Microsoft is letting ALL users upgrade from 7 and 8 to 10... even pirated copies.

http://www.windowscentral.com/you-c...e-even-if-youre-using-pirated-version-windows

Just saw this article and was absolutely amazed. Incoming cries of "they want system control!" and "they want to own our hard drives!" etc. (No seriously that's begun already).

What do you guys think about this? Apparently the largest reason given was that they wanted China and those users to benefit too, and most of their PCs use pirated copies (presumably to how expensive Windows is to buy for them... I know the feeling, because a copy of Windows Vista here was $2000 seven years ago).

 

Windows 10 will come with DX12, DX12 is gaming. Therefore I find this thread very relevant.

 

This is pretty darn exciting, really. I remember when 8 was a free upgrade for 7. I brought my wifes and my own machines up to 8. I ended up reverting mine to 7 after a time, but that was due to driver issues with an exotic set up and a largely unsupported machine (I own an Alienware).

I have 8.1 on a Winbook $60 7' Tablet and am amazed at how well it runs with 1gb of ram. It does everything I need as a media center, minus games.

I'm excited to bring all my devices to W10. Xbox One + $60 Winbooks will be amazing for streaming console games. Plus Steam In Home as well. I will probably leave my powerful devices on the operating system they were built for though.

I've even been considering a windows phone. Which is crazy, but if I'm going to go all in on W10 it might be a viable option.

 

Interesting article. That's one way to combat piracy. Offer a free update to the latest OS version...

 

I think that for people who bought a machine in a window before its release. Those who bought before that did not get the free upgrade. As I recall, Microsoft did offer a $40 upgrade for the first year. Before I get excited, I think I'll wait for the reviews.

 

is windows 10 so bad. that they gives it for free? /sarcasm

as for now w10 not a go. i read that system is more locked then w8. as simple example: you cant change system folders even with admin rights. in near future we will need some kind of root to do base mainterance.

 

What do you mean by "system folders"? Like "Program Files" or "Windows"? I don't think most people touch that. It's tied to the OS and probably done for stability reasons. I like as much flexibility as possible, but sometimes you can't help dumb. Heck I just us a drive specifically for the OS, and everything else on another drive anyhow.

 

like "windows" . i understand that most people dont need it.. but some % still need it. , Most user problems come from installing everything they meet in web.

I afraid that win will go same closed rout as android..

 

Or, just like Windows Phone...

 

Just wanted to mention that Microsoft had offered some clarification in regards to this - they are now stating that upgrading to Windows 10 from an improperly licensed installation will "not change the genuine state of the license." In my mind, they seem to be backtracking a bit which also raises some additional questions.....

Original article has the updated clarification, and is also mentioned in the following articles:

• http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/18/8252373/windows-10-free-upgrade-pirates
  
• http://www.neowin.net/news/upgrading-to-windows-10-on-pirated-versions-wont-get-you-a-valid-license

 

China can't upgrade to Windows 10 because it requires at least Windows 7. Still stuck on Windows XP here, sometimes Windows Vista. Also Windows 8 isn't allowed on anything paid for by government.

 

So wait, I can bring a dodgy copy of Windows 7 into work and finally convince my bosses to ditch Vista?

[Does little dance of joy]

 

Wow, justin beat me to the punch, I was about to link this article about it not granting "genuine" copies to "non-genuine" upgraders http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/opera...grant-pirates-windows-10-license-and-support/

So basically... you might as well pirate the OS and use no CD key at this point. They just make it MUCH easier to do so, apparently. This has basically un-done every single little iota of good they could have done to the market. Why would someone update a properly cracked previous version of an OS to a new one?

By the way, it was possible to update non-genuine Win 7 to genuine Win 8 before. I have done it already. So this basically isn't anything new. It's a whole lot of hubbub for nothing.

 

Greeeaat, so now all viruses can install themselves safely inside protected system folders and the users won't be able to touch them, without some help from antivirus software, assuming of course that the antivirus will recognize it as potentially unwanted?
And what Admin. account is there for now? Just to make good impression?

 

Ah, the thought of people asking on the forums how to root their laptops!

 

I don't see how as the copy of Windows 10 will not be genuine. Anyone who pirates Windows will bypass activation or fool it with it's genuine label. A pirate will just wait for a cracked copy of Windows 10 that looks just as legit as the real thing.

The better solution would have been was to give Windows 10 free to all paying customers and charge Pirates $15 for a genuine copy. It would have been a win-win for everybody involved.

 

Well on weekends i was truing to beta test w10.. and first impressin is: its uber-duper ugly Even w8 was not so bad. My personal opinion that all of this articles around about returning to basics (start menu etc).. is totally paid crap.
Also take care if you desided to install W10 with default settings. its sharing mostly everithing.. like 3 or 4 screens of sharing options with all activated by deafult. i wonder how many elements has not this checkboxes and SHARED for SECURITY reasons.

so at the end we have device with sharing everything and required root for normal use.

 

They want to destroy the traditional desktop and promote metro, which is why W10 will look as ugly as hell while the "modern" component will look much slicker than W8...

 

The desktop suffers from its legacy underpinnings. This is becoming more prevalent with the number of HiDPI displays out there now. Windows desktop apps are bad at DPI scaling and the Windows interface itself has quirks as well. There are tons of old (and new!) apps that were never designed for HiDPI and never will be. The vast majority of desktop apps simply look bad at say, 2880x1620 @ 15". Even Chrome took two years to get HiDPI working smoothly enough for Google to roll it out to users. 4K 28" monitors aren't going away, and Windows currently is atrocious at dealing with them.

The Modern UI is designed from the ground up to scale to HiDPI, and apps written for it do so nicely. Making them window-able in Win10 is going to be sexy as heck if they can keep that scaling intact.

 

You need to understand two different things.
1. is the real thing
2. looks like the real thing

Pirated version might look like the real thing, pass the activation and all the checks in the world. It still isn't legit.
Win10 upgrade is valid only when upgraded from legit OS.

Whether it passes genuine checks or not, doesn't matter license-wise which is the only thing that matters when systems are audited for valid licenses. That's something that doesn't concern normal users anyways, only companies and such.

 

Isn't that mostly a personal preference. No technically reason force them to stay with Win XP (cracked or legal) if they want to switch.

Working in a government funded research institute in Guangzhou where all office computers come from public procurement channels with legal OEM keys, and additional Win7/8 volume licenses available (Win8 ban doesn't apply here), my personal observations is most young people (students and new employees) just go with what's already there, while older professors are much more likely to have cracked XP installs, possibly done by their students. Then there's the lonely guy in the corner running Arch/Linux on a 4 socket E5 machine he brought on his own for chemical simulations.

 

Hmm, I'm confused.

How is Microsoft going to make money if they give Win10 away for free? Nothing in this world is free, and if they plan on recouping their R&D costs, there must be a hidden agenda here. Not in the sense of a conspiracy, but in the sense they need to make money somehow.

 

AAAAAAAPPS!

Or at least that's what they want.


Basically they want to have a more closed ecosystem where everything targeted at their OS would hopefully go through their distribution channel, with them getting a cut.

 

Companies in SOME countries.

 

Probably MS is copying Google concept by making money only with ads. OS free + apps free + zillions of annoying ads.

 

Please be apps, please be apps, please be apps... I'll buy your apps...

 

Enterprise customers don't upgrade for free, so that's one giant segment that pays. OEMs will start putting Win10 on stuff and that's paid for.

The percentage of free upgrades vs. everything else may not be high enough for MS to charge.

 

Enterprise consumers are much less likely to generate income for the company from the store as well.

 

At the university I was working at in Shanghai, every university owned computer was running pirated XP Pro and filled to the brim with nanny "security" software that caused more problems than it solved. At the expensive private school I worked at later, again all they had was XP. At any market buying a new or used computer, the seller always asks one question, WXP or W7, and they default to XP. A lot, probably most, of computers in China are very old by US standards and though they might be fine with 7, 8.1 is a no-go.

 

Haven't been to any physical computer shops in China for a while but aren't most branded systems sold with OEM Windows licenses anyway? Looking at computer sections on JD/Taobao and such, it seems only the cheapest models come with no Windows licenses. Custom built desktops are a different story but how many people buy those nowadays?

Arrrr, all those 360 security and Tencent Manager and stuff. Sometimes they even fight each other openly.

The Chinese security apps appear to be leaking to the outside world. How on earth did 360 Security got over 100,000,000 installs and 4,902,436 reviews with 5 star rating on Google Play, which most of Chinese Android users have no access to?

That would have to be more than 10 years old at least. Don't remember what's the last time I've seen any system that old in production. Maybe things are a bit different here in the south.

 

Do Chinese institutions tend to buy their computers outright?

Many large western companies and governments lease their computers, and 3 year leases mean that you'll pretty much never see anything older than Sandy Bridge in an office today, whether or not the performance of a newer/faster computer is actually needed for the job...

 

Yes. I think I've never seen any leased office computers here, at far as I know as least.

But again I don't remember seeing systems that old, so I guess I only see a small part of the picture (while Qing Dao sees another part). It's a country with crazy diversity after all.

 

Exactly my thought. Maybe it's the pessimist inside me, but big brands never do something for free otherwise they never would have grown big ...