Pirates will continue to have unlicensed Windows 10 copies after upgrade
Microsoft had unleashed a pandora’s box yesterday after announcing that even pirates will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. After the dust was beginning to settle down on this matter, the company has issued a clarification.
According to this statement that was issued to Ars Technica a while ago, Microsoft mentions that although users with non-genuine Windows copies will be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, this will not affect the state of their license. That is to say, non-genuine users will continue to have their devices be considered non-genuine even after the update.
With Windows 10, although non-Genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license… If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade.
In short, even if you have an unlicensed version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 running on your computer, you will be allowed to install Windows 10 for free. You will not have a legitimate license, however, so you may still want to buy it.
