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There has been quite a bit of confusion surrounding Microsoft's stance on piracy with Windows 10. Earlier this year reports suggested that Microsoft would be allowing pirates to upgrade to Windows 10 for free and many assumed that the license would be genuine and grant access to regular updates.
However, we later learned that those upgrading to Windows 10 from pirated versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 would not suddenly be granted an official license to use the software and now, Microsoft has gone ahead and clarified that pirates won't be getting the upgrade at all. If you don't have a genuine copy of Windows, you will have to go ahead and pirate Windows 10 as well, rather than using the upgrade tool.
Microsoft has not yet announced the pricing of Windows 10 but it has gone on and said that it has some “very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers” lined up for those who don't own a genuine copy of the operating system.
Specific details of Microsoft's sales plan for Windows 10 have not yet been revealed. However, the company did recently reveal all of the different editions of the operating system, which will launch later this year. Those that do download a pirate copy of Windows will continue to get a watermark on their desktops, much like previous versions of the OS.
You can find Microsoft's full blog post on the matter, HERE.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: Microsoft wants to work with pirates on some level, after all, they are still potential customers. If the price is right, many people will go ahead and buy a license. How much would you pay for a genuine copy of Windows?
20$ sounds alright for me.
Excellent, Win 10 free upgrade for Win 7 users! since when do M$ give owt away??
They’re giving out upgrades because it’s expensive to keep Windows 7 alive.
When building a new PC I would pay up to maybe $50 for Home or $100 for Pro before starting to cringe and feel the urge to explore “alternatives”. That price presumes free future upgrades forever for that particular computer.
I have original Windows 95, 98, XP and Vista 64bit ultimate, didn’t buy windows 7 on principle as vista was rubbish, resource hog etc, £125 it cost for my legal version of vista and now i can’t even use that as it’s been installed too many times on my own PC due to either hard drive or windows errors, so £125 and it won’t show as legit! Windows 10 does look like it’s a good upgrade though, i never like windows 8 but did try out the windows 10 preview and it wasn’t too bad, a nice blend of win 7 and a sprinkling of 8 to show it’s new LOL
agreed 🙂 then i would buy the software but not for 200 dollars
Will probably be more like $35
since giving free upgrades is cheaper than supporting the previous model
“If you don’t have a genuine copy of Windows, you will have to go ahead and pirate Windows 10.” Shouldn’t the suggestion be that people buy a genuine copy of Windows 10? Anyway, that’s besides the point. Price-wise I feel that Windows shouldn’t really cost more than double what a new AAA PC game costs. If you compare the team size and time spent in development, something around £80 (about $90 without sales tax) is perfectly reasonable. A huge amount of work goes into each new version of Windows, it’s a shame that most people never see it as anything more than ‘what everything else runs on top of”.
This. Our HDD died so our Win7 OEM was wiped, the code on the PC didn’t work either
watermark ? not really :p
the reason is because Microsoft decided to invalidate all OEM keys from previous versions, so ya, those who bought a PC even with the sticker on it will find after a reinstall or 2 or a few years, their license is invalid 🙁 asses they be lol
no more than £50
if not, well my name stands.
Ah that would explain it. I tried using linux but soon came to find it much too complicated for everyday use 🙁 Had to go back to windows
Pirate here, pirates everywhere. Ahoy Pirates!!!!!!
About, $20 to $40 between there sounds fair for windows. The lower pricepoint opens up to a large market of potential buyers, the original buy costs had been so high, tricking windows to thinking it was genuine was a thing, as well as pirating it. It also just genuinely makes it cheaper to buy in bulk as well for those who do so. But it became trouble when purchasing a genuine copy without having to sink 1/3 of the computer’s build cost into the OS.
Wait. Pirated copies of windows have a watermark?
…That’s news to me. lol
A watermark is not an issue for those that know where to look… But as long as windows 10 is below a certain price point and I can afford it then perhaps I *CAN* buy a copy… Let’s say a high of around 30gbp.
Aaaaar
Actually most of us do realise but simply can not afford and to tell you the truth an is is much wider spread than a game is thus revenue is naturally going to be higher than let’s say GTA even if the OS had a lower cost…
you can call microsoft and they automatically reset it, no questions asked and you can keep using that key over again. its actually an automatic process over the phone.
I don’t have a watermark o.O O.o
Pirated, uncracked copies have the water mark. Pirated with the fix is fine (and will update) 😛
i’d buy windows 10 for $20 =)
I tried that through the web chat and the best offer was a brand new retail code but at a bit of a discounted price