Can You Still Get Windows 10 For Free? - Comments Page 1

Thanks Bob. I did the early update. It amazes me how you stay on top of all this.

Before attempting to "upgrade", run a web search for "windows 10 brick".

Bob, I fail to understand why people just don't migrate to some flavor of Linux. It's not just for techies anymore. Ubuntu (https://www.ubuntu.com), Ubuntu Mate (https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/), Kubuntu (http://kubuntu.org/), Mint (https://www.linuxmint.com/)...all really great distributions, all easy to use with lots of documentation out there for each and an active community to lend a hand whenever needed.

- No spyware like M$ Windows 10
- No registration or product keys required! You can use the same media for multiple installs legally!
- More secure or can be made more secure for free.
- More resilient against viruses out of the box
- Lighter weight than Windows 10
- Most software for it is free, as opposed to having to buy everything for Windows 10 (over 30,000 different software in various repositories for free, just download and install with the package manager).
- Better filesystems - ext4 or btrfs vs NTFS - I have yet to have to defrag an ext4 filesystem and I've been using various versions and distributions of Linux since 2001.
- Free cost - just download and install (donations welcome, though)
- Runs really well on older hardware - no constant upgrading because newer versions of Windows require more power to run.
- Greater choice among graphical user interfaces (guis) - Windows only allows one, Linux has many and you can have multiple on the same machine and choose between them at startup!
- Most peripherals work without specifying drivers...scanners, printers and webcams tend to work just by plugging them into the computer. All of the drivers (modules) are installed in the background without your intervention.

To me, Windows, even Windows 10 is only for gaming that can't be done on (read: hasn't been developed or ported to) Linux. In the past few years, even that has been changing, too.

So, although I understand people are reluctant to mess with their computer, the experience afterward is more than worth the trouble and you can even easily dual-boot most distributions of Linux with Windows so you can choose between the two at bootup through the GRUB bootloader (installed and configured by default by the installer.)

So, for your readers, if you haven't tried Linux, give it a try. You won't be sorry!

Could one not argue that wanting to upgrade to Windows 10 is a symptom of mental disability?

I recently tried the first upgrade method, and it did NOT work. I phoned in to Microsft support, and they emphatically stated that that method does NOT work. I'm from Canada, so it may be different in the USA. They refused to authorize it.
Although....nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Does it count if you claim to be morally disabled?

anther reason to do a full back up first

I agree with Calvin The'airedale. And checking new computer prices, it seems to me that computers with similar hardware (processor, etc) are about the same price whether they come with Win 7, 8, or 10. The $2,000+ price tag on a gaming computer is not due to Win 10. It's the enhanced procesor, video and sound cards, etc. The same seems to be true with a $500-$600 plain Jane laptop. Buy the hardware and the configuration you want, and Win 10 will come with it. Why pay extra to put it on an older machine. Besides, when my laptop dies, MS will be offering Win 12 or Win 14, in spite of what they say they have planned now.

A state of menial disability? Why, I downgraded to GWX on the day that my palm flower turned black hoping that I would not see a BSOD. My sound is fork as a mind tuning. Mental floss, indeed! Maybe I should start back and over up. Windows 10 has been very, very good too mi.

Took me two attempts to upgrade and a few updates to get all the bugs out, but Win 10 is by far the most stable, quickest, most useful Windows ever. And I have tried several Linux distributions over the years and it is still not as user friendly as Windows 98, let alone Windows 7 or 10. The paranoid minority are welcome to it.

You do not need to be disabled to use the upgrade offer now. "If you use assistive technology on Windows, you are eligible for the free upgrade offer". One example of assistive technologies given on the same page (Microsoft upgrade FAQ) is Cortana. So feel free to upgrade without any bad conscience.

While Win 10 has been acceptable for me on some of my PCs, I deeply regret installing it (as an upgrade to Win 8) on my tablet.
This was done months ago, certainly too long ago to be able to automatically uninstall Win 10 and roll back to Win 8.
Is there a relatively easy way to roll back (or better yet, install Win 7)?

Pray tell, what are "assistive technologies?" My feeble 78 year old mind is in pretty good shape, but my body has all sorts of disabilities. (I have but don't use: a cane, a walker, crutches, etc., though I have used them and may have to go back to using them.) I don't have a youngster or teen to clue me in as to this terminology.

Great information regarding updating to windows 10,
But i would argue why would you want too.

There is no windows 11,12,13,14, etc. Windows 10 is supposed to be the last version of Windows.

Thank you for this follow-up article. When I first upgraded my HP W7 desktop to W10 it was a disaster and I had to pay $100 to get it reverted. Then my laptop broke and the new one had W10. I've been using them side-by-side for six months, wishing they were identical operating systems but scared of another W10 upgrade. Your article prompted me to try again and it was a piece of cake. Thank you.

Butch: Assistive technologies are apps/programs/devices used by people with disabilities to access and/or interact with information on the computer screen. Examples built in to the Windows operating system include Magnifier and Narrator, and Speech Recognition.

Commercially available accessibility programs include ZoomText which offers a number of visual enhancements, JAWS which reads the screen aloud or sends the screen information to a Braille display, and Dragon Naturally Speaking which allows you to interact with the screen display via voice recogntion rather than a mouse or keyboard.

The main reason that Microsoft is still allowing the Win 10 upgrade for assistive tech users is that some parts of Windows 10 (Edge, Mail) do not yet work well with assistive technology programs.

After you finish installing the assistive technology for Win 10 you have to go to settings to revert to non assistive settings.

Hey Bob - I thought the first method you mention in the article was supposed to be an upgrade as opposed to a clean install. But the article specifies "clean" install for both options. Was this a mistake?

To answer MGs question:
"Is there a relatively easy way to roll back (or better yet, install Win 7)?"
Yes there is....if the last thing you did before you let MS install W10 is BACK YOUR SYSTEM UP.
I made 2 backups of my W7 just in case the first one failed and in different places. One was on the data drive and the other was on an exterior usb3 drive.
Glad I did because I am still watching my wife rip her hair out with her W10.