So can you guys confirm for me what I believe I am reading elsewhere. I have licensed 8 laptop. So if I upgrade to 10 during this "offer period" then it will be free and l will then continue to get updates for free for ever after?

That's the fun thing about their marketing. It never actually says. And so far as I can tell, they still haven't released an actual license agreement.

They keep marketing things like "Free Upgrade for the first year". Followed up by "It is not a subscription!"

Or "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device –at no additional charge." ... but who decides what the "supported lifetime of the device" is? Supported lifetime is tricky. They're still selling Windows 7 on OEM computers yet mainstream support officially ended five months ago. Windows 7 is past its "supported lifetime" but still a very active commercial product.

That makes it tricky to deal with this: "Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10 ... Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner", releasing Windows 10.1, 10.2, and so on, rather than Windows 11.

So by their logic, our grandchildren may be using Windows 10.3412 since Windows 10 is the last version. Just don't expect that version of Windows 10 to run on today's hardware. Because Microsoft will decide when they want to officially end support. If you happen to still be using the hardware, sucks for you. Like people buying computers with Windows 7 today, five months after mainstream support ended.

Interesting. Thanks for the response, frob.

The Windows license has, for the better part of 15 years now, been tied to the device it was installed on, be it OEM or home built, and could withstand some changes in hardware and activations. To me this is nothing more than a more codified version of that, probably to cover the phones and Surface line ("don't expect your Surface Pro 3 license to work anywhere else"). I mean, you shouldn't be using your Dell OEM key on your home built desktop anyway...

I suspect for desktops it'll be business as normal; you install, you upgrade, maybe at some point you'll have to deal with MS if you activate too often but its pretty much just a means to stop you installing one version on 20 machines from one key/account.

But, as this thread shows, anything MS do is viewed with suspicion and distrust, which is amusing as hell to me considering all the shit Google pull and yet get a free pass...

The Windows license has, for the better part of 15 years now, been tied to the device it was installed on, be it OEM or home built, and could withstand some changes in hardware and activations. To me this is nothing more than a more codified version of that, probably to cover the phones and Surface line ("don't expect your Surface Pro 3 license to work anywhere else"). I mean, you shouldn't be using your Dell OEM key on your home built desktop anyway...

I suspect for desktops it'll be business as normal; you install, you upgrade, maybe at some point you'll have to deal with MS if you activate too often but its pretty much just a means to stop you installing one version on 20 machines from one key/account.

But, as this thread shows, anything MS do is viewed with suspicion and distrust, which is amusing as hell to me considering all the shit Google pull and yet get a free pass...

It hasn't, there's always been 2 license types for most Windows editions OEM that is tied to the machine on which it's preinstalled (or first installed if you buy your OEM license with hardware) and retail that is yours and usable on a single device but can be uninstalled on one and installed on another (if you change your computer for a new one for example). That aside i agree with your general sentiment, there's no reason for the distrust at all.

My interpretation of the "free update" based on what I've read (I am not a lawyer):

It's like a Black Friday deal. If you spring for the upgrade (you must own a legal copy of 7 or 8) before a year has passed from release (July 29th) then it is yours to keep, just as if you bought an update SKU from Amazon or Best Buy or whatever. If you do not 'purchase' the upgrade for free before the time limit is up, you must pay for it. If you need a new copy of 10 (non-update) then you must pay for it.

Any patches/service packs/updates past then will be the same price no matter if you take the 'free' option or buy a copy. (I say "price" because nothing prevents MS from going the Apple "pay for .1 updates" route, even though they didn't do that for 8)

I am also going to guess that this is an OEM-like license, in that the upgrade will not work on a separate system - so no transferring your free copy to a new computer when you upgrade (whenever that happens).

Personally, I think they are trying to say that, if Microsoft is releasing annual-ish Win10 upgrades (i.e. 8.0 -> 8.1), you can't get all those upgrades for free forever, but after ~2 years, the future upgrades may start costing you ~$20 or some such

I don't buy this interpretation at all.

I think they are saying "after two years, the new versions probably won't run on your janky-ass hardware from 2010, so quit being a cheap git and upgrade your hardware". Otherwise known as the Apple model, where updates don't support decade-old hardware...

Unlikely. Unlike Apple, MS has a huge investment and interest in keeping Windows running on old hardware due to all their business contracts. Heck, the system requirements for Windows 7, 8 and 10 are all identical.

Apple has a vested interest in selling you new hardware.

MS has a vested interest in selling you new copies of Windows for your existing hardware.

Last thing I'd do would be just upgrading to Win10, I will wait for ISOs for clean install.

Seems Microsoft is relying on their claim of Continuum features to create a seamless experience among devices (something no other company can achieve) , this way Windows Apps may be standard and an income stream. In order to achieve this, they incentivize (even pirates afaik) upgrading this way.

I remember purchasing an 'upgrade' version of Windows 7 (xp -> 7 upgrade), only to not be able to install xp on a new machine due to their being no drives for the raid (ie. newer harder). The run around that MS gave me over that debacle gives me nightmares to this day.

I remember purchasing an 'upgrade' version of Windows 7 (xp -> 7 upgrade), only to not be able to install xp on a new machine due to their being no drives for the raid (ie. newer harder).

There are actually quite a few features they removed since Windows 7 that bother me. I've got some VMs that run Win 8.1, but the physical hardware is not the big one.

That isn't to say physical hardware isn't a concern. I have had several physical devices that were supported but don't work at all on the newer systems. I've got internal wifi cards that work on 7 but not 8, I've got webcams that are not supported. I've had an older scanner that I had to dump a few years back because of 32-bit only drivers.

The shell was a big one, but replaceable. Universal search vanished starting in 8. All the DVD features are gone, including the ability to make quick-and-simple DVDs. Shadow copies vanished, which also broke quite a few backup systems.

There is the information density. Most items for Windows 8 have much less information readily available, like the fancy but ugly print driver screens. A quick one from Google showing it below. The old screen shows 12 settings at a glance, plus other useful information. The new screen gives you giant panels that you need to click before you can find a single individual setting.

And then there is the sudden shock -- even years later -- where suddenly my giant monitor is unexpectedly filled with an ENORMOUS metro app. Just one giant metro app filling my giant monitors, like a skript kiddie giving me the bird. The other day I was working with something, don't remember exactly but some network configuration, and up pops the giant metro UI for some configuration values. Can't copy and paste. Can't make the window a sane size. Can't move the window so both are visible. The information that could fit in a tiny window a few hundred pixels demands that it is important enough to consume the entire 2560x1440 display, because metro. Ultimately I took several screen shots so I could view what I needed side-by-side with other apps. Still, in that instant, I wanted to punch my big beautiful monitors because metro ruins everything.

That's just a short list of the reasons I'm still staying with 7 for all the machines I can, until I am convinced I really need some of the new features.

In the mean time, horray for virtual machines.

There is the information density. Most items for Windows 8 have much less information readily available, like the fancy but ugly print driver screens. A quick one from Google showing it below. The old screen shows 12 settings at a glance, plus other useful information. The new screen gives you giant panels that you need to click before you can find a single individual setting.

[...]

And then there is the sudden shock -- even years later -- where suddenly my giant monitor is unexpectedly filled with an ENORMOUS metro app. Just one giant metro app filling my giant monitors, like a skript kiddie giving me the bird.

Yea, I'm not too fond of the simplifying software by removing features and adding extra clicks for experienced users to get the same amount of work done. I wish Windows had more customization options. Like allowing me to micro-manage (out of the box) the links on the Start menu and in the left pane of the Save/Open dialogs and the Explorer window.

My latest annoyance is the number of actions Microsoft Office requires me to take just to save a file to my physical harddrives instead of the cloud:

And then there is the sudden shock -- even years later -- where suddenly my giant monitor is unexpectedly filled with an ENORMOUS metro app. Just one giant metro app filling my giant monitors, like a skript kiddie giving me the bird. The other day I was working with something, don't remember exactly but some network configuration, and up pops the giant metro UI for some configuration values. Can't copy and paste. Can't make the window a sane size. Can't move the window so both are visible. The information that could fit in a tiny window a few hundred pixels demands that it is important enough to consume the entire 2560x1440 display, because metro. Ultimately I took several screen shots so I could view what I needed side-by-side with other apps. Still, in that instant, I wanted to punch my big beautiful monitors because metro ruins everything.


That's just a short list of the reasons I'm still staying with 7 for all the machines I can, until I am convinced I really need some of the new features.

In the mean time, horray for virtual machines.

I totally agree with the Metro app stuff. I hate it. I still use Windows 8 in exactly the same ways I used Windows 7, I just refuse to do anything in any of the shitty Metro apps.

It's safe.

I made my reservation with the application using an email that is not critically important to keep safe. All seems to be well.

My laptop has Windows 7. I update manually at least once per day. After I activated the Windows update application, I got the notification.

I am very happy to get a free copy of Win 10 and to know that it will be compatible with my old rig. Just in case I am not happy with my copy of Win 10, I will be keeping a system image backup of a clean and otherwise updated copy of my system with Win 7. There should be no problems. If there are, then updates should be published to fix them. Worst case scenario, I can return to my system image backup of Win 7.

Retrieving and installing a system image backup only takes me about 25 minutes total, so while I make dinner it can run : )