News Upgrade to Windows 10 now, warns Microsoft

Oh goody, just a couple more months and I can turn automatic updates back on.

 

Great news! I'm sick of being pestered to "upgrade".

 

It's a bit aggressive with the upgrade and bad publicity such as the TV weather forecast but Windows 10 is worth upgrading in my view. I'm liking it.

 

I created a disk partition image before upgrading to 10, unlocking my free key, grabbed the key in use following these instructions - http://forums.hexus.net/software/342473-how-retrieve-your-win10-key.html#post3508412 and then copied back the windows 7 image.

Takes a few hours but it secures a key for free at least.

 

I thought updating to 10 "deactivated" your Win 7 license if you didn't roll back within 30 days... So wouldn't reinstalling an imaged 7 install leave your 10 upgrade in place, resulting in your Win 7 license deactivating after a month?

And furthermore, if I update to 10 and then roll back to 7, as Combatus suggests, does that mean that I can upgrade again to 10 at a later date without affecting my current 7 license? If so, then it's a bit of a no-brainer, but to be quite honest the amount of obfuscation and conflicting information circulating around the upgrade process really doesn't help anyone to know where they stand.

 

Those stats Mehdi crowed about don't seem so good when you do the maths.

 

I'm about a third of the way through upgrading 80 desktops and laptops at the moment.

That I can cope with, it's the Luddites who will be using them that worry me...

 

Haha Shirty, we have 60 odd to upgrade here which are sat waiting until we get another business critical piece of software upgraded.

 

You can't have more than one valid licence per install, so if you upgrade and roll back, you lose the windows 10 licence validity i'd have thought. The only way to know for sure is to try upgrading after July and seeing if it either a) allows it without charging or b) allows it but fails to activate at all.

It is also worth noting that upgrading to Windows 10 also removes the ability to transfer from one machine to another that might be valid for Windows 7/8 pro versions. Certainly the case that all OEM version upgrades will not transfer, though some have reported it working when talking to MS, but whether that will continue after July will be pot luck.

 

I'm going to probably draw a lot of ire from folks here, but no thanks. Windows 7 works well, this Windows Store thing sounds awful and DirectX12 hardly seems to be making the big splash it was supposed to.

I'll revisit this in a year, even if it means I'll have to buy a new copy or two of Win 10.

 

Only reason to update is the windows10-only stuff like DX12, but there are way more reasons to NOT update.

And I'm a bit worried what will happen after the free upgrade time expires in terms of what MS will sneak into it then. Already they put stuff in it that makes a normal person raise an eyebrow, so once they think they locked down the suckers and they stop holding back it might get even more outrageous. Because I doubt it'll get better, in terms of intrusiveness I mean.

 

I've had Win10 for ages now without any real issues (there were audio driver problems in the first month, but that got fixed). So many of my friends have got issues though. The difference between them and me? I did a fresh install and they all did an upgrade. Some had problems with 8.1 as well, but handily forgot this when upgrading so are blaming all issues on Windows 10...

Good luck Shirty! I bet my old office are probably just about thinking of upgrading to Windows 7...

 

I've been using Windows 10 since upgrading last August, from Windows 7 and don't regret it for a moment. It's easy to use and rock-solid stable, on my machine.

A lot of people moan about Windows 10, a lot more people are happy and just get on with using it, without making a fuss.

 

It took me a LOOOONG time to go to 7 over XP, but then switch to 8/8.1/10 fairly quickly after you could and haven't really had many issues.

The privacy stuff I remember worrying about, but I can't remember if they were legitimate worries and if I did anything about them haha.

Laptop is still 7 but I'll probably upgrade it as it's free.

 

Had Win10 a while now, when I first got it I didn't like how things like Control Panel were pointlessly hidden from obvious sight but since figuring out that right clicking on the windows icon reveals it I've had no problems.
Programs now being referred to as apps gets on my nerves though, but thats because I don't like change.

 

had windows 10 since the day it came out last year. upgraded my parents PC to 10 also and my laptop. All working perfectly fine and I have not had any pestering by microsoft for almost a year

Had to deal with a few issues, turned off all the "spying" stuff, tools easily available to download to do all that for you. Also had to stop my PC turning on in the middle of the night to do updates. I really wouldnt mind if it shut it down again afterwards but it just left it on....

 

I did it for my parents couple of weeks ago. I had a spare Windows 8.1 Pro and they had Windows 7 Home edition so making sure they get the Pro version of 10. They also never did a UEFI install before either.

Funny thing is my Mum is a complete luddite to anything including smart phones and I tried to get her more involved with computing. Nah, no such luck until Windows 10, they really like it, wish I know why.

 

Sorry, doesn't work like that. The "free" Windows 10 license is valid for "the lifetime of the device", meaning that you cannot transfer it to any other device (well, PC really) than the one you installed it on.

When upgrading a qualifying and existing Windows to Windows 10 a hardware fingerprint is made of your current system, which is then stored on Microsoft's activation servers. That's why you don't need a key to reinstall at a later date either. Provided, it's on the same PC.

Sadly, that key is utterly useless. The complete activation process relies on hardware fingerprinting, as stated above. Sorry to hear you've wasted several hours doing this. On the positive side, you can still "upgrade" to Windows 10 on that same PC, provided you don't change too much of the hardware.

What happens is that for 30 days you can go back to Windows 7, because that's how long Windows 10 keeps a copy of your previously installed Windows around. Your Windows 7 license isn't deactivated. Actually, since Windows 10 1511 you can use your Windows 7 key to do a clean install istead of having to take the "upgrade" route. I'm pretty, however, that Microsoft has some provisions in place to keep you from using both the Windows 7 key/license and the Windows 10 license simultaneously.

See above.