Windows 10 Upgrade is not Free

I have been using Windows 10 upgrade and having worked in IT support. I have been thinking about Microsoft and their motives. I decided to change my hard drive and Win 10 deactivated. I called MS and was told I had to reinstall qualifying product and do another upgrade. Soon after I took a power hit and had to replace my motherboard. I have a lenovo desktop and put the exact same mobo in and again Win 10 was deactivated. Another call got the same results.

This made me start thinking.

First, those people who upgraded and did not make an image of their old machine or those who had pre-loaded machines and never made backup media are screwed. After 30 days your option to roll back your previous OS is gone. If after that you make any small hardware change you will have deactivated Win 10 and no media to restore your old OS so you have to buy Win 10 or some version of Windows.

If after the year upgrade period is done, if you change hardware and your upgrade is deactivated , again you have to pay as upgrading qualifying media option is gone..

I believe MS marketing people have a winner. This free upgrade probably got them more potential upgrade business than ever and they know at some point most users will make changes to their systems, have crashes, or orhter problems that will deactivate their Win 10 and they will have to pay. So, you give something away fro free for a year and then wait for the system crashes and upgrades and start raking in the cash.

I fortunately have an image of my Win 7 machine and the next time my windows 10 gets deactivated I will go back and stay. Win 7 works every bit as good as 10 and I have already paid for it.

As they say if it looks too good to be true is usually is.

That's the way the business world goes 'round! There are worse grey marketing schemes.
MS doesn't hafta give anyone squat!
What they're offering is fine by me.

I have not had the results your talking about. Two times I changed hardware and lost my Win 10 activation. I called support and explained and in each case I was told the same thing. Your windows 10 activation is based on your hardware configuration. If you change configuration you now have a machine that is not licensed for Windows 10. I was told each time (one week ago was the last time) to reinstall my qualifying product and re-upgrade. I asked about using my win 7 product code and was told absolutely not.

I do not know who your talking to but I have not had similar results.

Brink said:

Hello mowfixer,

You are mistaken. That is just completely incorrect.

See: Activate Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums


Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 for the free upgrade offer on an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PC, you will be able to do a clean install of Windows 10 on the same PC anytime in the future. If you make a meaningful change to your PC's hardware (ex: motherboard), you may need to contact customer support to activate by phone.



Starting in Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10565:

Device activation improvements: Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from Insiders on making it easier to activate Windows 10 on devices that take advantage of the free upgrade offer to genuine Windows by using existing Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product keys. If you install this build of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on a PC and it doesn’t automatically activate, you can enter the product key from Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 used to activate the prior Windows version on the same device to activate Windows 10 by going to Settings > Update & security > Activation and selecting Change Product Key. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 by booting off the media, you can also enter the product key from prior Windows versions on qualifying devices during setup. Refer to the Insider Hub for more information on these activation improvements including requirements.

Dozens of people on this forum have reported changing a HDD (usually upgrading to an SSD) and their Windows 10 have remained activated just fine, as it is supposed to.

Motherboard change needs a new activation, regardless of if it is the same make/model or not.

There has to be some compromise somewhere - to allow hardware changes to occur without the need for reactivations while at the same time preventing 1,000's of computers with the exact same make/model hardware purchased off the shelf from activating based on having the same configuration of hardware.

There have been glitches in Microsoft activation servers where the activation information was not saved properly and people have had problems activating Windows 10 on the exact same computer without changing any hardware.

Brink said:

The main point is that the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 is free forever on that specific PC once you upgrade to the free Windows 10 from an activated Windows 7/8.1 on the PC.

However, there may be a difference between what the user considers to remain "that specific PC" and what Microsoft considers to be a new PC. For the purposes of automatic online activation - user replaces a defective motherboard with the exact same make/model motherboard and Microsoft considers it a different PC due to the different serial number (usually requiring the user to talk to a knowledgeable Microsoft phone answerer who will provide the re-activation). But then you also have the user who tries to claim that it is the same PC - even though they have upgraded everything on it except for the power supply, case and DVD drive.

I have been dealing with Microsoft for 15 years as a IT support professional. I know what to say to them but I have never seen them so uncooperative as they have been regarding the Win 10 hardware changes. Microsoft site can say what it wants but when you call support, what they say is what your obligated to follow like it or not. Maybe they need to train their support people properly if their take on things is different than whats in Microsoft site. I quoted to support what I had seen on the Microsoft site and was quoted something different. I asked to talk to a different tier support agent and was put on hold and connection dropped.

Sorry but I do not see the same Microsoft support level you are talking about on the WIndows 10 product. Now I did get re activated on my Win 7 when I reloaded it on the new motherboard without any issues what so ever. That is what I have been used to in my many years of dealing with their support.

Dont take this wrong but I question your objectivity. Are you perhaps a Microsoft employee?

Brink said:

What I posted was directly from Microsoft.

Upgrade to Windows 10: FAQ - Windows Help

I don't know if the support agent you talked to knew what they were doing, misunderstood you, or you have some other circumstance that prevents activation on your PC.

The main point is that the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 is free forever on that specific PC once you upgrade to the free Windows 10 from an activated Windows 7/8.1 on the PC.

The activation of the free Windows 10 is registered as a digital entitlement on Microsoft activation servers. If you change hardware like the motherboard, then it's considered a new PC and is why Microsoft activation servers don't recognize the digital entitlement for the PC anymore. This is why you would have to contact Microsoft customer support to get it activated on the PC again. Of course, starting in build 10565, you would only need to enter your Windows 7/8.1 product key you originally upgraded from to the free Windows 10 while clean installing Windows 10 to activate Windows 10.

To help you out for now, you could use the tutorial below to directly clean install with from now on after you create a gatherosstate.exe file from your activated Windows 7/8.1. Be sure to back up the gatherosstate.exe file to have as needed in the future for that PC.

Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First

Well if a guy with IT experience is having trouble what about the computer novice? He might conclude that since he has trashed his original OS because the 30 roll back has passed, that his only option is to purchase Win 10 to get his system working. My years of working with MS has also made me a skeptic and as years go on more inclined to question their motives.

I still feel almost every person who upgraded at some time will have activation issues. If they provide poor service there will be whether planned or by accident, people forced to pay for what they thought was free. I am glad I knew to image my machine as I have used the image twice. Free maybe yes at a future cost to many ??????

Brink said:

Nope. I don't work for Microsoft.

I just wanted to make it clear for others reading this that what you are unfortunately experiencing doesn't equal to the free Windows 10 not being free.

Instead, it's just lousy customer support not activating it for you due to them being incompetent or whatever the reason.

By the way. As we are speaking i am cloning my win 10 to a larger hard drive to see if my past two experiences were unusual. I will try to pressure them to reactivate and see what happens.