Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?
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I keep hearing conflicting reports.
We’re excited to begin to make Windows 10 available today to all of our customers. As we’ve shared, Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro are available for business customers as a free upgrade for genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs and tablets.*
https://blogs.windows.com/business/2015/07/28/windows-10-available-for-business-today/
I can't seem to get a clear answer here.
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What version OS are you using? It works with Win7 Pro OEM
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@Brains That's what we are using.
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I assume @aaronstuder you are asking about licensing, rather than "does it "work ... correct?
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Yes, the upgrade has always been free for bussiness..
Windows 10 Enterprise is not free.
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@Jason said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
Yes, the upgrade has always been free for bussiness..
Windows 10 Enterprise is not free.
Exactly - the confusing part is they (Microsoft) use the generic term Business, and say they will have to pay for upgrades, but that only applies to companies with Enterprise Level agreements, i.e. Windows Enterprise Edition.
But any machine with Windows 7, 8.0, 8.1 Pro is eligible for a free upgrade, but you have to go through one of the many license conversion options that are available.
- do a normal upgrade from your old to Windows 10
- run gatherOSState.exe on your install, save this file off the computer, install the OEM version of Windows 10 Pro (downloadable from their site), put the GenuineTicket.XML file in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC, reboot, log in again and see if you've activated.
- Install from OEM version of Windows 10, put in your old Windows 7, 8.0, 8.1 CD key from the sticker on the computer.
FYI - Windows 10 will detect the 8.0 and 8.1 keys that are put in the BIOS by many systems manufactures for the last several years. so you don't need the CD, I've always had the system auto activate based on that BIOS key.
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@Dashrender said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
Exactly - the confusing part is they (Microsoft) use the generic term Business, and say they will have to pay for upgrades, but that only applies to companies with Enterprise Level agreements, i.e. Windows Enterprise Edition.
When has Microsoft said that businesses would not be free? i've never seen them say that.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
@Dashrender said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
Exactly - the confusing part is they (Microsoft) use the generic term Business, and say they will have to pay for upgrades, but that only applies to companies with Enterprise Level agreements, i.e. Windows Enterprise Edition.
When has Microsoft said that businesses would not be free? i've never seen them say that.
You are talking about Microsoft, who you can't call up and ask about licensing because even they can't figure it out.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
@Dashrender said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
Exactly - the confusing part is they (Microsoft) use the generic term Business, and say they will have to pay for upgrades, but that only applies to companies with Enterprise Level agreements, i.e. Windows Enterprise Edition.
When has Microsoft said that businesses would not be free? i've never seen them say that.
I've read many things that said that businesses would have to pay for upgrades - sure never MS, always journalists.
I know the OEM and FPP licenses are all upgrade-able free, Enterprise Agreements and VL licenses are what don't upgrade free.
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@Dashrender said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
@scottalanmiller said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
@Dashrender said in Is Windows 10 Pro a free upgrade for businesses?:
Exactly - the confusing part is they (Microsoft) use the generic term Business, and say they will have to pay for upgrades, but that only applies to companies with Enterprise Level agreements, i.e. Windows Enterprise Edition.
When has Microsoft said that businesses would not be free? i've never seen them say that.
I've read many things that said that businesses would have to pay for upgrades - sure never MS, always journalists.
I know the OEM and FPP licenses are all upgrade-able free, Enterprise Agreements and VL licenses are what don't upgrade free.
VL is only for upgrades, though, so it overlaps. It would be silly to upgrade a VL since the VL itself is the upgrade! The upgrade replaces your VL rather than being on the VL. Only VL that doesn't count is the version of Windows that doesn't apply.
