Newsletter Archives

• Thurrott: You can still clean install Win10 with a Win 7 or 8.1 key

  Posted on October 30, 2017 at 10:08 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Paul keeps checking and it’s still good. See thurrott.com.

  Whether you would WANT to is another story entirely. Paul says:

  I can think of a number of reasons why one might need to do so.

  Perhaps it’s just a slip, but note that he doesn’t say you might want to do so….

  I really need to come up with a coherent strategy for staying with Win7 after it reaches end of life – not so much because we can predict the future, but because people may be feeling cornered with just a couple of years left before Win7 expires on January 14, 2020. Some of it’s obvious – use a different browser and keep it updated, use a non-MS antivirus and keep it updated. Make backups. Some of it’s not so obvious.

  UPDATE: Martin Brinkmann on ghacks just looked at Microsoft’s “free upgrade” page for those who use assistive technologies. The page now says the free upgrade offer expires on December 31, 2017.

  Windows News Windows 10 activation

• Important, new news about Win10 activation

  Posted on August 11, 2016 at 10:07 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Paul Thurrott has seen some internal documentation, and he’s spilling some important beans.

  Thurrott.com

  Windows News Windows 10 activation

• New Windows 10 beta build 10565 brings sanity to activation, a few tweaks

  Posted on October 13, 2015 at 08:41 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  … and a big unanswered question.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  Windows News build 10565, Windows 10 activation

• In case you missed it… Windows 10 licensing finally explained, a little bit

  Posted on August 16, 2015 at 07:42 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  This is one of the most important Windows 10 stories to escape. Ed Bott writing in ZDNet about Windows 10 activation.

  Microsoft hasn’t told us a darn thing about Win10 activation. But you can bet that Ed’s article has been torn to pieces by the Microsoft lawyers. It’s still up, which means you can take it as the next best thing to gospel.

  It’s actually a good move in the right direction – tying activation of Windows to a PC, not a user, or even a 25-character key.

  One big open question: Phone activation. For many years I’ve used and recommended phone activation if you can’t get Windows to say it’s genuine. Ed’s concerned that phone activation may not work. Every indication I have says that phone activation still works like a champ – if you can explain your situation clearly, and you’re not trying to steal anything, MS will give you a key. If you have any contrary experience, I’d sure like to hear about it.

  Windows News Windows 10 activation