Windows 10 will be free for software pirates
Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users this summer, but Microsoft is also extending its offer to software pirates. “We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10,” says Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Windows chief, in an interview with Reuters. The move means that thousands, perhaps millions, of machines will get a free copy of Windows 10 even if a license has not been properly acquired. “Anyone with a qualified device can upgrade to Windows 10, including those with pirated copies of Windows,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We believe customers over time will realize the value of properly licensing Windows and we will make it easy for them to move to legitimate copies.”
Software pirates have always defeated Windows activationMicrosoft has a long history of attempts to thwart software piracy. Windows XP was the company’s first operating system to introduce software activation to verify license keys, but it was quickly defeated using a corporate license key that many pirates shared on the internet back in 2001. Software activation has evolved throughout various versions of Windows, but pirates have largely managed to bypass it each time. While Microsoft’s plan might seem like letting software pirates go free, studies have found that in a lot of cases pirated Windows licenses are installed on new machines without customers even knowing they have an illegal copy. Microsoft has tried various methods to encourage those customers to return their machines or seek out a legal copy, but it’s headache and a bad experience of Windows itself if that’s the first thing you have to deal with in certain regions.
Windows software piracy is no small feat, so Microsoft’s move is surprising and meaningful. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed in 2011 that only one customer in every 10 is actually paying for Microsoft software in China, and he joined President Obama and other business leaders to highlight the issues. Microsoft has also continually highlighted the financial impact of software piracy, but it continues to be a problem in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Ok when Microsoft lets us have Windowa 10 for free will it be easy for us not so smart computer people be able to download it? Also will it wipe out any programs, sites or other things we have on the present computer? I really want to upgrade but I don’t want to loose all my stuff either
Good to do something right. so let me know when this will happen. Thanks
I read that Win 10 will be available to those who have 8.1 upgrade. I never did get the upgrade. Do you think this means I’ll have to buy Win 10 if I want it? If so, I’ll just keep 8.1.
Might as well give em a copy and keep them in the fold eh?
“Microsoft has also continually highlighted the financial impact of software piracy,”
Do these people know anything about the real world outside of their cosy little offices? I used to live in South Africa where the cost of Windows is exorbitant and totally out of the reach of the majority of people. So, people buy pirated copies. Microsoft is not actually losing sales as those people could never afford legal copies anyway, and while the head of Microsoft is a multi-millionaire they would have a very hard time trying to convince the people about “financial impacts”.
You mentioned before that when Windows 10 came out, that it would come as an update for those who have the monthly or weekly updates for Windows and Microsoft. What my concern is, that it was also mentioned about Internet Explorer is about to die. With this upgrade will the new version of Explorer be included, and if so, how does it effect our bookmarks and other things that we have connected to Windows and Internet Explorer.
It is very hard for me to trust this! Am I alone? That I can turn my windows 7 into windows 10 and it will all work out just fine for free? Kind of scary! Unless of course it is for real…I count on you guys to keep me informed with the truth!
I’ve still not set a date with you guys to cleanup my computer – difficult days and computer is the smallest problem 🙁
I’m wondering if W10 will be a good selection for me when I am clean.
It must be true , it was on the internet. LOL