Buy old Windows version now and still get the upgrade for free?

Solution 1:

The free upgrade for Windows 10 is only available for Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. But if you act quick, you can buy a license for Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 and use it for the free upgrade, before July 29th.

The best idea though, is to use Media Creation Tool to download and burn an ISO of Windows 10, and use your Windows 7 license keys to do a fresh install of Win 10. You can use any of Win 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 license keys. However, you can't use XP keys for that.

EDIT: In the comments, @cybermonkey suggested that the Media Creation Tool is the only solution to get the upgrade, because the old version of Windows has to be installed for at least 30 days before the deadline. However, this does not apply to clean installs so you can still use you Win 7/8/8.1 license key to install and activate Win 10.

Solution 2:

Mary Mary quite contrary

You state "we have to save money where we can"...
...and "We have a little office for our local sportsclub"...

... well remain with Linux! :-)

This is probably an answer that you would not like to read.
In your specific case migrating to windows it is NOT THE RIGHT SOLUTION.
It is not a religious choice it is a specific one.

In brief: the decision to migrate from an OS to another with a limited budget will have consequences in the present and the future. I discourage such decision without an accurate costs and benefits analysis related to the needs of your working place. The decision to migrate to meet the needs or the preferences of a user, even if volunteer and 80yr old, have to be thoughtful.

The situation in details:

• The place is a "little office with 3 PC of a local sports-club".
  There are 3 PC with Ubuntu --> The work made till now is made under Ubuntu.

• The goal is "we have to save money where we can".

• The PC-Users are not well educated with Linux, especially one, 80 yr old.

• The needs of a working place like the one you described usually are: an office suite (word processor, maybe a spreadsheet, maybe maybe a slide show presentation program), an email client, a browser, eventually some programs to deal with images and videos.
  An extended need can be to develop, manage, and keep online, of an Internet site (I said WordPress because I sense you have one).

Some consequences with a migration:

• you will pay for licenses (with a discount now), and you will probably have to pay for MS Office for full and so on... If you plan to use an alternative office suite (LibreOffice, StarOffice, OpenOffice...) then you will have no advantage for this migrating to a new OS.

• You may have to migrate all the old documents to the new OS. Usually you may experience some problem with page formats, pictures that change page... If you have macros in UNO they should be a problem in MS Office.
  Even if the migration will be with few problems, you have to spend some time (equivalent of money) to check and to fix it.

• You will train people to work under Windows. That means that in future when you will need to buy a new computer you will need to pay again for the new windows license to keep the same OS (maybe even without discounts).

• Slow downs:

  • You have to keep running an antivirus, (and maybe an anti-malware). This will use a good part of one core of your CPU, and will access often to disk.

  • Even if many optimizations were done with Windows 10, there remain the general slow down experienced with old hardware and a new OS.

• Legal changes/consequences. Changing the OS is more than a simple upgrade of a program. In general you will change the condition to use your machine, in particular you pass from the Ubuntu terms ^[ub] to the windows ones^[w10]. Even if yours is a local sport-club, it is always a company and not a private user. Looking inside the MS software terms you can spot some limitations, specifically, e.g., point 2.c(v), 2.d(v) and some wide concessions about the privacy of your working place, point 3, that you have to communicate to your bosses and evaluate in order to know if it is acceptable for the company:

  2.c.(v) use the software as server software, for commercial hosting, ... install the software on a server and allow users to access it remotely...

  2.d.(v) Remote access: No more than once every 90 days, you may designate a single user who physically uses the licensed device as the licensed user. The licensed user may access the licensed device from another device using remote access technologies. Other users, at different times, may access the licensed device from another device using remote access technologies, but only on devices separately licensed to run the same or higher edition of this software.

  3 ... By accepting this agreement and using the software you agree that Microsoft may collect, use, and disclose the information as described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement aka.ms/privacy (ed: click Learn More below Personal Data We Collect to see), and as may be described in the user interface associated with the software features.

An alternative solution:

• If you go ahead with the KDE version of Ubuntu (Kubuntu), you will have keyboard shortcuts similar to the windows ones (Ctrl-C,Ctrl-V,Ctrl-X...) and the pc users will feel less discomfort. Moreover you can highly custom the behaviour of the shortcuts and of the mouse to embrace the users' habits. Note that you will see more benefits on medium and long time.

Comments

Before you change the whole office IT it is critical to understand which are the real office needs... and if you discover that they are only Word+Excel+PowerPoint + Mail and browsers... well the opensource world is more more than enough.

As stated even by persons that disagree with the content of this answer, "thousands of companies that require cross-platform document management use open source office suites on Windows" and I can add, suites developed and more often patched under Linux.

So the point is: if your goal is "to save money where we can", why to pay for an OS (now and after) that you do not need in a situation of limited budget?
In your (budget) situation I may start to think to windows only to meet the need of a specific hardware or of a software that has no equivalent alternatives under Linux. Volunteer unsalaried can be useful today and disappear tomorrow. The organization of an office it is supposed to endure and to be independent from the employees' preferences.

If you nonetheless decided to go ahead with windows, you may check what each version gives you^[1]. Then it can be useful in your analysis remember that:

• From Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium you will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home.^[2]
• From Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate you will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.
  (At least good if you will start from Windows 7 Professional). ^[2]

• When you will change your hardware you may need to do a reactivation. Probably it is not the case for a new HDD or a Videocard ^[6] but with the Motherboard you will need to do a new activation,

  A motherboard upgrade, even if you reuse storage, video, memory, and a case, is considered a new PC. In that case, if the underlying Windows license is from a retail copy, that license can be transferred. If you are upgrading (and not replacing) a motherboard on an OEM PC that was sold with Windows preinstalled, the license agreement prevents the license from being transferred. ^[6]

  someone said you may have to buy a new license too ^[7]

  5. In case of motherboard changes, you might have to buy a new license.

For the installation remember that ^[4],[5],[6]

• probably you will find more convenient to do a Windows 10 Clean Install using the Media Creation Tool ^[4], because the upgrading can be based on the Recovery option that is normally available 30 days after.

• that you have to be sure that your free copy of Windows 10 is activated.^[5]

• that you probably will prefer to avoid the online upgrade ^[6].

^{Thanks for the attention paid}

Solution 3:

You can't upgrade Windows XP (or Vista) to Windows 10 for free. You'd need to buy Windows 7, install all of the service packs then upgrade to Windows 10. The difference in price between Windows 7 and Windows 10 seems minimal so probably isn't worth the effort.