I have a "vintage" wink 2011 Dell laptop running Windows 7 Home Edition. In 2016 or so, the Microsoft application that looked at your hardware and reported if your computer qualified for the free upgrade to Windows 10 disqualified this computer because the hardware was obsolete.

After Microsoft support for Windows 7 ended I saw +++ THIS +++ ZD Net article and decided to try updating once again. The computer is running build 1909 Windows 10 Home Edition with no issues.

I did a few things to prepare the laptop. I recovered some storage space by deleting unwanted programs, temporary files and downloads. I ran the trim command on the solid state drive (SSD). I used multiple utility programs to make sure all laptop hardware drivers were up to date. Finally I created a Microsoft Live account.

I used the Windows Media Creator (WMC) utility program and a 16 gigabyte USB memory stick to create a bootable build 1909 Windows 10 Home image.

I enabled the boot from USB option in the laptop bios settings. (Yes the laptop is so old it has bios instead of UEFI).

I inserted the USB memory stick and restarted. The boot program asks you to select if you want a "fresh" install (that deletes files and formats the storage drive) or to keep existing files and settings. I selected to keep files and settings.

The last step in the update is to enter a 26 digit product code or obtain a digital license. I provided my Microsoft Live user name and password and the install was verified with a digital license. grin

I haven't noticed any difference in performance and all the old programs I've tested so far work. My only complaints are I don't like the looks of Windows 10 as compared to Windows 7 and I don't like the solitaire program included with Windows 10.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home