm
Memory	64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Black
Video Card(s)	XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Magnetic Air
Storage	Seagate Firecuda 530 4 TB SSD + Samsung 850 Pro 2 TB SSD + Seagate Barracuda 8 TB HDD
Display(s)	ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQDM 240Hz OLED
Case	Silverstone Kublai KL-07
Audio Device(s)	Sound Blaster AE-9 MUSES Edition + Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 Nichicon Gold
Power Supply	BeQuiet DarkPower 11 Pro 750W
Mouse	Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum
Keyboard	UVI Pride MechaOptical
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	not done yet
Processor	I5 10400
Motherboard	msi h410 pro
Cooling	212 evo, 5x 120mm
Memory	patriot viper 2666 ddr4
Video Card(s)	xfx rx570
Storage	500gb crucial p5 m2 , 525gb crucial mx300, 3.5 7200 seagate barricuda 2tb
Display(s)	42" 120hz 3d led LG
Case	rosewill line
Audio Device(s)	onboard realtech 5.1 (yamah rxv373, jamo speakers)
Power Supply	thermaltake gx2 600w gold
Mouse	logitech m510
Keyboard	microsoft
Software	windows 10
Benchmark Scores	1410 in un heaven, not useless yet

System Name	HELLSTAR
Processor	AMD RYZEN 9 5950X
Motherboard	ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling	2x 360 + 280 rads. 3x Gentle Typhoons, 3x Phanteks T30, 2x TT T140 . EK-Quantum Momentum Monoblock.
Memory	4x8GB G.SKILL Trident Z RGB F4-4133C19D-16GTZR 14-16-12-30-44
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX 7900XTX. Water block. Crossflashed.
Storage	Optane 900P[Fedora] + WD BLACK SN850X 4TB + 750 EVO 500GB + 1TB 980PRO+SN560 1TB(W11)
Display(s)	Philips PHL BDM3270 + Acer XV242Y
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO
Audio Device(s)	SMSL RAW-MDA1 DAC
Power Supply	Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow V3 - Yellow Switch
Software	FEDORA 41

System Name	BY-2021
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling	Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory	2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s)	Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply	Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse	Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur
Software	Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.

System Name	Proper
Processor	5900X + OC
Motherboard	GB X570s Elite AX
Cooling	WC Heatkiller 3.0 LT
Memory	G.Skill 3600 CL16
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX 3070 Ti Trinity LC'ed + OC
Storage	KC2500 1TB + A2000 1TB
Display(s)	GB M32Q
Case	Fractal Define R6 USB C
Audio Device(s)	Creative AE-7 + Phonic AM120 MkIII + H/K AVR 265 -> Paradigm Monitor 11 v.7 + AKG K712 Pro
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime PX-850
Mouse	Log G502 X LS
Keyboard	Keychron K5 Opt.brown
Software	Win10 Pro

Processor	AMD 3900X \ AMD 7700X
Motherboard	ASRock AM4 X570 Pro 4 \ ASUS X670Xe TUF
Cooling	D15
Memory	Patriot 2x16GB PVS432G320C6K \ G.Skill Flare X5 F5-6000J3238F 2x16GB
Video Card(s)	eVga GTX1060 SSC \ XFX RX 6950XT RX-695XATBD9
Storage	Sammy 860, MX500, Sabrent Rocket 4 Sammy Evo 980 \ 1xSabrent Rocket 4+, Sammy 2x990 Pro
Display(s)	Samsung 1080P \ LG 43UN700
Case	Fractal Design Pop Air 2x140mm fans from Torrent \ Fractal Design Torrent 2 SilverStone FHP141x2
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V677 \ Yamaha CX-830+Yamaha MX-630 \Paradigm 7se MKII, Paradigm 5SE MK1 , Blue Yeti
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-750 \ Corsair RM1000X Shift
Mouse	Steelseries Sensei wireless \ Steelseries Sensei wireless
Keyboard	Logitech K120 \ Wooting Two HE
Benchmark Scores	Meh benchmarks.

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Desktop
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X [3.7GHz/4.6GHz][6C/12T]
Motherboard	ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO [X570]
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition
Memory	G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB [DDR4 3600][2x16GB][16-19-19-39@1.35V]
Video Card(s)	ASUS KO GeForce RTX 3060 Ti V2 OC Edition 8GB GDDR6 [511.65]
Storage	[OS] Samsung 970 Evo 500GB \| [Storage] 980 1TB \| 860 Evo 1TB \| 850 Evo 500GB \| Seagate Firecuda 2TB
Display(s)	LG 27GL850 [27"][2560x1440@144Hz][Nano IPS][LED][G-SYNC Compatible][DP]
Case	Corsair Obsidian 750D
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC S1200A High Definition Audio CODEC
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1+ [+12V: 83.3A 999.6W][80 Plus Gold]
Mouse	Logitech M570 Trackball
Keyboard	Corsair Gaming K55 RGB
Software	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro [21H1][64-bit]

Processor	i7-14700k
Motherboard	MSI Z790 Carbon Wifi
Cooling	DeepCool LS720
Memory	32gb GSkill DDR5-6400 CL32 Trident Z5
Video Card(s)	Intel ARC A770 LE
Storage	990 Pro 1tb, 980 Pro 512gb, WD black 4tb
Display(s)	3 x HP EliteDisplay E273
Case	Corsair 5000D Airflow
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x
Mouse	Logitec MK520
Keyboard	Logitec MK520
Software	Win 11 Pro 64bit
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R23 Multi 35805

System Name	All Switched Up
Processor	Intel Core i9-9900k @ 5.0GHz
Motherboard	ASUS Z390 Maximus XI Hero Wi-Fi w/ EK monoblock
Cooling	Custom EK Watercooling loop - 2x 360 \| 1x 240 Rads
Memory	16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 3200MHz
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra w/ EK Quantum Vector Waterblock + Active Backplate
Storage	1x Samsung 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD - 2x Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD - 1x Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SSD
Display(s)	Viewsonix XG270QG Elite 1440p x2
Case	Lian Li O11Dynamic XL - White
Audio Device(s)	ifi Zen CAN/DAC \| Mayflower Objective2 + ODAC \| Sennheiser HD 6XX \| HiFiMan HE-5XX
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P6 Platinum
Mouse	Glorious Model O Wireless \| Model D
Keyboard	Glorious GMMK Pro w/ Holy Panda's
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	yes

System Name	Air Cooled Caselabs BH8
Processor	Intel Coffee Lake 8700K @ 4.7
Motherboard	MSI Gaming M5
Cooling	Noctua D15s, 5x 140mm Noctua Chromax, 1x 120mm Noctua Chromax, 2x 80mm Noctua fans
Memory	G. Skill Trident Z RGB series 3200mhz
Video Card(s)	ASUS STRIX GTX 1080
Storage	Samsung EVO 840 250gb SSD, Samung EVO PRO 256gb SSD, 2 TB WD Black Edition HDD.
Display(s)	24" Asus Gaming ROG 144hz
Case	Black Caselabs BH8
Power Supply	850w EVGA SuperNOVA G2 Gold PSU with individually sleeved black cables
Mouse	Logitech Wireless G403
Keyboard	Corsair Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Software	Windows 10