Win 10 How the Devil do they know?

[hondo]

Before starting I guess it might be wise to inform you that I'm a very much, a silver surfer.

After it's first release date I downloaded & installed Win 10 over the top of Win 7. After a bit of a faff finding where it was located I found Win 10 had successfully registered OK with MS

Admittedly I'm a bit (or maybe a lot) of a stick in the mud & after a few day's I zapped it completely. I deleted & created new partitions on the HD & reverted back to Win 7

Sorry I should have mentioned this earlier, I'd also downloaded the Win10 ISO file from which I'd created a set up disk.

Skipping forwards to yesterday I decided to give Win10 another try to see if any changes had been made, but this time I wanted to see how a clean virgin differed if any using the ISO / Set up disk. Thus I changed the HD & used a completely blank Hd.

I went through the installation procedure on this blank Hd during the set up procedure I declined to give any info of my Win 7 serial number, when asked I left that field blank & clicked skip.

When set-up was almost completed Win 10 informed me it was downloading updates. TBH on completion I was expecting problems, having not disclosed my Win7 serial number.

After fiddling around for a few minutes to find the state of play with any potential activation / registration issues, I found that Win 10 had already been successfully activated by MS

The question I ask is how the hell do MS know that I've already got a genuine retail Win 7 disk?? Jeez!! Also is there anything else they know

 

[JAMIE_CORTEZ]

You upgraded a legitimate activated copy of Windows 7 originally at that point Win 10 had recorded your motherboard ID.

You haven't changed your motherboard thus the ID is still valid Win 10 activates.

As to what else they know; there is plenty of data collection going on; if you did an express install rather than custom you'll have to visit the privacy menu to turn off what they allow you to turn off.
There is a big hoohah over what they are collecting.

But in truth is nothing that hasn't been ongoing since the Internet age; google;apple; facebook; twitter they've been scooping your data for decades.

 

[BuToNz]

^ This.

 

[hondo]

Thanks for the reply JAMIE_CORTEZ, does that mean the Motherboard # is unique to each PC? There must be millions using Gigabyte Mobos of my type.

It was a custom install, I turned off anything (I think) which feeds data back.

Albeit I don't use Face book etc I'm sure that you're right re info gathering

 

[jellybeard999]

Thanks for the reply JAMIE_CORTEZ, does that mean the Motherboard # is unique to each PC? There must be millions using Gigabyte Mobos of my type.

Aside from the model number, there is a unique serial number on each motherboard.

Similar to how a car has a make and model, but there is a plate on the engine and the car with a unique VIN number to identify it.

 

[hondo]

Aside from the model number, there is a unique serial number on each motherboard.

Similar to how a car has a make and model, but there is a plate on the engine and the car with a unique VIN number to identify it.

That makes make's sense & is now more understandable to me. A sort of unique alpha numerical identifier for individual Mobo's. Neat

Thanks for your help Guys.