Microsoft will give away Windows 10 to all Windows Insider testers

[GuidoLS]

Yet another update, from the mind of Gabe Aul - I think this one makes a lot more sense, and is a LOT more difficult to misinterpret.

Friday’s post was intended to clarify how the Windows Insider Program will proceed, and in attempting to do so created some unintended confusion. I sincerely apologize for that and will try to separate them more clearly below in order to provide more clarity.

The crux of it is this:

Do you want to continue as a Windows Insider and keep getting preview builds after 7/29?
Or do you want to upgrade your Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system that has been getting Windows 10 Insider Preview builds to the 7/29 release and stop being an Insider?

“I want to continue as a Windows Insider!” (for the record, this is the part Mr. Bright kind of confused)

If you want to continue as a Windows Insider past 7/29 there is nothing you need to do. You’re already opted in and receiving builds in the Fast or Slow ring depending upon your selection. This is prerelease software and is activated with a prerelease key. Each individual build will expire after a time, but you’ll continue to receive new builds so by the time an older prerelease build expires you’ll have received a new one. Since we’re continuing the Windows Insider Program you’ll be able to continue receiving builds and those builds will continue to be activated under the terms of the Windows Insider Program. We provide ISOs for these builds for recovery from any significant problems, but they are still pre-release software. As part of the program we’ll upgrade Insiders to what is for all intents and purposes the same build as what other customers will get on 7/29, but that will be just another build for Insiders, and those who stay in the program will simply get the next build after as well.

“I want to opt out of the Windows Insider Program on 7/29.” - for pretty much everyone else

If you decide to opt-out of the program and upgrade to the 7/29 build you will be subject to exactly the same terms and conditions that govern the offer* that was extended to all Genuine Windows 7 and 8.1 customers. This is not a path to attain a license for Windows XP or Windows Vista systems. If your system upgraded from a Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 license it will remain activated, but if not, you will be required to roll back to your previous OS version or acquire a new Windows 10 license. If you do not roll back or acquire a new license the build will eventually expire.

It is our hope that the vast majority of Windows Insiders who have been with us since we announced the program last year will continue forward, and it was in that light that we authored the blog post about upcoming changes to the program. I regret that this caused confusion about who was or was not eligible for the Windows 10 upgrade offer, but hope that this helps to clarify.

*More information about the free upgrade offer can be found at Windows.com.

(their disclaimer, not mine).

On non-legitimate installations -

Microsoft and our OEM partners know that many consumers are unwitting victims of piracy, and with Windows 10, we would like all of our customers to move forward with us together. While our free offer to upgrade to Windows 10 will not apply to Non-Genuine Windows devices, and as we’ve always done, we will continue to offer Windows 10 to customers running devices in a Non-Genuine state. In addition, in partnership with some of our valued OEM partners, we are planning very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers for their customers running one of their older devices in a Non-Genuine state. Please stay tuned to learn more from our partners on the specifics of their offers.

From version --> to version

Windows 7
From Edition	                         To Edition
Windows 7 Starter	              Windows 10 Home
Windows 7 Home Basic
Windows 7 Home Premium
---------------------------
Windows 7 Professional	               Windows 10 Pro
Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 8
From Edition	                            To Edition
Windows Phone 8.1	               Windows 10 Mobile

Windows 8.1  	                       Windows 10 Home

Windows 8.1 Pro	                       Windows 10 Pro
Windows 8.1 Pro for Students

Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?

Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need to purchase Windows 10 or go back to your prior version of Windows and upgrade again.

You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.

Will all my stuff be in the cloud?

Your files are saved on the hard drive of your device by default. Windows 10 includes OneDrive which provides free storage space in the cloud; this is completely optional, but gives you the benefit of being able to access your personal files from anywhere.

Media Center

No.

If there are any more questions, and there's a reasonable expectation that the answer will exist before 7/29 (or 29/7, or however you prefer to express your date), let me know, and I will see if I can find a legitimate, verifiable answer.

Questions I do not have answers to, nor have I found a legitimate, verifiable answer for -

1) Is my retail license locked to one machine forever upon upgrade
2) Status of how downgrades/reversions work

I realize there's a fair amount of MS dislike, and I don't begrudge anyone that. With that, please keep in mind that I'm just an end user, just like everyone else, and would appreciate the Q&A to be relatively snark free. If I don't/can't answer a question, it's not because I'm holding out. It's because I don't know, don't have a professional opinion (which I will express as such), or simply that such information doesn't exist yet.

(feel free to repost this anywhere else if appropriate, and/or sticky, etc - just let me know if it moves to a new neighborhood so I can keep up on any questions and answers that may arise.)

[GuidoLS]

Which free lunch, though, Guido?

Problem is, Cafe MS is offering a free lunch, for a limited period, but they won't tell you what's in the lunch, whereas Cafe Linux, right opposite cafe MS, has been offering a free lunch menu for years. And indeed, Cafe Linux offers not just a choice of one free item for your lunch, but a variety of tempting flavours and dishes, all free.

Free for the most part, anyway (re: Linux). As nice as it would be if it was, Linux isn't for everyone. It's not an OS for the masses. Those of us in the community can't even agree on a desktop, let alone a lot of anything else. That it almost always just works is due to some very careful crafting, and some very vile language, early on and currently, by a very feisty Fin. Even the big kid on campus (Canonical) has had more splits than the average Hollywood relationship. We keep saying 'maybe in a couple of years', 'maybe in 5 years', etc etc. Maybe still isn't now, at least for everyone. It requires a tech savvy beyond what most gamers are willing to bother with. Grandma and grandpa don't care, so long as they can tweet, pin, post and Skype - the background doesn't much matter, and eventually, the phone will ring, just like it always does, and we go over and fix it. Windows or Linux, it doesn't matter. At least we know it won't be because of grandpa looking at skin flicks this time.

Yes - MS is late to the dance. Very late, in the minds of some, many of whom have no trust for MS or their motives. I've yet to see any bad intentions with this. That doesn't mean they won't be there later. I just don't know. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until such time as they violate that. It's not my job to convince anyone else to do otherwise, or change their mind.

There's 2 sayings - either of which could apply here. Go ugly early, or everyone is beautiful at closing time. I'm waiting until closing time this time around - it's costing me nothing but time.

[winactive]

This isn't a goer. Aul has had his mouth rinsed out and you won't get a freebie.

[jag272]

Nice to see some clarification, again. I think Microsoft really need to just arrange proper articles explaining whats going on, this whole thing has been the perfect example of why Twitter is only suitable for short announcements, you simply can't fit info into it without it ending up a giant mess.

We've had so many things "confirmed" and then outed as incorrect due to lack of info etc that its actually starting to get silly now.

[Corky34]

The sceptic in me says these announcements via blogs, twitbook et'al are serving their purpose marvellously, looking back how many column inches have been devoted to Windows 10 over the months on various web sites because of misinterpreted announcements?

[eiamhere69]

Exactly. All of these 'mistakes' have ensured Microsoft have remained constantly in the publics eye, free of charge.

[jag272]

Exactly. All of these 'mistakes' have ensured Microsoft have remained constantly in the publics eye, free of charge.

Two ways of looking at it I guess, depends if you buy into the any publicity is good publicity deal. To me it just seems more like poor communication and doesn't really instill much faith in their product for me, I'll agree their name gets around because of it though.

[Saracen]

Free for the most part, anyway (re: Linux). As nice as it would be if it was, Linux isn't for everyone. It's not an OS for the masses. Those of us in the community can't even agree on a desktop, let alone a lot of anything else. That it almost always just works is due to some very careful crafting, and some very vile language, early on and currently, by a very feisty Fin. Even the big kid on campus (Canonical) has had more splits than the average Hollywood relationship. We keep saying 'maybe in a couple of years', 'maybe in 5 years', etc etc. Maybe still isn't now, at least for everyone. It requires a tech savvy beyond what most gamers are willing to bother with. Grandma and grandpa don't care, so long as they can tweet, pin, post and Skype - the background doesn't much matter, and eventually, the phone will ring, just like it always does, and we go over and fix it. Windows or Linux, it doesn't matter. At least we know it won't be because of grandpa looking at skin flicks this time.

Yes - MS is late to the dance. Very late, in the minds of some, many of whom have no trust for MS or their motives. I've yet to see any bad intentions with this. That doesn't mean they won't be there later. I just don't know. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until such time as they violate that. It's not my job to convince anyone else to do otherwise, or change their mind.

There's 2 sayings - either of which could apply here. Go ugly early, or everyone is beautiful at closing time. I'm waiting until closing time this time around - it's costing me nothing but time.

I'm waiting too.

Not agreeing on desktop has advantages, though. Don't like one, use another. MS could learn from that. However you cut it, a LOT of people intensely disliked MUI, for different reasons. If MS had simply had a switch to select "classic" if people didn't like MUI, it would have disarmed a LOT of bad PR and adverse customer reaction. And, after all, despite MS initially pretending it wasn't possible, 3rd parties did it quickly enough.

MS has become (IMHO) stuck in the typical arrogant attitude if the behemoth, which is that THEY are so important that WE just have to accept whatever they throw at us. I have a newsflash for them - they aren't the only gane in town. Given their involvement with Big Blue, wecmight have thought they'd observe a lesson or two .... first, that a small company can clean your clock for you if you don't read the customer right, and secondly, that trying to force change, no matter how technically superior (like MCA), can backfire.

I can't see why several Linux distro's won't work just fine for your average mom and pop user. After all, you can download the distro (like a Win ISO), stick it on DVD or USB stick, like Windows, and install via a graphical installer and boot to a GUI. Once running, you can install many packages via a package manager, and for most day-to-day uses, you never need to use command-line, or monkey about under the hood.

Frankly, the hardest bit of the whole thing is deciding which distro to pick.

[Saracen]

Primarily, the questions I still want answered, Guido, are the same ones you still want answered.

I would have liked just a tad more clarity on cloud storage, though, to the effect that data can't end up on the cloud, unless someone explicitly activates that capability. In other words, it can't happen accidentally because you misclicked on save location, etc. In other words, stuff being stored locally "by default" doesn't quite preclude it getting stored on the cloud accidentally. I would, however, assume that you do indeed have to manually activate the cloud capability, by opening/signing up for a cloud account, etc. .... which I will not do.

Oh, and sight of the final EULA, and especially privacy policy, is another red line for me, because I won't agree to the Insider EULA on anything beyond a test system. If the final EULA is as wide-open as the Insider one, nothing else about Win10 interests me because that, on it's own, is an absolute red line issue for me.

[GuidoLS]

The sceptic in me says these announcements via blogs, twitbook et'al are serving their purpose marvellously, looking back how many column inches have been devoted to Windows 10 over the months on various web sites because of misinterpreted announcements?

I don't view the blog posts as anything other than a low key way to semi-emulate the (now) Tim Cook and (prior) Steve Jobs talks, where they talked about what was going to happen, why, maybe when, and usually a lot of filler that said nothing. The key difference is, Tim Cook and Steve Jobs held the pens that signed the paychecks, and as much as he (Gabe) tries to keep things out there, in the only way he really has available, he's still just a shield carrier.

And like it or not, this last issue was as much, or even more, a case of several repeaters (I won't glorify them by calling them reporters) reading what they wanted to read into an announcement, and then have the cajones (not sure if the word I *WANT* to use in this case is considered offensive in the UK - it gets used a lot on American TV anymore...) to be 'offended' when what they repeated was incorrect, and playing that offense off on to the readership.

There's a LOT of stuff that tweaks me off about MS and their policies. I wouldn't be running a dual-boot otherwise, and at this point (and for years) I'm probably in a better position than even Saracen to just make a complete change. A quick GRUB change, a quick partition reboot, and done. But this isn't one of those cases. And people playing offended viewer aren't reading past the headlines. It's that simple.

Primarily, the questions I still want answered, Guido, are the same ones you still want answered.

I would have liked just a tad more clarity on cloud storage, though, to the effect that data can't end up on the cloud, unless someone explicitly activates that capability. In other words, it can't happen accidentally because you misclicked on save location, etc. In other words, stuff being stored locally "by default" doesn't quite preclude it getting stored on the cloud accidentally. I would, however, assume that you do indeed have to manually activate the cloud capability, by opening/signing up for a cloud account, etc. .... which I will not do.

One Drive is active by default, but you do have to actively choose to save to it. There is also no way that I can see to make OneDrive as a default save spot (and there is an area in the settings where you can say what goes where - OneDrive is not an option anywhere). Also, you will have to enable the system to allow programs to use OneDrive independent of your input, and I cannot find a simple way to do that. It can be disabled completely relatively simply via a Group Policy change (which is also the only way I found to enable autonomous use). As it stands right now, OneDrive seems pretty mundane, and can be ignored if you choose.

Oh, and sight of the final EULA, and especially privacy policy, is another red line for me, because I won't agree to the Insider EULA on anything beyond a test system. If the final EULA is as wide-open as the Insider one, nothing else about Win10 interests me because that, on it's own, is an absolute red line issue for me.

Agreed. I'm just sort of curious how having multiple EULA's going at the same time is going to work, because I think I'm going to keep one machine active as a fast track beta machine. They're offering it for free, and I love to tinker.

Exactly. All of these 'mistakes' have ensured Microsoft have remained constantly in the publics eye, free of charge.

MS is the biggest software company in the world, by almost 300%, over Oracle - and somehow, I think the blog gaffs are drawing a lot less real attention for MS than, say, the antics of Larry Ellison do for Oracle... they don't need the free attention. And on any given night, here in the US, there's at least 8 MS commercials, during primetime, on broadcast (read: free) tv. MS isn't hurting. Not even close.

I can't see why several Linux distro's won't work just fine for your average mom and pop user. After all, you can download the distro (like a Win ISO), stick it on DVD or USB stick, like Windows, and install via a graphical installer and boot to a GUI. Once running, you can install many packages via a package manager, and for most day-to-day uses, you never need to use command-line, or monkey about under the hood.

Frankly, the hardest bit of the whole thing is deciding which distro to pick.

Agree 100%. I've turned a lot of people on to Mint (Mate) with machines that can handle it, LXLE with machines that can't. I like Mint because it's a bit more lightweight than Ubuntu, has a nicer tutorial, and when people ask what wireless USB dongle will work, I can name off 3 that I know our local WalMart and office stores sell, and they're golden. Funny thing is, the only distro I don't recommend is the one I use, and it's been modified so much over the years, I don't think I can replicate it again if I tried. (Slackware - original install for this incarnation was back in '03, when 9.1 was released. I guess I could do a fresh install one of these days.)

[Saracen]

Sounds like I'd need to use the Group Policy editor, then, because I don't want it to be possible to save to OneDrive, even by accident .... like a guest user using it without my knowledge.

Does the fact of OneDrive being "active" also apply when running under a local account, not MS account? I'm not sure I can see how it could be, and of course, I don't want (or have) an MS account, and the more MS try to push us to have one, the more determined I get not to.

[GuidoLS]

Sounds like I'd need to use the Group Policy editor, then, because I don't want it to be possible to save to OneDrive, even by accident .... like a guest user using it without my knowledge.

Does the fact of OneDrive being "active" also apply when running under a local account, not MS account? I'm not sure I can see how it could be, and of course, I don't want (or have) an MS account, and the more MS try to push us to have one, the more determined I get not to.

No - the 'local' account has no access to OneDrive. The icon disappears entirely (it also does this when off-line), and I've not been able to find it. But yes, I can see the desirability of turning it off full time. I've also found a pair of registry settings that were written for 8/8.1, but may serve the same purpose with 10 (on and off - just click the reg, like usual). I'll test them out first before I post them, but they'd also make a good alternative if someone wanted the ability to switch it on and off without digging through the GPE.

I intend on putting up a few how-to's over in the Windows subsection of the software sub by this weekend, and can put one up for that, too. It's not rocket science or anything, but the one how-to I did find was specifically intended for 8/8.1 and was pointing in the wrong direction for 10 (or, more accurately, a non-existent direction). Hopefully, they'll do people some good (they're primarily aimed at restoring functionality that disappeared back in either Vista or 7.

[excalibur2]

H'mm So if you stay an insider after 29th July then your computer is open to MS "spying " and you have no rights? Any complaints and would be told by MS to buy retail or upgrade from win7\Win8?

[Saracen]

No - the 'local' account has no access to OneDrive. The icon disappears entirely (it also does this when off-line), and I've not been able to find it. But yes, I can see the desirability of turning it off full time. I've also found a pair of registry settings that were written for 8/8.1, but may serve the same purpose with 10 (on and off - just click the reg, like usual). I'll test them out first before I post them, but they'd also make a good alternative if someone wanted the ability to switch it on and off without digging through the GPE.

I intend on putting up a few how-to's over in the Windows subsection of the software sub by this weekend, and can put one up for that, too. It's not rocket science or anything, but the one how-to I did find was specifically intended for 8/8.1 and was pointing in the wrong direction for 10 (or, more accurately, a non-existent direction). Hopefully, they'll do people some good (they're primarily aimed at restoring functionality that disappeared back in either Vista or 7.

Thanks for confirming that about local accounts. I couldn't imagine it wasn't that way, but it's nice to know.

The GPE issue is, in a way, very similar to whether MS allow us to disable MUI and revert to "classic", which is to say, do MS offer facilities/features, and let US decide if we want them or not, instead of trying to mould us to use our "devices" in a way that suits MS.

[town2you]

will they really give it our for free? I doubt

[jigger]

All this nonsense is becoming old, Microsoft just need to sell the damn thing for a fair straight up. Whats wrong with just selling the OS as per every other version.