Posted on 05/18/2015 4:30:47 PM PDT by dayglored
Think you'll be getting a free upgrade to Windows 10 from your pirated copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1? Not so fast.
For months, rumors have been swirling that suggested Microsoft was so eager to get its entire customer base onto Windows 10 that it will extend its free upgrade offer even to those who obtained their copies of Windows by, um, questionable means. Well, it seems that may not be true after all. Or not entirely true. Or something.
Microsoft operating systems exec veep Terry Myerson weighed in on Friday to clarify the software giant's position on "Non-Genuine" Windows installs – although as clarity goes, his comments were hardly crystal.
"Non-Genuine Windows has a high risk of malware, fraud, public exposure of your personal information, and a higher risk for poor performance or feature malfunctions," Myserson said. "Non-Genuine Windows is not supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner."
Fair enough. So what about those free upgrades?
"While our free offer to upgrade to Windows 10 will not apply to Non-Genuine Windows devices, and as we've always done, we will continue to offer Windows 10 to customers running devices in a Non-Genuine state," said Myerson.
OK then. Microsoft will not be offering free upgrades to Windows 10 to customers who are running an older version of Windows that isn't properly licensed. That's plain enough, right? But hang on ...
"In addition, in partnership with some of our valued OEM partners, [sic] we are planning very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers for their customers running one of their older devices in a Non-Genuine state," Myerson added. "Please stay tuned to learn more from our partners on the specifics of their offers."
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
My son has a Dell all in one computer that was plagued with malware. He did not buy it new, but it had a valid Windows 7 case badge on it. I tried to repair it from the hard drive, tried to put it back in factory install condition and it failed.
Prior that that I used every malware removal tool I knew about and could not whip the monsters out of it.
So, I downloaded a Windows install CD from Microsoft and tried to repair the install, that failed. So I reinstalled windows and used the Microsoft number from the label on the case. It seemed to work fine until about a week later I was notified it was not eligible for a reinstall. Headshake.
I had already found and fixed all the driver issues from the Dell website.
Now my son and I are discussing whether to pay Microshaft for the Windows 7 OS, buy a newer Microsoft OS or simply install Linux Lite on it.
I lean toward the latter, but my son has never used Linux.
It has not been used since I got the notification from MicroSoft.
Any suggestions?
The label on your case is likely perfectly genuine.
Use the “automated phone system” to activate it.
It’s been that way literally forever. MS makes you go through the indignity of the phone activation, probably so bad guys can’t mass activate old stickers.
The name brand PCs are built and activated at the factory with these special bulk license keys that MS allow them to use so that the machine can leave the factory activated rather than having the customer do it later and all the tech calls that would be related to that nightmare.
The problem is that if you ever reinstall the system from scratch and use the key on the case, it has never been used and frequently these keys require phone activation to work.
It is perfectly normal and has been this way literally forever.
Why would conservatives on a conservative site expect a private business to give them anything for free?
It’s an operating system, made by a company that needs to make a profit or die. Naturally they’d sell it. The fact that a genuine user of an older operating system can get the latest for free is a very good deal!
Those who have pirated copies shouldn’t get a good deal, should they?
Waaaay back when Windows 3.1 was out, they didn’t care HOW you got it. They even provided free 1-800 phone help, based in the USA, staffed by Americans and they didn’t ask how you got it.
That’s how they built a benevolent monopoly.
...and before that Windows 1.n was given away free with the purchase of 4k of memory chips iirc.
4K of memory wasn’t cheap back then.
Tell me about it.
Windows 3.1 ran on top of DOS. The first version of Windows that was arguably an OS was 95.
Sounds like regular Windows to me.
Just give it time the pirate copies will be out in no time.
Four KILObytes of memory? Whoa ! You know I hear you can get 4 MEGAbytes of memory now. But don’t quote me in that I know it sounds crazy....
It's time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but nowhere near as time consuming and frustrating as battling with it yourself.
And I've never had it fail. I'm convinced they put you through that awful phone business to weed out the real pirates, who would never bother with it.
Good luck!!
If Microsoft were to give the pirates a break, it would only be in the hopes of reducing the number of "cracked" malware-laden copies that comprise the many botnets of infected machines.
I was surprised enough that they would give away an upgrade to legit customers. I would never expect they'd give it away to pirates.
Does 10.0 have more code or less code? Does it boot faster? Shut down faster. Have more DRM? Give you more control over your own hardware?
True, but that monopoly is not so stable now. It's still a huge majority, but it's viewed with more suspicion and dislike, and even Microsoft recognizes that their customers see that they have alternatives that are viable. It makes a big difference in how they act.
Stalman said software should be free.
Hey I'll argue that. :-)
95 ran on DOS. 98 ran on DOS. ME ran on DOS (barely).
If you don't think so, try launching any of them without it.
The only trick they played (with ME at least, maybe with 98, I forget) was that you no longer had to explicitly put "WIN" at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, to launch the Windows application from COMMAND.COM. It was the implied default. But even that was really just a kludge.
I was SO glad when Win2000 came out -- I was so sick of hacking DOS... LOL.
Did he mean free to crooks too?
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