So the free Windows 10 upgrade window closed last Friday, July 29th, right on schedule, exactly a year after the OS launched. I watched that deadline come and go and did nothing about it, because that is apparently who I am now. My main desktop has been sitting on Windows 7 since 2013 and some part of me just didn't want to deal with the nagging "Get Windows 10" popup enough to actually click it during the year I had to click it for free.
Then this weekend I finally sat down to do it and discovered the deadline doesn't really mean what Microsoft wants it to mean.
Here's the thing. Back in December there was a loophole going around tech sites where you could go to Microsoft's accessibility page (the one for people using assistive tech like screen readers or Narrator) and download the Windows 10 upgrade assistant from there instead of through Windows Update. The tool never actually checked whether you needed any accessibility features, it just let you download and run the upgrade like normal, and the resulting install activated fine using your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 key. It was basically the free upgrade with an extra click.
I genuinely assumed that hole would get patched the second the July 29th deadline hit. It hasn't. I tried it Saturday night on my desktop and it worked exactly the same as it did in December, no different than doing it through Windows Update back when the offer was live. Typed in nothing, didn't need a key, just ran the upgrade assistant and it activated on its own using the digital entitlement tied to the machine.
How I actually did it, step by step:
- Go to microsoft.com/accessibility (you don't need to be running any assistive technology, the page doesn't check).
- Under the Windows 10 section there's a link to download the Update Assistant. Grab that.
- Run it. It downloads the install files, which took me about forty minutes on my connection, your mileage will vary.
- Choose "upgrade this PC now" rather than making install media, unless you specifically want a fresh install on a USB stick.
- Let it run. Mine restarted twice and took a little under an hour start to finish, keeping all my programs and files in place.
- Once it boots into Windows 10, check Settings > Update & Security > Activation. Mine said "Windows is activated" straight away, no key entry required.
I have no idea how long this stays open. Could be a week, could be another year, could already be closed by the time anyone reads this a month from now, who knows. Microsoft has been weirdly quiet about it rather than shutting it down outright, which either means they don't care that much or they just haven't gotten around to it. If you're still sitting on 7 or 8.1 and kicking yourself for missing Friday's deadline, I'd try it before you do anything drastic like actually paying the $119 for a Home license.
A few notes if you're going to try this yourself. Back up first, obviously, I say this every single time I write about upgrading an OS and I will keep saying it because someone always skips it. Also, my old Logitech webcam driver did not survive the jump and I had to grab a fresh one off their site afterward, which is such a small thing but always seems to happen with at least one piece of hardware. And the Start menu still has that thing where it takes a solid two or three seconds to open the first time after boot, which apparently nobody at Microsoft considers a bug.
Unrelated tangent, but I've had Pokemon GO crash on this same desktop's paired phone about six times this week trying to load gyms, and Niantic's servers still seem to be held together with tape a month after launch. Different topic entirely, I just spent enough of my weekend fighting with both of these things that they've sort of blended together in my head at this point.
Anyway. If you missed the window, you probably didn't actually miss it. Go try the accessibility page before you assume you're stuck buying a license.