W10 questions I would want answers to before commiting.

alphanumeric · 22 Jan 2015

groze said:

alphanumeric said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

The old keys of your previous OS are STILL valid even after an upgrade. (Tested with a VISTA re-install --activation just fine). They would HAVE to be - if they weren't and for whatever reason your upgrade failed you'd be left without a working computer.

Ms certainly wouldn't want to get into those sorts of problems.

In any case ALWAYS TAKE BACKUPS - especially before doing major things like upgrading an OS.

Cheers
jimbo

OEM installs of Windows 7 and earlier use master Product Codes for each OEM. For example every PC from manufacturer X with Windows 7 Home Premium has the same master key. Microsoft can't block that key. If they did hundreds of thousands of PC's would all suddenly show as pirated. If you use a keyfinder you'll see that the key on the sticker doesn't match the one in use on the PC. Not unless you've done a clean install and used the code on the sticker manually. Those OEM PC's don't activate online either, not from the factory anyway. If you clean install with the code on COA sticker they will though. Windows 8 and OA 3.0 changed all that. now each PC has its own code and they all activate online, even OEM installs.

That why this update won't install on most pre-activated windows 7 systems, you have to hide it. If it got installed, it might look like your Windows 7 system is non genuine when it really is genuine. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong

Description of the update for Windows Activation Technologies

I don't know anything about that particular update per say. It may have caused issues for some. There were some failures with the Genuine Advantage Technology. Microsoft did fixe them though, as far as I know anyway. I haven't used Windows 7 for quit a while now. All my PC's are running 8.1. My 7 installs were OEM system builder editions.

Slartybart · 23 Jan 2015

Nothing is finalized. The upgrade path is uncertain at this point.

A clean install will, most likely, be possible by bending the rules (ESD->ISO) or buying a license. The free offer is for upgrades only.

There is no end-of-life-cycle phase. Win10 lives on forever - it evolves, as John says.

Mooly · 23 Jan 2015

Slartybart said:

There is no end-of-life-cycle phase. Win10 lives on forever - it evolves, as John says.

Technology and new ideas will outpace what the basic OS can do. In 10 yrs time, less probably with the rate of advancement, the then current W10... if that is how it works out... would be like trying to install W8/8.1 on a pc dating from the millennium. The name W10 may survive if that is what they want but it will be unrecognisable and unusable on the PC's of today.

Which is another way of saying... the PC user with a new PC (if we still use PC's) in say 10yrs hence will want the latest features etc. So the OS of that time will be unrecognisable to what we have today. So how does the owner of an old PC install W10 in the future ? Will there be archived editions of W10 by year ? and with just those editions receiving targeted updates relevant to the era.

W10 will not be an OS for life... I'll bet there will something new, something better before not to many years have passed.

Slartybart · 23 Jan 2015

Good points and interesting questions Mooly.

the then current W10... if that is how it works out... would be like trying to install W8/8.1 on a pc dating from the millennium
I think you're saying: A new OS won't necessarily work on old hardware.

The best I can do is guess. Win10 will update/evolve on the hardware it was installed on just as it is today. At some point the OS will be more advanced than the old hardware. Windows will stop evolving, but continue to work and be secure on that machine.

I don't think MS is going to store archives, more likely the install will be intelligent. Win8 is pretty close to that now, so I don't see any huge obstacles. A change might be in order so that the user can install the best OS for given hardware - no longer to PCs become obsolete based on the OS. Old PCs run Linux fine, why not Windows. An easy way would be to install a minimal base and get the rest from "up there somewhere" (Windows Update, MS Store, .... from some location using some mechanism). We're talking abut the future, so anything is possible.

You're probably right, let's agree on Win10 will evolve for the foreseeable future

We don't know what Win10 will evolve to
anymore than we know what we will evolve to become.

Bill
.

Mooly · 23 Jan 2015

Yes, that is pretty much what I meant :) I was kind of thinking aloud really. The OS of 5 to 10 yrs hence will be far in advance of what todays/last years hardware can support, not least in just the basics, but also with the guaranteed to be developed interactive stuff that is sure to appear over time.

I agree that its pretty inconceivable that MS would make available archived copies of an OS.

It will be an interesting few years ahead.