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Microsoft Offers Pirates Amnesty and Free Windows 10 Upgrades

Posted by Soulskill on from the fighting-fire-with-free-gasoline dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft will make Windows 10 available as a free upgrade even to pirated copies of other Windows operating systems in China. Terry Myerson of Microsoft's operating systems unit made the announcement at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China, and then told Reuters, "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." Microsoft has a history of attempting to tackle massive and rising software piracy rates in Asia and developing countries, and periodically offers low-cost "licence amnesties" to the worst-offending countries, such as Indonesia and Kenya. Update: 03/18 14:59 GMT by S : Microsoft has clarified that the free upgrade will be offered for unlicensed copies of Windows worldwide, not just in China.

5 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Free is still too expensive by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Informative

    How about the first bootup bit where you have to link your fucking admin account to a fucking online account?

    You don't have to. You can just create a local account.

    Second was that abomination of a start screen.

    That's only a bother until you install a Start-menu replacement.

  2. Re:Free is still too expensive by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Informative

    To be fair, creating a local account is very discouraged, hidden AND you have no access to the Windows Store. You dont get the full OS without an MS account. Its an ok solution to a shit sandwich.

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    Good-bye
  3. Re:so, the key to amnesty... by hendrips · · Score: 1, Informative

    Microsoft has denied that particular rumor. Of course, they might be lying or they might change their mind, but for now there are no official plans for a "free trial" model.

  4. Re:I want to get paid by theArtificial · · Score: 3, Informative

    Poke it into a VM. I've got old hardware that doesn't have drivers supported on the host machine, but work fine through the VM. Should you not want to be tied to a particular machine this is an option you may want to look into.

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    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
  5. Re:so, the key to amnesty... by theArtificial · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just looked at the tablet, and on the Microsoft Store the unit is $79. Pretty wild, how's the screen on this?

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    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.