RTM/GA or Insider - What are you going to do?

dencal said:

You can no longer install build 10162 without installing it on a ligitimate qualifying O/S.

Opting out automatically switches the M$ key back to your key.

That is, to put it nicely, utterly nonsense.

Starting from Build 10158 you cannot upgrade through Windows Update to later builds without a Microsoft Account. Only the MS Account is needed, upgrading to later builds does not require an underlying qualifying OS. There is absolutely nothing preventing you to clean install Build 10159 or 10162 from the ISO you either created by yourself or downloaded from Microsoft.

You can even clean install 10162 using a local account only, it requires no qualifying OS. This means that at the moment you can go and download the Windows 10 Build 10162 ISO, burn it to DVD or Flash drive, and finally perform a clean install with it only creating a local account. This even if you have never had any version of Windows installed on any computers, let's say for instance that you have only used Linux until now, and that you also have never had a Microsoft Account.

Kari

dencal said:

Kari, My understanding on reading the following statement from GABE.

It says nowhere that to install 10162 you must be an Insider, nor does it say that the 10162 requires an underlying qualifying OS.

I was referring to this post of yours which, as I mentioned before, is totally utterly nonsense, and as such an invalid piece of information which has to be corrected:

dencal said:

You can no longer install build 10162 without installing it on a ligitimate qualifying O/S.

Opting out automatically switches the M$ key back to your key.

I repeat these facts:

• You can download and clean install build 10162 and only use a local account absolutely without any underlying OS, qualifying or not
• To do this, you have absolutely no requirements whatsoever to have a Microsoft Account
• If you want to continue using Windows past July 29 and upgrade directly from a clean installed preview build, the only thing you have to do is to opt in for Insider program. For that you need a valid MS account, but again no underlying qualifying OS will be needed

Test it by yourself. First, sign out from all MS services (outlook.com, onedrive.live.com and so on). Then go here: Download Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO - Microsoft Windows

Now, without being signed in on any MS services simply download 10162 ISO. Burn it, install on a totally new computer which has never had any OS installed, and do it using a local account.

It works. OK, you miss some features in it because Windows 10 is designed to be used with an MS account, but still, it works.

Dencal, you claimed that to install build 10162 you can do it only on a system with underlying, qualifying OS. That is simply not true. No use to continue this.

Kari said:

Dencal, you claimed that to install build 10162 you can do it only on a system with underlying, qualifying OS. That is simply not true. No use to continue this.

+1.. I installed 10162 clean with no underlying OS what so ever. And it works just fine when I use the key supplied by MS for that build. I think what your issue is that your taking the requirements for the RTM/GA and applying them to general preview builds(10162 for example) and that's incorrect.
@Kari is totally correct in all of his posts on this subject. And I did a clean install yesterday .. I wiped everything off of my SSD where I keep my OS/Programs and I had zero issues.

I am an insider, I went to this page, signed in to the windows insider program, downloaded the iso of build 10162 and performed a clean install using it, activated it with the product key provided there. Still I am an insider with fast ring enabled.

To remain as an Insider, it is not a must to upgrade from a legitimate copy of windows 7/8.1, but that is needed to get the free upgrade to RTM and quit the insider program.