Hello Everyone, i have a question about windows 10 RTM, i just read that the RTM will be free to "windows insiders "
I am a windows insider member, but i am currently running WIN 10 10130 in a VM on my Main machine,
would i still Qualify for a FREE WIN 10 RTM when Released on July 29th, ??
Thanks in Advance.
Thanks for your Quick Response. I AM GOOD TO GO.
Thanks.
Windows 10 RTM will be free to all provided you have a genuine version of 7, 8, or maybe just 8.1 and not W8.
I saw an ad this morning in the Sunday paper for Best Buy saying "buy this laptop get W10 free" So all you need is a qualifying previous version.
*with a qualifying previous version
The Windows 10 free upgrade is a time limited offer (up to one year after RTM) for qualifying systems (Win7 SP1 & Win8.1).
A member chatted with MS support and was told that it would be possible to transfer a retail license of the qualifying OS to another machine, but the transfer would most likely require phone activation.
The Insider program will continue and the Technical Preview (TP) installs will be updated to RTM. I didn't see any change to what had been said before in the blog post. As long as you participate in the Insider Program, you will get updates to the OS.
This is not necessarily Win10 for free, because it is still the Insider program - i.e. normal patches (security, bug fixes, etc) AND new development code will be flighted to the install. For example, 29 July your TP install is updated to RTM and life is good. Then on August 21 a new build is placed on the fast ring (eventually making it's way to the slow ring) and your TP install is no longer RTM, it's the most recently released Preview.
A system with a qualifying OS that was upgraded to Win10 will not get the development flights, only normal patches (security, bug fixes, etc) will be offered and installed.
The TP has always had a separate EULA, license, & key so that won't be an issue for multi-boot (same as it has been)
At least that's how I read the announcement. Nothing much changed - a bit of salesmanship in the blog announcement by MS perhaps, possibly to increase the participant count in the Insider Program or to generate excitement about Win10.
Rumor mill says you can get a copy of W10 from just a insider preview build, not using a key from a previous OS. This will be debated and questioned. I have a separate partition with the insider preview clean installed from an ISO so if this works I can also keep my 8.1 for dual boot.
With a nod and a wink, Microsoft gives away Windows 10 to anyone who..
I thought RTM was normally released few weeks before hand for manufactures to get there images on?
This is groovy. Now I have a way to get 4 copies of Windows 10. (to make Master Ghost/Clone Backups from) - My Win 8.1 rig. The wife's Win 7 rig. My rig with The MS Insider Preview RTM upgrade and my Win 8.1 x86 based 10.1 inch dual bootable Android/Windows Tablet. Yeah..Groovy... Cortana Baby Here I Come.
How about pirates will they get Windows 10 for free?
Yolololololo.....
I read somewhere where even non activated windows 7/8.1 users can get the updates. I haven't tried to update anything to Win 10 yet - But if that installer is anything like the Windows 8.1 Media Creation Tool built ISO's, it wouldn't matter much.
I suspect this is how it worked: When I upgraded Win 8 to Win 8.1 the Media Creation Tool would First in Windows 8 while the ISO is being made, copy your legit and bios matched Windows Product Key to that ISO. You then pop the ISO into your CD Rom drive and start the upgrade. After a minute it will give you a Compatibility Report telling you to reboot back into Windows 8 to continue the 8.1 setup from setup.exe on the USB stick. It never does actually check your BIOS to see if the Key matches, so I'm assuming it made a previous copy from within Windows. This is how the 8.1 ISO gets it's key match so it continues to install the 8.1 upgrade.
I believe this because I installed the 8.1 upgrade using my wife's laptop, Not my own that has the Win 8 bios key embedded. The 8.1 still installed normally of course I couldn't Activate it until the drive was back in my own machine. (My hardware had motherboard reboot problems,so i needed a working PC that worked on reboot..i Used her's.)
Now, I could be wrong about my ideas above making copies of the product key but the end result is the same. You can install the 8.1 upgrade on any Windows 8 system, even if not using a product key in a BIOS matched machine and everything works normally. At this point pirates would simply crack the activation routine. Since the software never really checks against the BIOS for install, only for activation it seems any Win 7, 8 and 8.1 machine can be upgraded to 10. Most folks downloading Windows 10 will have one of these OS's anyway.
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