If you upgrade to Windows 10 you have 30 days to change your mind

[HEXUS]

Windows 7 and Windows 8.X users can go back if they don't like it, says ComputerBase.

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[lumireleon]

windows 10 has DX12 right? this means my aging celeron with HD2000 graphics will play NFS Rivals or BF4 maxed out at 1080p?

[Platinum]

windows 10 has DX12 right? this means my aging celeron with HD2000 graphics will play NFS Rivals or BF4 maxed out at 1080p?

Not sure if joke or not?

[Saracen]

If this proves to be correct, it ensures I will NOT risk any of my existing licences. I KNOW my existing licences are and will continue to remain useful to me, for a long time, as they are. I'm not convinced I can be sure Win10 will be within that period.

The value to me of a Win10 upgrade is highly speculative, even if free, and if I risk sacrificing existing licences, it's of no interest.

And before anyone says it, yes, I know all I have to do is revert within 30 days, but aspects of my life mean I am never sure where I'm going to be, can end up going away at very short notice, for anything from a day or two, to a couple of months. And if an urgent trip comes up at short notice, I don't want to worry about reverting licences.

So, free or not, "upgrades" are of no interest to me if this limitation proves to be correct.

The mere fact that MS would even seek to invalidate current licences also annoys me. Invalidating a current licence WHILE you have a valid upgrade, fine, but I can see no acceptable reason to preclude people deactivating a, say, Win7 licence, if they (irrevocably) abandon the Win 10 upgrade in the process.

Instead, it smacks (yet again) of the theme that has worried me for a while, which is MSs apparent desperation to get everyone on their "changed monetisation" platform, without detailing precisely how they are, AND AREN'T changing it.

There needs to be much, MUCH more clarity from MS about the future of a "last version" of Windows before there's any chance I'd risk existing licences.

Right now, I might be prepared to buy Win7 licences, if I could be SURE they were legal and valid, but I'm not taking Win10 upgrades on that basis, even if free.

A Linux-flavoured future for my personal computing just got one step closer.

[Tattysnuc]

I think MS have been a bit sneaky if you think about it - Windows 7 Retail licensing rights allowed you to install that OS on a single device at a time. It was a concurrent device license. Windows 8 started the move to 1 license per device and that license was TIED to the device. I'm guessing that Win 10 will continue that trend and thus any users taking advantage of upgrading from Win7->10 will effectively forfeit their "roaming" right and have to buy a new license when devices are replaced.

Sneaky beggers...

[jag272]

Well this is slightly better than how it appeared previously, personally I don't feel there should be any need for such a requirement at all though. It's entirely possible issues with the OS will arise further down the line or some significant errors may take a while to arise, all so that Microsoft can irreversibly lock you into their new OS and as Saracen says, not give us any info about the actual monetisation of this new monetisation platform. What they do beyond those 30 days is anyones guess.

Whatever the case I won't be upgrading immediately, no matter how easy they make it. I'm waiting at least a few months for it to mature, if not longer. I only upgraded from XP to 7 due to support being dropped, I was perfectly happy on XP. Unless DX12 really blows DX11 out the water (which it might, we'll see) I don't see myself upgrading any time soon, especially from the build of the tech preview i had time to try (10074 or something I believe). Only installed that on a VM ofcourse.

[Jonj1611]

Didn't someone from Microsoft say your previous licence stays valid even after installing Windows 10? Is that not the case now?

[jag272]

Didn't someone from Microsoft say your previous licence stays valid even after installing Windows 10? Is that not the case now?

I believe that was one of Gabe's infamous twitter posts, all of which have been clarified one way or another since then. As far as we know currently any license you import gets changed over to Win10 license which additionally (from what I last heard) is linked directly to that device. They've also been saying that in such a way to suggest theyre effectively OEM keys and not moveable to another device should that one fail, but again theres been various MS responses to that.

Frankly, we won't know the truth until it actually hits, MS PR has been all over the place with regards to this trial, makes you wonder if MS themselves even know what they're doing with it.

[Jonj1611]

Hmm didn't know that, all devices in my house currently run 8.1, well apart from a laptop I picked up for my daughter recently which has win 7 on it. Be nice if they had some solid info on the issue

[GuidoLS]

Here's an idea - let's just wait for an official comment from Microsoft. This is the same outfit that reported the USB stick pricing, which MS DE officially denied.

I've been officially 'trying' Windows 10 for the last several months and one constant has been the ability to roll back to Windows 7 - and MS has never removed the ability to use old licenses that were upgraded. Never. As in ever.

[jigger]

I believe that was one of Gabe's infamous twitter posts, all of which have been clarified one way or another since then. As far as we know currently any license you import gets changed over to Win10 license which additionally (from what I last heard) is linked directly to that device. They've also been saying that in such a way to suggest theyre effectively OEM keys and not moveable to another device should that one fail, but again theres been various MS responses to that.

Frankly, we won't know the truth until it actually hits, MS PR has been all over the place with regards to this trial, makes you wonder if MS themselves even know what they're doing with it.

The term playing it by ear springs to mind.

I think MS are desperately trying to convince people to jump into windows 10 head first. But nobody will do that with an untested OS even if they have tagged the term "free" onto the marketing campaign.

[GuidoLS]

So I did some searching on this - it seems there are only two sites reporting this news - Hexus and ComputerBase. Everything else, and I do mean EVERYTHING else, are linkbacks, mostly to Hexus. And just as with their report on the USB sticks, they offer no link to an official MS comment at all.

So we have another non-story, much like the SkyLake benchmarks. Can't we do better than this?

[jigger]

So I did some searching on this - it seems there are only two sites reporting this news - Hexus and ComputerBase. Everything else, and I do mean EVERYTHING else, are linkbacks, mostly to Hexus. And just as with their report on the USB sticks, they offer no link to an official MS comment at all.

So we have another non-story, much like the SkyLake benchmarks. Can't we do better than this?

Does it really matter though? It fits with the MS plans to kill of the Win7-8 market and no way will MS let people keep the old OS/jump back and forth ect.

[aeonf242]

Free for the first year only?

[GuidoLS]

Does it really matter though? It fits with the MS plans to kill of the Win7-8 market and no way will MS let people keep the old OS/jump back and forth ect.

Because you have individual insight into the inner workings of Microsoft that nobody else seems to have, or at least seems to want to publish?

Yes, it matters. Misinformation is misinformation, no matter how well intentioned. All it provides is more ammunition for those that seem to have come to conclusions based on bias, hatred, or.... well, I'm sure people can further fill out that thought process.

[GuidoLS]

Free for the first year only?

The ability to upgrade for free is only for one year, starting July 29th, 2015 and ending July 29th, 2016. After that, you'll have to pay for a license. Once you are upgraded, you're upgraded. I'm going to make an educated guess that says that if you upgrade, and then revert back to 7 or 8.1 (whichever the case may be) than your upgrade to 10 is null and void, and after July 29th, 2016, you will have to purchase the license just as if you had never upgraded.