Windows 10 - Upgrade offers, what about Window Vista users?

U

[U]ber|Noob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
Messages
427
I read that Windows 10 will be free for users of windows 7 and 8 (at first) of which I have 2 pcs to upgrade. But I also have a windows vista pc, which unfortunately is working really poorly due (actually not at all for recording) to many many software problems which I believe are due to the old OS.

Will there be an upgrade offer for Windows vista users (or is there likely to be), and also the windows vista was oem, if I did upgrade that pc to windows 10 and then replaced the pc later could I transfer the windows 10 to a new pc. (it's for my ht pc). It was an expensive Vista Ultimate version too.
 
I'll chime in my limited knowledge of the subject. First off, I'm fully expecting them to offer a discount for Vista users because they are trying to get a massive push into 10.

As of right now, it is radio silence about previous versions. (Double checked an offer to upgrade to 8.1 for $40, but that deal expired a couple years ago)

If you purchase a upgrade, you should have a a few licenses to play with. If you don't, a quick call to Microsoft might net you another license.
 
I would be very surprised if they did much of anything to accomodate Vista users. After all, they didn't even include Vista users in the Windows 8 discount promotion they ran when Windows 8 first released - that was restricted to Windows 7 only, to the best of my recollection.

Second, with Windows 8.1, Microsoft dropped the entire "Upgrade Edition" and just lowered the price outright on the Retail (Full) edition of the software to roughly the old Upgrade edition price. Microsoft may bring it back for Windows 10, but personally, I hope they don't because it was a confusing mess.

So if the trend continues - you'd get Windows 10 for free on your Windows 7/8 machines (only for a limited time, that offer does expire), but you'd need to buy it outright on your Vista machine. You would buy a Retail (Full) license for your Vista machine, knowing it would be replaced/upgraded later on. At least based on Windows 8.1 licensing, the OEM edition does not expressly allow for license transfers between machines, where as the Retail (Full) edition does (that had changed in Windows 8, but reverted back in 8.1 I believe). And if it follows the Windows 8.1 pricing, the Retail is only about $10 more than the OEM (rather than double like it was with 7 and previous editions), so they aren't raking people over the coals for Retail editions any longer (thankfully).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windowslicense/
 
Ok thanks, it's a bit disappointing if there is to be no upgrade offer for windows vista.

For example half price would have been nice.
 
Last edited:
How will the free windows 10 update for 7 & 8 be delivered?

via windows update?
So if I had to reinstall windows on a pc (after upgrading to windows 10) would I have to install windows 8 then install the upgrade?
Or could I burn windows 10 to a cd somehow? or would ms send a windows 10 disc in the mail?
 
As of December 2014:
Windows-market-share-stats-December-2014.png


What few Vista users are left are not going to upgrade for any reason. At this point, most Vista users are either unable to upgrade due to legacy hardware requirements, or have no concept of what an OS is, much less what version of Windows they are running and that there are newer versions of it to upgrade to.

We're talking about small businesses who can't change that hardware because it's got spaghetti code for that one server that nobody knows how to update because the one guy who could left when his payroll checks wouldn't clear, or great-grandma's laptop which she uses to look at her pictures of her grandchildren on the days her relatives come and can push the buttons for her.
 
I wonder if anyone is still using windows me in that other category. Remember it had the blue text based desktop instead of the usual icon based desktop.

You would think there would be more linux use, many people use linux as a dual boot system, I wonder if that is fully factored in.
 
Last edited:
The chart came from netmarketshare (just click on "operating systems"). It's a live analytic with no sampling, taken from web browser reporting. As I type this, Win7 has increased to 55.92%, an entry simply titled "Linux" with 1.34% is included in the "Other" category, and Windows ME has 0.00%, so this should obviously not be considered precisely accurate.
 
There just aren't that many Vista users left and considering what the average age of those machines are, 6+ years as there was a very hard stop in Vista sales once Windows 7 came out in 2009, most would probably be happier with a 2015 PC than what they have. And good PCs are now more affordable than ever. Even a low end modern PC will spank must of the junk still running Vista.
 
To the OP's post, you might want to consider a linux flavor for the Vista machine. The hardware has a high chance of being legacy on newer OS so 10 might not even function correctly.
 
TheSoldier said:
To the OP's post, you might want to consider a linux flavor for the Vista machine. The hardware has a high chance of being legacy on newer OS so 10 might not even function correctly.
Click to expand...

It depends. I've installed 8.x on several Vista machines back to 2007 and they all worked fine and my guess is that 10 when final would probably work as well. Of course YMMV.
 
[U]ber|Noob;1041427887 said:
How will the free windows 10 update for 7 & 8 be delivered?

via windows update?
So if I had to reinstall windows on a pc (after upgrading to windows 10) would I have to install windows 8 then install the upgrade?
Or could I burn windows 10 to a cd somehow? or would ms send a windows 10 disc in the mail?
Click to expand...

The way it worked for the Windows 8 upgrade promo:

You had the option to pay an extra $15 to have a DVD shipped to you.
The serial key came in an email, there was a link to a downloadable ISO - I believe Microsoft contracts out digital sales via Digital River.

For Windows 8.1, they created an installer instead of a raw ISO, it would auto-download the ISO for the 32/64 bit version (based on what version Windows you currently had installed). It was intended to "upgrade" an existing Windows installation rather than perform a clean install; although, you could use the installer to burn a DVD image or create a bootable thumb drive and do a clean install that way, It was a bit obtuse, especially if you were trying to get a 64-bit edition on a 32-bit system. And there still is the ability to pay extra to get a DVD in the mail.

I wouldn't be surprised is Windows 10 follows in the same footsteps. Right now the Developer/Preview release is a raw ISO, but I would bet on an installer shell program that auto-downloads and performs an in-place upgrade with the option to create bootable media by the time we get to the retail release.

I would not expect this to be delivered via Windows Update.

If you formatted a PC afterward the upgrade, at least for Windows 8 if you created the boot media (or paid to get the DVD) you would be able to reinstall directly to Windows 8. If you had not, you would need to redownload the installer or ISO, then create boot media. The installer only runs on Windows platforms, but it can be run and download the files on an PC to create boot media, it doesn't necessarily have to be the PC you are installing it onto. I would expect Windows 10 to be similar.
 
Last edited:
evilsofa said:
As of December 2014:
Windows-market-share-stats-December-2014.png
Click to expand...

I'm curious what exactly they mean by "Windows NT". I'd assume maybe Windows 2000 and Windows NT4 users combined? Surprising to see "Windows NT" users triple the number of "Vista" users.
 
Windows NT and WIndows 2000 are listed separately; as I type this, WIndows NT is 0.21% and Windows 2000 is 0.08%. Remember this is a live web analytic, changing over the course of the day, probably even as daylight passes over different parts of the globe; I notice that the position and percentages of everything below Windows 8.1 is constantly shuffling all over the place, but Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 8.1 are consistent about being first, second and third; as I type this they are 55.92%, 18.93% and 10.04%, respectively.
 
Windows Vista isn't relevant to their numbers. Windows XP would make more sense, but with it being EOL for customers other than business who can afford to pay millions, they're already going to be forced to upgrade regardless.
 
The reason they are not offering Windows 10 to Vista users for free probably has more to do with the inability to perform an in place upgrade than anything.

I don't think Microsoft is going to be giving out the ISO and a key. You'll have to visit a site, sign in with a Microsoft account, and click upgrade to download the MSU that enables an in-place upgrade. Vista is not compatible with that.
 
bigdogchris said:
The reason they are not offering Windows 10 to Vista users for free probably has more to do with the inability to perform an in place upgrade than anything.
Click to expand...

That's no doubt part of it. At the very least it would require a lot of work for little gain.
 
So there won't likely be any other sort of upgrade offer for windows vista users?

Like a discount.
 
[U]ber|Noob;1041429408 said:
So there won't likely be any other sort of upgrade offer for windows vista users?

Like a discount.
Click to expand...

Nope, they already had three chances at a major discount for upgrading. That ship has sailed.
 
I use linux for a lot of things.

Movie player computers, web browsing computers, I used to use it for all my graphic design and I am planning to go back once inkscape has fixed a small bug.

But I couldn't get linux to wake from sleep mode and was hard to get it to work with the dvb-t tv sticks (for this htpc).
 
You really would think Microsoft would extend the Windows 10 offer to people on both Vista and XP to get Windows 10 firmly established.....but I suppose the old hardware (especially video card drivers and certain CPUs) could be a thought as to why they won't bother.........

I have found 8.1 works great on some truly antique machines, but lack of video drivers is the limiting factor.......like my friend's Dell Latitude D510 Pentium M Intel GMA 900 video laptop.....all drivers are there except video....default 8.1 driver doesn't work bad though. Machine is snappy on an old 40GB IDE drive and 2GB of memory.....battery life better then XP as well! He uses it for HPTuners software....works fine.
 
If there are so few Vista users left, they could have included them in the free upgrade offer and it would not have cost them much. IMHO it's just that all users those trying to upgrade to Windows 10 would cause more headache than it's worth.

Anyway, I have one older computer here with a GeForce FX series card (the dustbuster generation) which cannot be upgraded past Windows Vista because the 96.85 drivers for the card don't run well on Windows 7. Also Linux is not an option because the free drivers are too slow and the proprietary drivers don't work with modern distros any more.

So I guess that computer is firmly in the "cannot upgrade" camp.
 
70 Polara said:
You really would think Microsoft would extend the Windows 10 offer to people on both Vista and XP to get Windows 10 firmly established.....but I suppose the old hardware (especially video card drivers and certain CPUs) could be a thought as to why they won't bother.........

I have found 8.1 works great on some truly antique machines, but lack of video drivers is the limiting factor.......like my friend's Dell Latitude D510 Pentium M Intel GMA 900 video laptop.....all drivers are there except video....default 8.1 driver doesn't work bad though. Machine is snappy on an old 40GB IDE drive and 2GB of memory.....battery life better then XP as well! He uses it for HPTuners software....works fine.
Click to expand...

I think part of it is to provide some incentive for people to buy new hardware. The hardware you're describing here is seriously out of date. Even upcoming low end Cherry Trail devices would blow that Pentium M system away. And prices on this kind of hardware are lower than ever. There are a number of good Windows machines that can be had for $300 and under these days, much better than cheap hardware just a few years ago.
 
My computer has a fairly recent video card from only about 3 years ago.

Geforce 210

Also it is a core2duo.
 
[U]ber|Noob;1041440250 said:
My computer has a fairly recent video card from only about 3 years ago.

Geforce 210

Also it is a core2duo.
Click to expand...

Surely you were joking?
 
The computer that has vista on it, it is a media pc but it doesn't work properly (big problems with no dtv sticks or cards working properly, which I'm assuming is os related rather than hardware related).

I recently upgraded that ram to 4gb.

Isn't it still a reasonable speed computer for playing movies and watching tv?

lol what do you mean by joking?
 
Last edited:
Oh ok, so it's a bit more out of date than previously thought.
But it has hdmi.

It seems adequate for a basic video player tv. It's just the software incompatibilities most likely due to vista, almost nothing works properly.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top