Instructional tutorials he's written have been linked to by organizations like The New York Times, Wirecutter, Lifehacker, the BBC, CNET, Ars Technica, and John Gruber's Daring Fireball. The news he's broken has been covered by outlets like the BBC, The Verge, Slate, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, ZDNet, The Next Web, and Techmeme. Beyond the column, he wrote about everything from Windows to tech travel tips. He founded PCWorld's "World Beyond Windows" column, which covered the latest developments in open-source operating systems like Linux and Chrome OS. He also wrote the USA's most-saved article of 2021, according to Pocket.Ĭhris was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Beyond the web, his work has appeared in the print edition of The New York Times (September 9, 2019) and in PCWorld's print magazines, specifically in the August 2013 and July 2013 editions, where his story was on the cover. With over a decade of writing experience in the field of technology, Chris has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Reader's Digest, IDG's PCWorld, Digital Trends, and MakeUseOf. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times-and that's just here at How-To Geek. (Even if the resulting Windows 10 installation isn't activated, you could just plug in your old Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 key after the upgrade process finishes.)Ĭhris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. It will work if the Media Creation Tool is happy to perform the upgrade. Assuming you started with a genuine, activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system, it will give you an activated Windows 10 system. You can choose whether you want to keep your files and programs or start fresh. Update: You can simply download the latest Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's website and run it to upgrade-it will upgrade your current PC with no actual media creation necessary. Select "Create installation media for another PC" and the tool will offer to create a bootable USB flash drive or burn a bootable DVD. You can do this with Microsoft's Windows 10 media creation tool. It's always a good idea to have backups, especially when installing a new operating system.Ĭreate Windows 10 installation media if you don't already have it lying around. Even if you plan on performing an upgrade install, something could go wrong. Your PC will receive a digital entitlement.īe sure you have backups of your important files before continuing. Even if you don't provide a key during the installation process, you can head to Settings > Update & Security > Activation and enter a Windows 7 or 8.1 key here instead of a Windows 10 key. Windows 10 would then report that key to Microsoft's servers, and Windows 10's activation servers would give your PC a "digital entitlement" (now a "digital license") to continue using Windows 10 for free, just as if you had upgraded. This allowed users to perform a clean install Windows 10 and enter a valid Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key during installation. Related: You Can Still Get Windows 10 for Free from Microsoft's Accessibility SiteĪs part of Windows 10's first November update in 2015, Microsoft changed the Windows 10 installer disc to also accept Windows 7 or 8.1 keys. You Can Still Use an Old Key with the Anniversary Update We originally wrote this article in 2016, but this upgrade trick still works as of January 14, 2020.
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