Windows 10: Cost of Upgrade from XP to Win10Pro

Or that, sure...depending on the age of the machine. But again, since we are presumably talking about a digital entitlement here, I would be shocked if all versions of 10 (past and present) didn't activate on that hardware. (If you buy a machine that hasn't ever had Win10 installed and has 7 or 8 on it at present, MS activation servers are still handing out free activation tokens for these...I just did a 7 > 10 upgrade a couple weeks ago, and a fresh install of 10 using a product key from 8 on Monday. Who knows how much longer this will last though.)

-- Nathan

 

I was responding to the supposition that they were activated by OEM, which is not the case. Chances are that an OEM's is safer than an owner, as per my explanation of the corruption of my current machine.

 

There shouldn't even be a problem re-activating a key that is not yet linked to a Microsoft account considering it is not linked with an email, this goes to Retail versions.

Retail version will ask you to activate Windows eventually. It will not ask you again if the Microsoft account that is linked to the user account has a key that is compatible with the installed OS.

OEM Keys are stuck with the hardware it came on so re-installing Windows 10 on an OEM machine is easier because it won't nag you to activate windows.

 

Linking to a Microsoft account is not available to the OP who wishes to stay on 1511. That's a feature for 1607 or later...

Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

 

I am aware of that, ALL Pro licenses -- 7, 8, 10 -- are OK, ecept XP, that requires to buy one.

 

There is no problem re-activating a computer that had Windows 10 that was been linked to a Microsoft account, either. Linking a digital license to a Microsoft account does not affect the digital license that is stored on Microsoft activation servers for that computer. All of my computers have digital entitlements that are linked to my Microsoft account. When I reinstall Windows 10 on those computers, I always use a local account first. There is no Microsoft account on the computer at first. They always activate themselves by retrieving the digital license from Microsoft activation servers based upon the hardware ID of that computer - not a Microsoft account, because there is no Microsoft account created on it at first.

Windows 10 activation is always based upon finding a license for that computer - not for a user account or email. The only purpose of linking the digital license for Windows 10 to a Microsoft account is so that the user can transfer the digital license from one computer to another computer without a digital license. In reality, the digital license is not moved, it is copied, because the old "source" computer will still remain activated.

 

What does linking to a MS account buy me? Incidentally, my current system runs 1511Pro and IS linked to a MS acct as far as I know. There are, in fact, those who recommend against a MS acct for privacy reasons.

In fact, had I not been using OneDrive I would have probably avoided a MS acct.

 

See my post directly above yours, we were posting at the same time. Linking your Windows 10 digital entitlement to your Microsoft account allows you to copy that digital entitlement to other computers that don't have their own.

 

Ah, OK, but if that's available only in 1703 that would defeat my strive to stay with 1511, and the latter takes priority. Looks like MS uses both sticks and carrots to force into an OS that brings nothing useful to business users and caters only to its own interests.

 

Temporarily install 1703, make the Microsoft account. On the "new" computer you get temporarily install 1703, log in to the Microsoft account, use the activation troubleshooter to establish a digital license for it. Then go back to version 1511 and everything should continue to activate based upon the digital license. The digital license for Windows 10 is never created nor stored on the Microsoft account itself. The digital license is stored on Microsoft activation servers based upon computer hardware ID only. The link in the Microsoft account is just a shortcut to the physical computer that has it's digital license stored on Microsoft activation servers.

People like to complain about the advertising in Windows 10, but Microsoft is pretty much giving it away for free. Personally, though, for people like yourself, I think they should offer a slight higher priced license that is guaranteed not to have the advertising driven bloatware in it. But, to be honest, I run Windows 10 Pro always the latest released build and after a clean install I just either uninstall or unpin from the start menu everything I don't use and I never notice any adware after that.

Also build 1703 allows you to switch from the current branch of updates to the current branch for business which delays a lot of the updates until they are deemed ready to release to the corporate market. It also has settings that allows you to defer feature updates for up to 1 year.

 

Didn't support for v1511 end last month? Or did it get extended again?

 

This is a good last resort option, if a bit of a hassle, which is, I guess what MS prefers. My 1st option is to get one that runs SOME 10/7/8 Pro version in that order, which is less of a hassle.

Advertising is not the principal reason for avoiding anything after 1511. It is the fact that it adds nothing useful and only clutters the system with c..p that consumes resources for nothing. They also keep adding useless features and change settings and how things work. I am too old to tolerate this. I need a stable system that keeps working the same and I know "where everything is". I have no intention to adapt myself to MS that has become arrogant and inconsiderate of users. I will run what I want on my computers, and not what they force on me, which often bricks systems due to huge incompetence.

Had I been able to, I would have stuck to Win7. But the Win7 system croaked and the best hw replacement I found ran 1511Pro. It wasn't that hard to customize and optimize it to look like Win7 and remove the bloat, including Cortana and Edge. It also had options in Group Policies to stop auto upgrades. So that made more sense than downgrading to W7. In the process I collected a bunch of scripts, utils and methods to do all the customization and optimization that I can reuse on any new system I get that runs 1511, but is unlikely to work in later versions.

All those home users out there who run WP and games, are technically clueless and have no idea about what MS is doing have a herd mentality: whatever MS says it's the truth. If they say that it's dangerous not to have fixes and updates, then I must do what they say and let them control my systems. Then they pop up online and start spreading the MS propaganda warning everybody how they should not deviate from what MS says and "keep systems up to date", which these days is not less dangerous and disrupting than MS updates. Follow the history of Win10 and what MS is doing to systems to realize the damage they do.

An OS takes years to perfect and that is why win7 was--a perfectly good OS. There is absolutely nothing in all these continuous OS changes for the serious business users. It's all targeted at the herd. Perfection does not grow profits so that a CEO can continue to grow its millions--Nadella got 14mil last year--and so vendors constantly screw up their perfected systems for no value to users and use fear to upgrade. And the ignorance and herd mentality lets them get away with it.

If there were value in Win10, MS wouldn't have given it for free -- you get what you pay for. They realize that, which is why they strive to monetize differently -- by spying on you and sell your data, like everybody else. And to cut their development and support costs by forcing homogeneization on what people run. Despite all this, even for free the rate of upgrading is pretty anemic relative to what MS wants.

Users need to wake up and become knowledgeable and informed, or they're fodder.

 

It's 1507 which is no longer supported as of last month. 1511 presumably has a few months to go yet.

 

Right. Thanks. *Smile (Can't seem to keep all these versions straight anymore...)

 

Whis is EXACTLY one of my points!!!!!