Frequently Asked Questions about the Windows 10 Free upgrade

Wynona said:

Nope, but I still have several copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 Retail (no, I can't sell or give them away). I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one who has a few of these. Mine are beta testing rewards, giveaways from attending MVP and Butterfly meetings in Redmond, and a couple each from my old Technet subscription.

Note that I said,

BTW, I haven't looked, but I've read a few times on TenForums that retail copies of 7 and 8.1 are still for sale here and there.

My license was successfully transferred to new MB a month or so ago, maybe because I'm insider ?

CountMike said:

My license was successfully transferred to new MB a month or so ago, maybe because I'm insider ?

Dunno, Mike. I lifted that quote about the motherboard straight from a Microsoft page. :)

Did you reinstall Windows 7 or 8.1 after you changed out the mobo?

Wynona said:

Dunno, Mike. I lifted that quote about the motherboard straight from a Microsoft page. :)

Did you reinstall Windows 7 or 8.1 after you changed out the mobo?

Nope, didn't change anything but drivers. My Windows as installed now hail from W7, upgraded to 8.1 (for cheap first few days) than to first W10 TP version that came out. I deleted other 2 MBs licensed before this one.

CountMike said:

Nope, didn't change anything but drivers. My Windows as installed now hail from W7, upgraded to 8.1 (for cheap first few days) than to first W10 TP version that came out. I deleted other 2 MBs licensed before this one.

Hmmm, than maybe there's some kind of telemetry going on that we don't know about that still gives the computer the "digital entitlement". Did you by any chance use the same CPU?

Wynona said:

Hmmm, than maybe there's some kind of telemetry going on that we don't know about that still gives the computer the "digital entitlement". Did you by any chance use the same CPU?

No, MB, CPU, RAM and SSD were changed.

arnoldh said:

If I upgrade my existing retail license to a (free) Windows 10 license, it does not become a retail Windows 10 license, because when I change my hardware after July I will not be able to move the license to a different Windows 10 system. OK, Microsoft have not made 100% clear what will be allowed in terms of changes, but I'm sure that when I upgrade my motherboard and CPU I will not be able to use the existing license. And yes, I do have spare copies of Windows 7 and 8 retail licenses but they don't help after July unless I downgrade.

Actually I like Windows 10, and won't have any problem buying new retail licenses for it when I need to. I've been doing this for every version of Windows since Windows 3.1, only missing out Windows Vista (for obvious reasons). What I object to is how Microsoft has introduced this policy, particularly the lack of clear detail on the offer early on, and the subsequent harassment of users who have not upgraded.

In the past, Arnold, we've always been able to use a Retail version of Windows at will; we just had to call Microsoft (in most cases) if we changed computers. I was asked if I had taken it off the old machine, and once I answered in the affirmative, I got a string of numbers to plug in and Windows got activated.

A number of the denizens here think the same thing should apply.

CountMike said:

No, MB, CPU, RAM and SSD were changed.

Then you just got lucky is all I can say. :)

Edit: One more question . . . Did you do this before July 29, 2015?

Wynona said:

In the past, Arnold, we've always been able to use a Retail version of Windows at will; we just had to call Microsoft (in most cases) if we changed computers. I was asked if I had taken it off the old machine, and once I answered in the affirmative, I got a string of numbers to plug in and Windows got activated.

A number of the denizens here think the same thing should apply.

It surely should apply to retail W10 bought now but it doesn't seem to apply to free upgrade. There's still time for MS to change that. There are rumors about MS extending deadline for free upgrades.