New
#51
I hope that the upgrade will allow for continued use of the previous version of Windows, and that activation will be based on hardware recognition, for either Windows 10 or the old version, therefore allowing dual-booting.
"I hope that the license registration, which identifies a PC based on hardware and registers that hardware on MS servers, will also allow for dual-booting Windows OS' on the one license."
Just for the record, I don't think Microsoft will block you from going back to the OS you upgraded from as long as its reinstalled on that same PC it was originally installed on. The one you did the upgrade on. They could easily block (blacklist) your Windows 8.1 product code for the OS you upgraded from, but I don't see them doing it. It would just generate a lot of bad feelings and bad press.
[QUOTE=alphanumeric;276905]I think there's a confusion about what is being discussed.
The license is not the software. A person's license to use a version of Windows is not an ownership of Windows, but it is ownership of that license. If a person cannot continue to use a version of Windows, after updating or upgrading to a new version, that does not mean that their license has changed in its type of being a single-machine transferable license. It only means the Windows version which the license is for has changed. The type of license (retail, single-machine, transferable) has not changed.
What is being clearly said that may not continue to be used, is not the license, in lieu of a new one, but the old Windows software, with the license being updated as for a newer version. That does not speak to the conditions under which the new software may be used (single-machine, transferable). In that EULA, only the old software is not longer for use and transfer. The new software is accepted as holding the same type of license as the previous software did.
Also, this EULA example is referring to an update from Windows 8 -> Windows 8.1. In this case, a user is still using Windows 8, but just its updated version.
[QUOTE=Delicieuxz;276917]Ok I see what your saying, Retail should get you retail, OEM gets OEM. The thing is it says replaces, "The new license replaces the previous one". The new one could easily be OEM. And it wouldn't surprise me if it was. The free upgrade is for the life of the device, when that device dies, that windows 10 license dies with it. There are conditions on this free upgrade offer above and beyond your normal Windows upgrade install.
The upgrade install could be from windows 7 or windows 8. Doesn't have to be from Windows 8.