Moving to a Windows 10 PC

Making the move to a new Windows 10 PC? We’re happy you’re here and we’ve got you covered.

This guide will help you discover the best Microsoft has to offer and help you transfer your favorite files and apps to your new device so you can get up and running quickly, and get back to doing what you love.

If you’re on a Windows 7 device, note that support has ended and we recommend you move to a Windows 10 PC to stay secure. Learn more about the Windows 7 end of support and how to get Windows 10.

Step 1: Learn the benefits of a modern Windows 10 PC

Shopping for a new PC? Watch videos about common device-related terms you might come across in your research, including storage types, graphics processing units, and more.

Regular updates are built in to Windows 10, meaning you’ll always have the latest features. Explore what‘s new in the latest Windows 10 updates.

Get customized info about your current Windows 7 PC health and performance with the Guide to Windows 10 app (for Windows 7 devices).

Step 2: Purchase your new PC

For quicker startup times, longer battery life, and more responsive apps, a new PC has you covered. Find a new PC that fits your needs.

Step 3: Sign in with Microsoft to streamline your experience

Never forget a password again. Get personal access to all things Microsoft with a single, secure sign-on, plus get free OneDrive storage to help you move your files to your new PC. Good news—if you have an Xbox or Office account, you may already have a Microsoft account. You can also sign in with any email to get started.

Step 4: Bring your files and favorites with you

There’s no need to leave your files or browser favorites behind. Bring them with you to your new PC using one of the following options. We recommend using OneDrive so your files are backed up and protected in the cloud.

Select your current version of Windows to find instructions on how to move your files.

Getting Started with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise

This article will give you an overview of the product and guide you through how to get started with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

What is Windows 10 IoT Enterprise?

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise is a full version of Windows 10 that delivers enterprise manageability and security to IoT solutions. Windows 10 IoT Enterprise shares all the benefits of the worldwide Windows ecosystem. It is a binary equivalent to Windows 10 Enterprise, so you can use the same familiar development and management tools as client PCs and laptops. However, when it comes to licensing and distribution, the desktop version and IoT versions differ.

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise offers both LTSC and SAC options, and OEMs can choose the one they need for their devices. For more information on how to reach out to a Windows IoT Distributor or how to purchase a license, review Licensing & Usage.

Why Do Customer Choose Windows 10 IoT Enterprise?

There are three main reasons why customers choose to develop with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise:

1. Productive — Leverage existing knowledge to build and manage Windows 10 IoT Enterprise devices with powerful tools and technologies to quickly unlock data and drive digital transformation.
2. Trusted — Windows 10 IoT Enterprise helps you build IoT solutions that you can trust, keeping your devices, data, and identities secure and giving you peace of mind.
3. Smart — Windows 10 IoT Enterprise helps you connect your devices to each other, your network, and the cloud, so you can use data to drive real business insight and create new business opportunities

If you are building any kind of OEM style appliance, such as a point-of-sale or retail device, industrial automation equipment, digital signage, medical equipment or any appliance with a screen, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise is the solution for you.

See how our customers are using Windows 10 IoT Enterprise to accomplish their business goals.

Documentation Overview

This documentation set will cover the technical breakdown of what’s included when you choose to use Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

Hardware Guidance

This section provides insight into the hardware needed to run Windows 10 IoT Enterprise as your device’s OS.

Quickstarts

This section provides quick tutorials on how to get started with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

Kiosk Mode

This section walks users through the features and functionalities of Kiosk Mode and how to enable those features on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

Advanced Lockdown Features

This section highlights how to create a lock-down environment with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS features.

Branding Features

This section reviews how to create a custom user-experience that highlights your brand. Articles include:

Device Management

Learn more about the device management solutions you can take advantage of with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

IoT Device Features

This section gives an overview of many of the built-in functionalities of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise devices.

Commercialization

Learn how to commercialize your Windows 10 IoT Enterprise devices.

Additional Resources

These resources provide additional information and support to our customers and partners.

How you can still get Windows 10 for free

Technical Level : Basic

Windows 10 was released with a free upgrade offer that lasted for 1 year. Now, the free upgrade promotional period is officially over. However, you can still snag yourself a free license of Windows 10, perfectly legally, if you know how.

It is a good idea to secure your important data before proceeding with any upgrade or installation.

Use a Windows 7 or Windows 8.x product key

While the free upgrade offer ended last year, Microsoft will still let you install Windows 10 and activate it using a valid Windows 7 or Windows 8.x product key. When you download Windows 10 this way, your PC will receive a digital license valid for the life of the device, exactly the same way as if you had taken advantage of last year’s offer.

First, you’ll need to find your product key. See my article » How to recover your Windows product key » for more information.

When you’ve found your product key, head over to the Download Windows 10 website and click the Download tool now button.

When the tool finishes downloading, open it, accept the license terms, and hit Upgrade this PC now. If you prefer, you can also select Create installation media for another PC to download an .iso file and clean install Windows 10.

If you choose to create installation media, make sure to download the correct version of Windows 10.

Either way, after Windows 10 installs, you can use your Windows 7 or Windows 8.x product key to activate when you are asked.

Assistive Technologies Offer

Microsoft is offering Windows 10 for free for customers who use «assistive technologies». All you have to do is visit their Accessibility website and hit the «upgrade now» button.

A tool will be downloaded that will help you upgrade your Windows 7 or 8.x machine to Windows 10. The process is the same as last year’s free upgrade process. When you download Windows 10 this way, your PC will receive a digital license valid for the life of the device, exactly the same way as if you had taken advantage of last year’s offer.

According to the terms, anyone who uses «assistive technologies» qualifies for the upgrade. These technologies can range anywhere from magnifiers and content readers to simply using a high contrast Windows theme or mouse pointer.

Despite the terms being clearly laid out, Microsoft is not checking that whomever downloads Windows 10 this way uses assistive technologies. And despite confusion when this loophole was discovered long ago, Microsoft has not hidden or withdrawn the offer. They also have not specified when it will end.

Reinstall Windows 10

If you took advantage of the free upgrade offer, or you obtained Windows 10 using the methods in this article, you can reinstall Windows 10 on that same machine however many times you’d like without providing a product key. This is because Windows 10 registers your hardware IDs with Microsoft’s servers, so that when you reinstall Windows, your hardware is automatically matched with the servers and activated.

Windows 10 also allows you to upgrade various hardware components like RAM or storage devices without requiring reactivation. This is also thanks to the ID matching system.

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Now on to my next machine, my daughter’s Lenovo S10-3 netbook, running Windows 7 Starter.

I let it follow the whole upgrade process as Microsoft designed it by reserving a copy of Windows 10 and waiting for it to prompt me that Windows 10 was ready to install. AS part of this process, the checker tells me

It takes a long time on such a slow machine so I cant be sitting next to it for the whole process.

I have let it try to upgrade twice by following the prompts and once by using the USB.

In all cases, the black installation percentage dial has gone well over 50% and maybe higher and then and then – «Restoring your previous version of Windows» screen appears. If I am not around, ( I went o bed last night), I don’t even see this message. This morning I just woke up to a Windows 7 Starter system again.

When my old Windows 7 starter re-boots, the whole automatic background download starts again and then I get asked to commence the upgrade again. Having now had 3 downloads on this one machine, I am not going to bother starting the next upgrade until I can resolve what is preventing this upgrade from happening.

I cant even get the first upgrade to complete to take a clean install option.

Windows Update History shows it failed with error code of C1900101, which indicates some sort of incompatibility. Any ideas about how I can narrow it down.

Compare Windows 10 Home vs. Pro

Find the right fit for your needs. Check out our list of product offerings to see which Windows 10 version checks all of your boxes.

Windows Security

Windows 10 changes the game for security by protecting user identities, devices and information with a comprehensive solution driven by intelligence that only Microsoft offers.

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Using facial recognition, a fingerprint, or PIN, Windows Hello is a fast, secure and password-free way to unlock your compatible Windows devices.

Device encryption is available on a wide range of Windows devices and helps protect your data by encrypting it. If you turn on device encryption, only authorised individuals will be able to access your device and data.

Your Windows device comes with comprehensive, built-in security features, including firewall and internet protections to help safeguard against viruses, malware and ransomware.

App & browser control in Windows Security provides the settings for Windows Defender SmartScreen, which helps protect your device from potentially dangerous apps, files, websites and downloads.

Manage screen time, limit access to mature content, control online purchases when you connect your family’s Microsoft accounts, and check to make sure the family’s devices are secure and up to date.

Secure Boot helps prevent malicious software applications and unauthorised operating systems from loading during the system start-up process.

If your device is lost or stolen, BitLocker and BitLocker To Go put everything on lockdown, so no one else can access your systems or data.

WIP helps to protect against potential data leakage without otherwise interfering with the employee experience. WIP also helps to protect enterprise apps and data against accidental data leaks on enterprise-owned devices and personal devices that employees bring to work, without requiring changes to your environment or other apps.

Windows Defender Antivirus uses the power of the cloud, wide optics, machine learning and behaviour analysis to protect your devices from emerging, sophisticated threats.

Windows Fundamentals

Windows 10 comes with automatic updates enabled, which means you get all the latest features at no extra cost. +

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Windows Fundamentals

Take notes, navigate, draw, doodle, edit and create. Improve what you do with a digital pen. 6

Get faster browsing 7 8 and better battery life 8 9 across your devices with Microsoft Edge, the browser built for Windows 10.

All you have to do is ask Cortana. Your digital assistant on PCs and mobile devices can schedule a meeting, tell you when it’s time to leave for an appointment, or check the weather, news and traffic.

Extend battery life by limiting background activity and push notifications.

Get instant access to your Android phone’s texts and photos on your PC, 11 or connect your iPhone for seamless browsing, calendar and app experiences. 12

Free up time and your hands by talking to your computer. Get information and reminders or listen to music and manage your emails and calendar. 13

Business Management and Deployment

Built-in security, productivity and management features save you time, money and hassle.

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Feature	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Pro

Business–Management and Deployment

Windows 10 mobile device management (MDM) provides an alternative to traditional PC management processes: you can transition to cloud based management at your own pace.

Manage PCs, user accounts and groups, and get easy access to files and printers when you pair Windows 10 Pro with Windows Server. ** You can even define specific security and networking policies for your users and devices.

Available to any organisation with an Azure AD Premium or Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) licence, Enterprise State Roaming provides users with a unified experience across their Windows devices and reduces the time needed for configuring a new device.

Your one place to find, manage and distribute apps to Windows 10 devices in volume.

With Assigned Access, Windows 10 Pro devices run different applications depending on the user and keep individual identities separate and secured.

With Dynamic Provisioning you can take a new PC out of the box, turn it on, and transform it into a productive organisation device, with minimal time and effort.

Windows Update for Business can help businesses reduce management costs, provide control over update deployments, enable more efficient delivery of updates, and provide access to the latest innovations from Microsoft.

Configure a device in kiosk mode in a very simple way. You can do this locally on the device or remotely using Mobile Device Management.

Domain Join + Group Policy: IT staff can easily manage PCs, user accounts and groups, security policies, and get easy access to files and printers when you pair Windows 10 Pro with Windows Server. ** You can even define specific security and networking policies for your users and devices.

Employees can use a single login across Windows 10, Microsoft 365, *** and other Microsoft services, making log-ons and passwords easier to manage. The shared log-on works on PCs, tablets and phones with minimal IT involvement.

Go ahead, get creative

Edit photos and spice up presentations. Windows 10 has the apps you need to get in touch with your creative side.

Microsoft Office

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more—get everything you need to create and present your ideas with an Microsoft 365 subscription. ***

Digital pen and touch

Scribble down a headline, draw a chart, add bullet points—design an entire presentation with a digital pen. And on new Windows 10 touchscreen computers, you can zoom, scroll and sign documents with the touch of a finger.

Photos

The new Photos app makes it fun and easy to enhance your digital memories. If you liked making videos with Windows Movie Maker, you’ll love what you can do with Photos.

Digital pen and touch

Scribble down a headline, draw a chart, add bullet points—design an entire presentation with a digital pen. And on new Windows 10 touchscreen computers, you can zoom, scroll and sign documents with the touch of a finger.

Photos

The new Photos app makes it fun and easy to enhance your digital memories. If you liked making videos with Windows Movie Maker, you’ll love what you can do with Photos.

Microsoft Office

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more—get everything you need to create and present your ideas with an Microsoft 365 subscription. ***

Photos

The new Photos app makes it fun and easy to enhance your digital memories. If you liked making videos with Windows Movie Maker, you’ll love what you can do with Photos.

Microsoft Office

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more—get everything you need to create and present your ideas with an Microsoft 365 subscription. ***

Digital pen and touch

Scribble down a headline, draw a chart, add bullet points—design an entire presentation with a digital pen. And on new Windows 10 touchscreen computers, you can zoom, scroll and sign documents with the touch of a finger.

Quickly capture your thoughts, tasks and reminders

Use Sticky Notes and type, ink or add a picture to save ideas, thoughts, lists, appointments and more—so you don’t miss a thing!

More efficiencies, less energy

Windows 10 has apps and features to help you have fun and get more done with less hassle.

Timeline

Scroll through time to find documents and websites. 17

Voice, pen and touch

Interact with your Windows 10 computer in new ways.

Windows Hello

Log into your Windows devices three times faster by using your face or fingerprint. *

Gaming

Windows 10 is built for the games you love.

Is your computer ready for Windows 10?

Windows 10 features are best experienced on a modern PC. Find out if your current PC is ready for Windows 10 by answering just a few questions.

Get Windows 10

Speed, security, durability and great design—you really can have it all.

Get a new Windows 10 device

Get the Windows 10 OS

1 To use Windows Hello with biometrics specialised hardware, including fingerprint reader, illuminated IR sensor or other biometric sensors is required. Hardware-based protection of the Windows Hello credential/keys requires TPM 1.2 or greater. If there is no existing or configured TPM, credentials/keys protection will be software-based.

2 Requires modern hardware (InstantGo/AOAC/HSTI-compliant). Review this doc for more details on Device Encryption.

3 Requires TPM 1.2 or greater for TPM based key protection.

4 Windows Information Protection requires either Mobile Device Management (MDM) or System Centre Configuration Manager to manage settings in Windows 10 Pro. Active Directory makes management easier but is not required.

5 Windows Information Protection supports Mobile Application Management (MAM) for use in Home edition only.

6 Pen capable tablet or PC required. Pen accessory may be sold separately.

7 Performance claims based on Jetstream 1.1 tests using Microsoft Edge 18 vs. Chrome 69 and Firefox 62. Go here for more details on this performance claim.

8 Availability and functionality may vary on non-Windows devices.

9 Based on average times; battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors. Go here for more details on this battery life claim.

10 Cortana available in selected markets; experience may vary by region and device.

11 Users must link their Android phone to their Windows PC in PC settings. Users will receive an app from Microsoft which they must download to their Android phone and follow the set-up prompts, including being signed into same Microsoft Account across mobile apps and Windows 10 PC.

12 Users must link their iPhone to their PC in PC settings. Users will receive an app from Microsoft which they must download to their iPhone and follow the set-up prompts.

13 Hardware dependent. Available on limited selected devices supporting far-field capabilities. Connect email accounts in the Cortana Notebook; works with Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 and Gmail. Microsoft 365 requires a subscription.

14 Not all MDM capabilities are available in the Home SKU. MDM requires an MDM product such as Microsoft Intune or other 3rd-party solutions (sold separately).

15 Separate subscription for Azure Active Directory Premium required.

16 Available in selected markets. Functionality and apps may vary by market and device.

17 Timeline shows 3-5 days of past activities, including activities done on a tablet and mobile phone when users are signed into their Microsoft accounts. To see up to 30 days of activities, users must choose this option in settings. Available in selected markets. Functionality may vary by device.

* Based on average time comparison between typing a password and detecting a face or fingerprint in order to successfully authenticate. Requires specialised hardware, including fingerprint reader, illuminated IR sensor or other biometric sensors and capable devices.

+ Additional requirements may apply for ongoing updates.

*** Microsoft 365 subscription sold separately.

Feature	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Pro