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Windows 10 Reservation App

(12 posts) (5 voices)

Started 8 years ago by mikiem2
Latest reply from mikiem2

mikiem2
Moderator

10 is officially getting released on 7/29. Microsoft would like you to reserve your copy, & doing so means the bits would be downloaded to your PC/laptop ahead of time, so on the 29th you just click the install button basically. To make sure you know this, they've installed an app, if you installed Windows Update KB3035583, that sits in the notification area of the Task Bar.

You can hide the app through the customize option in the notification pop-up, but then it'll appear in the list of running apps. You can uninstall the update, or you can kill the gwx process in Task Mgr.

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

Something's occurred to me that I wanted to mention... Here are the bits & pieces 1st...

In the past many folks have had problems using the Windows license that came with a PC/laptop when/if they upgraded their hardware. The license terms always stated that it was for the initial or original PC/laptop, but problems re-activating were more common that with folks who bought a System Builder or Windows upgrade license.

Microsoft sells Ofc either as a subscription or as a full, pay once - own forever version. Many people that opted for the pay once version have had lots of problems with Ofc detecting changes in hardware, deactivating, & sometimes refusing to re-activate.

Microsoft has strongly hinted that there will be attractive promos to get people to switch from illegal copies of Windows to legal copies of 10 -- there's even been talk of it being free. With win7 & 8 Microsoft offered very attractive pricing for upgrade licenses that worked as System Builder versions, e.g. could be used for fresh installs.

Microsoft has stated that the free win10 upgrade license will be supported for the life of the hardware.

Now... could Microsoft be intending to be [very] picky about deactivation, especially since they're giving all these millions of copies away? If so, *IF* there is going to be a low cost way to get a license, it could pay to take advantage of that offer. It could be that like the offers with 7 & 8, the license terms are just better. It could be that even if the terms are the same, paying a small amount now & holding the license in reserve would save a lot of money later on when/if the free license was deactivated, & when/if you couldn't get it re-activated.

Anyway, just a thought...

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

On a side note, there have been some win7 updates whose purpose was at least partly to pave the way for a better experience upgrading to 10. I've caught this stuff running unexpectedly this morning as I looked to see what was eating up CPU % when I thought it should be idle.

Posted 8 years ago #
Alianthia
Member

Hi mikiem2
I have a question about this reservation process...I accidentally turned off windows update at the beginning of May because it kept saying that there was an update but every time I found I already had installed it, and it was such a pain so I
made the notifications to be only that i would personally check for update(dumb, I know)
To make a long story short, I didn't get the app(but my husband's computer did)
I then turned on windows update and have since downloaded all my updates and even have the Windows Update KB303558 in my list of successfully downloaded files.
But, still no notification app! Our computers are both the same, running windows 7.1 64 bit,.... I know that I can get windows 10 after July 29 but just wanted to make it easier for myself.. :) (help! thanks in advance

Posted 8 years ago #
Tiffany
Member

It may take a few days for it to come through. I have a Win7 laptop that I turn off Updates and only download when I think about it, and I got the Win10 message a couple of days later.

Posted 8 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks for the update Mikiem. I'd totally forgotten about this until my friend and fellow giveaway enthusiast Craggle reminded me last night.

Where you say:

'Microsoft has stated that the free Win10 upgrade license will be supported for the life of the hardware.'

Does this mean mean that if I want to say for example upgrade my c.p.u. the OS will become deactivated and I'd have to buy a new licence, or will i still be able to reactivate it. Would i need to inform Microsoft of the upgrade to deactivate before I changed the c.p.u.?

My problem is that I often upgrade my computers for three or four years after the initial build either by adding exta memory, upgrading memory, upgrading the graphics card, upgrading the cpu. The only ones I tend not to upgrade are the sound card or the MoBo unless a serious problem develops, at which point I tend to relegate the computer to one of my several backups and start building a new computer.

MoBo's now usually come with decent audio chips, so I've not felt the need to purchase a new sound card since my Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum card, purchased four years ago. The MoBo'd I've since purchased have had audio chips that are almost as good as the separate sound card so I feel the audio card is no longer necessary. Besides my external speakers which I rarely use since getting a decent wireless head set (Logitech G930) are not top end speakers (it's an old Logitech 5.1 system that cost about £120 several years ago), so the quality of audio between the latest sound cards and the audio chips found on all gaming MoBo's, especially with my concert damaged hearing (mainly going to rock gigs from the 70's and 80's when every concert left me with ringing in my ear for days).

Scuze the off topic ramble, I tend to go off the point often these days. :)

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

I was thinking of you when I wrote that part WR. ;)

Microsoft has a top secret formula where Windows keeps track of hardware changes, & once it hits some threshold it will deactivate. The only thing I've ever read about it that's supposed to be for sure, is that a new MAC address on the motherboard's network chip will trigger deactivation. When that happens you get the notice on the desktop that this version of Windows is not genuine, Windows turns on some limitations, & you have to reactivate, usually within 3 days.

Now, will Microsoft lower that threshold? And will they have a [much?] more restrictive policy on getting Windows reactivated? We bought a family pack of win7 HP, which came with 1 key we can use on 3 PCs/Laptops -- we've had to call after every hardware change to any of those 3 PCs, but Microsoft has always given us a code to reactivate. If they stick with the same policies on the win10 upgrade we'll probably be fine.

OTOH Microsoft has a pretty restrictive license with Ofc 2013 - http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2013/02/sorry-you-cant-transfer-office-2013-to-your-new-pc/

If the free win10 upgrade carries a similar OEM-type license, it's likely the 1st upgrade you did would need a new license to go with it.

I may well be worried about nothing, & if Microsoft doesn't have any other special offers, might as well go with the free version & cross that bridge if/when you come to it. If they do have some other offers however, I'm thinking about buying a few licenses to have available as spares. I'd rather take a chance on wasting ~$100 for licenses I'll not use, rather than taking the chance I'd have to pony up $300+ later.

There's also the upgrade matrix that Microsoft's released. If you have the very popular win7 HP [Home Premium], you'll get win10 Home rather than pro. win8.1 pro = win10 pro. It's not entirely clear what the differences are yet, but it could turn out that many folks with win7 HP would be better off buying win10 pro, depending on special offers.

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

MoBo's now usually come with decent audio chips, so I've not felt the need to purchase a new sound card since my Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum card, purchased four years ago.

FWIW it most likely would not work on your current m/boards anyway. If you get one of your older rigs running you might want to stick it in there, just to get some use out of it, but I don't think the last few generations of motherboards will even boot with it in place.

OTOH that was a *nice* card, & most cards of that model have died a natural death by now. You **might** be able to sell it as there was never anything made that was a direct replacement.

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

But, still no notification app

As Tiffany said, it should pop up eventually, but if you don't want to wait, here's what Neowin says:

If you have not had this windows pop up yet, some have reported that by running GWX.exe in C:\Windows\System32\GWX, this has opened the reservation app for them.

Posted 8 years ago #
Alianthia
Member

many thanks for the information, mikiem2! I guess that I will wait a bit then! :)

Posted 8 years ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

Stephen, you might want to read How To Make Your Windows 7 PC Genuine Again After a Hardware Upgrade which says
"Microsoft doesn’t spell out the exact hardware changes that can cause a Windows PC to become non-genuine, but we know that changing the following hardware components can cause this: The motherboard and CPU, hard drive, network card, graphics card, and RAM. Changing a single component or even two components may be fine, but changing several components may upset Windows."

But that's for a license that you purchased. You're not buying Windows 10. It's free, gratis, on the house so the "usual and customary practices" may not apply. And, frankly, I don't think that they will. I think "computer" will mean the exact hardware configuration that the upgrade finds when it activates. Any change will require the purchase of a Windows 10 license and you'll be stuck because your Windows 7/8 license will be invalid once you upgrade so you can't go back to it.

This won't be an issue for the vast majority of people who never upgrade their hardware. But, if you know that you're going to upgrade your hardware then you should do it before you upgrade the OS. Otherwise, you run the risk of having to buy a new Windows 10 license and losing a valid Windows 7/8 license along the way.

Posted 8 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

Thought you might be interested in this, Chris, as it could foretell changes in how we buy Windows in the future.

"With the transition to Windows as a service, Microsoft changes up revenue recognition "
http://www.neowin.net/news/with-the-transition-to-windows-as-a-service-microsoft-changes-up-revenue-recognition

I know, no changes now, but if they were going to take a 1st step towards a subscription model, I imagine this is it.

Posted 8 years ago #

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