Free Upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10

[Mayonline]

Hi, have a fairly old HP laptop which hasn't been used for some time. Its got Win 8.1 installed and I'm not able to up date Chrome with this OS.

So, I read somewhere that upgrading to Win 10 is free of charge so I went ahead and did that from the Microsoft portal.
I've now booted into Win 10, but I cannot activate it as I don't have a product key. I then found this.....

"There is no current upgrade route from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10. In Sept 2023 Microsoft blocked the loophole that had been allowing users to use a Windows 7 or 8 product key to activate Windows 10. The free upgrade period officially finished in 2016"

So, I'm a little bit stuck. The only thing I can think of is reinstalling windows 8.1. SO my question is, is there any legit way of resolving this without paying for an upgrade?

Many thanks

PS - I know I'm a bit late to the game, but this laptop is still a reasonable spec and will only be used for browsing, mailing, and MS Office and so there is plently of life left in it.

[banhien]

@Mayonline 

Please try

               https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-you-still-get-a-windows-10-upgrade-for-free/

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @Mayonline 

Unfortunately, there is no way to legally activate W10 without purchasing a product key.

I recommend that you go back to W8.1 if you did an in-place upgrade to W10.

You could use Microsoft Edge for W8.1 which should stay updated.

Download Microsoft Edge

If you clean installed W10, you are in a real dilemma unless you have W8.1 recovery media or an ISO file you had saved previously, because recently Microsoft has removed the W8.1 ISO file downloads and I don't know of any other place you can find one.

[Mayonline]

Thank you Paul

[Mayonline]

Thank you for the response

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.