A plethora of speculation has surfaced in the last days about the availability of Windows 10 upgrades for existing non-genuine users. Announcements coming in the last few days from the software giant have been interpretable to say the least, with some rather bizarre and not fully explained twists regarding their future OS.
Microsoft initially announced March 18th that it will be handing out its new version of the popular operating system for free as an upgrade to existing non-business users of Windows 7 and 8, be them genuine or non-genuine. This won’t apply to users of Windows RT tablets and will be available within the first year of Windows 10’s launch.
This decision sounded weird at least conceptually, as Microsoft still uses to charge most things it that would make it a nice profit. So handing out away an OS for free, with included support for its lifetime, even for some that probably never bought original Microsoft software seemed a bit utopic, to say the least.
Regarding this, Microsoft stated that pirated versions would not have support either by them or trusted partners, but many still debated what this meant exactly: whether non-genuine users will receive or not updates, whether they will still have the non-genuine software copy prompt or not, and many other questions.
Today, Microsoft sent a statement to ArsTechnica trying to clarify the situation, in which it explained that while the upgrade is available for non-genuine users, the status of the license will also carry over; so you’ll basically still going to be using a pirated version. However, the company is still staying tight-lipped on other details regarding what exactly this means, and what feature will be unavailable for non-genuine users.
The consensus amongst most tech pundits is that this overly generous move is made because of two major reasons. Firstly, Microsoft aims to counter Apple’s policy of offering free OS upgrades started with the OS X Mavericks. But, even more important than that, is the fact that Microsoft wants Windows 10 to spread as much as possible, so it can kick-off its multiplatform features on a bigger basis. And since Windows 7 still works exceptionally well for all purposes, the temptation to upgrade at retail price would be quite low for most users, especially those that downgraded from Windows 8’s failure; all in all, it’s quite a sensible move done by the giant.
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