Hi and welcome to the forum
Technically, that's true. At least free W10 upgrades that are guaranteed to work on your W7 machine. They ceased being free on July 29th 2016 last year. Generally, speaking if you've never done an OS upgrade (Windows) before yourself, it's recommended that you pay a professional to do it. FYI, about 90% of the customers who attempt this upgrade theirselves fubar their computer up and have to bring it to a licensed repair Tech like me.
As far tips and tricks, the
#1 tip would be to
FIRST BACKUP ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA TO EXTERNAL MEDIA! THIS WOULD INCLUDE YOUR LIBRARY FOLDERS FOR DOCUMENTS, PHOTOS, MUSIC, VIDEOS, AND ANY SAVED E-MAILS OR ATTACHMENTS IN ORDER TO AVOID IRRETRIEVABLE DATA LOSS!!! The
#2 tip would be to ensure you run the
W10 COMPATIBILITY TEST to make sure your hardware and drivers are all compatible with W10. Here's a Guide that can help you with how to run this test:
Get Compatibility Report for Windows 10 in Window 7 and 8.1 The
#3 tip would be is to upgrade your HP's BIOS if your
W10 COMPATIBILITY TEST fails repeatedly. Unfortunately, this is a VERY HIGH RISK procedure. Again, if you've never attempted to upgrade your BIOS by yourself before-
DON'T!! Pay a licensed Professional Tech to do this for you. If you do not, it is very easy to Bork your Motherboard!! This can cost you from $400-$1,500 US to repair! Do not listen to the teenager next door to tell you it's easy and just go watch a YouTube video. They are idiots! Those 3 things should get you past the most of the things that are computer killers and require you to take your PC into a computer repair shop and have a professional sort things out for you--that is if you don't destroy it first!
Of course, it's your computer, so you can do whatever the heak you want. I'm assuming you came here for free expert advice; so hopefully you carefully consider the consequences of doing your own W10 upgrade.
Most of this doesn't apply, if you've done a Windows OS upgrade in the past yourself.
If you have further questions or get stuck along the way, just post back to this thread. We are here 24x7x365 to help you!
Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>