Reasons NOT to Upgrade to Windows 10

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
ajhieb

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#21

Post by ajhieb » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:17 am

Plenty used Win2k, and those that were going to leave XP (ie pretty much everyone that isn't the US military) already moved to 7. (or 8, but mostly 7)

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Scallica

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#22

Post by Scallica » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:23 am

ajhieb wrote:Plenty used Win2k, and those that were going to leave XP (ie pretty much everyone that isn't the US military) already moved to 7. (or 8, but mostly 7)
Yep, the US Navy paid Microsoft $9 million to continue supporting XP.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/26/technol ... -contract/
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hansolo89

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#23

Post by hansolo89 » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:16 am

is it possible to do free upgrade to windows 10 and have a dual boot for win8/7 and keep both licenses activated?

Ed 

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#24

Post by Ed  » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:03 am

hansolo89 wrote:is it possible to do free upgrade to windows 10 and have a dual boot for win8/7 and keep both licenses activated?
Nope, performing the upgrade transfers/invalidates the key. All you have is a 1 month period where you can roll back to 7/8 and have it be reactivated with the old key (and then you can still upgrade to 10 within the 1 year period, or stay on 7/8). After that 1 month period (if you don't roll back), the key is tied to 10.

poit57

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#25

Post by poit57 » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:39 pm

Ed  wrote:
hansolo89 wrote:is it possible to do free upgrade to windows 10 and have a dual boot for win8/7 and keep both licenses activated?
Nope, performing the upgrade transfers/invalidates the key. All you have is a 1 month period where you can roll back to 7/8 and have it be reactivated with the old key (and then you can still upgrade to 10 within the 1 year period, or stay on 7/8). After that 1 month period (if you don't roll back), the key is tied to 10.
The license agreement for Windows 7/8 will be transferred to the Windows 10 installation for the same computer. Legally, you can't re-activate your old OS on a different computer using the same product key, but I've seen no evidence that it wouldn't work from a technological standpoint - nothing more than rumors based on speculation several months ago that a current product key would somehow be invalidated. The license for that activation still applies to the specific computer where the Windows 10 upgrade was performed.

This article at the SuperSite for Windows is the most detailed explanation of the activation process during the Windows 10 upgrade that I've seen.
The basic process is that when you perform an upgrade to Windows 10 (over a genuine Windows 7 or 8.1 system), an anonymous and unique hardware hash is generated that is based on your systems hardware configuration. Since it is anonymous, you do not have to use a Microsoft Account. This hardware hash is generated even if you choose to install Windows 10 with a Local Account.

That same hardware hash is sent to Microsoft servers and a corresponding certificate is created to validate your systems activation status. From this point forward any future installs, including one where you delete all partitions and install Windows 10 from scratch, will be activated because of that unique hardware hash and the corresponding certificate. Since it is all stored on Microsoft’s servers there is no reason for us to keep a backup either.
Even if what you stated is true about the product key for previous Windows versions being invalidated, which I can't find any evidence of, a user could revert their upgrade within 30 days, or simply image their activated Windows 7/8 installation beforehand. They could then re-install Windows 10 on a separate partition that will automatically reactivate on the system in question.


Regarding the topic of this thread and the general idea of upgrading to Windows 10: I have been testing the Insider previews for months. I'm in no rush to complete the upgrades on my household PC's, but I'll be getting around to it soon on most of them. The only compelling reason for me personally to NOT upgrade all my machines to Windows 10 the lack of WMC, which I need for protected CableCard content. Other than that, I don't really have any problems with Windows 10. I don't need to upgrade, but I only have one very specific reason not to.

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