If they're not doing anything against the Win10 upgrades on pirated Windows installs, they are in fact treating them like genuine copies. So the statement, to me, does not hold much against priated versions.

They have said they will allow you to upgrade. They havent said that once you upgrade you will still be able to use it. I imagine Windows 8 hactivation will be rendered innert once upgraded.

What on earth is a 'non-genuine' pc? lol A free legitimate Win 10 upgrade for pirates would send out totally the wrong message! eg. I have a genuine copy of Vista on my pc but am not eligible for a free upgrade, but pirates are? That's not going to happen.

They took two steps forward and then they walked three steps back.

Also to me pirates\hackers will find a way to activate Windows 10 or make Windows 10 genuine. Or they won't apply the upgrade.

Win 10 will be activated by pirates before it even RTMs, as has always been the case The upgrade for pirates will likely deactivate their cracked copy, not that it will make the slightest bit of difference to piracy numbers When has there been a version of Windows that wasn't cracked? Never 8.x was the closest they got, there is no permanent activator for it as such, but KMS activates for 6 months (180 days) a shot, and a scheduled task keeps reactivating it every boot

Windows always gets cracked but it also always seems to be a cat and mouse game with the updates. I think that due to the rolling feature upgrades, it's going to get a lot more tedious to pirate it as well. If they can roll new features out every 1-2 months and fix piracy holes in between, it could definitely provide some incentive for pirates to just spend the $100 or w/e it will cost for a license. Or maybe Microsoft can just clean up their app store, actually pay some decent developers to produce some good apps and just generate revenue that way. But I guess they'd rather have 500 fake clones of each app instead.

It's unlikely that MS will change their KMS model during the life of a windows version, that would be a major problem for companies, and once KMS is cracked, it's game over

I think they realized their initial offer for "upgrade" from pirated copies made little sense, so now trying to undo the damage.

They took two steps forward and then they walked three steps back.

That be there strategy for a few years now lol.

I've never understood why people pirate an operating system. Not looking to start a debate on this whatsoever, it just shocks me. If you want an operating system for free, they exist. If you buy a computer anno 1990+ you get an operating system with it. You can even specify which version. For "free". Windows 8.1 pro 64 cost me roughly $35, as an upgrade of windows 7, which was an upgrade of win xp 64 bit OEM from 2007....and now win10 is gonna cost me zero....

I've never understood why people pirate an operating system. Not looking to start a debate on this whatsoever, it just shocks me. If you want an operating system for free, they exist. If you buy a computer anno 1990+ you get an operating system with it. You can even specify which version. For "free". Windows 8.1 pro 64 cost me roughly $35, as an upgrade of windows 7, which was an upgrade of win xp 64 bit OEM from 2007....and now win10 is gonna cost me zero....

Some people think they're entitled to everything. 🙄

I've never understood why people pirate an operating system. Not looking to start a debate on this whatsoever, it just shocks me. If you want an operating system for free, they exist. If you buy a computer anno 1990+ you get an operating system with it. You can even specify which version. For "free". Windows 8.1 pro 64 cost me roughly $35, as an upgrade of windows 7, which was an upgrade of win xp 64 bit OEM from 2007....and now win10 is gonna cost me zero....

because its cheaper than paying it. same reason big corps do not pay taxes and same reason the world works as it works.

because its cheaper than paying it. same reason big corps do not pay taxes and same reason the world works as it works.

Like I said in my post, an operating system doesn't cost anything. Sure, you have to buy a computer in the first instance, but after that it's free. Name me something which doesn't come with an operating system, if you don't mind...hell, you can include smartphones and tablets as well if you want...maybe add some MP3 players, too. They all come with an OS, and if you want to change to something else, you can specify (depending on the hardware) for another OS.

Like I said in my post, an operating system doesn't cost anything. Sure, you have to buy a computer in the first instance, but after that it's free. Name me something which doesn't come with an operating system, if you don't mind...hell, you can include smartphones and tablets as well if you want...maybe add some MP3 players, too. They all come with an OS, and if you want to change to something else, you can specify (depending on the hardware) for another OS.

Well considering the majority of members here built their own PCs, their PCs didn't come with an OS

Well considering the majority of members here built their own PCs, their PCs didn't come with an OS

Dewd, at some point in the past they would've had an off the shelf pc that started the bug and upgraded from there - but I'm talking in general terms.

A self-built PC? You said name something that doesn't come with an OS, well there you go. I've never had an off the shelf PC. The reason why the Chinese market is full of cracked Windows installs is because the PC itself is sold with a cracked Windows install. At least that is one of the main reasons. @Tripkebab; which is why I've been confused by this whole thing. This has been the case since forever now with other version of Windows, how is this different? I'm not getting the 'news' part. Seems this all started with a misunderstanding.

Dewd, at some point in the past they would've had an off the shelf pc that started the bug and upgraded from there - but I'm talking in general terms.

Nope, you said name something that doesn't come with an OS, a custom built PC doesn't come with an OS - regardless if they owned a pre-built shop bought PC previously or not - which many people will not have You're arguing a point that is completely invalid in this forum - 99% of people here run a custom built PC

Like I said in my post, an operating system doesn't cost anything. Sure, you have to buy a computer in the first instance, but after that it's free.

Not sure why you think it does not cost anything, time and effort from employers did go into making the OS. They do have to get paid for it somehow, hence Microsoft selling their operating systems. Companies like Dell or HP for example, get the licenses at such a low and bulk cost that they incorporate the cost of the OS into the computer they're selling. Even then if there is an option to change the the OS, there is a difference in cost. Dell even have their Vostro line that offered Ubuntu or no OS, and you can add Windows for a price. Any Windows tablet bigger than 7" Windows is not free either. Now there are free operating systems out there such a Ubuntu, I cannot argue against that. Windows 10 technically is not free either. If you have a genuine Windows 7 or 8 license, you have an offer to upgrade for free for a year. If not, then you buy a computer with it on there(which the cost of the OS is factored into the cost of the computer), or you buy a license.

Name me something which doesn't come with an operating system, if you don't mind...hell, you can include smartphones and tablets as well if you want...maybe add some MP3 players, too.

A lot of development boards do not come with an OS. If you build a computer, it does not come with an OS. Tablets, cell phones, and MP3 players are all prebuilt computers. It would defeat the purpose then. You can also build your own tablet, or mp3 player with a Raspberry Pi board(Technically you can a cell phone too, but you need the modem registered).

They all come with an OS, and if you want to change to something else, you can specify (depending on the hardware) for another OS.

This is not always true. I will take for example the Lumia 920. For a couple of reasons you cannot change the OS on it. The first one is the device has a locked bootloader, and there is no backwards engineering it. Second is no interest. Some devices even have specific hardware that only the OS understands. You know why Android ports on iPhones failed? The SoC maybe arm, but Android never understood the hardware design, as well as any bootloader.

Nope, you said name something that doesn't come with an OS, a custom built PC doesn't come with an OS - regardless if they owned a pre-built shop bought PC previously or not - which many people will not have You're arguing a point that is completely invalid in this forum - 99% of people here run a custom built PC

Not arguing - making my views known: I don't understand why people pirate operating systems when they are free. Whether that's by the manufacturer bundling, or by platform, like Apple; or by free upgrade. Laziness?