Specific upgrade paths to get to all versions of Windows 10

ThrashZone said:

Yea I wouldn't give up a retail version of 7 either the price of those is well more than 10 could ever amount too

oem/ system builders 7 possibly but no time soon.

My guess is that this is going to be the sting of this "wonderfully free" upgrade offer. It's tied to the one device. If your device dies... Kiss goodbye to your free upgrade!

alphanumeric said:

The one big flaw I see with converting a Retail to OEM license is Windows Tech Support. Normally Microsoft does not offer Tech support for OEM versions, you would call the manufacturer. I doubt you'll get much sympathy from the OEM if you do the free upgrade and things go south. If I already posted this my apologies, the same thread topics are on all there sister sites and I'm loosing track of what I've posted on what site.

If upgrading from a windows 7 oem, they would just say put windows 7 back on and not upgrade to windows 10. After a year or 90 days most OEMs don't support your computer anyways.

alphanumeric said:

They could make it non transferable. There will be conditions. They have every right to do it. If you don't like them don't agree to them and don't do the free upgrade. I'm not trying to be smart @ss etc, just saying. This may be the time you really want to read the whole EULA before you click the I agree box.

I don't rush into anything, I'm certainly not rushing into a "too good to be true sounding" free upgrade. I'm old enough to be very careful about what I do.

The fact is, if you buy a retail licence and then an upgrade, you should be able to transfer the original retail and the upgrade to a new pc, you've originally paid for a retail licence and that's what you should be able to keep. But I don't think that's going to be the case with this offer. And if that's true then I'll skip it. I'd rather be able to move my Windows licence whenever I want. And W7 still works great for me.

alphanumeric said:

How many times has anyone actually transferred a Windows license from one PC to another? A very low number compared to the total licenses out there I would think. Most are OEM licenses anyway. Unless you build a new desktop your self, that new PC is going to come with Windows already installed and licensed. I've only ever done it once in all my years of computing and only because of a motherboard replacement. I don't see it as all that big a deal. It's all conjecture at this point anyway. I do see where your coming from and I'm not unsympathetic to your point. Just my 2 cents on the subject.

It's probably because Windows licences are so expensive. My retail licence wasn't cheap to buy and I bought it for good reason. I've transferred my licence from one pc to another and when I next build one (probably not until next year) I plan to transfer it again. If they made the licences cheaper in the first place, I'd definitely have no issue buying an OEM licence every time. I wouldn't expect something for nothing of course, but a little cheaper would always be nice.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and they will make it transferable. In which case, I'll be kissing the ground MS walks on!