How to Upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 for Free
Windows 10 reached its end-of-support date on October 14, 2025, when Microsoft stopped shipping free security and feature updates for the OS (HotHardware reported, last year). Microsoft also offers Extended Security Updates in specific licensing and cloud scenarios, including Volume Licensing plans, Windows 365 Cloud PCs, and Azure Virtual Desktop machines (Microsoft Learn), but that's separate from the free upgrade path this guide covers. If you'd rather upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 for free, that route is still open, and it won't cost you your files, apps, or settings, as long as your hardware officially qualifies.
That compatibility check decides everything else. If your PC passes it, this is a genuinely free upgrade through Windows Update or the Installation Assistant that keeps everything intact (Microsoft Learn). If it fails, you're not looking at a routine free upgrade anymore. You're looking at manual bypass tools with no guaranteed updates, and a clean install that wipes the drive is the recommended route rather than an optional one (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
This guide covers checking eligibility, backing up properly, completing the upgrade through the supported methods below, confirming it worked, and what to know before even considering a workaround on unsupported hardware. Start with the compatibility check, since it determines everything else.
Check whether your PC qualifies for the free Windows 11 upgrade
Download Microsoft's PC Health Check tool from its official site, install it, and click Check now. A compatible PC displays "This PC can run Windows 11" (Microsoft Learn).
Behind that message, the tool checks your hardware against a specific baseline:
- TPM 2.0 enabled
- UEFI firmware with Secure Boot capability
- 4 GB of RAM or more
- 64 GB of storage or larger
- A supported 64-bit CPU, 1 GHz or faster with two or more cores
(all requirements per Microsoft Learn)
That 64 GB figure is the drive-size minimum, not the working room the installer actually needs. Budget roughly 20 GB of free space on top of your existing files for the upgrade process itself (Microsoft Learn). If storage is tight, run Disk Cleanup or move files off before you start.
You'll also need Windows 10 version 2004 or later to get a direct Windows Update offer. Older builds need current Windows 10 updates installed first before Windows 11 shows up at all (Microsoft Learn).
Check your edition and activation status before going further. Open Settings > System > Activation to confirm Windows 10 is currently activated with a valid product key, since that key typically carries over automatically once you upgrade (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
If you're headed for Windows 11 Home, initial setup requires an internet connection and a Microsoft account rather than a local sign-in (Microsoft Learn).
If PC Health Check flags TPM or Secure Boot specifically, don't assume the hardware is simply incapable of it. Check your manufacturer's documentation before concluding the machine is incompatible. The tool's specific failure reason matters more than a generic CPU-generation rule of thumb, and Microsoft's supported-CPU list is worth checking if you need to confirm your exact processor.
Where to go next, based on your result:
- Eligible, and Windows 11 is already offered in Windows Update → skip to the Windows Update section below.
- Eligible, but nothing's showing up yet → use the Installation Assistant or ISO section.
- Not eligible → read the unsupported-PC section before doing anything else. This isn't a standard free upgrade anymore.
Back up before you upgrade
Back up first, regardless of which path applies to you. Microsoft's own community guidance recommends creating a backup in case the new OS misbehaves or destabilizes the system after the switch (Microsoft Q&A, last year).
A standard in-place upgrade to Windows 11, whether through Windows Update, the Installation Assistant, or a mounted ISO, is designed to preserve your files, apps, and settings (Windows Central, two months ago). That's the appeal of upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 without losing files instead of doing a clean install. But "designed to preserve" isn't a guarantee against every edge case, so don't skip the backup just because the process is supposed to be safe.
Microsoft gives you a 10-day window after the upgrade to roll back to Windows 10 through Settings > System > Recovery (Microsoft Learn). Treat that as a safety net, not a substitute for backing up. Copy anything irreplaceable, photos, documents, project files, to an external drive or cloud storage before you start.
How to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 for free with Windows Update
This is the simplest path, and it applies if PC Health Check confirmed your PC qualifies and Windows Update is already showing the offer.
- Open Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates. Eligible PCs are offered the current supported Windows 11 release directly, without needing to install an intermediate version first (Windows Central, two months ago).
- If nothing shows up despite a passing PC Health Check result, that's not necessarily a sign of a problem. One Microsoft Q&A account describes the offer lagging even after a PC was confirmed compatible (Microsoft Q&A, last year). If the offer doesn't appear, use the Installation Assistant instead.
- Click Download and install. The PC restarts several times during setup and finishes configuring itself automatically, skipping the usual out-of-box setup screens (Microsoft Learn; Microsoft Q&A, last year).
- Once it's done, activation usually carries over automatically as long as the PC had a valid Windows 10 or Windows 11 product key before the upgrade (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
Use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant or ISO if Windows Update hasn't offered it yet
If your PC is eligible but Windows Update hasn't surfaced the offer and you want to move now instead of waiting, use the Installation Assistant directly.
- Download the Windows 11 Installation Assistant from Microsoft's official download page (Microsoft Learn).
- Accept the license agreement and let it download the install files. When it prompts a restart, let it happen. This runs the same in-place upgrade as Windows Update and keeps your files, apps, and settings intact (Microsoft Q&A, last year).
- Alternatively, download the official Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft, mount it, and run setup.exe from inside Windows 10. This also performs an in-place upgrade that preserves your existing setup when you select the option to keep files and apps (Microsoft Learn).
Pay attention to the difference between these two methods of using installation media. Mounting the ISO and running setup.exe from inside Windows 10 keeps your data intact. Using the Media Creation Tool to build a bootable USB and booting from it starts a different installation workflow, typically used for a clean install. If you want to upgrade in place, mount the ISO from within Windows and run setup from there instead of booting off external media.
Expect a few restarts during either method, and give the process time to finish rather than assuming it's stuck partway through (Microsoft Q&A, last year).
If your PC isn't officially supported, know this before doing anything
Upgrading an unsupported PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11 isn't a routine free process anymore. Unsupported hardware can't get Windows 11 through Windows Update at all (Pureinfotech, earlier this year). Getting it onto one of these machines means manual methods instead, most commonly building a bootable USB or ISO with a tool like Rufus or Ventoy, which can be used to bypass Microsoft's TPM, Secure Boot, RAM, and CPU checks (Pureinfotech, earlier this year). Registry edits and command-based workarounds exist too, though Pureinfotech notes they're less reliable than the USB-based tools.
Microsoft is explicit that these installs aren't eligible for guaranteed security updates, driver compatibility, or support, even though some unsupported devices continue to receive patches in practice (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
There's also a hard technical floor. Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and newer releases won't boot at all without CPU support for the POPCNT instruction. According to Pureinfotech, that requirement excludes only AMD and Intel processors released before 2008. A bypass tool does not overcome the POPCNT requirement, so if your CPU predates it, none of the workarounds above will produce a working install.
On which method to pick: Pureinfotech recommends a clean install as the safer, more reliable option on unsupported hardware. An in-place upgrade is technically possible, but it carries a meaningfully higher risk of setup failures, driver conflicts, and post-install stability problems (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
This guide doesn't walk through those bypass steps. If you decide to proceed anyway, back up everything first, since a clean install wipes the drive, and look up the specific tool's current instructions before you start.
Confirm the upgrade actually worked
Once setup finishes, check Settings > System > Activation to confirm Windows 11 activated automatically. This should happen without any input from you as long as your prior Windows 10 or Windows 11 license was valid (Pureinfotech, earlier this year).
Check Windows Update again right after setup finishes and install anything it offers.
Open the apps you use daily and test any peripherals that matter, printers, docks, controllers, before the 10-day rollback window closes (Microsoft Learn). Settings > System > Recovery is where that rollback option lives if you need it before the window shuts.
Run PC Health Check first. If your PC passes, back up your data, try Windows Update, and fall back to the Installation Assistant or a mounted ISO if the offer isn't there yet. If it fails, don't treat a bypass as the same free upgrade covered above. Weigh staying on Windows 10 through an eligible ESU option, replacing the hardware, or accepting the backup, installation, and update risks that come with unsupported Windows 11.
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