Windows 10 Question

I have Windows 8.1 on my PC. When I get my free upgrade to Windows 10, my understanding is that you then get a Windows 10 license. Whet then happens to my Windows 8.1 license? Is invalidated? Or could I us it on another PC?

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markulous

It's just like any other time you upgrade your OS. You can use that license on another PC. If it has been activated too many times though you'll have to call Microsoft.

ssnyderu2

Thanks for the reply. That is what I was thinking, but I was not sure what they would do since this a free upgrade.

OfWolfAndMan

Their profit model as of now is offer the OS in the manner they did and compensate off of their cloud based/subscription model services i.e. Office 365.

Fulcrum45

Correct me if I am wrong here but I believe if you are using an OEM license than your "old" Windows 8 license will not transfer to another machine- you are just simply upgrading it to a Windows 10 OEM license. I typically only deal with Enterprise licenses so I'm not 100% sure.

There will so many streams of revenue for Microsoft built into Windows 10 that they can afford to give it away- not that it's actually free. Regardless I'm liking it so far. The only thing I cant get to work are my RSAT tools. A matter of time I suppose.

tpatt100

I have heard several places that the majority of home users only upgrade Windows when they buy a new computer. Since the OEM's are still paying for Window's licenses with each sale Microsoft isn't really going to lose much revenue.

With my family Apple gets a steady weekly/monthly revenue stream from our iTunes purchases/subscriptions that goes well beyond the devices/laptops we bought already.

Now with Microsoft they get money annually from me because I purchase Office 365 for my laptop for the cloud storage and consider Microsoft Office a nice bonus.

MTciscoguy

OEM licenses are not transferable to another computer when you upgrade, if you purchased your computer with Windows 8.0 or 8.1 then it will not work to transfer to another machine. I do know some ways to trick the system, but I can't post them on here.

tpatt100

I am using the educational license for Windows 8.1 I got from WGU when I was attending. From what I can tell it was meant to be installed several times for lab stuff but I am running it on my desktop and basement computer. They upgraded to Windows 10 no problem.

MTciscoguy

tpatt100 wrote: »

I am using the educational license for Windows 8.1 I got from WGU when I was attending. From what I can tell it was meant to be installed several times for lab stuff but I am running it on my desktop and basement computer. They upgraded to Windows 10 no problem.

That sounds perfectly normal, EDU licenses are different than OEM licenses, I have a windows 7 disc here that I got under the windows development team, which I have been a part of since the 90's that has all versions of windows 7 and unlimited licenses that I can install on any machine I want to, very similar to the windows EDU license program. The disc I have, has 23 different versions of windows 7 including the versions for Europe with out IE.

There are dozens of different license models for windows products. Based on the new windows 10 license model, all versions of widows 7 and windows 8.0 and 8.1 should upgrade to windows 10 with no problems.