Agreed same here, however I did not want to bother reinstalling windows 8 and glad we got an answer finally.
Within the first year as I am sure this RTM will have the same time bomb in it that all the preview builds have.
excuse my loud laughter: RTM never had a time bomb on board Why should it have?? It is the final thing that goes to the manufacturer, Period
I think it will but not in the sense you are thinking, install it before July 29th 2016 and it will activate, after that you will have to provide a legitimate key. How else can they offer it free within the first year only and not have two separate versions running around?
Well, call it anything you want but after a year it works differently then it does now. To me that's a time bomb. Use it in a year or the rules change.
the stupid framework is getting faster. Seems like they are pre-loading this crap on boot time. Good to see they take background slideshow. There is any plans to change the boot screen? Or we are going to live with the 8 boot until the next windows?
you're mixing two things: A timebomb is implemented into the OS and stops when programmed to do so. What you mean is the ability to get OS free within one year. This "bomb" is controlled from MS servers over in Redmond and has nothing to do with your operating system on your PC. edit: Your OS still will work like a charme if correctly activated but beyond that special year you simply have to pay for a new os if you need a new one on an extra machine