Free Windows 10 upgrade offer’s days are numbered

[Porthos]

https://www.computerworld.com/artic...dows-10-upgrade-offers-days-are-numbered.html

The official page says the upgrade offer is available to anyone who uses assistive technology, while Swaggy on Reddit says that it isn’t. You be the judge.

As I said at the time:

I’m 100% convinced that the brass at MS knew about the loophole long before it was set up. It’s very likely that this is a nod ‘n a wink pressure relief valve for those who forgot to upgrade for free. But you have to wonder: Is there one, single Windows 7 or 8.1 user on the face of the planet who doesn’t know that the free upgrade period expired on July 29?

At any rate, sometime after Oct. 20, Microsoft inserted one line on its official upgrade page. On Oct. 20, the page said:

If you use assistive technologies, you can upgrade to Windows 10 at no cost as Microsoft continues our efforts to improve the Windows 10 experience for people who use these technologies.

Today, the page says:

If you use assistive technologies, you can upgrade to Windows 10 at no cost as Microsoft continues our efforts to improve the Windows 10 experience for people who use these technologies. Please take advantage of this offer before it expires on December 31, 2017.

A very astute observer, Jürgen, on German-language site deskmodder.de, discovered the change and it was translated/amplified by Martin Brinkmann on ghacks.net. As Brinkmann notes:

Windows users who are not sure if Windows 10 is right for them can take advantage of the offer, and roll back their systems afterwards. The license is linked to the Microsoft Account if you use it, or the hardware ID, so that you have it in case you want to upgrade to Windows 10 in the future.

 

[nlinecomputers]

And yet I just run the upgrade and it works. I have even had techs claim that I am running it illegally. I don't think Microsoft is ever going to discontinue the free upgrade. They just will not make an effort to point it out to you.

 

[G8racingfool]

I wonder if this is also going to conclude the "stick a (legitimate) Windows 7/8.1 key in and have it activate" freebie as well. Can't say I haven't abused that one a bit over the last year on my own equipment.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I wonder if this is also going to conclude the "stick a (legitimate) Windows 7/8.1 key in and have it activate" freebie as well. Can't say I haven't abused that one a bit over the last year on my own equipment.

I bet not. If they wanted this to end they would have turned off the activation servers back in 2015.

Of course, it’s in Microsoft’s best interests to get every Win 7 and 8.1 (and XP!) machine onto Win10 -- whether you want to or not. It’s not at all clear why it's being so coy about it.

Simple. M$ wants everyone on Windows 10 but they also have to please the OEMs who find that free OS upgrades take away from sales of PCs.

Why the sudden deadline? Because it spurs a wave of upgrades from users thinking that they need to grab it now before it is gone. Not that you will miss your chance. See above. Microsoft is likely to NEVER stop offering the free upgrade but they will allude to doing so from time to time to motivate stragglers to act.

 

[GTP]

Is there one, single Windows 7 or 8.1 user on the face of the planet who doesn’t know that the free upgrade period expired on July 29?

Yes, dozens here!
And straight out of "RipIey's Beleive It Or Not" I have clients who have never heard of Windows 10!

Why the sudden deadline? Because it spurs a wave of upgrades from users thinking that they need to grab it now before it is gone. Not that you will miss your chance. See above. Microsoft is likely to NEVER stop offering the free upgrade but they will allude to doing so from time to time to motivate stragglers to act

This ^^^ Nothing like the fear of missing a "freebie" to motivate people into action.

 

[fincoder]

And yet I just run the upgrade and it works.

We all know it works now. This thread is about this ability possibly ending at the end of the year.

If they wanted this to end they would have turned off the activation servers back in 2015.

I hope you're right, but maybe the free upgrade still works because there was no easy way to restrict it to users of assistive technologies. If this is the case they could end the free upgrade using all methods.

 

[Sky-Knight]

They have no technical mechanism to determine what Windows 7 and 8 keys have "updated", and therefore the Windows 10 installer is going to have to accept those keys for fresh installs for quite some time. Though I do wonder when that'll actually finally stop. We'll all probably be selling a bucket of Win 10 OEM keys at some point fixing all this.

 

[GTP]

We'll all probably be selling a bucket of Win 10 OEM keys at some point fixing all this.

Yeah, when they try to use Windows 7 on new hardware and get CPU unsupported messages!

 

[Porthos]

therefore the Windows 10 installer is going to have to accept those keys for fresh installs for quite some time.

No they dont. If a computer has had Win 10 on it already you never need a key to reinstall and activate the same machine ever.

 

[Sky-Knight]

That's not actually true in all cases, it's only true if the machine is new enough to have an EFI stored code in the BIOS.

 

[Porthos]

That's not actually true in all cases, it's only true if the machine is new enough to have an EFI stored code in the BIOS.

1000% wrong on that I am sorry. Seems like after over 2 years you like many others do not understand Win 10.

 

[NJW]

1000% wrong on that I am sorry.

You beat me to it.

MS keeps a record of "machine identifiers" (hardware-based, of some sort) so it's always possible to reinstall W10, even if the machine has a traditional, non-EFI BIOS. I never understood how that could be a scaleable solution, but that's not my problem.

I notice that MS now says that it's better to have a machine's W10 status attached to a MS account to ensure future reinstalls can be validated. This makes more sense (for MS) as it encourages the use of MS account login and would also pave the way for ending the automatic upgrades that many of us are still enjoying.

 

[NJW]

They have no technical mechanism to determine what Windows 7 and 8 keys have "updated" ...

That's a giant leap. You're entering the W7 key, or the EFI W8 key is read from BIOS, at install time and subsequently validating the new install. If they're tracking machine identifiers – and they are – you can be reasonably confident that the key used for the upgrade is also recorded.

 

[Sky-Knight]

And if that were true I'd have 30 stations in Tuscon right now that wouldn't require reinstall with bare media, and could be deployed via image. The fact is, they cannot be reinstalled without stuffing in the Windows 7 key, despite the fact that each and every one of them ran through the upgrade process while it was open. Reinstall while clicking that I don't have a key button? yeah... that results in an installation that cannot ever be activated.

Trust me, they aren't recording those keys, it'd be a massive amount of data to store. I made the very same assumptions you are myself when all this started. But my direct experience with the way Windows 8 and 10 installs, especially in regards to how they handle the Windows Pro Pack anytime upgrades blew all that apart. They aren't tracking jack, they just hope people won't notice.

Oh, and that MS account thing? Yeah... limited to 10 computers per account... have fun with that. You cannot install an OS via that account... bought an anytime upgrade? Yeah... it's gone when the system blows, that is unless you were smart enough to get the PKK version, because then you have a key that can be used to reinstall. Call MS support, they'll confirm that one, no key means no reinstall option. Yet another lesson learned the hard way, client had to buy a new copy of Pro to get his machine back.

And yeah, tell the guy he doesn't understand Windows 10 after having 15 stations puke on a windows update and had to reinstall all 15 stations with MS support on the phone... right... I just did this in August. Take the information for what it is.

The hardware IDs are supposed to be stored, so you can reactivate. But either I've got the worst luck in the world, or they aren't being stored as we've all been led to believe. Again, done with MS support on the phone... not that means much, activation support is as tier 1 as it gets.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Strange that you are the only one having that problem. Seriously. I have a several Windows 7 systems here that I nuke and reinstall Windows 10 bare whenever they roll out a new build. Never ever had a problem. You give it the internet and it activates.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm not the only one, hit Google, the stories are out there. I wonder if the activation database got messed up along the way somewhere... The whole thing is a bit wacky, because you're right hardware ID should be enough to just slap the OS back on. It's been that way since they started the whole activation mess with XP.

But because of these issues, I question if Microsoft will be able to get away with changing the Win10 installer to not accept Win7 and 8 keys during install any time soon. And even if they do, what stops us from just using the older installer?

It's just a PR nightmare for a company already living in bad PR. It just doesn't make any sense. Now, them doing a press release to scare up some sales? That makes perfect sense.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I can say for myself, any system I've touched, once it's activated with 10, if I go back to said machine and reinstall the OS, and click that I don't have a key, as soon as the machine gets an internet connection, it's activated so far. Maybe you do have bad luck?

But I can confirm, anytime recently I've attempted to install a copy of Windows 10, even with the new Fall Creators update, it seems to accept the key and activates it. That's without using anything to do with assistive technology.

Think about it, Microsoft wants to please their OEMS, but the more people they move over to Windows 10, the less versions of Windows they'll eventually have to support. So you give away some licenses etc, but in the long run, if you were Microsoft, wouldn't you be saving money by only having to support 1 or 2 major OS versions instead of 4-5?

 

[DataMedics]

I think Microsoft's eventual endgame is to somehow move everyone to a "Windows as a Service" type of plan. First though, they are trying to catch everyone up to a single version (Windows 10), then they're going to announce that as of 2019 support for windows 10 will be dropped unless you upgrade to a Windows Upgrade Service plan which will continue to get new versions.

Pretty much the same way they are moving Office too.

It's the future model of how to squeeze more money out of people long term.

Point in case: Quickbooks - A year ago I purchased Quickbooks 2017 Pro Plus Offline Desktop version on Officedepot.com for a good deal. The deal mentioned something about a "free year of online" but noting indicated that the software was a subscription-based program. All of the sudden, we're locked out of the software. After contacting Intuit, we're told: "Quickbooks 2017 Pro is the full version offline desktop standalone. The "Pro Plus" is a subscription you have to renew each year or it locks you out." So even though the year 2017 is right in the title, the software won't even work the full year of 2017 unless you buy it again. And since when does the English word "plus" mean you actually get less? Anyway, needless to say, we've dropped Quickbooks and found that there are actually now much better plans available for cloud bookkeeping.

 

[Sky-Knight]

But I can confirm, anytime recently I've attempted to install a copy of Windows 10, even with the new Fall Creators update, it seems to accept the key and activates it. That's without using anything to do with assistive technology.

This is what I've seen as well, and this will activate units that didn't have the Windows 10 upgrade performed while it was free. I've been able to "upgrade" many machines using this process this year. And honestly, I've been glad for it. Have you tried to do a fresh Win7 install? Just getting Windows Update to work is a chore, toss on the most recent Win10 build and the thing goes out the door.

 

[PC Doctor]

Spot on, I always try to get users of Win 7 and Win 8 to upgrade to 10 if the windows needs re-installing. Did a windows 7 re-install for a guy adamant that he didn't want 10 last week, the updates took more than 24 hours to download and install with what seemed like hundred or so reboots in-between, I can't effectively charge for the time it takes, windows 10 I can have rebuilt in a couple of hours, less if no data.