Appendix A. Install or upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft has generously offered free upgrades from the Home and Professional editions of Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 8.1 to the same editions of Windows 10. At the time of this writing, the free upgrade offer is valid for one year from the official Windows 10 release date of July 29, 2015. More information about the upgrade offer is available at www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-upgrade.

If your computer is running a licensed copy of Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 with all the available system updates installed, you should receive an invitation to upgrade through Windows Update.

There are four editions of Windows 10: Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro for the consumer market, Windows 10 Enterprise for volume licensing clients, and Windows 10 Education for schools. The following table shows the free upgrade paths for consumers.

The Windows 10 operating system upgrade process is the simplest we’ve seen in our decades of working with computers. Something certainly can go wrong with any upgrade process, so we offer the information in this appendix to help you ensure that you and your computer are properly prepared.

If your computer qualifies for the online upgrade but you don’t want to use that process, you can create your own installation drive or disc on a USB flash drive or DVD by using the media creation tool that is available from windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install. If you choose this path, be sure to read the instructions carefully before you start, because you have to follow specific steps to upgrade without providing a product key.

If your computer isn’t eligible for the free upgrade, or if the free upgrade offer has expired, you can buy Windows 10 from the online Microsoft Store at www.microsoftstore.com, a physical Microsoft store, or the usual retail outlets.

If this icon is already in the notification area, you can skip forward to the “Reserve your copy of Windows 10” section, later in this topic.

If the Get Windows 10 icon doesn’t appear in the notification area, then there are a few things you can do to remove obstacles so it will appear.

Here are some things you should do before you begin the update process:

Confirm that your computer is running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1.

If it is running Windows 8, you must first update the operating system to Windows 8.1 and bring the system files up to date by installing all available Windows updates. This can take several hours and several restarts and is much more arduous than the actual upgrade to Windows 10.

If your computer has been offline for a while, you might not be able to initiate an update from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 through the Windows Update tool. If this happens, you can manually initiate the update from the Microsoft Download Center.

Confirm that the operating system has been properly activated.

Confirm that all available updates are installed. Specifically check for updates KB3035583 and KB2952664 for Windows 7 or KB3035583 and KB2976978 for Windows 8.1. They should be among the last installed.

Record your current software product keys.

It’s also a good idea to clean your hard drive and registry, create a disk image, and back up important files to an external hard drive or to an online storage drive. There are free utilities, such as CCleaner, that will help with most of this.

To determine the current operating system edition

1. Open Windows Explorer or File Explorer.

2. Right-click the icon for your computer, and then click Properties to open the System window of Control Panel.

Information about the edition of Windows that is running on your computer is displayed at the top of the window.

To determine whether your current operating system has been activated

1. In Windows Explorer or File Explorer, right-click your computer icon, and then click Properties to open the System window.

2. Scroll to the Windows activation section at the bottom of the System window. If Windows has been activated, the section contains the phrase Windows is activated.

If Windows is not activated, there might be a button that you can click to start the activation process. You will probably need the Windows product key that should have come with your computer, or with the Windows operating system if you purchased it separately from your computer hardware.

To check for necessary updates

1. Start Windows Update. In the left pane, click Check for updates.

2. If there are pending updates, install them.

Or

If there are no pending updates, click View update history and check for failed updates.

The upgrade to Windows 10 is initiated by the following updates: KB3035583 and KB2952664 for Windows 7 and KB3035583 and KB2976978 for Windows 8.1. If you don’t see the white Windows icon in your tray, check your update history for the appropriate updates.

To manually initiate an update from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1

1. Start your web browser and go to the Microsoft Download Center at www.microsoft.com/en-us/download.

2. Do either of the following:

• If you have a 32-bit computer, search for update ID 42327.

• If you have a 64-bit computer search for update 42335.

3. Click the Download button on the page to start.

Whether or not you provide an email address, Windows Update will inform you when the upgrade is ready for your computer to install, and you can start or postpone the upgrade. The upgrade might not be available immediately because of the volume of computers that it’s going to. According to the email message, it could be “days or even weeks” until you receive it.

To reserve Windows 10

1. After the Get Windows 10 icon appears in the notification area of your taskbar, click the icon to start the Get Windows 10 app.

2. Click Reserve your free upgrade.

3. If you want to receive a confirmation message, provide your email address, and then click Send confirmation.

To confirm that your computer is compatible with Windows 10

1. In the notification area of the taskbar, click the Get Windows 10 icon to start the Get Windows 10 app.

2. In the upper-left corner of the window, click the menu button (labeled with three horizontal lines).

3. In the Getting the upgrade section of the menu, click Check your PC to begin an examination of your computer against the requirements. When the process completes, the app informs you whether your computer meets the requirements.

If there is a problem (such as outdated device drivers or an installed printer that Windows 10 doesn’t support), you can correct the issues and the run the Check Your PC process again.

Decide whether to upgrade or perform a clean installation.

If you’re performing a clean installation, decide which account (a local computer account or a Microsoft account) you want to configure as the first administrator account on the computer.

Sign out all other users, and sign in as an administrator, or provide an administrator password when you are prompted to do so during the installation process.

When Windows Update receives the Windows 10 upgrade notice, an alert appears in the notification area and in Windows Update.

During the upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, the Windows activation server validates your original product key and generates a Windows 10 license certificate (Microsoft calls it a “digital entitlement”) that it stores with your installation ID and the version you just activated (Home or Pro). Because of this, you can reformat your computer and reinstall Windows 10 without re-entering the key.

Your computer will restart multiple times during the upgrade process, which takes a couple of hours but doesn’t require any additional input from you. The screen displays the percentage of completion and other information during the process.

To perform the installation

1. In Windows Update, click Get Started. The download is about 2.7 GB.

2. When the download and preparation are complete, Windows Update displays the license terms.

3. Click Accept to accept the license terms and continue.

4. Click Start the upgrade now. That’s it. The exciting part is done. Window Update will restart the computer and begin the installation process.

The first time you sign in to Windows 10, it goes through a process of configuring your user account. While doing so, the screen cycles repeatedly through a series of colors, and displays messages such as “Sit back and relax” or “This is taking longer than usual,” until it finishes. This process can take a few minutes but is somewhat mesmerizing and again, doesn’t require any input from you.

To finish the update to Windows 10

1. Provide your password, and then press Enter or click Next.

You can choose to use express settings to complete the configuration process, or to customize the settings. If you choose the custom settings option, you can turn off some of the default privacy settings, but you can also change those settings later after you’re familiar with Windows 10.

2. Select Use express settings. Windows displays your desktop, and you can start exploring the new Start screen, Start menu, and taskbar features.

Or

Select Use custom settings, and then review and turn on or off several pages of settings. When you finish, Windows displays your desktop.

For information about what to do after you sign in and how to do it, read this book.