News Windows 7 Users Might Get a Free Upgrade to Windows 11

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velocityg4

velocityg4

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It'll probably be a free upgrade. Heck Windows 10 Home or Pro are pretty much free. If you can live with a watermark and no personalization settings.

As for a paid upgrade. I can't see it. No one would upgrade. Not when it was free before. I can't believe upgrade numbers were ever very high before when paid. I expect the bulk of money made off Windows was from OEM computer sales and enterprise licenses.

Also looking at Windows 10 end of life date. It doesn't look like MS will support Windows 10 very long after it is replaced by Windows 11. They likely decided with Windows 10 and onward. That it would be more cost effective to offer a free upgrade rather than support old versions for a long time and get a paltry number of paid upgrades.
 
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ThatMouse

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How does anyone figure out what versions of Windows they own and how many licenses? I have Windows installed on several machines, probably using the same "key" even laptops which should have come with their own key.
 
TerryLaze

TerryLaze

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ThatMouse said:
How does anyone figure out what versions of Windows they own and how many licenses? I have Windows installed on several machines, probably using the same "key" even laptops which should have come with their own key.
Click to expand...
You would have to connect all your different windows with an email giving you a login to windows.
Digital license.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/activate-windows-10-c39005d4-95ee-b91e-b399-2820fda32227
If one fails it means you used the same key on a different system already.

press awin+r and type in winver and run, it will pop up a window telling you your exact version.
 
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ezst036

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Microsoft has to do this because of competition from both MacOS(who gives their OS to their users for free) and Linux. And their past recent round of "free".

Most of Microsoft's users are corporate clients or people who buy computers at Best Buy.(etc) Their corporate clients will stay on their contracts. A majority of their big box customers will be repeat. It really doesn't cost so much to Microsoft to lose revenue from that remaining 5 or 10% that would either buy it legally or download it illegally in some other way.

Excluding the crowd that did make a legal purchase(and aren't corporate or big box), that 3-5% who pirate are an extremely important part of Microsoft's dominance. Microsoft CANNOT allow the pirate crowd to fall in with Linux in any shape manner or form. That just can't happen. Microsoft loves and needs the thieves. What would happen then if they lost the thieves? That would lead to Microsoft potentially finding itself in a quagmire where Adobe starts considering porting Photoshop to Linux, more AAA game makers start considering porting to Linux, CAD software makers, etc etc etc, and then Microsoft is really up crap creek. Then they lose even more of that exclusivity that helps them today.

Imagine how different the computing landscape would be if Linux's usershare tripled from 2-3% to 7-9%. And couple that with Apple's near 8-10% that would mean Microsoft would be teetering on losing a marketshare below the 80% watermark. If Windows had around or somewhere less than 80% that would be a catastrophe.

Microsoft has imagined it or actually had a nightmare about it. Giving away Windows permanently is a small price to pay to prevent armageddon. A very small price. They must keep the bootleggers on Windows. It's a matter of survival.
 
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TerryLaze

TerryLaze

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ezst036 said:
Microsoft has to do this because of competition from both MacOS(who gives their OS to their users for free) and Linux. And their past recent round of "free".
Click to expand...
Sure appleOSx is free, all you have to do is to buy a $5000 computer...
ezst036 said:
Excluding the crowd that did make a legal purchase(and aren't corporate or big box), that 3-5% who pirate are an extremely important part of Microsoft's dominance. Microsoft CANNOT allow the pirate crowd to fall in with Linux in any shape manner or form. That just can't happen. Microsoft loves and needs the thieves. What would happen then if they lost the thieves? That would lead to Microsoft potentially finding itself in a quagmire where Adobe starts considering porting Photoshop to Linux, more AAA game makers start considering porting to Linux, CAD software makers, etc etc etc, and then Microsoft is really up crap creek.
Click to expand...
Sure because adobe doesn't like money at all...
they would port things over to linux to have pirates not pay them for their products, makes total sense to me.
 
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ezst036

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TerryLaze said:
Sure appleOSx is free, all you have to do is to buy a $5000 computer...
Click to expand...

Both Best Buy and Amazon have Mac Minis in the high $600s. Clearance are less than $600. Apple does not have a $5000 dollar computer limit on free OS upgrades, not that I am aware of. If that is true, I apologize.

Including tax, 700-something with free operating system upgrades for a few years is not a bad deal, HP and Dell don't offer that.

Except, now they do. It's competition.

TerryLaze said:
Sure because adobe doesn't like money at all...
Click to expand...

Adobe does like money, they love it, which is why they look at the 2-3% of current Linux user base and say "we can afford to write that off, the porting costs don't justify doing the port there aren't enough customers". And then there's support costs, etc.

TerryLaze said:
they would port things over to linux to have pirates not pay them for their products, makes total sense to me.
Click to expand...

You misunderstand. Pirates gonna pirate. It's about the rest. Even Microsoft execs have admitted this, they need the pirates. Jeff Raikes of Microsoft said years ago that "If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else".

There are plenty of existing Linux users today already who would absolutely pay. I would pay for a Linux version of several softwares out there that don't currently exist. But there isn't that marketshare backing of a 6, 8, or 10% of the total market that makes porting look feasable to software makers. When the number starts getting to that size, it gets harder for a maker to separate who's who. It's just a large market that cannot be ignored.

As it is Microsoft has already lost huge swaths of developers. Gaming is slowly opening up. They can't afford much more before the walls start cracking on the major titles.

So that it is said, I do not think this is an act of desperation on Microsoft's part. I think it's purely rational and makes good business sense. This is exactly what I would do if I were MS CEO - give it to them for free and box them out.

One of Linux's big advantages is that it is free. Windows can be free too. Advantage go boom.
 
Oldcompsci

Oldcompsci

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I long for the clean and logical interface design of Windows 2000. It's still hiding in Windows 10 ... just takes more time to get to it. ...
 
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ThatMouse

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TerryLaze said:
You would have to connect all your different windows with an email giving you a login to windows.
Digital license.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/activate-windows-10-c39005d4-95ee-b91e-b399-2820fda32227
If one fails it means you used the same key on a different system already.

press awin+r and type in winver and run, it will pop up a window telling you your exact version.
Click to expand...

That does not tell me how many licenses I own. I know I only bought at most one Windows Pro license for 4 PC's that I built and constantly upgrade, but I'm not going to buy more licenses if I can't tell how many I own.
 
USAFRet

USAFRet

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ThatMouse said:
That does not tell me how many licenses I own. I know I only bought at most one Windows Pro license for 4 PC's that I built and constantly upgrade, but I'm not going to buy more licenses if I can't tell how many I own.
Click to expand...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-to-11
"...suggests Microsoft plans to offer a free upgrade to the next significant update to the operating system when it debuts. "

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-11-upgrades-are-free-here-are-the-system-requirements
"It will release this holiday and will be an free upgrade for Windows 10 PCs. "

So....whatever is running a fully activated Win 7 or above today, will be able to upgrade to "Windows 11" for free.

Obviously, more 'details' to follow.
 
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ThatMouse

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USAFRet said:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-to-11
"...suggests Microsoft plans to offer a free upgrade to the next significant update to the operating system when it debuts. "

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-11-upgrades-are-free-here-are-the-system-requirements
"It will release this holiday and will be an free upgrade for Windows 10 PCs. "

So....whatever is running a fully activated Win 7 or above today, will be able to upgrade to "Windows 11" for free.

Obviously, more 'details' to follow.
Click to expand...

Ya but currently I believe all 4 of my PC's are sharing one license, but it's impossible to tell. It will probably bug me to call a number to activate my Windows again and I STILL won't know which PC's I need to buy a license for.
 
USAFRet

USAFRet

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ThatMouse said:
Ya but currently I believe all 4 of my PC's are sharing one license, but it's impossible to tell. It will probably bug me to call a number to activate my Windows again and I STILL won't know which PC's I need to buy a license for.
Click to expand...
"It will probably bug me to call"

Completely unknown.

Your 4 systems currently using one original license key is out of the norm, so no way to know what may or may not happen.
 
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