In context: If yous are notwithstanding running on Windows 7 (and I don't blame you), y'all are now officially out to pasture. However, if you lot don't heed treading on some greyness areas of licensing agreements, you lot can notwithstanding take advantage of Microsoft'south gratuitous Window Upgrade offer even though it was technically taken off the table a few years agone.

Microsoft officially concluded support for Windows seven on Tuesday. The company will no longer button out security updates, with the exception of enterprise customers paying for extended support until 2023. To avoid becoming vulnerable to future exploits and weaknesses, users are advised to upgrade to Windows 10.

Going regular routes, Windows x Home will fix users back virtually $140. The Pro version will cost them well-nigh $threescore more. There is a loophole, nevertheless, to go the upgrade for free.

ZDNet notes that if you get to the Windows 10 ISO download page and catch the media creation tool, you can run the sorcerer, select "Upgrade this PC now," follow the prompts, and get a valid Windows 10 activation key. This works as long equally you have a legit Windows seven or Windows eight.1 installation. Information technology even works for Pro and Ultimate versions.

No matter what you do, be sure to make a backup before starting and go on in mind that when upgrading from W7, it will wipe your settings and some apps. It'south a practiced thought to annotation the apps you use most frequently and so you can re-download the W10 versions later in the event they don't transfer over. Windows viii.1 rolls smoothly into W10, so this is not a concern.

In its button to go Windows 10 installed on "one billion" devices by 2018, Microsoft employed several tactics from overly aggressive nag popups to downright deceptive window modifications. The silver lining was that at least the upgrade was gratis for Windows 7 and 8.ane users. Microsoft officially concluded its costless offer in 2016 but continued it for Assistive Technology users through most of 2017.

It appears that while Microsoft removed its official gratis download pages, it left the media cosmos tool online and never changed it to exclude Windows 7 or eight.1 keys. This may accept some wondering if this is even legal or if Microsoft will invalidate their install downwards the route.

This may indeed be something that slipped by Microsoft. In its FAQ, it states that to apply the media creation tool, you volition demand a valid Windows x product key, simply this is not true since valid W7 and eight.one keys still work.

Co-ordinate to a Redditor who claims to be a Microsoft engineer, the company does not run license audits on private PCs. It is more concerned with volume licensing. He adds that execs care more almost upgrade stats than licensing acquirement.

"That whole 'free' upgrade for a year was fully marketing fluff," the Redditor said. "Terry Meyerson cared more than well-nigh his upgrade stats than license revenue as Windows isn't Microsoft'south greenbacks moo-cow anymore."

At the time, Microsoft was aiming for a billion upgrades. As of concluding September, it was sitting at 900 one thousand thousand Windows x installs globally.

Of course, if taking the word of a basically anonymous Reddit user is not enough to clear your conscience, possibly you should go ahead and pay for a re-create of Windows 10.

Masthead credit: Anton Watman via Shutterstock