Based on what Gabe Aul said on Twitter and what Paul Thurrott said on his site, my guess is that once you do the upgrade via Windows Update, your machine hash will be tied to your Windows Store account. Then you can do a re-install and start clean, and the new install will activate against Windows Store.
Now,now,you can't argue with facts - he posts way more often than you,therefore he knows more. Of course,by the same "logic" the "people" most deserving of our attention are the spambots that can fire off a couple of dozen posts in minutes,but.. @Sil No,MS is not giving out Windows 10 for free to pirates - hell,since 10 is more or less just a SP to 8.x (which in itself is a botched SP to 7),you're just getting continued product support for something you already purchased. The only "new" thing confirmed so far about 10's behaviour towards pirates is that you can upgrade,but if your license ain't legit in the first place,10 will still be flagged as non-genuine (with all the limitations that entails).
Never said I knew more, but when a pathetic argument about registration date is all he can come up with, I have to retaliate with something equally as stupid, although true And in 4 years, I can guarantee I`ll have WAY more posts than 350, in fact I'll have that in a few weeks, and apart from having to defend myself from stupid posts, all my posts will be contributing positively to the forum Last time I checked, it was not about reg date or post count, but about content of those posts
Do the valid license keys on the Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 installations that accept Microsoft's offer of the free upgrade to Windows 10 then become void and not valid for use again in case you want to go back? Are you stuck with 10 once you upgrade?
Not trying to be difficult, but I have never seen the question of "What do you mean by 'free for the life of the supported hardware device?'" answered... (If I had seen such I would not have brought it up...) So let me try just once more, as I think the question is extremely important: Is Microsoft going to end retail licensing of Windows with Windows 10, and tie all future licensing to 'a hardware device' just as it does now with OEM licenses for Windows? That's what I want to know. If you can produce a link to a definitive answer to that question, I'll PM you a big, fat slobbering kiss--(Ugh!...) I would hope the answer will be "No, you don't have to worry about buying a new copy of Windows every time you change out a motherboard." But I'd like to see that in writing from Microsoft, that's all. Just wondering... Edit: I'm going to ask Microsoft myself...if I get an answer I'll come back with it...uh, if anyone is interested, that is... Edit2: Well, a Microsoft "engineer" got back to me on the Insider program forums, and told me that if I had more than one machine I could download the .iso when Windows 10 goes RTM and use that to upgrade all of my machines. He then directed me to the FAQ that has already been linked in this thread. So, it sounds to me like Aul simply used relatively poor English when he said "...lifetime of the supported device," because what he meant to actually say was, "...the lifetime of any device that Windows 10 supports." His original statement could be read differently from my latter paraphrase. Apparently there is no limit to the number of times Win10 can be reinstalled, and no hardware-tying that is apparent. The FAQ though is a bit troubling in that it looks like you'll have to have a qualifying OS pre-installed before you can use the upgrade .iso that Microsoft intends to make available. However, I'm only guessing at this, but it sounds like the latest or last Insider Preview build will also qualify as one of the upgradable OS'es, in addition to 7/8.1. I hope so, anyway...difficult to believe that won't happen as there doesn't seem to be any technical reason for it--even right now it is easy to upgrade one build to the next using an .iso.
I would guess that if you have a valid key for Windows 7 or 8.x it will continue to be valid if you want to revert back to them. That's just a guess, but seems to make sense.
I'd say the free upgrade for the first 12 months, it will be tied to the hardware, if you buy Windows 10 retail from the store, it will be the same as previous versions of Windows
Okay, so from what I've read, if you have pirated 7 or 8, you can still get the free upgrade to 10, BUT it will NOT be considered genuine, and MS could at anytime hit you with nag screens or other bulls**t if they wanted. So what are my options for getting a genuine 10? 1. One of my computers came with 7 pre-installed and I put a pirated 8 on it. It seems I could go back to 7 to get my genuine 10. 2. Join MS's Insiders Program and install the Windows 10 Insider Preview. Is it not too late to get in on this? Do you have to do anything else besides install it?
Pirated Windows 7, 8.x = Unlicensed Windows 10 upgrade Genuine Windows 7, 8.x = Licensed Windows 10 for the lifetime of the machine you upgrade Basically you have to be running a genuine 7, 8.x to gain a Licensed Windows 10 Pirated 7, 8.x = Upgradable to Windows 10, but it will not be activated So whatever nag they add to 10, you'll get upgrading from non genuine 7, 8.x And yea, you have to join the insiders program with your Live ID
I activated Windows 8 using the WMC key and Skype, will this key still be seen as a Genuine Key or Im I best to install Windows 7 SP1 using a genuine key that I have to get the upgrade.
my guess is it will be tied somehow to the online MS account and the machine ID's. between the two, it would be possible to install clean. OR you continue to use the key that was used for the previous system prior to updating to Win10. but we will see soon enough and know a lot more after GA/RTM etc.
I have a netbook that came with Win7 Starter, the product key isnt readable anymore, i've wipeout the OEM partition, i've re-installed windows many, many, many times with a downloaded ISO, i was running Windows 7 Ultimate with Windows Loader b4 i installed Windows 10 Pro build 10130, I'm an Insider, i'm eleglible for the "upgrade"?
You can always do a PC Reset, or create a recovery drive. And just because MS isn't emailing you a 25 character key doesn't mean that there isn't one there, I'd imagine that you could extract the key with a keyfinder. Come back on July 30th for further instructions.
Just to let you know you were not running the loader it would not have actually installed it would only have inserted OEM:SLP key and certificate onto your system because your machine already had SLI2.1 in bios.
MS is sure pushing hard this time.. But that "Get Windows 10" thingy actually looks quite dodgy and gives very little meaningful information
What? It tells you that you'll get a free copy of Windoze 10 if you are running a legit W7/8/8.1 OS. What is dodgy about it?