It’s printed and included in the packaging, emailed to you, or stored in the cloud, which is usually the case for system builders. What’s the difference? When you purchase an operating system from Microsoft or any retailer, it comes with a product key to unlock it. It would be best to have a valid product key or a digital license to get a free upgrade. No need to worry, though - there are still ways to get Microsoft’s latest operating system without paying for a new license or breaking any rules. We've shown several ways to get Windows 10 for free or cheap, so review those to see if any will work for you.Īs a last resort, Windows 10 works just fine without activation, aside from restricting personalization options and displaying a watermark in the corner of the screen.Unfortunately, the original free upgrade period to Windows 10 ended years ago, and the workaround to get Windows 10 for free with Assistive Technologies ended not long after that. If you don't have a valid license key on your current computer, you can still use the download tool to install Windows 10 on that device. But if you have it and this fails for some reason, you can enter it to activate Windows 10. You shouldn't need the product key from your current Windows installation. When everything is complete, head to Settings > Update & Security > Activation and it will show that you're activated. That will guide you through creating a bootable installer so you can install Windows 10 from a USB drive.Įither way, after it installs, walk through the setup process for Windows 10 and Windows won't ask you for a license key. If you want to upgrade multiple systems to Windows 10, select Create installation media instead.

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