Windows 10

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28 Oct 2002
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Chris [BEANS];28114861 said:
Once upgraded, full product free forever...

i thought it was only free for "the supported life of the device" - and microsoft haven't yet defined this

hopefully this will then clarify what happens if you upgrade bits of your PC and whther doing certain upgrades means you end up with a "new " device and therefore need a new license

so maybe under their new pricing model you have to buy a license for each new (or possibly upgraded) PC - so no more moving your OS from one PC to another --- seems they might be giving up money in the short term to make it up later

...maybe
 
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Its kind of free but kind of not free as far as I can tell.

Right now I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop running Win 8.1. They are all eligible for upgrade to Win 10 free on July 29th. My understanding is that the Win 10 upgrade will grant you a free copy of the O/S that's good for 'the lifetime of the machine'. So in the case of my laptops that's probably fine as I doubt I would ever be changing the MOBO or other components sufficiently to make them 'a new machine'. So the installed win 10 would likely last beyond the first (free upgrade period). Its alway possible that a laptop component would go 'pop' and a new drive or something would be needed and in that instance I don't know what happens to the Win 10 upgrade.

My major concern is my desktop. I change parts in that fairly regularly. I have 5 HDD and an SSD for a start, I upgrade them quite a lot, I have changed CPU and MOBO in the lifetime of this machine. I am seriously considering a change to Skylake when it arrives so thats potentially a new MOBO, CPU, memory right there.

My question is if I go ahead in July and install Win 10 either as an upgrade or a clean install from media (if thats possible) what happens if I opt to move to Skylake in say November odd? New MOBO, CPU etc so I assume that's the lifetime of this machine over, so does this mean I couldn't even reinstall Win 8.1 then upgrade to Win 10 again because I have already had my free upgrade once? What happens if I wait to change my MOBO until the win 10 'free' period is past? Do I have to buy a new copy?

It seems suspiciously to me that what your actually getting here is a one time upgrade to a free OEM version of Win 10. So my Win 8.1 Pro full retail version gets traded in for an OEM copy, not a proper retail key. Not really too happy about that idea. What I want is the Win 10 equivalent of the O/S I have now i.e. a Pro version that I can clean install from media(USB/DVD) and I can do that as many times as I like regardless of any changes to hardware I might make.

It seems to me the 'free' aspect of all this is minimal if you are a serial upgrader tinkerer with your system. If your joe public who buys a laptop from PC world and can barely change a hot swap drive let alone a MOBO then this seems like a good deal (at least until the hardware failure that leaves you needing to buy a new copy of win 10 on top of the cost of your replacement HDD!)

My own instinct right now is to look and see if a proper full retail version will be available for reduced cost rather than rush headlong into a free scenario thats so full of questions.

By the way this isn't rocket science and Microsoft could and I am sure has already thought of these questions so why don't they answer them straight away when they announce? The MS boards right now are full of the same questions, can you install clean from media?, can you move the win 10 install after a hardware change? 10,000+ people with the same questions but nothing from MS I wonder why so reticent?
 
Soldato
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Location
SW Scotland
BaronVonDuncs;28115153... My question is if I go ahead in July and install Win 10 either as an upgrade or a clean install from media (if thats possible) what happens if I opt to move to Skylake in say November odd? New MOBO said:
free OEM version of Win 10[/U]. So my Win 8.1 Pro full retail version gets traded in for an OEM copy, not a proper retail key. Not really too happy about that idea. ...

In a similar boat as you here (and many more I assume).

I have a retail version of Windows 7. And not going to be too happy if this in effect upgrades me to an OEM version of Windows 10. Suppose I can always stick with what I've got.

Think Microsoft needs to explain this in a bit more detail. Can't believe that they have not thought these sorts of scenarios through.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2009
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cant get wins 10

Its kind of free but kind of not free as far as I can tell.

Right now I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop running Win 8.1. They are all eligible for upgrade to Win 10 free on July 29th. My understanding is that the Win 10 upgrade will grant you a free copy of the O/S that's good for 'the lifetime of the machine'. So in the case of my laptops that's probably fine as I doubt I would ever be changing the MOBO or other components sufficiently to make them 'a new machine'. So the installed win 10 would likely last beyond the first (free upgrade period). Its alway possible that a laptop component would go 'pop' and a new drive or something would be needed and in that instance I don't know what happens to the Win 10 upgrade.

My major concern is my desktop. I change parts in that fairly regularly. I have 5 HDD and an SSD for a start, I upgrade them quite a lot, I have changed CPU and MOBO in the lifetime of this machine. I am seriously considering a change to Skylake when it arrives so thats potentially a new MOBO, CPU, memory right there.

My question is if I go ahead in July and install Win 10 either as an upgrade or a clean install from media (if thats possible) what happens if I opt to move to Skylake in say November odd? New MOBO, CPU etc so I assume that's the lifetime of this machine over, so does this mean I couldn't even reinstall Win 8.1 then upgrade to Win 10 again because I have already had my free upgrade once? What happens if I wait to change my MOBO until the win 10 'free' period is past? Do I have to buy a new copy?

It seems suspiciously to me that what your actually getting here is a one time upgrade to a free OEM version of Win 10. So my Win 8.1 Pro full retail version gets traded in for an OEM copy, not a proper retail key. Not really too happy about that idea. What I want is the Win 10 equivalent of the O/S I have now i.e. a Pro version that I can clean install from media(USB/DVD) and I can do that as many times as I like regardless of any changes to hardware I might make.

It seems to me the 'free' aspect of all this is minimal if you are a serial upgrader tinkerer with your system. If your joe public who buys a laptop from PC world and can barely change a hot swap drive let alone a MOBO then this seems like a good deal (at least until the hardware failure that leaves you needing to buy a new copy of win 10 on top of the cost of your replacement HDD!)

My own instinct right now is to look and see if a proper full retail version will be available for reduced cost rather than rush headlong into a free scenario thats so full of questions.

By the way this isn't rocket science and Microsoft could and I am sure has already thought of these questions so why don't they answer them straight away when they announce? The MS boards right now are full of the same questions, can you install clean from media?, can you move the win 10 install after a hardware change? 10,000+ people with the same questions but nothing from MS I wonder why so reticent?

LOL ben trying 2 see why I do not get icon 2 upgread in taskbar. well I THINK CUS i WENT FTOM WINS 8 2 8.1 . they can **** off will go back wins 7
 

KIA

KIA

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Joined
14 Nov 2004
Posts
13,785
I think I'll wait until about halfway through the year of the offer and then see what the general userbase are saying about it by then...

Very sensible. Allow the early adopters to iron out the bugs in the initial release. I've got until early Jan 2016 as I'm running Windows 8.0.

Is there a catch somewhere? Doesn't seem very MS to give away an OS for free.

1) They have a lot of making up to do after Windows 8. Charging for Windows 10 upgrade would be rubbing salt in the wound. That said, the retail pricing still takes the ****. I don't know if this will change in the near future.
2) Nobody expects to pay for operating system upgrades these days.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2009
Posts
6,371
Okay just got the notification thing too and reserved my copy,Wierd thing is I didnt have have to fill out anything..didnt have to put in my email or anything i just acceped and it said it would let me know..does it matter that i plan to re-install Windows 8.1 in the next couple of days due to going Raid0 SSDs?
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2004
Posts
8,700
Now I have a "get windows 10" icon in my win7 task tray.

Image2.jpg


Is anyone using an X-Fi with windows 10?

I tried windows 10 a few months back and I used the same X-Fi drivers and apps that I used for win7. I never had any probs using the win7 drivers and they are old too.

Image1.jpg
 
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Caporegime
Joined
8 Mar 2007
Posts
37,146
Location
Surrey
Okay just got the notification thing too and reserved my copy,Wierd thing is I didnt have have to fill out anything..didnt have to put in my email or anything i just acceped and it said it would let me know..does it matter that i plan to re-install Windows 8.1 in the next couple of days due to going Raid0 SSDs?

Assuming your logged in with a Microsoft account and your 8.1 is activated with a valid key, they have everything they need.
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
76,634
Fresh install of w10 and NVIDIA drivers don't work, rubbish.
Although work fine if they were preinstalled and you upgraded. Using built in MS one and it's terribly slow.

This is why I hate driver installers, just give me the actual driver as windows will nearly always use them regardless.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Mar 2007
Posts
37,146
Location
Surrey
They released a version of the drivers optimised for GTA. They do this for some big releases.

I'll grab the version, brb.

Edit: 350.12 are the ones they released when GTA came out, and I also had the previous ones (347.88) working fine too.
 
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