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Windows 10 Will Be Free To Users Who Test It

Posted by Soulskill on from the free-as-in-beer dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has been making a big push to change its business model for Windows — likely due to the low/no cost updates you can get for competing operating systems. The company surprised everyone when it said legit copies of Windows 7 and 8 would be supplied with free upgrades, but now they're extending that even further: anyone who tests the Windows 10 Technical Preview will get a free upgrade to the full version of Windows 10 when it comes out. In a blog post, Microsoft's Gabe Aul said, "As long as you are running an Insider Preview build and connected with the [Microsoft account] you used to register, you will receive the Windows 10 final release build and remain activated. Once you have successfully installed this build and activated, you will also be able to clean install on that PC from final media if you want to start over fresh."

5 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. But I pirated Windows 7 Ultimate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will I get Windows 10 Ultimate??

  2. Re:Desperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Which is considerably LESS than the count for Windows... >;-D

  3. Re:yes ... by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Jury is out.

    It looks like to get a Windows certification OEMs *must* ship with UEFI 2.3.1 and with Secure Boot enabled by default. It also looks like they've removed the requirement that Secure Boot must be selectable on x86 architectures (which is a backtrack and potentially a problem for Linux). Also it appears that this requirement will only be enforced after 1 year from the Windows 10 release. This is based on replies on the Microsoft Forums.

    Currently the technical preview has no problem running under Legacy BIOS (actually people are having more problems installing it on UEFI BIOSes based on forum complaints.

    That said some of the media sites are reporting that UEFI is not optional, but I can't find anything on the Microsoft site to say that.

  4. Re:So that means it's free to everyone by Malfuros+the+Wizard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sorry, I work in a restrictive FCA and PCI compliant environment. (Think card processing/banking type environments). I do have Windows 10 running in a secure sandbox, giving it internet access is a PITA, so many hoops. It's already been decided, Windows 10 due to the sheer number of activities it wants to perform which are internet based is too insecure and bleeds too much data to the web to be allowed into our environment. Windows 7 is where we are for the foreseeable future until Microsoft stop chasing the consumer and present corporates with a secure operating system that doesn't want to do everything on the internet. If the final version allows us to disable all that internet crap then we may re-evaluate but until then our minds are made up. Apologies for the wall of text, some filter somewhere on my network appears to be stripping something out.

  5. Update: "remain activated" deleted in MS blog post by __roo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From TFA:

    Update, June 21st 9:45AM: Microsoft has updated its blog post today and removed references to "remain activated." The stealthy edit isn't acknowledged, and we've reached out to the company for comment.

    I bet /. comments helped encourage this.

    --
    Building Better Software