5 ms·

Microsoft will never end the Windows 10 upgrade offer. They want all Win 7 and 8/8.1 users on Win 10. The advantages of having a device upgrade from 7->10 inclu

Microsoft will never end the Windows 10 upgrade offer. They want all Win 7 and 8/8.1 users on Win 10. The advantages of having a device upgrade from 7->10 include the following: - Windows 10 has a more restrictive license. Telemetry sharing and automatic updates cannot be turned off on all Win 10 upgrades. - The shrinking and eventual elimination of Windows 7 devices means fewer older devices to support, fewer patches to backport, etc. - People that have paid for their Windows 7 license offer no further revenue to Microsoft. Microsoft is basically losing money on them, being obliged to continue supporting a device that paid for its license five years ago. People on Windows 10, however, provide "value" (as a stand-in for direct revenue) to Microsoft in the form of analytics and telemetry. - People on Windows 10 are inherently more likely to participate in Microsoft's other, more profitable subscription-based models ala Office 365.

smacktoward 9y ago
If this is the case, why bother putting the upgrade behind the "assistive technologies users only" fig leaf? It's going to scare away some number of honest people from upgrading. If your goal is to upgrade the maximum number of devices, wouldn't you want to make the upgrade obviously free for everybody?
- gambiting 9y ago
  It already is - if you enter a Windows 7 key during installation of Windows 10 it works without any issues. The only problem is that it's completely non-obvious to the final user, MS is not advertising this anywhere as far as I know.
  - vetinari 9y ago
    Many users do not have they key, since the OEMs stopped gluing the labels on the machines. They have only a SLIC entry in the firmware, so that's an additional hurdle.
- MichaelGG 9y ago
  Probably to keep up the illusion of the story that people think it's worth paying for Windows upgrades.
MichaelGG 9y ago
Microsoft has established support timelines. They will have to backport fixes and carryout whatever level of support they do regardless of how many people upgrade, because it will never be 100%. More users on Win10 just means a better pitch to app developers about using the latest Store-enabled APIs. But you're right they want to show improving numbers and then mine users for ads. MS absolutely hates how they let online/mobile/advertising slip out of their grasp due to terrible management. So they're poorly trying to implement the Google model to compensate. Thing is, they are sucking at it. Let people turn off telemetry, little to lose - unless they want to condition people all they are doing is fomenting anger towards MS. And if you're going to go all in, then have some taste. Fix the store. Stop spamming shit in the start menu. But take a look at XBox with its ad-covered dashboard and we can see MS just does not get it and is doomed to poorly trying to ape others and doing it with zero class. But hey at least we are getting nicer dev stories from them! I love that enterprises enjoy paying crazy prices for Azure "solutions" as it subsidizes MS investing in dev tech.
- tracker1 9y ago
  I don't even mind the telemetry data as some of the in your face passive advertising and additional "features" and apps I could care less about. I finally went linux on my home desktop a few months ago, I was so sick of it. No, I don't want Edge as my main browser. No, wtf is this contacts thing you added in that I can't seem to remove. Can you please get rid of these cards for apps I don't have installed? No, I don't want to install MS-* now.. I mean, just give me a nice OS to work with.. hell, I like Windows 10 fine, if they'd stop shoving adware down the update channel.
  - vetinari 9y ago
    > No, wtf is this contacts thing you added in that I can't seem to remove. HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People, key PeopleBand of type Dword, set to 0. However, normal people should not resort to configuring their system via registry. This should be normal, disableable feature, if it has to be there at all. Do not forget to re-check after earch update. And yes, I do mind the telemetry data. So do I mind resetting the user preferences by updates and forced updates too.
H1Supreme 9y ago
The Windows 10 PC's in our office are a constant source of headaches. Random errors and crashes all the time. I don't get it. Windows 7 gives us almost zero problems. My gaming PC will have Win7 until I'm forced to upgrade.
Simon_says 9y ago
> Telemetry sharing and automatic updates cannot be turned off on all Win 10 upgrades. I turned it off with my pfsense firewall whitelist. It’s my hardware, and it communicates to whom I want, when I want.
- hbvvvbgvv 9y ago
  > I turned it off with my pfsense firewall whitelist. You’re so smart! Yes you are! Now try getting Grandma to do that.

smacktoward 9y ago

If this is the case, why bother putting the upgrade behind the "assistive technologies users only" fig leaf? It's going to scare away some number of honest people from upgrading. If your goal is to upgrade the maximum number of devices, wouldn't you want to make the upgrade obviously free for everybody?

gambiting 9y ago
It already is - if you enter a Windows 7 key during installation of Windows 10 it works without any issues. The only problem is that it's completely non-obvious to the final user, MS is not advertising this anywhere as far as I know.
- vetinari 9y ago
  Many users do not have they key, since the OEMs stopped gluing the labels on the machines. They have only a SLIC entry in the firmware, so that's an additional hurdle.
MichaelGG 9y ago
Probably to keep up the illusion of the story that people think it's worth paying for Windows upgrades.

MichaelGG 9y ago

Microsoft has established support timelines. They will have to backport fixes and carryout whatever level of support they do regardless of how many people upgrade, because it will never be 100%. More users on Win10 just means a better pitch to app developers about using the latest Store-enabled APIs. But you're right they want to show improving numbers and then mine users for ads. MS absolutely hates how they let online/mobile/advertising slip out of their grasp due to terrible management. So they're poorly trying to implement the Google model to compensate. Thing is, they are sucking at it. Let people turn off telemetry, little to lose - unless they want to condition people all they are doing is fomenting anger towards MS. And if you're going to go all in, then have some taste. Fix the store. Stop spamming shit in the start menu. But take a look at XBox with its ad-covered dashboard and we can see MS just does not get it and is doomed to poorly trying to ape others and doing it with zero class. But hey at least we are getting nicer dev stories from them! I love that enterprises enjoy paying crazy prices for Azure "solutions" as it subsidizes MS investing in dev tech.

tracker1 9y ago
I don't even mind the telemetry data as some of the in your face passive advertising and additional "features" and apps I could care less about. I finally went linux on my home desktop a few months ago, I was so sick of it. No, I don't want Edge as my main browser. No, wtf is this contacts thing you added in that I can't seem to remove. Can you please get rid of these cards for apps I don't have installed? No, I don't want to install MS-* now.. I mean, just give me a nice OS to work with.. hell, I like Windows 10 fine, if they'd stop shoving adware down the update channel.
- vetinari 9y ago
  > No, wtf is this contacts thing you added in that I can't seem to remove. HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People, key PeopleBand of type Dword, set to 0. However, normal people should not resort to configuring their system via registry. This should be normal, disableable feature, if it has to be there at all. Do not forget to re-check after earch update. And yes, I do mind the telemetry data. So do I mind resetting the user preferences by updates and forced updates too.

H1Supreme 9y ago

The Windows 10 PC's in our office are a constant source of headaches. Random errors and crashes all the time. I don't get it. Windows 7 gives us almost zero problems. My gaming PC will have Win7 until I'm forced to upgrade.

Simon_says 9y ago

> Telemetry sharing and automatic updates cannot be turned off on all Win 10 upgrades. I turned it off with my pfsense firewall whitelist. It’s my hardware, and it communicates to whom I want, when I want.

hbvvvbgvv 9y ago
> I turned it off with my pfsense firewall whitelist. You’re so smart! Yes you are! Now try getting Grandma to do that.