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#80
I'm wondering if they can make any money with windows 10?
I'm wondering if they can make any money with windows 10?
Yup, people forget that when you buy a new PC with windows preinstalled the OEM paid Microsoft a fee for it. Build a new PC and want Windows, your paying for it. Own Windows XP or Vista and want to upgrade to Windows 10, your paying for it. People see the "Free Windows for the life of the device" and forget that that device isn't going to last forever. Free will only be free for the first year and then only if you qualify.
Just reserved mine on my desktop running 7 Ultimate x64 (retail edition), going to reinstall 8.1 Core (OEM) on my laptop so I can reserve 10 there + keep my retail 8.1 Pro Student edition. Really hoping 7 retail upgrades to 10 retail and if I change components in my PC or build a whole new PC the retail license transfers.
No, this is NOT the answer. Today I have a retail Windows 8.1 Pro, but if I upgrade to windows 10, the "retail" part seems to blow away, and because of that, I want to know "what is a device in Windows 10"?
All your written data about OEM versus Retail are correct AFAIK, but that was not what I was asking about. In fact I don't have an OEM licence at all!!
I also know about phone activating, and that works fine as long as you are doing what Microsoft think is legal, and again. In my example with changed mobo because of a defect ... will Microsoft see that as the same device (remember comming from a Windows 8.1 Pro RETAIL to Windows 10 Pro)??
If you have a RETAIL license for Windows 8.1 and not OEM there should be no problem for you. If you have RETAIL Windows 8.1 PRO your key should upgrade to RETAIL Windows 10 PRO Key. Which I assume Microsoft would change your RETAIL KEY into a RETAIL Windows 10 PRO License Key. It would be very stupid of them to make your key OEM if it is not OEM.
With a retail key you can change the motherboard and yes the hardware ID will change, you will have to call Microsoft and tell them your motherboard is dead, please activate my key on my new computer. They will see a new hardware ID change and activate you. That should not be a problem.
From what I understand if you upgrade Windows 8.1 PRO Retail it becomes Windows 10 PRO Key. Then your computer will be upgraded. Then if you change hardware after you will probably have to call and re-activate your key, but you will have to install Windows 10 instead of 8.1 if you do the license upgrade.
Hm... I don't know, I have allways thought it would me more like this: Upgrading a RETAIL license for 8.1 for free will get Win 10 licence for the life of device. Should you change devices after the 1 year period, you would be able to install and activate 8.1 RETAIL or just directly install Win 10, but for activating Win 10 you will have to pay for the upgrade.
If I'm upgrading my Windows 8.1 Pro on my device and then decide I want to go back, will I be able to install 8.1 any time or am I stuck on Win 10? If that's the case, I will use the back up tool my windows 8.1 System. When I am not satisfied with windows 10 at least I still can come back to windows 8.1