If I Upgrade to Win10 Before Can I Again

This commodity, updated to reflect Windows 10 version 2004 (aka May 2022 Update), covers the near common scenarios you're likely to encounter when installing, reinstalling, and activating Windows 10.

Is information technology still possible to upgrade a PC to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1?

For the first twelvemonth after the release of Windows 10, Microsoft offered free upgrades using the Get Windows ten app, which appeared in the taskbar equally a notification icon and in Windows Update. With the end of the free upgrade offer, the Become Windows 10 app is no longer available, and y'all cannot upgrade from an older Windows version using Windows Update.

The good news is that you lot can still upgrade to Windows 10 on a device that has a license for Windows vii or Windows 8.1. Y'all'll need to download the installation files and run the Setup program from within Windows or utilise the Upgrade Assistant available from Microsoft'south accessibility folio. For details, encounter "Here's how yous tin can yet get a gratis Windows 10 upgrade."

As of belatedly May 2020, readers have confirmed to me that this procedure still works.

PCs that have a license to run Windows XP or Windows Vista are non eligible for a costless upgrade to Windows 10.

Where can I get installation files for Windows 10?

If you've built a new PC or you lot're installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine on a Mac, you can buy a license from third-political party sellers or from Microsoft itself, via the Microsoft Store. Windows x Home costs $120 from Microsoft, and Windows 10 Pro costs $200. Prices from tertiary-party sellers, including Amazon, are typically lower. Depending on how y'all purchase, you'll receive installation media (DVD or USB key) or a production key and instructions for downloading installation media.

Windows x tips: Setup and configuration: Don't settle for default settings | Operation and troubleshooting | Productivity | Networking and security

If yous already take a Windows 10 product cardinal or yous are planning to reinstall Windows ten on a motorcar that already has a digital license (more on that subsequently), visit the Download Windows 10 page and download the Media Creation Tool. This gratis download allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive directly.

Every bit an alternative, I recommend that you download an ISO file instead. That file can exist mounted straight in File Explorer (see "Windows 10 tip: Mountain and unmount any ISO file instantly" for instructions); an ISO file can also be used to create a bootable USB wink drive, a bootable DVD, or a virtual DVD drive mounted in a virtual auto.

After running the Media Creation Tool, choose Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC. By default, the pre-selected options choose an compages (32-fleck or 64-bit) that matches that of the electric current PC. Open up the drop-down list shown here if you want to choose a different architecture or download an ISO file that includes both architectures.

Apply this drop-down listing to download a specific Windows x compages.

The ISO file for an x86 (32-bit) edition is approximately iii GB in size. The x64 (64-bit) edition is delivered every bit an ISO file approximately four GB in size. The combined installer is just over 6 GB in size.

Developers and It pros with a Visual Studio (MSDN) subscription can download installation media in ISO format from the subscriber portal. Annotation that the installer files downloaded from this source are likewise large to be copied to a bootable USB flash bulldoze formatted using the FAT32 file system (FAT32 is required for booting on a system with UEFI firmware). For a workaround, see "Windows x installer files too big for USB flash drive? Hither's the gear up."

Windows 10 Enterprise editions are available through the Volume Licensing Service Centre. A free 90-mean solar day trial edition is likewise bachelor from the Microsoft Evaluation Heart.

What's the most recent Windows 10 version?

Microsoft made Windows ten version 2004 (also known as the Windows x May 2022 Update) available to the Release Preview ring of the Windows Insider Program on April 16, 2020, and plans to begin making it widely available to consumers via Windows Update at the end of May.

This major update succeeds version 1909 (also known every bit the Windows ten Nov 2022 Update). That version was released to the general public on Nov 12, 2019. The previous version was version 1903, which was released on May 21, 2019. The version 1909 release was deliberately scaled downward to include just "a scoped set up of features for select functioning improvements, enterprise features, and quality enhancements." Anyone running version 1903 received the version 1909 update equally a lightweight "enablement packet," which installed in merely a few minutes.

In its first two years, Windows x had divide release schedules for consumer and business concern editions. In mid-2017, Microsoft consolidated these two channels into a unmarried one. Business concern and enterprise customers can opt to defer the advent of new releases in Windows Update for upwardly to 365 days after the general release date using the Windows Update for Business concern feature set.

For a total listing of release dates for major versions, run into the official Windows 10 release information page.

Each major release is associated with a build number. The initial July 2022 release was build 10240. The build numbers of subsequent updates are as follows:

Version 1511 - build 10586
Version 1607 - build 14393
Version 1703 - build 15063
Version 1709 - build 16299
Version 1803 - build 17134
Version 1809 - build 17763
Version 1903 - build 18362
Version 1909 - build 18363
Version 2004 - build 19041

A number after the major build number identifies the most recent update installed.

To check which version of Windows ten is installed on a device, open up Settings > Arrangement > About. As an alternative, you can click in the search box and type settings:nearly. The same information is also available using the winver command, which displays results in a meaty Nigh Windows dialog box.

The system shown below, for example, is running the May 2022 Update, version 1903, with the 2019-04 Cumulative Update applied.

This PC is running the Windows 10 May 2022 Update.

Volition Microsoft automatically update my PC to the latest release of Windows ten?

If you're currently running Windows 7 or viii.one, you volition not be offered an upgrade to Windows 10.

If you are running any unmanaged edition of Windows ten using default settings, these characteristic updates (the new, official terminology for what were once called upgrades) are delivered through Windows Update. In versions prior to 1903, characteristic updates download and install automatically. You can schedule the installation for a more than convenient time or postpone it for a few days, but you cannot filibuster the update indefinitely.

Beginning with version 1903, Microsoft began offering feature updates for installation separately from security and reliability updates. The company says these updates will not exist downloaded or installed automatically unless the current version is at or well-nigh the stop of its support window. For more details about these changes, see "Windows ten Home edition users are big winners as Microsoft overhauls its update process."

On systems running Windows 10 Abode and Pro, the back up period for each version is 18 months. Windows 10 Enterprise and Teaching editions have a longer support flow of 30 months for the version released in the second half of each year. To manage characteristic updates based on these back up calendars, meet"When will yous get the side by side version of Windows 10? Here'due south how to take command."

When a characteristic update is released, information technology may take several weeks or months to roll out to the huge worldwide installed base of Windows 10 users, a procedure Microsoft calls "throttling."

Use the Update Assistant to manually download and install the latest feature update.

Each feature update delivered through Windows Update requires roughly 3 GB of bandwidth and disk space. If your PC is running an outdated version (equally might exist the case if you lot restored it using the manufacturer's recovery media) and you don't want to wait for Windows Update, you can use the Windows 10 Update Assistant to get the latest version. Visit the Download Windows 10 page and click Update Now to start the process.

That action downloads a very small installer file that runs a compatibility check and then, assuming the device passes all compatibility tests, begins the full upgrade. The Update Assistant is a straightforward magician that doesn't require technical cognition to utilize; it does, however, require an ambassador's credentials to install.

Do I demand a product key to install or reinstall Windows ten?

If you lot upgrade over a properly activated copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.i, you can run Setup from within your current Windows installation and you will not exist prompted to enter a product key. After the upgrade is complete, your new re-create of Windows ten will exist activated with what Microsoft calls a "digital license."

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that previously had a properly activated copy of Windows 10, you do not need to enter a product key. (When you run across the prompt to enter a primal, click the I don't take a product key choice.)

Because the PC received a digital license every bit part of its earlier upgrade, Windows 10 will be automatically activated subsequently the installation is consummate.

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will demand to enter a product key. Y'all can enter a product key from Windows 10 or from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows eight, or Windows 8.1. Residents of the Us who don't own a qualifying Windows license can skip inbound a product key and purchase a license online from the Windows Store after setup is complete.

How exercise digital licenses work?

When you upgrade over an existing, activated re-create of Windows, the Setup program checks the current activation status. If it determines the installation is properly activated, information technology contacts a Microsoft activation server and generates a license document that is linked to that hardware. (A Microsoft account is not required for this step; the license is generated for the device, non for its owner.)

This automatic activation procedure is identical whether you use an ISO file to showtime the upgrade or do so from the downloaded upgrade files.

Afterwards that first activation is complete, y'all can perform a clean install on that same hardware using Windows 10 installation media. As long as the hardware "fingerprint" matches the previous installation ID, the installation is activated automatically. (Microsoft does not provide details of what goes into the hardware ID, except to confirm that it does non incorporate any personally identifiable data and is not used for tracking purposes.)

To check the activation status of a Windows 10 PC, open Settings > Update & Security > Activation.

A digital license indicates that no production cardinal is necessary.

How long does a Windows ten upgrade take?

That'due south primarily dependent on the performance of your organization. Windows Setup uses hardlinks to migrate information files, so the amount of data files shouldn't have a meaning consequence on install times. Over the past few versions, Microsoft has made some changes that speed the process upwardly significantly for the twice-yearly feature updates (meet "Windows 10 feature updates painfully slow? Relief is in sight").

In my experience, the update tin can take as petty as 30 minutes and as much as 2 hours. Anything more than that indicates a trouble (or very erstwhile, ho-hum hardware). In version 2004, most of the work occurs in the background, and the concluding stage, which occurs afterward a reboot, can take less than ten minutes on modern hardware.

Except for a few questions at the beginning, the upgrade process runs completely unattended.

What's the divergence betwixt Windows 10 and Windows 10 N and Windows 10 S?

The N editions of Windows lack media playback capabilities. Microsoft is required to offer these editions every bit part of a settlement in a European antitrust trial.

Yous don't want Windows x N. Nobody does.

Windows 10 Southward is a special configuration of Windows 10 that allows users to install only programs that are downloaded from the Microsoft Store and blocks access to many command-line tools. Yous can convert a PC running Windows x S to the total version of the underlying edition (Dwelling or Pro) by signing in every bit an administrator and using an selection in Settings > Activation

Tin can Windows 10 Habitation be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro?

Yes. In fact, you tin can apply that upgrade using a spare key from an earlier edition of Windows, including Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro, or Windows 8.1 Pro. Follow the instructions in this commodity advisedly: "How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro for free."

This procedure is specially useful when restoring Windows 10 on a organization that originally shipped with Abode edition and was manually upgraded to Pro. In this scenario, y'all might need to use a generic product key starting time to upgrade to Pro. After the upgrade is complete, you lot can activate using the stored digital license or a product cardinal.

My upgrade is consummate. Tin I delete the setup files?

I recommend that you leave them for at present unless deejay space is so tight that you lot admittedly must remove them.

The Windows.quondam folder contains files needed to roll back to your previous version if necessary. Information technology will delete itself automatically in 10 days. Yous can exercise so manually by running Disk Cleanup Manager in administrator mode and choosing the option to remove your old Windows version. You tin can too perform the aforementioned action by going to Settings > Organization > Storage; click the organisation drive and so select Temporary Files, where Previous Windows Installation(s) is an pick.

But don't do this but because yous like a tidy organisation.

To open Disk Cleanup Manager, click in the search box (next to the Get-go button) and type Cleanmgr. Correct-click the Disk Cleanup entry at the tiptop of the listing and choose Run Equally Ambassador.

Utilize the Disk Cleanup Manager to remove unneeded files afterwards an update.

The setup files themselves are in a hidden folder chosen C:\$Windows.~BT. Because of the way Windows assigns permissions to these folders, you tin can't delete them from File Explorer but instead must apply one of the previously mentioned system tools.

Having installation files available comes in handy if you need to reset your PC or if you are in the Windows Insider Program and need to curl back a build. I recommend that you get out them intact unless yous're critically low on disk space.

Should I upgrade or do a clean install?

That'southward up to you. Windows ten supports upgrades over Windows seven Service Pack one or subsequently every bit well as clean installs. To practise a clean install, you volition need bootable media.

Can I set Windows 10 equally role of a dual- or multi-kick installation?

Yep, but only if y'all follow some strictly defined procedures.

Starting time, you lot must boot from installation media and cull the Custom pick in Setup.

2d, you must install Windows 10 on a dissever disk sectionalisation or physical bulldoze; if yous cull the aforementioned partition that contains an existing Windows version, you lot will lose access to that Windows installation. (Your existing information files and all current Windows system files will be moved to the Windows old binder.)

Windows 10 will add itself to the kick menu if you install it in a separate volume on a system that already has a previous version of Windows installed.

Is information technology possible to uninstall Windows 10?

Yeah. For x days later the upgrade, you can roll back to your previous Windows version; if y'all feel problems, you'll discover the option to roll back in Settings > Update & security > Recovery.

Can I install Windows ten in a virtual machine?

Yes, as long as the virtualization software is uniform. On a PC, the desktop Hyper-Five characteristic in Windows x Pro/Enterprise is ideal. On a Mac, you tin use third-party software like Parallels Desktop

How do I ship feedback to Microsoft?

You'll see occasional popular-up prompts that ask questions about your experience with Windows x. You tin can click those tiles to send comments, or use the Feedback Hub app (you lot'll find it on the new Start menu.)

More questions? Ask away in the comments below or, improve withal, open my bio page and click the electronic mail icon below my name. Please enter a working email accost in the contact course and then that I tin contact you with follow-up questions. Your e-mail address will not exist used for any other purposes.

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Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/hands-on-with-windows-10-upgrading-installing-and-activating-in-the-real-world/