Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10
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@DustinB3403 Not exactly. I don't think you read the second part of what I said...
"We also plan on replacing our workstations within the next 3-4 years. Said workstations would come with Windows 10 (if that's what's still out there anyway)."
How are we wasting money?
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@anthonyh said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@DustinB3403 Not exactly. I don't think you read the second part of what I said...
"We also plan on replacing our workstations within the next 3-4 years. Said workstations would come with Windows 10 (if that's what's still out there anyway)."
How are we wasting money?
3-4 years would be an upgrade window for hardware, but any expenditure now (past the free upgrade period) is wasted money.
I read the second part, but it sounds like an attempt to justify a bad decision.
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And what is worse, in 3-4 years Windows 11 might be released.
Who knows with MS, they've been doing some pretty odd things lately.
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@DustinB3403 said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@anthonyh said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@DustinB3403 Not exactly. I don't think you read the second part of what I said...
"We also plan on replacing our workstations within the next 3-4 years. Said workstations would come with Windows 10 (if that's what's still out there anyway)."
How are we wasting money?
3-4 years would be an upgrade window for hardware, but any expenditure now (past the free upgrade period) is wasted money.
I read the second part, but it sounds like an attempt to justify a bad decision.
Can you elaborate on the expenditure you speak of? I'm not following you.
If one is upgrading existing Windows 7 seats to Windows 10 seats, then yes purchasing Windows 10 licensing is not ideal.
If one is procuring additional Windows seats, then you have to purchase something....
I don't see how we've blown any money with how we've planned things.
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@anthonyh said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
If one is procuring additional Windows seats, then you have to purchase something....
I don't see how we've blown any money with how we've planned things.
Purchasing new hardware from any vendor today (besides with some custom deal) is going to include Windows Licensing by default. $200 off the bat for that (assuming no markup)
On top of that you have the old licensing (presumably non-OEM) that could be transferred. But now that the old licensing is stuck with Windows 7 (since you have no upgrade rights provided under the give away) you're out an extra $200 per system that you want to upgrade.
If a business initiative comes along and says "we have to run windows 10 by the end of the first quarter" would the business go out and do a complete hardware refresh or just purchase the upgrade keys? (likely the upgrade keys).
Because upgrading the OS is the cheaper choice, when compared to a complete hardware refresh + windows licensing. (assuming a meager $800/system)
So no matter how you look at it, the business has wasted money.
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@DustinB3403 said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@anthonyh said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
If one is procuring additional Windows seats, then you have to purchase something....
I don't see how we've blown any money with how we've planned things.
Purchasing new hardware from any vendor today (besides with some custom deal) is going to include Windows Licensing by default. $200 off the bat for that (assuming no markup)
On top of that you have the old licensing (presumably non-OEM) that could be transferred. But now that the old licensing is stuck with Windows 7 (since you have no upgrade rights provided under the give away) you're out an extra $200 per system that you want to upgrade.
If a business initiative comes along and says "we have to run windows 10 by the end of the first quarter" would the business go out and do a complete hardware refresh or just purchase the upgrade keys? (likely the upgrade keys).
Because upgrading the OS is the cheaper choice, when compared to a complete hardware refresh + windows licensing. (assuming a meager $800/system)
So no matter how you look at it, the business has wasted money.
In that scenario, yes, the business wasted money. Not every scenario is a lose scenario.
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And to be very clear any business couldn't possibly have wasted money by taking the free upgrade. Because the business is then progressing to newer technology at zero upfront financial cost. (Purchasing upgrade rights). Which gives them a longer support window with Microsoft. Along with forcing / upgrading their application platforms to be current as well.
Sure it's a time and capital expense for the labor / application upgrade cost, but you're immediately saving $200/end-user system which will likely result in whatever OS Microsoft comes out with as also being offered for free (if you're on Windows 10)
Only by waiting to upgrade (and missing out on this offer) have businesses wasted a ton of money.
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@DustinB3403 I still don't think every scenario is a lose scenario as you do. So, let's just agree to disagree. I've caused enough clutter in this thread.
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@anthonyh said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@DustinB3403 I still don't think every scenario is a lose scenario as you do. So, let's just agree to disagree. I've caused enough clutter in this thread.
It's not a lose scenario, if your employer was in an upgrade window this year, fine, buy windows 10 outright with new hardware.
But if you have to upgrade a single system to 10, outside of an upgrade window, the company has wasted money.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Anyone done it?
Or anyone sneakily upgraded for free by pretending to need "Assistive Technologies" which means Microsoft will still allow you to upgrade for free?
We still haven't. I don't think we could have done everything in only a year.
I don't think some of our software is supported either.
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MS never expectes enterprises to upgrade inside a year... And even if they did, it is highly likely that they have an enterprise license agreement, so the cost of Win 10 would be in there.
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@DustinB3403 said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
And what is worse, in 3-4 years Windows 11 might be released.
Who knows with MS, they've been doing some pretty odd things lately.
Remember Ballmer is out, Nadella is in and firmly fixing the mess Ballmer created.
He was the brain child behind Microsoft's most profitable and fastest growing product for years, office 365.
Windows 10 is it. There won't be an 11 or a 12 or a 13. If they pull back from that model....well...they'd be finished. Everything is moving in that direction now.
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@Dashrender said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
MS never expectes enterprises to upgrade inside a year... And even if they did, it is highly likely that they have an enterprise license agreement, so the cost of Win 10 would be in there.
Ya I was just talking with SAM about that. We def don't have OEM.
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One week ago (8/25/16) I did an upgrade to Win10 and was able to get it free.
Basically the customer had used the free upgrade tool (you know, the annoying system tray icon thingy) but instead of upgrading he had it create the install media and put it on USB stick.
Well last week I took his USB stick and did a clean install, formatting the drive. Of course it was not activated, and I did not put in a key during install.
Lo and behold, we went to the activation and stuck his Win7 key in there and it accepted it and activated digital entitlement! I was quite surprised.
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
If you happen to have install media created from the upgrade tool, it could be gold!
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@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
Activation is at time of transmit. It has nothing to do with the media creation date.
FFS don't clutter simple process up with arcane reasoning.
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@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
Activation is at time of transmit. It has nothing to do with the media creation date.
FFS don't clutter simple process up with arcane reasoning.
I know what I saw. Use of Win7 key allowed activation and digital entitlement after July 31. I used media he created from the actual upgrade tool during the free period.
Perfectly sane reasoning to wonder if media creation date/method enabled this to happen. For all I know, the media creation utility itself "marked" the system for the upgrade? So like I said, either there was a lapse and slipped in in the nick of time, or there is some connection with the upgrade tool and media. Don't be so haughty.
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@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
Activation is at time of transmit. It has nothing to do with the media creation date.
FFS don't clutter simple process up with arcane reasoning.
I know what I saw. Use of Win7 key allowed activation and digital entitlement after July 31. I used media he created from the actual upgrade tool during the free period.
Perfectly sane reasoning to wonder if media creation date/method enabled this to happen. For all I know, the media creation utility itself "marked" the system for the upgrade? So like I said, either there was a lapse and slipped in in the nick of time, or there is some connection with the upgrade tool and media. Don't be so haughty.
Activation is a simple process where the system generates a GenuineTicket.xml and sends it to Microsoft. This file contains the hardware hash and license key. There is no other process.
The reason you were able to upgrade is because the upgrade activation servers let it happen.
When MS finally updates them to actually not allow it, then it will fail for new upgrades.
If you had created the media prior to r1511 then you would not have been able to activate from a Windows 7/8 key because the key validation algorithms built into the GenuineTicket.xml process did not have the logic to use those.
So in that case you would have posted here all bitchy that MS shut off the servers and you had to buy it when in reality the servers are still active and you simply need to have Windows 10 r1511 installed.
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@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
Activation is at time of transmit. It has nothing to do with the media creation date.
FFS don't clutter simple process up with arcane reasoning.
I know what I saw. Use of Win7 key allowed activation and digital entitlement after July 31. I used media he created from the actual upgrade tool during the free period.
Perfectly sane reasoning to wonder if media creation date/method enabled this to happen. For all I know, the media creation utility itself "marked" the system for the upgrade? So like I said, either there was a lapse and slipped in in the nick of time, or there is some connection with the upgrade tool and media. Don't be so haughty.
The reason you were able to upgrade is because the upgrade activation servers let it happen.
So you're saying free activation must still be available. Or I "slipped through some cracks" perhaps?
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@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@JaredBusch said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
Activation is at time of transmit. It has nothing to do with the media creation date.
FFS don't clutter simple process up with arcane reasoning.
I know what I saw. Use of Win7 key allowed activation and digital entitlement after July 31. I used media he created from the actual upgrade tool during the free period.
Perfectly sane reasoning to wonder if media creation date/method enabled this to happen. For all I know, the media creation utility itself "marked" the system for the upgrade? So like I said, either there was a lapse and slipped in in the nick of time, or there is some connection with the upgrade tool and media. Don't be so haughty.
The reason you were able to upgrade is because the upgrade activation servers let it happen.
So you're saying free activation must still be available. Or I "slipped through some cracks" perhaps?
earlier in the thread............
@Carnival-Boy said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
@scottalanmiller said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
I think that you should just try and see what happens. It's very possible that it still works.
Yeah, I already wrote that it worked this morning.
I'm not relying on it, but I'm always going to try and use it before paying for it. I don't care whether it is free or not, but I'd take free over paid if given a choice.
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@guyinpv said in Paying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10:
One week ago (8/25/16) I did an upgrade to Win10 and was able to get it free.
Basically the customer had used the free upgrade tool (you know, the annoying system tray icon thingy) but instead of upgrading he had it create the install media and put it on USB stick.
Well last week I took his USB stick and did a clean install, formatting the drive. Of course it was not activated, and I did not put in a key during install.
Lo and behold, we went to the activation and stuck his Win7 key in there and it accepted it and activated digital entitlement! I was quite surprised.
Two possible reasons:
- Microsoft has really not fully shut down the free program.
- Creating the install media DURING the free period somehow allows it to still activate when used later.
If you happen to have install media created from the upgrade tool, it could be gold!
I wouldn't call it not shutting down the program, it's just not actively blocking it.... Yet. They might, they might not. But any activations now are not officially supported or guaranteed. You are just lucky. But might be lucky forever. But it's at their mercy.
