Windows 7 Won't Update

[fincoder]

Seriously? I didn't know that was still a thing? Is that for as an upgrade or how does that work out?

The free upgrade never ended. It just stopped downloading/installing automatically.

It's not technically legal

Source saying it isn't legal?
There is no clause in any license agreement disallowing the upgrade, directly or indirectly, as far as I've found. It's well documented on third-party websites and Microsoft has not said anything against it. The free upgrade is still performed by techs and enthusiasts every day. Here in Australia, all refurbished computers with Windows 8 licenses are sold with Windows 10 installed (professional refurbishing companies, and they don't use refurb licenses).

I believe Microsoft intentionally allows the upgrade, either because they want more computers upgraded, or because it's a technique that can be used to avoid issues reactivating Windows 10 after reinstall, or because an upgrade process can be used as a repair-install.

My theory is that they 'officially' discontinued the free upgrade to appease their hardware partners, computer OEMs such as HP and Dell that use OS upgrades to drive sales. Microsoft don't actually care themselves.

You cannot upgrade this way, it must be a nuke and pave.

Not correct. You can still download the ISO, mount it, run setup.exe and upgrade from a currently activated Win7/8 without entering a key. I often use the clean install (nuke/pave) method though, because it's faster than the in-place upgrade process.

 

[glricht]

... I often use the clean install (nuke/pave) method though, because it's faster than the in-place upgrade process.

Plus, a Win 10 N&P is cleaner as there is nothing in the old Win 7 that gets carried forward waiting to cause all kinds of weird problems in Win 10.

 

[Computer Bloke]

You cannot upgrade this way, it must be a nuke and pave.

So the Windows 8 machine I upgraded to 10 yesterday (for the first time ever) won't work, even though it does? Interesting.

 

[GTP]

Sky-Knight said: ↑
You cannot upgrade this way, it must be a nuke and pave...

So the two Win 7 machines I (reluctantly) updated this week to Win 10 Home won't work either! Even though the clients have been using them for several hours/days without issues? Darn it!

 

[Sky-Knight]

Every machine I've attempted to simply run setup on has failed to activate after Windows 10 launched. Install Win10 fresh on the same key, and off to the races.

So great, it worked for you. Don't assume it always will though.

 

[Computer Bloke]

So great, it worked for you. Don't assume it always will though.

Nobody's saying that it will always work, just that it works for almost everyone who's tried it.

You made a categorical statement* that applied to all Windows 7 and 8 computers that do not already have a WIndows 10 licence. We simply provided a series of counterexamples to disprove that statement.

Don't take it personally. It's just logic.


* I can't play the violin even though I've tried several times, therefore nobody can play the violin. Q.E.D.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yes, despite MS's press release that all the upgrades stopped on the 1st of Jan.

Also, I just went through an audit and these "upgrades" were a nightmare to sort out, I had to all but threaten to sue the man to get him to shut up because the COAs don't match.

So just be careful people, MS isn't sane at the best of times.