Too late to upgrade from 8.1 to 10?

[CitizenBane]

Hello,

Is it possible that I've missed my chance to upgrade? I reserved my Windows 10 upgrade last year, but my pc's been in storage since late july 2015. I could've upgraded before I stored it, but I decided to wait until I got my computer back. That's now; I powered it up for the first time again yesterday evening and I reconnected to the Internet four hours ago.

But when I click the "download Windows 10" button, I only get the "You don't have to do anything, we'll notify you when Windows 10 is ready for installation" message. I know that not everybody got it at the same time, and some people had to be a bit more patient than others when the upgrade was first rolled out, but that's not still the case, is it? How long should I wait?

I've tried forcing the upgrade with the wuauclt.exe /updatenow prompt, but that didn't do anything either.

Any ideas?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Windows 10 is now listed as a recommended update in Windows update. I suspect the next time Windows Update runs, Windows 10 will be included (or get you set up for Windows 10).

Just be patient. It will come.

-Wolf sends

P.S. If I remember correctly, the cut-off date for the free upgrade is Jun 29th, 2016.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You don't even need to do it that way anyhow. You can manually instigate the upgrade or do a clean install using your 8.1 product key as follows:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2784691/ditch-problematic-win10-upgrade-replace-clean-install.html

 

[TJ Hooker]

You don't even need to do it that way anyhow. You can manually instigate the upgrade or do a clean install using your 8.1 product key as follows:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2784691/ditch-problematic-win10-upgrade-replace-clean-install.html

Watch out trying to use your 8.1 key right off the bat with a clean install, rather than first upgrading and activating your existing install. Not all 8.1 keys will work for this. I got win8.1 though my university and I wasn't able to directly activate with my key. I'm guessing OEM keys might not work either.

 

[larkspur]

Darkbreeze - I read your guide, thanks! I did read it in your guide, but can you confirm that those of us with Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 don't actually have to go through the upgrade process anymore? In other words, we can just do a clean install of win 10 on a blank volume using the installer from the media creation tool and then use our win 7 key to activate it? I'd much rather just do a clean win 10 install rather than the upgrade first and then a clean install after that. Saves a step. One more thing - I have a retail Win 7 pro key, I had heard that upgrading to 10 will make the key no longer transferable (like an oem key). Is that correct? Thanks again!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, I can verify it. I've done it with at least ten machines so far on a personal basis (Friends, relatives) and about double that on client systems. That doesn't mean however that you shouldn't still back up your important data before proceeding, as always.

Plus, you go at it one of two ways. You can download the Windows 10 ISO from the link in the tutorial and use it to do an upgrade by running it from within your current Windows installation and choosing the "keep files, folders and settings" option, OR perform a clean install using your current product key. The only way I am aware of that the clean install won't work that way is if you don't have a legitimately licensed product or if you are using a volume license key meant for corporate use. Even then, it might.

I'm not sure if the amnesty program is still running for those not running legitimately licensed systems though.

In all other cases, it should work. I've also swapped motherboards on about five systems after installing Windows 10 and in four of those cases a short chat with the Microsoft online help desk facilitated reactiving the OS with the new motherboard and in one case I didn't have to do anything at all. It did it by itself. Microsoft WANTS you on Windows 10, and is not only trying to do everything it can to make it easier for you to change over, they are pretty well forcing users to do so in most cases, so there's little chance of them not playing ball in almost every scenario.

 

[CitizenBane]

Windows 10 is now listed as a recommended update in Windows update. I suspect the next time Windows Update runs, Windows 10 will be included (or get you set up for Windows 10).

Just be patient. It will come.

-Wolf sends

P.S. If I remember correctly, the cut-off date for the free upgrade is Jun 29th, 2016.

I'm already completely updated, I think. Nothing new comes up when I search for updates. I do have a bunch of "optional updates", not "recommended." Or is that the same thing? (My Windows is actually in another language, so it might just be a different translation of the same thing.) None of them is the upgrade, though.

But alright, I'll wait a bit longer then before I try anything drastic.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I wouldn't. If you want to move to Windows 10, I'd just download the media creation tool, create the installer media and upgrade manually. There could be any number of reasons why the system hasn't upgraded yet including a broken update tool or other factors. But that's your call.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Darkbreeze - I read your guide, thanks! I did read it in your guide, but can you confirm that those of us with Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 don't actually have to go through the upgrade process anymore? In other words, we can just do a clean install of win 10 on a blank volume using the installer from the media creation tool and then use our win 7 key to activate it? I'd much rather just do a clean win 10 install rather than the upgrade first and then a clean install after that. Saves a step. One more thing - I have a retail Win 7 pro key, I had heard that upgrading to 10 will make the key no longer transferable (like an oem key). Is that correct? Thanks again!

Windows 7 was never transferable to begin with, same as 10 is not supposed to be transferable. I haven't had any issues reactivating after a motherboard change (Which Windows sees as a different system, so same thing.) so long as you contact Microsoft help desk or do the following after changing boards:

Open an administrator command prompt and type SLUI.EXE 3 and then hit enter. Enter the product key for your previous operating system or your windows 10 product key if you know it. Follow the directions.

 

[CitizenBane]

Just in case anyone with the same question comes along: I ended up downloading the upgrade tool from the Microsoft website, here. I'm fully upgraded now. There's no need to wait.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes. I'm pretty sure that's what I said. Twice, at least.

 

[CitizenBane]

Yes. I'm pretty sure that's what I said. Twice, at least.

Consider mine the TL;DR version.

 

[Darkbreeze]

More like the "I came here looking for answers, but couldn't be bothered to read the replies, so I ended up spending twice as long looking elsewhere just to end up doing what I was advised to do in the first place" version.

Just yanking your chain. Either way, glad you worked it out.

 

[USAFRet]

Watch out trying to use your 8.1 key right off the bat with a clean install, rather than first upgrading and activating your existing install. Not all 8.1 keys will work for this. I got win8.1 though my university and I wasn't able to directly activate with my key. I'm guessing OEM keys might not work either.

A .edu license key will not work.
An OEM license will absolutely work.

 

[wpgwpg]

I recently upgraded 4 desktops from 8.1 to 10 using the ISO I created with the Media Creation Tool I downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 . It worked without any problem. These desktops were 5 year old Dell Optiplex. I'll be upgrading 24 of the same models from Windows 7 to 10 using the same method in June (before time runs out for the free upgrade).