Windows 10 – Finally free updates for pirated versions? – ZDNet France

The confusion around the free update of pirated copies of Windows 7 to Windows 8 and 10 continues. Initially, Microsoft announced that all device users on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 could free up version to Windows 10 in the year following the launch of the latest OS.

or All Users almost. The first declarations of the publisher could indeed suggest that even the owners of non-genuine versions of Windows or “Not Genuine” could claim the free Windows 10.

In May, Microsoft wanted to clarify his remarks in a blog post by Terry Myerson,
  the boss of the operating system division. And the defined rule
 the publisher is: No, not holders versions
 valid OS may not, like the others, a complete version of Windows 10, the difference being on the support that is not integrated in these versions “Not Genuine”. To be “covered”, purchase a valid license would be required.

Still, in practice, this approach seems to be applied. On Reddit, so various testimonies show that a Non-Genuine Windows 7 version 8.1 or allows free passage to Windows 10 but obviously, support via Windows Update is also present and free.

However, other versions of Windows pirates 7 or 8 users finally have access to the support and therefore have a version “unsupported” in Windows 10, as indicated by Microsoft initially.

How to explain this difference? Microsoft actually seems to define two types of non-genuine copies. Let us recall that the copies “Not Genuine” of Windows
 not always pirated versions. Sometimes users
 unknowingly buy Windows copies some resellers or
  retailers are as legal and which are counterfeit and / or
 falsified. These are finally recognized as authentic, activated by the publisher and thus allow for complete update. For others, ie copies pirates and actually considered as such, 10 got stripped of Windows will support.

Microsoft has not yet clearly explained on this topic -but did he need? The giant intends to increase the incentives for migration and aims to convince the majority, even those that were not passed to the fund in the past. It is indeed to get a park than a billion PCs with next 3 years …