Microsoft Says Free Windows 10 Upgrades For Pirates Will Be Unsupported

An anonymous reader writes with this story about some of the fine print to Microsoft's offer of Windows 10 upgrades to pirates. "When Microsoft confirmed it will offer free Windows 10 upgrades to pirates worldwide, many were shocked. VentureBeat has been trying to get more details from the company, which disclosed today that after PCs with pirated copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are upgraded to Windows 10, they will remain in a 'non-genuine' status and Microsoft will not support them. 'With Windows 10, although non-genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license,' a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. 'Non-genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade. According to industry experts, use of pirated software, including Non-genuine Windows, results in a higher risk of malware, fraud — identity theft, credit card theft, etc. — public exposure of your personal information, and a higher risk for poor performance or feature malfunctions.' Yet this doesn't provide enough answers. After a pirate upgrades to Windows 10 for free, does this 'non-genuine' version expire and become unusable after a certain period of time? Does no support mean no security updates for pirates?"

Comments

This is pretty common.

[jaseuk]

They have a similar policy with Home Usage Policies. It's a "Ghost" License, not really a true license with warranty rights, support, transfers etc.. You can use the product legally, but you don't own any license. don't expect to be able to transfer the policy or seek technical support.

This copy won't expire, but you can't really re-sell it, transfer it or seek any other benefits. The product will technically "work" fine and will receive updates and so on without issue. One area which isn't guaranteed is if Microsoft continue this trend of free upgrades from earlier OS, they might not permit free upgrade for this pirate/amnesty copy.

Jason.

Re:This is pretty common.

[Jax Omen]

Many of us who are "stupid and clueless enough to voluntarily run Windows" simply don't have a choice, the software we want/need to use is locked to Windows.

In my case, Desktop = Windows because 3 of the 3 games I spend most of my PC time playing are Windows-exclusive, laptop (which is more general-computing) is running Linux.

Re:This is pretty common.

[ckatko]

So in other words, Microsoft knows you're being a dick and using pirated software, but they're not going to do anything to hurt you even though they know you're guilty--except not patch your software which costs them bandwidth.

I disagree with lots of their policies, but this one is rather gratuitous and undeserved on our part.

Re:This is pretty common.

[jaseuk]

No - They've given you an amnesty license. Just don't automatically expect to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 or to use any phone / e-mail support. Don't expect other rights you'd get with full copies, such as any downgrade rights or the ability to transfer it to another computer or person.

Security patches/updates will work fine. These are legal restrictions not usage restrictions. It'll look like any other copy of Windows and work like any other copy of Windows. You just can't put it in a box and put it on e-bay, it's at that point it no longer exists.

Jason.

Re:This is pretty common.

[Smauler]

I gave Microsoft about £100 8 years ago for this PC I'm writing on's operating system. Now, you can claim I'm stupid and clueless enough to have paid that money if you like, but you'll have to show me how I would have played all the games that I have done since without having bought the operating system.

Re: This is pretty common.

[symbolset]

Reboot. * Install all updates. Reboot three times. * Uninstall all third party software and start over. * Reinstall the OS and drivers, all service packs, all patches. * Uninstall all third party hardware and start over. * Still a problem? Contact the PC manufacturer.

* Check for proper function.

There. Paste that to a file. You have Microsoft OS support forever.

Re:This is pretty common.

[drinkypoo]

So you are bragging you are running Linux which has more vulnerabilities than Windows

Wow, that was truly a massive douche move, and today, you are a massive douche telling lies and spreading fud. How does it feel to be a liar? That study shows publicly acknowledged vulnerabilities. It doesn't show the total vulnerabilities, because we don't know how many there are.

Nobody knows which OS has the most vulnerabilities. Repeating a lie in ignorance is even worse than telling the lie to begin with.

Re: This is pretty common.

[wiggles]

If that's windows support, linux support is as follows:

Check /var/log messages for errors. Find cryptic bizarro language pointing to some subsystem you've never heard of. Craft messages as follows and post to Slashdot:

"Linux is terrible! I'm going back to Windows! I can't even get function XYZ to work! Every time I try, error message $ERR shows up in my /var/log/messages!"

Wait one hour before you get a response as follows:

"You moron, All you have to do to get that to go away is edit $CONFIG_FILE and restart $DAEMON! Windows sucks!"

Problem solved.

They'd be shooting themselves in the foot

[NixieBunny]

Disallowing security updates to run on non-genuine copies of Windows is not exactly in Microsoft's best interest.

Re:They'd be shooting themselves in the foot

[LinuxIsGarbage]

Disallowing security updates to run on non-genuine copies of Windows is not exactly in Microsoft's best interest.

After push back YEARS ago, Microsoft allowed security updates for non-genuine users. No "feature feature improvement" type downloads though.

Interestingly, with Windows 7 at least, OEM-SLP loader method of "piracy" has remained bullet-proof. In the past 5 years it's been in use, it has always reported genuine, no altering MS binaries, and MS can't tell the difference between you and someone that bought their HP PC at Best buy.

So far with Win 8.x phony KMS servers has made it indistinguishable from a computer activating on a company's LAN.

XP you could just harvest VL keys from university and workplaces attended.

There are clean ways to "pirate" any MS OS, starting with a clean genuine install ISO, yet people end up with junky malware filled garbage.

In any case even if you get a free upgrade on this "genuine" pirated copy, I would expect to remain genuine, but not be able to call in for tech support, etc.

Re:They'd be shooting themselves in the foot

[AK Marc]

And lifetime licenses expire. I have an XP license I "stole" from an old computer being thrown away. It wasn't OEM, but was a full license. I tried activating it with MS for a new install, and the activation failed. I called MS and they said that the license was not valid. And when they expire them, there's no discussion. It's just dead. Forever. And no, it wasn't from a licensing contract or such that expires. It was a full-retail purchase, expired by MS, for reasons unknown.

Re:They'd be shooting themselves in the foot

[PixetaledPikachu]

Hey stupid. The legit uses have legal copies and will get updates.

Hey genius! Those machines running broken illegal copies will get infected and become zombies. Who will get DDOSed by them? Those with legal copies, or services used by those legit users

Re:They'd be shooting themselves in the foot

[Threni]

OEM, sure. But it's not my understanding that if you buy a PC and buy the full, expensive version of windows and the PC dies and you buy a new pc then you need to buy another copy of windows. Otherwise....why would anyone pay for the full version; you'd get the oem, right?

No Support?

[thebes]

Who actually calls Microsoft for support? They should scrap Retail, OEM, System builder, etc. and just have With Support $X, Without Support $Y.

new favorite phrase

[roc97007]

"Upgrades for Pirates" is this week's winner for new favorite phrase.

Not a genuine advantage

[aNonnyMouseCowered]

"the agent won't help them without a valid key"

Not a genuine advantage with 99% of users (pirates included) outside the US (figure pulled off my behind). When was the last time you called tech support for support and not visit some online forum or your local tech guru.

The real issue: will the software police break down your door if you get reported using a legally upgraded "pirate" version? Can you just say, but the kind folks at Redmond say I get a pass, my sins have been forgiven?

Re:More important to me

[AK Marc]

I have a full-XP license copied off a retail box. It's installed on one computer in the world. While that computer was dead, I tried to use it on a different computer. It came up as "not valid". an hour on the phone, and they still hadn't offered me a new key. How long must one yell at them to get a new key when they report a valid one as invalid?

Re:Oh dear.

[hairyfeet]

You are arguing a classic "is ought" fallacy, because the code IS there somebody OUGHT to have done the audit but we have 100% undeniable proof this is bullshit...Shellshock. if the Bash shell, the oldest and therefor by that argument most looked at code on the planet can have a major exploit for THAT long? Then your entire argument just falls apart.