Microsoft imposes deadline for OEMs to sell Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs

[QUOTE=lehnerus2000;3172078]

Indianatone said:

Nothing wrong with owning 7 Ultimate when you got it for $15 a pop and answering a quiz correctly.

Fair enough.

IIRC, it was ~$400 here in Australia.

I should clarify this $15 a pop. It was through my employer. You had to take a test (on Windows 7)and pass it 100% correctly and then you could pay the shipping and handling on a 2 DVD Not For Resale copy of Ultimate. I entered twice for 2 copies at least six months apart. If you see NFR discs they are usually given away in competitions or at venues etc and they are just that. Not for resale but they appear on Fleece Bay.

Barman58 said:

I've already moved on from 7, Via 8,8.1 to 10, and have no issues whatsoever.

I fire up my system at the start of the day, ( ie switch the monitor on, the systems run 24/7/365), and, if needed fire up any apps i NEED - As I actually run programs to perform work I rarely actually see the OS GUI to worry about such ephemera as Aero, 3d borders and the like, and I couldn't tell you what wallpaper I have at any one moment, I have it cycle though I can't think why .

I do a fair bit of remote computing often on systems with older OS's and have to admit that I I have to sometimes check which OS I'm actually in Mine, or the remote running win7 or 8.1

I still keep VMs running for a few of those "Other OSs" myself and lately been seeing 10 getting activated on VM Workstation 12 Player using retail 7 keys. Threshold 2 should be available soon for the general public and will allow the used of keys MSDN or retail from 7,8, and 8.1. That be covered under MS's new Digital entitlement activation policy.

Yea it is about bloody time to be able to use a qualifying os activation key to activate win-10 without the hit and miss upgrading process :)

I still do not see why Vista is excluded the system spec's are the same as win-7 :/

Vista has another year left and that's it! With any version the same applies to anything else manufactured in the US. Manufacturers have to provide support for up to 10 full yrs. from the date of manufacture or when first being put on the market. Likewise MS will be dumping all support early on in 2017 being the 10 year mark.

Why not allow upgrades from Vista not as a freebie for sure! The free upgraded specifies 7 abd 8.1 since MS has to live with 8 not being well received!

That was their fault for not waiting a bit to see 8 like 10 is now! A working dual platform and still seeing the infamous Start menu while Start menu 10 is still sub for that has the 7 type of shutdown button rather then a pop up options list for touchscreen which the pc support is also enhanced from where it was with 7.

The free upgrade as well as the upgraded keys for 7 and newer are the reward for those who moved on from 2000, XP, Vista. As for system specs MS understated the actual minimum requirement memory wise which have been at least 1gb and the 512mb with 2gb recommended but was tatering a bit too much of the OEMs still stocked up with 512 machines and why people complained and rejected it for being too slow. Add a little ram and suddenly it wasn't a bad OS afterall but not upto par with the MinWin kernel!

Clean install with a activation key is a lot different than an actual upgrade process and is what I was referring to

You don't know the half of it!

At first it took an entire day of failed attempts until finding out the storage drives had to be disconnected otherwise see boot files and temp install folders in the wrong places. I "never" ran into that before when slapping a fresh install of 7 on(Sata II OS drives) and the pair of storage drives(Sata 3) plugged in while unplugging the second spare OS drive often without any OS.

Once those were unplugged however the upgrade was still a total fright trying to get the usual softwares on! Time to ties on a good one after all that!

The second upgrade install was then seen to repair the first and after the first week 10 was out the full clean install came along! The second desktop had not a problem with the upgrade part. The laptop that followed however was the real Fun City! No Start button and nothing found on the Start>Settings screen but a total blank! Then you couldn't even get into the AllApps being the new name for the All Programs link seen in 7! But that upgrade was being replaced automatically in just a few minutes of it even being on!

The clean install 32bit that is to replace the 32bit 7 Home Premium activated immediately. No keys necessary for Digital entitlement the new MS thing there. Then the 64bit replacement install came along! But the OEM primary could not be shrunk any when the other 300mb and 400mb OEM, 3rd party, and System Reserved were removed. So the drive was nuked and the second 64bit clean install went on and activated without hesitation!