Confirmed: Windows 10 free as upgrade to all windows 7 and 8 licenses

Overheal

This may have been mentioned in the specific windows 10 thread, but big enough news to mention in comp and tech also

http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/

Outkast_IRE

Great news, but in all such situations we must ask whats the catch ?

I am sure in time some tidbits of information will reveal why they are being so generous but i must say if i am wrong and its simply free with no catches then they have impressed me.

Overheal

its completely free. and really is it any surprise; they exist in a technology market saturated with competing OSs that are otherwise essentially free and receive free updates: iOS, OSX, Android, Linux, its a rough time for them to market a new OS and slap $100 price tag on it. And Windows 10 is going to target all those sectors: Phone, Tablet, Laptop, PC. Xbox One will support game-streaming-to-PC/Tablet functionality, Windows 10 will support the latest DirectX (12), and it will have the Cortana virtual assistant and its look and feel will include a native start menu once again. Surprisingly, they've also announced they are developing a future update to Windows 10 that will be a Virtual User Interface, called Holo Lens. And whats more, it doesn't look like a clone of google glass: it's more heavily principled on augmented reality, in a way that most people wouldn't normally have even thought of. They're calling it "their moonshot." Holo Lens could be hit or miss, but its terribly ambitious.

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/21/microsoft-jumps-into-augmented-reality-with-hololens-windows-10/

Even with all the new gadgets, its still a new OS, and I'm running the beta and I have to say it looks and feels on the surface like its Windows 7 with a Windows 8 skin/theme, but underneath its got all sorts of new cranks and widgets.

Upgrade sales don't do much for Microsoft anyway, it is mostly OEM and Enterprise that generates the most dollar for them. And in light of that, the industry reported noticeable declines in new hardware sales over the last 2 years. Windows 8 market share is only 10%. They've fired big heads about it, too. Basically, they're saying they can't afford not to re-think their launch strategy for Windows 10. They're going all in. Besides, Apple and Google make their money in less direct ways than OS sales: small cuts from app sales, and having people pay more for additional cloud storage. For most people the 7gb you get free with any microsoft login is sufficient for documents and a good amount of pictures; hell, I already pay $5/month to stream the world of music from spotify - so why would I look funny at a couple bucks for extra cloud storage if I am a heavy user of it? Its not as if people using windows 7 or older much use onedrive anyway, for the most part, so I'd hardly call this a catch, but just a simple change in the business model of the software sector.

CreepingDeath

From the articles I read it sounded like they were moving towards an annual subscription model for Windows 10.

So the first step is to push everyone to Windows 10 for free.
Second year onwards, start charging them X dollars a year.

maki

CreepingDeath wrote: »

From the articles I read it sounded like they were moving towards an annual subscription model for Windows 10.

So the first step is to push everyone to Windows 10 for free.
Second year onwards, start charging them X dollars a year.

It's a permanent upgrade.

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost.

Gadgetman496

What exactly do Microsoft mean by

supported lifetime of the device

Does the "Device" not refer to the unit the OS is running on as opposed to the actual OS itself?

I assume it means the OS dies with the machine just like OEM licenses?

ThisRegard

It'll be interesting to see what the minimum system requirements are, or if the installation is based on the machines specs so will only install certain components or features depending on the hardware.

unkel

ThisRegard wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see what the minimum system requirements are

Same as Windows 7 and Windows 8. In fact Windows 8 and Windows 10 use less memory and a smaller footprint (hard disk space) when installed than Windows 7

ED E

Ill probably upgrade my old TurionX2 laptop to 10 to play with (along with the consumer preview VMs I have atm), everything actually used will probably stay on 7 though with the exception of the ultrabook.

Still havent forgiven them for nuking shadow copy.

steveon

The only shame to this news is it isnt available as a free upgrade to Vista users who to be fair deserve the free upgrade more than any1...but its a step in the right direction by Microsoft.

unkel

That's pushing it a bit steveon. The last time anyone bought a Vista license was 6 years ago. You can't really expect them to still be in for freebies surely? If that's the case, buyers of ME are more entitled to a free upgrade imho

advertsfox

steveon wrote: »

The only shame to this news is it isnt available as a free upgrade to Vista users who to be fair deserve the free upgrade more than any1...but its a step in the right direction by Microsoft.

To 7 or maybe 8 but there has to be a limit since Vista was released in January 2007. Maybe see if your free upgrade is possible with your OEM first, then 10 is free.

ThisRegard

unkel wrote: »

Same as Windows 7 and Windows 8. In fact Windows 8 and Windows 10 use less memory and a smaller footprint (hard disk space) when installed than Windows 7

I stopped at 7, once I read about the issues with 8 I never bothered checking out 8.1, so didn't check out the minimum requirements for either.

unkel

Windows 7 is now 6 years old. It is no longer supported (mainstream). Get with the program, lad!

ED E

unkel wrote: »

Windows 7 is now 6 years old. It is no longer supported (mainstream). Get with the program, lad!

Lack of support hasnt stopped XP :pac:

Gadgetman496

ED E wrote: »

Lack of support hasnt stopped XP :pac:

That is soooo true ED E :pac:

Microsoft were using the security threat it would pose when support stopped as a means to get users to upgrade and then they turn around and block the installation of MSE on any XP machine that hasn't already got it installed, yet they allow updates on those that already have.

Ole Rodrigo

Anyone got a link ? Dying to get off 8.1.

unkel

A link to what?

Ole Rodrigo

unkel wrote: »

A link to what?

Windows 10 download..is it available ?

unkel

At the moment only the Technical Preview. Next week the Consumer Preview. Some time later in the year the final version

Sign up here to download and install Technical Preview. Note that it will expire on 17/04/2015 and it is not known if it can be upgraded to a later version...

ressem

They've released the download for the 9926 build, today instead of the expected date next week.
It should update by windows update from earlier versions.

Even on junk 8 year old Core 2 1GB laptops with a 64GB SSD it's very usable (though that space will pretty surely not suffice for a permanent install).

unkel

ressem wrote: »

Even on junk 8 year old Core 2 1GB laptops with a 64GB SSD it's very usable (though that space will pretty surely not suffice for a permanent install).

I don't know why you're thinking that, ressem. As long as you don't clog up your SSD with documents and files, even a 32GB SSD would be fine for a Windows 10 install (of any build number)

My own main laptop is about 8 years old too. Running W8.1 with 2.5GB of RAM and it is fine for basic use.

unkel

Running 9926 now. A few glitches so far - task manager doesn't seem to have full functionality. But apart from that, it seems fine.

unkel

Expiry 01/10/2015 now anyway. Another 6 months added to the running of an excellent fully legit operating system for free

Ole Rodrigo

Up and running now. So far so good

unkel

Did you upgrade all the way to 9926 yet, Ole Rodrigo?

ressem

unkel wrote: »

I don't know why you're thinking that, ressem. As long as you don't clog up your SSD with documents and files, even a 32GB SSD would be fine for a Windows 10 install (of any build number)

My own main laptop is about 8 years old too. Running W8.1 with 2.5GB of RAM and it is fine for basic use.

Cough. Windows 8, was a fresh install Jun 2012, measurements following a Diskclean of C:
Windows 38,508 MB
windows\WinSxS 8,989 MB
windows\Installer 8,128 MB
windows\System32 6,718 MB
Windows\Temp 5,196 MB (but requires a permission change to look at it's contents and no obvious cleanup button)

it'd be nice if microsoft could demarcate between files of it's making that are...
Unsafe to change
deletable
shouldn't be deleted but movable to another partition.

Maybe Win 11 will allow much of the rarely used cruft to be offloaded to Azure Files . They'd get great compression ratios if it didn't need encryption for stuff with a Microsoft SHA signature. Or put MS Office on Valve steam.

unkel

I'd say you have a couple of very large files on your C drive that I don't have. Hint: hiberfil and pagefile

Seems like Diskclean didn't do as good a job as the tool I use for cleaning up. Me.

At the moment including all my documents, pictures etc. I 'm using 50GB and that includes the 16GB windows.old directory from last nights upgrade!!!

Overheal

steveon wrote: »

The only shame to this news is it isnt available as a free upgrade to Vista users who to be fair deserve the free upgrade more than any1...but its a step in the right direction by Microsoft.

As old as vista is, that is a stretch. Besides, Vista is at best 3% of the market still. And as small as 8's share is, this was a free upgrade for them but giving it to 7 too was just a needed step to kickstart people into updating their software again.

ssmith6287

I think i will upgrade to this. 1 question what happens my non microsoft programs eg corel draw, CS4 and football manager games. Are they kept and unaffected

Vic Vinegar

ssmith6287 wrote: »

I think i will upgrade to this. 1 question what happens my non microsoft programs eg corel draw, CS4 and football manager games. Are they kept and unaffected

I upgraded to 10 yesterday from 8.1.

Everything is running the way it was before i upgraded (games, FL Studio, Media servers etc)

It installs like a Windows update basically (albeit a very big one!) all the files and programs remain intact, no need to reinstall anything afterwards.

Very happy with it so far, runs very nicely indeed.

ssmith6287

Will that be the same for Win 7. I remember upgrading a vista machine to win 8 and it wiped everything

Vic Vinegar

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Will that be the same for Win 7. I remember upgrading a vista machine to win 8 and it wiped everything

Afaik, it's the same for Windows 7 & 8. If you have Vista you will lose stuff though.

ssmith6287

Ah yeah Its windows 7, I just remember if you upgrade from their previous OS there was no hassle, Deadly, must give it a go. Id be just terrified id loose the software, cheers

FSL

You can pick up hard drives for very little so you could clone your existing drive, upgrade the clone test it and if you are happy, clone it back to your original. You don't have to have the fastest or longest lasting drive to test the OS on.

ressem

FSL wrote: »

You can pick up hard drives for very little so you could clone your existing drive, upgrade the clone test it and if you are happy, clone it back to your original. You don't have to have the fastest or longest lasting drive to test the OS on.

Agreed, it's meant to work. But these windows upgrades can fail halfway through so it's best to have a fallback.

Ole Rodrigo

unkel wrote: »

Did you upgrade all the way to 9926 yet, Ole Rodrigo?

Apologies for the delay. Yeah I did. I haven't messed around with it fully yet, but it seems alright so far.

ZeroThreat

Just upgraded to 10 from Windows 7.
Is there a reason why all the text looks blurry now??

SickBoy

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Just upgraded to 10 from Windows 7.
Is there a reason why all the text looks blurry now??

Too much redtube?

cerastes

unkel wrote: »

Expiry 01/10/2015 now anyway. Another 6 months added to the running of an excellent fully legit operating system for free

Its only useable till 01/10/15??

FSL wrote: »

You can pick up hard drives for very little so you could clone your existing drive, upgrade the clone test it and if you are happy, clone it back to your original. You don't have to have the fastest or longest lasting drive to test the OS on.

Any links how to go about creating a cloneof your drive? Is that like creating an image, if this is a lasting useable supported OS version?
When I saw this thread, thought, gotta do this, but just want to confirm its a complete workable useable option as it will be for my main laptop.
I've two other laptops in the house that need updating, but they are on XP and need to explore the options in that, had them on Ubuntu but connecting to a printer was not successful plus the main user of one didn't like the setup/interface/look.
Any way I can update them, either availing of something else or that could follow on to this upgrade?

FSL

I have a bootable USB with a linux distro on it and just use the dd command.

If I'm cloning laptop drives I usually connect them both to Sata ports on my PC use that.

eeepaulo

cerastes wrote: »

Any links how to go about creating a cloneof your drive? Is that like creating an image, if this is a lasting useable supported OS version?

Same as creating an image

I use acronis true image (paid for)

I've used macrium reflect free on relatives machines

http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortdate/drive_cloning_imaging.html

www.macrium.com/help.aspx under how to -> back up -> backup windows

If you want to revert from windows 10 not sure if macrium would install, so it is worth creating a rescue cd (in help section)

ressem

cerastes wrote: »

Its only useable till 01/10/15??



Any links how to go about creating a cloneof your drive? Is that like creating an image, if this is a lasting useable supported OS version?
When I saw this thread, thought, gotta do this, but just want to confirm its a complete workable useable option as it will be for my main laptop.
I've two other laptops in the house that need updating, but they are on XP and need to explore the options in that, had them on Ubuntu but connecting to a printer was not successful plus the main user of one didn't like the setup/interface/look.
Any way I can update them, either availing of something else or that could follow on to this upgrade?

Maybe they will do things differently to Windows7, but that time no. There was no upgrade path from the trial version to the full permanent version.

From XP you'll need to buy a product key and try to migrate to a new setup. This might mean a full backup and restore.
The details of this procedure aren't announced.