Question About Free Upgrade To Win10

Gary · 14 Apr 2015

Winuser said:

Is it the System Builders version? If it's full retail your OK.
From the Manufacturer

"Use of this OEM System Builder Channel software is subject to the terms of the Microsoft OEM System Builder License. This software is intended for pre-installation on a new personal computer for resale. This OEM System Builder Channel software requires the assembler to provide end user support for the Windows software and cannot be transferred to another computer once it is installed. To acquire Windows software with support provided by Microsoft please see our full package "Retail" product offerings."

It is Full retail. Thanks

Wynona · 14 Apr 2015

Gary said:

MS is in business to make money, lots of money and giving away OS's is not the way to make money. Trust me, they have something up their sleeve that will bring in money.

Gary, even the "computer online mags" are speculating that Microsoft will bring in more money via software sales, rather than windows.

None of us are so stupid that we think Microsoft is giving a free upgrade out of the goodness of their hearts. We know it's a business decision. That said, we don't need to be told we're all expecting something for nothing. Or that Microsoft is out to shaft us all.

rfruth · 14 Apr 2015

Me thinks m$sf will make lots of money giving away Win10 (gain back lost market share etc)

Superfly · 15 Apr 2015

NickTh said:

If the OEM key is installed inside BIOS/UEFI you can extract this key. Several good programs to extract such keys are out there(prefer the opensource ones) and I think this procedure is not illegal. After all it's your key, you have paid for that.
If this key would be valid in a case of different hardware, that's another case and I think it won't be valid (logic), but to have the key available in case of losing the recovery partition is a good thing.

ShowKeyPlus was developed for EF and TF...

I'm just waiting to see how Win7 keys are handled in Win10 before finalising and releasing the source on GitHub.

usasma · 15 Apr 2015

Currently we see that you must purchase a copy of Windows in order to use/own it.
What the future holds is unknown.

WIll Microsoft go with a free OS (as Apple is doing)?
Will Microsoft go with a subscription OS (maybe Windows 365)?
Will they stay with the "pay to play" model (the current way)?
Will they devise a combination method (free/subscription for regular users - and "pay to play" for business')?
Or will they devise some other way?

Finally, will Win10 be a transition piece, with the actual moves changing further down the road?