Woot! This means I just scored a free upgrade to Pro on my laptop! And here I thought I was still going to have to pay for the upgrade from home to pro, thanks MS!
Now if we can get the user verification hang and the buggy experience host process to start behaving it will make the OS run like butter on said laptop. I don't have these issues on my desktop, not sure why the lappy continues to have bugs.
because they are still making money from the OEM PC builders such as Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc... All new laptops and pc's sold over the next 20 years will all be buying windows licenses per the normal fee.
Yes exactly. They normally never made much on upgrade fees anyway since the upgrade processes wasn't always very smooth. Normally people get Windows with a new PC and this is the first real push to get people to upgrade on current systems. There was a sale on Windows 8 when it launched but that was small potatoes compared to the push for Windows 10.
Microsoft is looking at the long term here and they need a userbase.
With competition of android/ios, chrome os and others, Microsoft have no choice but to give the OS for free. Microsoft's intention is not to make money from the consumer side anyways. Microsoft is already making boatloads of money off from licensing its software to enterprises. Besides, Microsoft wants to maintain its dominance in the consumer side so people will load Microsoft software in its enterprise side.
Trust me, I use Ubuntu on 2 out of my 3 home PCs, but even I have no such illusions. Windows is here to stay and they own the corporate world. IMO by far the biggest advantage MS has is not even in Windows but rather MS Office. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I do think it was a mistake for them to make office available for Apple systems.
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. Microsoft faces no competition on the desktop as pugster suggests. The reason why Bill Gates is so rich isn't due to hardware or the Xbox, it's always been the desktop OS and it's never going to change.
I think they are being nice because people hate Windows 8 and it's starting to make them look bad.
Yes, Bill Gates is rich because of desktop, but man, world has changed a little bit after all those years and now, desktop means mobile unfortunately. And mobile? This means Android (Linux) and iOS. Where are Windows and MS?
Except that Windows licensing fees went down by 14% last year, after dropping 11% the year before.
Microsoft knows it has a major problem, hence the free one year upgrade. They need to get people on this or their entire strategy falls apart. Like some others, I'm willing to bet that if not enough people have upgraded to 10 after the year is up, they will extend it.
Yup, they are more about earning from licensing than anything else. For example the enterprise model. Your company pays based on headcount. If you have 3000 employees, you pay the MS office license for 3000 users. MS doesn't care if you use Offcie 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 or 1016 when its out. You are fully free to install whatever version you want. Same with Windows. Buy a new PC and you pay for Windows. They dont care if you use Vista,7,8,8.1 or 10. They get paid either way.
because people don't buy Windows currently. Typically an OEM purchases and pre-installs the OS on a device, and they pay very little for the license (~$5-50 for each machine), and now with the 'with Bing' sku there is even an avenue to get Windows for free as an OEM for certain device types. The other source of revenue is business VLAs which are already 'windows as a service' with monthly fees regardless of what version is being used. They do not get the 'free upgrade' like you and I do, but they have upgrade rights through the VLA which means it is essentially pre-paid for. Very few people are like you and me purchasing the OS for a new build, or upgrading a current build. Most people get the OS with their box, and then never upgrade until they get a new box.
But the PC market is slowing down, which means there is a growing number of legacy devices running older software. This means more resources being poured into R&D for older systems, more difficulty in updating those systems, etc. In the short term this will do nothing for those who are on Vista and older systems... but those boxes are already 7+ years old and will only continue working for so long before they will be replaced with a newer box, so MS is not too worried about that. But what they do not want is for win7 to be another XP with cantankerous old admins sticking to the platform for all eternity. They want people to move to win10 so that they can end support for older platforms asap. Once on win10 then everyone will be forced onto a regular upgrade cycle so that code is kept up to date across the board. As an individual you cannot turn off windows updates in win10, so no more critical bugs will go unpatched to feed botnets. Even as a business you will only be able to delay updates for so long before they will be forced to the network unless you pay for an extended service agreement. For the few boxes that do not upgrade there will be a bit of 'herd immunity' that will prevent the need to patch ever single issue found in 7 and 8 going forward (assuming the bulk of users move to 10 quickly). This will be a lot of savings in R&D for MS in the long run.
Lastly, the big elephant in the room, is that an MS account is going to be all but required for win10 PCs. Once you have a MS account then MS can make money off of you with their store for software and digital content sales. They will have an avenue to reach out to you to get you to use applications like Office, Skype, OneDrive, etc which are all profitable ventures. Surely not everyone will move to these services (or to paid versions of these services), but they are going to be much more likely to do it on 10 than 7/8. Plus, the biggest thing hurting Windows sales (especially phone and tablet sales) is app availability. It is hard to attract developers to your platform when you are <5% of market share... but MS is some 90+% of the end-user desktop and laptop market, and if they can make apps available across all platforms (which is the claim with 10 even though I can't get apps to run reliably on my desktop or laptop) then it will be a big step to fixing the 'app gap' and getting phone and tablet adoption. If MS does not get a major foothold in the mobile market then they are doomed as a platform company... I mean, they can survive without Windows OS if they really had to, (this last year has proven how quickly they can deploy to OSX, iOS, and Android when they want to) but life would be better for MS if people were in their ecosystem entirely rather than existing as an option on another ecosystem.
The same way they currently do, retail copies of Windows are a very small percentage of their Windows sales. Add that to a cut of all Windows Store sales (if everyone has it installed someone is going to use it) and it may even be more profitable than their previous system. It also means Microsoft is not going to have to support legacy versions of Windows anymore (after 8.1), which saves them a lot of money.
You need to make this perfectly clear - registered insiders will only get a free (activated) Win 10 upgrade if they already have genuine Windows 7 or 8.x. Otherwise you will not get Win 10 for free. Maybe you can still upgrade to the final build but it wont be activated.
"It’s important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer."
The free upgrade offer for consumers, which they get the prompts to reserve their update for, is completely different to the free upgrade offer to insiders, which is pushed down as another build and is linked to your Microsoft account.
I think the 'reminder' in that post about the genuine versions required is a veiled suggestion to anyone who doesn't have a genuine version to join Windows Insider so they get the upgrade for free.
That is a change Microsoft silently made to their post after they made the original promise and it was confirmed by their own Gabe Awl on social media.
Originally their announcement was as Brett described it in TFA. Now they have altered it.
You probably entered an Enterprise key... Use the default key if prompted (you shouldn't get a prompt of you downloaded the ISO from the insider program).
This is still not very clear, I've been running the preview in a VM scince I found it too unstable to run daily. Will I get a Windows 10 activation key or not?
Your VM will get the free upgrade as part of this, but assuming your VM is running on a licensed copy of Windows 7 or 8, then the host will also get the offer. We already knew that Windows 7 and 8 licensed people will get the free upgrade, but there was questions about those running the Windows 10 preview, and especially those who installed the Windows 10 preview as a clean install. If you are running Windows 10 preview, and using the same MS Account as you registered into the program with, you will get Windows 10 final.
"As long as you are running an Insider Preview build and connected with the MSA you used to register, you will receive the Windows 10 final release build." - Gabe Aul
I am in a similar situation. I have tested the insider preview in a VM in my Surface pro 3. Can I install a preview on a 2nd pc with the same MS account (over a Windows 7 OS)? Also, if I install the pro over a Windows 7 home premium version, will I keep the pro after that? If so, it would be a way to upgrade to pro for free before W10 is released
Yes, like becoming part of the Insider program and installing a Beta version which also means to waive a lot of privacy because the "Insiders" have to grant Microsoft the rights to record any user activity done on the Beta versions and transmit it to Microsoft servers. Also the final version only runs dongled to the email address used to access the Insider program. That's a lot of crap to swallow for a stupid Windows license...
That is part of the information required to create a new Microsoft Account now.
You have to respond to a confirmation email to even create the account and a separate confirmation text sent to your phone is required to activate certain features inside Windows 10 after you authenticate to Windows 10 with your Microsoft Account.
I'm glad my upgrade to the release version will be free, because I don’t want to pay for this crap OS. I will be forced to keep a copy in order to help my customers (VM only, of course), but I sure as hell don’t want to pay good money for this turd. I’m not that crazy about Windows 8.1, but at least you can make it look and work almost exactly like Windows 7 (thanks to Start8).
The push to get people to shift to Windows 10 makes no mention of relative stability and performance on a given computer after a move from Windows 7 to Windows 10. In the past, new OS's have often been unstable resource hogs, people have been badly bitten by the OS upgrade process, so I find it striking that answers to these two questions or something like them are not in the Windows 10 FAQs. Will Windows 10 be stable and of similar performance for almost all people who have been invited to upgrade, even on relatively low spec computers, after July 29th? Does Windows 10 use much more memory and many more processor cycles?
Question: I have Windows 8.1 Pro on my desktop. Once I do the upgrade to Windows 10, then wipe the disk and do a completely clean install of Windows 10 from a USB disk, how will Windows activate on my computer? Will it somehow 'remember' that this computer was previously activated for Windows 10 and just silently reactivate on installation? Will I be prompted for some sort of serial key at any time?
If you're upgrading from Windows 8.1 Pro, then the Windows 10 Pro license will be tied to your machine (usually the mainboard). If you wipe install again, Windows will reactivate itself based on that.
If you're an insider, your Windows license is tied with your MSA login, but I'm not sure if that'll work on more than one machine...
It's still not very clear how this is going to work. The folks over at Neowin say that Microsoft has basically provided you a under-the-table way of getting Windows 10 at no cost. Even if true, do I get a licence? What if I want to move to another PC? Some people are saying that Windows 10 will be linked to your Microsoft account but will it be linked to my machine as well? As long as I use the same account, can I just delete Windows on one machine and install it on another, like I can do with Office 365?
I think that the Windows 10 you get in the Insider Program will be Oem, so you won't be able to install it on other machines. Only those with retail 7/8.1 and upgrading to 10 should be able to move it (hopefully).
trying to get my head round this, so I currently have windows 8.1 on my laptop (OEM), if i wait and upgrade on 29th July i will end up with windows 10 home. however if i install a fresh copy of windows 10 Pro via windows insiders now, then i will end up with Windows 10 Pro??
I guess they only wanted to tell people they can upgrade from test versions to the final - no W7/8 reinstall needed. Just upgrade, type the old key and you are done. But then communicated this so badly everyone believed they are saying all insiders get W10 free.
I thought part of the reason MS was doing this was to lower its costs - ie cut support for older versions of windows after its lingering experience with XP. Once windows10 is pushed out to everyone, then support staff from Windows 7/8 can be reassigned.
What if I have Win 10 installed in a virtual machine and I am using Microsoft Account which is registered into Insider programme. Am I getting free Win 10 too?
As I understood it, you have windows 7 or 8 -> free upgrade.
If you don't and you're running the preview you get the full upgrade to 10 but are put in the insider program which essentially continuous testing environment.
What's changed? Why are a few here whooping about a "free" license? Am I missing something?
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CaedenV - Saturday, June 20, 2015 - link
Woot! This means I just scored a free upgrade to Pro on my laptop! And here I thought I was still going to have to pay for the upgrade from home to pro, thanks MS!Now if we can get the user verification hang and the buggy experience host process to start behaving it will make the OS run like butter on said laptop. I don't have these issues on my desktop, not sure why the lappy continues to have bugs.
Samus - Saturday, June 20, 2015 - link
Windows as a service. I don't know how they are going to make money long term.Morawka - Saturday, June 20, 2015 - link
because they are still making money from the OEM PC builders such as Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc... All new laptops and pc's sold over the next 20 years will all be buying windows licenses per the normal fee.Brett Howse - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Yes exactly. They normally never made much on upgrade fees anyway since the upgrade processes wasn't always very smooth. Normally people get Windows with a new PC and this is the first real push to get people to upgrade on current systems. There was a sale on Windows 8 when it launched but that was small potatoes compared to the push for Windows 10.Microsoft is looking at the long term here and they need a userbase.
pugster - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
With competition of android/ios, chrome os and others, Microsoft have no choice but to give the OS for free. Microsoft's intention is not to make money from the consumer side anyways. Microsoft is already making boatloads of money off from licensing its software to enterprises. Besides, Microsoft wants to maintain its dominance in the consumer side so people will load Microsoft software in its enterprise side.Michael Bay - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
Yes, and 2015 will be the year of linux on desktop...niva - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
No, it won't be.Trust me, I use Ubuntu on 2 out of my 3 home PCs, but even I have no such illusions. Windows is here to stay and they own the corporate world. IMO by far the biggest advantage MS has is not even in Windows but rather MS Office. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I do think it was a mistake for them to make office available for Apple systems.
Cinnabuns - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
Whooshmccalejk - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. Microsoft faces no competition on the desktop as pugster suggests. The reason why Bill Gates is so rich isn't due to hardware or the Xbox, it's always been the desktop OS and it's never going to change.I think they are being nice because people hate Windows 8 and it's starting to make them look bad.
jann5s - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
+1kgardas - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Yes, Bill Gates is rich because of desktop, but man, world has changed a little bit after all those years and now, desktop means mobile unfortunately. And mobile? This means Android (Linux) and iOS. Where are Windows and MS?melgross - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Except that Windows licensing fees went down by 14% last year, after dropping 11% the year before.Microsoft knows it has a major problem, hence the free one year upgrade. They need to get people on this or their entire strategy falls apart. Like some others, I'm willing to bet that if not enough people have upgraded to 10 after the year is up, they will extend it.
retrospooty - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
Yup, they are more about earning from licensing than anything else. For example the enterprise model. Your company pays based on headcount. If you have 3000 employees, you pay the MS office license for 3000 users. MS doesn't care if you use Offcie 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 or 1016 when its out. You are fully free to install whatever version you want. Same with Windows. Buy a new PC and you pay for Windows. They dont care if you use Vista,7,8,8.1 or 10. They get paid either way.piiman - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Easy they are going to start subscriptions and every year you will have to sign into your MS account and pay up.SpartanJet - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Wrong stop spreading FUD and learn to read. The upgrade is Free for the life of the device as long as you upgrade from Windows 7/8.X within a year.CaedenV - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
because people don't buy Windows currently. Typically an OEM purchases and pre-installs the OS on a device, and they pay very little for the license (~$5-50 for each machine), and now with the 'with Bing' sku there is even an avenue to get Windows for free as an OEM for certain device types. The other source of revenue is business VLAs which are already 'windows as a service' with monthly fees regardless of what version is being used. They do not get the 'free upgrade' like you and I do, but they have upgrade rights through the VLA which means it is essentially pre-paid for. Very few people are like you and me purchasing the OS for a new build, or upgrading a current build. Most people get the OS with their box, and then never upgrade until they get a new box.But the PC market is slowing down, which means there is a growing number of legacy devices running older software. This means more resources being poured into R&D for older systems, more difficulty in updating those systems, etc. In the short term this will do nothing for those who are on Vista and older systems... but those boxes are already 7+ years old and will only continue working for so long before they will be replaced with a newer box, so MS is not too worried about that. But what they do not want is for win7 to be another XP with cantankerous old admins sticking to the platform for all eternity. They want people to move to win10 so that they can end support for older platforms asap. Once on win10 then everyone will be forced onto a regular upgrade cycle so that code is kept up to date across the board. As an individual you cannot turn off windows updates in win10, so no more critical bugs will go unpatched to feed botnets. Even as a business you will only be able to delay updates for so long before they will be forced to the network unless you pay for an extended service agreement. For the few boxes that do not upgrade there will be a bit of 'herd immunity' that will prevent the need to patch ever single issue found in 7 and 8 going forward (assuming the bulk of users move to 10 quickly). This will be a lot of savings in R&D for MS in the long run.
Lastly, the big elephant in the room, is that an MS account is going to be all but required for win10 PCs. Once you have a MS account then MS can make money off of you with their store for software and digital content sales. They will have an avenue to reach out to you to get you to use applications like Office, Skype, OneDrive, etc which are all profitable ventures. Surely not everyone will move to these services (or to paid versions of these services), but they are going to be much more likely to do it on 10 than 7/8. Plus, the biggest thing hurting Windows sales (especially phone and tablet sales) is app availability. It is hard to attract developers to your platform when you are <5% of market share... but MS is some 90+% of the end-user desktop and laptop market, and if they can make apps available across all platforms (which is the claim with 10 even though I can't get apps to run reliably on my desktop or laptop) then it will be a big step to fixing the 'app gap' and getting phone and tablet adoption. If MS does not get a major foothold in the mobile market then they are doomed as a platform company... I mean, they can survive without Windows OS if they really had to, (this last year has proven how quickly they can deploy to OSX, iOS, and Android when they want to) but life would be better for MS if people were in their ecosystem entirely rather than existing as an option on another ecosystem.
Flunk - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
The same way they currently do, retail copies of Windows are a very small percentage of their Windows sales. Add that to a cut of all Windows Store sales (if everyone has it installed someone is going to use it) and it may even be more profitable than their previous system. It also means Microsoft is not going to have to support legacy versions of Windows anymore (after 8.1), which saves them a lot of money.dcollins - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Azure. Office 365. Windows Store. (Hopefully for them) Mobile Advertising.Selling software is dying and Microsoft knows it.
B3an - Saturday, June 20, 2015 - link
You need to make this perfectly clear - registered insiders will only get a free (activated) Win 10 upgrade if they already have genuine Windows 7 or 8.x. Otherwise you will not get Win 10 for free. Maybe you can still upgrade to the final build but it wont be activated."It’s important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer."
Gigaplex - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Except that Microsoft also announced that the Insider Preview users will also get it for free._thalamus - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
No. It doesn't say that at all.The free upgrade offer for consumers, which they get the prompts to reserve their update for, is completely different to the free upgrade offer to insiders, which is pushed down as another build and is linked to your Microsoft account.
I think the 'reminder' in that post about the genuine versions required is a veiled suggestion to anyone who doesn't have a genuine version to join Windows Insider so they get the upgrade for free.
BillBear - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
That is a change Microsoft silently made to their post after they made the original promise and it was confirmed by their own Gabe Awl on social media.Originally their announcement was as Brett described it in TFA. Now they have altered it.
Pray they do not alter it further /sarcasm
mdbusa - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
i have the enterprise preview installed over a win 7 on a lenovo x240--if I want the pro version what steps do I have to take?Brett Howse - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Wipe it out and install the Pro version from the Windows Insider program rather than the Enterprise preview programmdbusa - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
how did i end up with enterprise edition??did i select that while installing?? so if i download a new iso I can reinstall and select the pro version?lilmoe - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
You probably entered an Enterprise key... Use the default key if prompted (you shouldn't get a prompt of you downloaded the ISO from the insider program).kgh00007 - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
This is still not very clear, I've been running the preview in a VM scince I found it too unstable to run daily. Will I get a Windows 10 activation key or not?One that I could use on a new build or not?
Or is it tied to that VM?
Right now this is not crystal clear.
Brett Howse - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Your VM will get the free upgrade as part of this, but assuming your VM is running on a licensed copy of Windows 7 or 8, then the host will also get the offer. We already knew that Windows 7 and 8 licensed people will get the free upgrade, but there was questions about those running the Windows 10 preview, and especially those who installed the Windows 10 preview as a clean install. If you are running Windows 10 preview, and using the same MS Account as you registered into the program with, you will get Windows 10 final."As long as you are running an Insider Preview build and connected with the MSA you used to register, you will receive the Windows 10 final release build." - Gabe Aul
digiguy - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
I am in a similar situation. I have tested the insider preview in a VM in my Surface pro 3. Can I install a preview on a 2nd pc with the same MS account (over a Windows 7 OS)? Also, if I install the pro over a Windows 7 home premium version, will I keep the pro after that? If so, it would be a way to upgrade to pro for free before W10 is releasedMikemk - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Full or OEM license?Computer Bottleneck - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Downloaded the Windows 10 Preview ISO (MS gives a product key). Then transferred to usb stick. Installing right now.Daniel Egger - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Always funny to read what hoops people appreciate to jump through for just a free license of Windows.quidpro - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Hoops like...installing it?Daniel Egger - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Yes, like becoming part of the Insider program and installing a Beta version which also means to waive a lot of privacy because the "Insiders" have to grant Microsoft the rights to record any user activity done on the Beta versions and transmit it to Microsoft servers. Also the final version only runs dongled to the email address used to access the Insider program. That's a lot of crap to swallow for a stupid Windows license...Murloc - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
who says you have to use it?Computer Bottleneck - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
I doubt a person would need a Microsoft account to operate the Preview OS once it upgrades to the final version.The Microsoft account can always be deleted off the computer.
BillBear - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Microsoft also requires some very personal information, like your phone number.Gigaplex - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
I never gave them my phone number.BillBear - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
That is part of the information required to create a new Microsoft Account now.You have to respond to a confirmation email to even create the account and a separate confirmation text sent to your phone is required to activate certain features inside Windows 10 after you authenticate to Windows 10 with your Microsoft Account.
LordConrad - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
I'm glad my upgrade to the release version will be free, because I don’t want to pay for this crap OS. I will be forced to keep a copy in order to help my customers (VM only, of course), but I sure as hell don’t want to pay good money for this turd. I’m not that crazy about Windows 8.1, but at least you can make it look and work almost exactly like Windows 7 (thanks to Start8).kenansadhu - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Well since you get money from it..Michael Bay - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
So much pain.One can only imagine the deeps of butthurt when your poor customers will ALL be on 10!
PeterMorgan573 - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
The push to get people to shift to Windows 10 makes no mention of relative stability and performance on a given computer after a move from Windows 7 to Windows 10. In the past, new OS's have often been unstable resource hogs, people have been badly bitten by the OS upgrade process, so I find it striking that answers to these two questions or something like them are not in the Windows 10 FAQs. Will Windows 10 be stable and of similar performance for almost all people who have been invited to upgrade, even on relatively low spec computers, after July 29th? Does Windows 10 use much more memory and many more processor cycles?Zak - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
They should just give Windows 10 free to ANYONE during the first year and be done with it.bummerb - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Thats what most MS users think about crapple users.Anonymous1a - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
So, is this a free upgrade, do you get a license or do you still need a valid Windows 7 or 8 license?r3loaded - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Question: I have Windows 8.1 Pro on my desktop. Once I do the upgrade to Windows 10, then wipe the disk and do a completely clean install of Windows 10 from a USB disk, how will Windows activate on my computer? Will it somehow 'remember' that this computer was previously activated for Windows 10 and just silently reactivate on installation? Will I be prompted for some sort of serial key at any time?SpartanJet - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
In the article above it states that once you upgrade Windows 10 will be tied to your Microsoft account login.lilmoe - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
If you're upgrading from Windows 8.1 Pro, then the Windows 10 Pro license will be tied to your machine (usually the mainboard). If you wipe install again, Windows will reactivate itself based on that.If you're an insider, your Windows license is tied with your MSA login, but I'm not sure if that'll work on more than one machine...
r3loaded - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
Okay, that makes sense. Nice and convenient too if it makes installation and activation seamless.Anonymous1a - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
It's still not very clear how this is going to work. The folks over at Neowin say that Microsoft has basically provided you a under-the-table way of getting Windows 10 at no cost. Even if true, do I get a licence? What if I want to move to another PC? Some people are saying that Windows 10 will be linked to your Microsoft account but will it be linked to my machine as well? As long as I use the same account, can I just delete Windows on one machine and install it on another, like I can do with Office 365?taisingera - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
I think that the Windows 10 you get in the Insider Program will be Oem, so you won't be able to install it on other machines. Only those with retail 7/8.1 and upgrading to 10 should be able to move it (hopefully).br83taylor - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
trying to get my head round this, so I currently have windows 8.1 on my laptop (OEM), if i wait and upgrade on 29th July i will end up with windows 10 home. however if i install a fresh copy of windows 10 Pro via windows insiders now, then i will end up with Windows 10 Pro??Zizy - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
I guess they only wanted to tell people they can upgrade from test versions to the final - no W7/8 reinstall needed. Just upgrade, type the old key and you are done. But then communicated this so badly everyone believed they are saying all insiders get W10 free.Daniel Egger - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
Okay, final stance is: No free licenses for insiders according to: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/06/1..."It’s important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer.*"
Hrobertgar - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
I thought part of the reason MS was doing this was to lower its costs - ie cut support for older versions of windows after its lingering experience with XP. Once windows10 is pushed out to everyone, then support staff from Windows 7/8 can be reassigned.Dahak - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
May want to update this as MS backpedaled a bit. Now you can receive the final version but it may not activate / be genuinehttp://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015...
daerragh - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
What if I have Win 10 installed in a virtual machine and I am using Microsoft Account which is registered into Insider programme. Am I getting free Win 10 too?ivan256 - Monday, June 22, 2015 - link
"Of course if you have a licensed copy of Windows 7 or 8, you will be offered the update for free for the first year."And after the first year they'll probably PAY YOU to update if they haven't achieved critical mass.
aatroxed - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link
What exactly was clarified by the post?As I understood it, you have windows 7 or 8 -> free upgrade.
If you don't and you're running the preview you get the full upgrade to 10 but are put in the insider program which essentially continuous testing environment.
What's changed? Why are a few here whooping about a "free" license? Am I missing something?