Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free
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Hello guys. I upgrade a computer from win7 to win10 but my computer became so slow and often goes to blue screen or frozen. How can solve it?
Just use your Windows 7 product key during a "clean install" of Windows 10.
Use the media creation tool, here to create the Windows 10 installation media (USB or DVD).
Then boot from your installation media to install Windows 10. During the install it will ask for your product key.
Simply type in your Windows 7 key.
You will end up with a "clean install" of Windows 10, that is automatically activated.
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It's February 2022
1) I have an existing Win 7 Pro 64-bit PC that I would like to upgrade now to Win 10 Pro 64-bit for free but KEEP ALL MY APPS AND FILES.
If I follow the steps in the tutorial at the start, will it really work to keep my apps and files?
2) There are three user accounts now on the Win 7 PC. Will they still be there when I'm done?
3) This PC never had an email account with microsoft.com or outlook.com but I could do one just for this upgrade purpose (and then use it to install Office 365). Will an email account at outlook.com be necessary?
I'll make a backup first but would really like to know.
Thanks.
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It's February 2022
1) I have an existing Win 7 Pro 64-bit PC that I would like to upgrade now to Win 10 Pro 64-bit for free but KEEP ALL MY APPS AND FILES.
If I follow the steps in the tutorial at the start, will it really work to keep my apps and files?
Yes, it still works today.
2) There are three user accounts now on the Win 7 PC. Will they still be there when I'm done?
Yes, all accounts will still be there after the upgrade.
3) This PC never had an email account with microsoft.com or outlook.com but I could do one just for this upgrade purpose (and then use it to install Office 365). Will an email account at outlook.com be necessary?
No, a Microsoft account is not necessary to upgrade from Win7 to Win10. You can upgrade your Win7 and the Win10 will only have the local accounts you started with. You will of course need one for installing Office 365, but that's a quite separate matter. And it doesn't mean you have to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account, just that you have one.
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Bree - thank you so much for your fast reply on Sunday evening!!! You and Brink are the greatest!!!
I forgot to mention that I will use this PC's Win 7 Pro CoA sticker for the upgrade to Win 10. I have every reason to think that will still work because, earlier today, on a different PC, I used a different Win 7 CoA to do a fresh install of Win 10, and it is activated.
Thoughts?
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Bree - thank you so much for your fast reply on Sunday evening!!! You and Brink are the greatest!!!
I forgot to mention that I will use this PC's Win 7 Pro CoA sticker for the upgrade to Win 10. I have every reason to think that will still work because, earlier today, on a different PC, I used a different Win 7 CoA to do a fresh install of Win 10, and it is activated.
Thoughts?
You won't need the CoA key, and you will not be asked for a key during the upgrade. When you upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 by the method described in the tutorial, Setup will check the activation state of your Windows 7. If the Windows 7 is activated, then a digital license for Windows 10 on this PC will be created on the Microsoft activation servers. When it boots up in Windows 10 you will find that it says it is already 'activated with a digital license'.
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Bree - another Q -
Right now, the family member whose Win 7 PC I am upgrading has all her docs in folders on the Win 7 Desktop, with the folder icons placed where she wants them (And I can see that two of her documents are also on the Desktop but not in any folder.) Do you think I will see the same Desktop layout after the upgrade to Win 10? ( She is one of the users on the machine.)
And same Q for my user desktop, where I have folders with shortcut links to my PC maintenance utilities.
(I will take a picture of her desktop before I do the upgrade so at least I can try to put the same folders and docs in the same locations if this doesn't work so perfectly.)
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zbook - I am doing a Macrium Free backup right now, before I do the upgrade. I also made a separate backup of the family member's "Desktop" folder where she has everything,
But in your experience, will my "Keep all apps and files" upgrade also preserve the layout of icons and folders on her Desktop?
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It's been a very long time since I've used Windows 7 and there may be others that have performed recent upgrades.
The backup image should enable you to restore an image in case there are unexpected results.
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Bree and zbrook (and Brink) - it all went well. Win 7 Pro 64-bit is now Win 10 Pro-64-bit and almost everything stayed where it was. The Win 7 CoA worked to activate Win 10
One item that didn't go perfectly was at the stage of the choice to keep all apps and files (or not). I kept clicking for the second, more detailed window with choices, but then found myself in a repeating loop of steps that ended right back there. I finally just lived with the first window with the checkmark on keep all apps and files, and then it went well.
The upgrade deleted old versions of Speccy and PCWizard, so I just reinstalled Speccy.
It's a Dell Optiplex 3010 so not the fastest guy on the team, but with Win 10 I was then able to install Microsoft 365, which I also did.
A good day's work.
Thanks again.
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