Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.

-
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8

--
Regards
wasbit

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:

>Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>
> -
>https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8

Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.

You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Zaghadka wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>>from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>>
>> -
>> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>
> Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
>
> You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>

Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being
withdrawal of updates and all other support.
I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend
them.
"Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as
"Totally predictable final action".

Ed

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 19:20:22 +0100, Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk>
wrote:

>Zaghadka wrote:
>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>>>from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>>>
>>> -
>>> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>>
>> Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
>>
>> You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>>
>
>Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being
>withdrawal of updates and all other support.
>I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend
>them.
>"Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as
>"Totally predictable final action".
>
>Ed

+1

KenW

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 19:20:22 +0100, Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk>
wrote:

>Zaghadka wrote:
>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>>>from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>>>
>>> -
>>> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>>
>> Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
>>
>> You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>>
>
>Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being
>withdrawal of updates and all other support.
>I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend
>them.
>"Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as
>"Totally predictable final action".
>
Lol. Clickbait is as clickbait does.

I'm not particularly fond of Paul Thurrott. That and "Woody's Windows
Secrets." He's made my senior-aged dad absolutely nuts sometimes and I
have to talk him off the ledge. He keeps proudly telling me about his
"inside knowldege." He keeps having weird problems with his PCs applying
this "knowledge." I am his tech support. It is annoying.

The truth is a lot of their information is closer to conspiracy theories
than helpful, legitimate information.

"Quietly kills." Murdered in its sleep it was.

Alternatively, "stops very generously catering to 2% of its user base
that stubbornly refuses to get off of EoS software."

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Am 30.09.2023 um 09:19:26 Uhr schrieb wasbit:

> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free
> upgrades from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.

I can completely understand this, Win 7 is EoL and ESU also ended.

Why should anybody care about such an old OS?

On 9/30/2023 2:20 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> Zaghadka wrote:
>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>>> from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>>>
>>>   -
>>> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>>
>> Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
>>
>> You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>>
>
> Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being withdrawal of updates and all other support.
> I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend them.
> "Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as "Totally predictable final action".
>
> Ed

Well, it was done with a lot of industry arm-twisting.

An organized effort to kill off browsers for the OS.
The browsers were killed off in synchronized fashion, leaving
something like the modern version of Pale Moon or the like.

And so on.

There is no altruism involved here. It's all about support
costs and testing. That's what kills off OSes. Or
compatible AV products.

Killing off a free upgrade, from an out-of-support OS makes
sense. It should have been organized to take place when the
actual OS expired. That would have meant no more free upgrades
first on Win7 SP1, and later (2023) for Win8.1 .

The parts of the OS that might be different (kernel and scheduler
for Skylake era), have little to do with applications being able
to run, or with expecting "strange outcomes". As long as you use
OpenGL for rendering, you should be able to draw a browser window
just fine. It would not have been rocket science to keep a
browser tuned for it. Not that big a delta.

Paul

On 9/30/2023 3:23 PM, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am 30.09.2023 um 09:19:26 Uhr schrieb wasbit:
>
>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free
>> upgrades from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>
> I can completely understand this, Win 7 is EoL and ESU also ended.
>
> Why should anybody care about such an old OS?
>
Works. Lower overhead. User ends up with a functional
machine, when using a single core processor.

It's no different than asking why Puppy still exists on Linux.
Works. Low overhead. Able to work with weak systems and un-accelerated
graphics.

Paul

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:
> Zaghadka wrote:
> > On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
> >>from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
> >>
> >> -
> >> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
> >
> > Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
> >
> > You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>
> Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being
> withdrawal of updates and all other support.
> I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend
> them.
> "Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as
> "Totally predictable final action".

All true, but the (thurrott.com) article says "Microsoft quietly
announced ...", but they did not 'announce' anything, quietly or not.
The reference is to some "Device Partner Center" page, which is of
course not any kind of 'announcement' to Joe Average User.

I also do not see what Microsoft has to gain by "The installation path
to obtain the Windows 7 / 8 free upgrade is now removed as well." They
need the same infrastructure for Windows 11 (and probably also to get
Windows 10 media for licenced users).

Do they expect people to all go run to get expensive Windows 10
licences (because their systems won't run 11)?

Anyway, I 'upgraded' SWMBO's Windows 8.1 system to Windows 10 as soon
as I could, so we're 'fine'. Two more years to go (October 14, 2025).

wasbit wrote:
> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
> from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>
>  -
> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>
>

Considering that Win7 is 14 yrs old, Win8 is 11 yrs old and 8.1 10 yrs old
=> It's about time.

Anyone using Win7 or Win8 upgraded to Win10 or Win11 with its digital
license has had more than sufficient time to create Win10 or Win11
usb/dvd or iso media for reinstall or clean install. And also more than
enough time to take advantage of 3rd party imaging software eliminating
the need to ever revert to Windows 7 or 8.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

Paul wrote:
> On 9/30/2023 2:20 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
>> Zaghadka wrote:
>>> On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:19:26 +0100, wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free upgrades
>>>> from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>>>>
>>>>   -
>>>> https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/289957/microsoft-quietly-kills-free-windows-10-11-upgrades-from-windows-7-8
>>>
>>> Serves people right if they are still actually on those OSes.
>>>
>>> You got your wish people. No more need to block the update.
>>>
>>
>> Yes, and Win7 users got lots of forewarnings; not the least being withdrawal of updates and all other support.
>> I rather think MS did this in a very user-friendly manner, and I commend them.
>> "Quietly kills" has overtones of reprehensible behaviour. I read it as "Totally predictable final action".
>>
>> Ed
>
> Well, it was done with a lot of industry arm-twisting.
>
> An organized effort to kill off browsers for the OS.
> The browsers were killed off in synchronized fashion, leaving
> something like the modern version of Pale Moon or the like.
>
> And so on.
>
> There is no altruism involved here. It's all about support
> costs and testing. That's what kills off OSes. Or
> compatible AV products.

It's important to mention that the majority of o/s support for Win7 and
Win8 was OEM responsible o/s support.

>
>
> Paul
>

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

On 30/09/2023 20:48, Paul wrote:
> Well, it was done with a lot of industry arm-twisting.
>
What do you mean by Industry arm-twisting? Can you name one company that
is involved?

All the top brands gives you free Windows 10 or Windows 11 pre-installed
on their machines so they can't be twisting any body's arms.

So it leaves hardware manufactures. Are you saying Intel or AMD
involved? Why would they do it because most users don't buy separate
motherboards to build their machine. They don't have the knowledge to do
so. If home users are currently using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 then they
are doing it because their machine might not be suitable for the
upgrade. Their OEM license cannot be transferred to any other machine so
their only choice is to buy a new machine and get free windows 10/11 if
they want to start using Windows 10/11.

Microsoft has done this because they decided to shut off the old
server(s) that was used to activate. They can't keep using the server
when hit-rate on it was high. It needs to be replaced periodically and
so they decided to stop supporting old operating systems and cut their
costs.

They can now concentrate on Windows 10 and Windows 11 and when time
comes, they will do the same with Windows 10 and perhaps Windows 11 when
Windows 12/13 is released.

There is no arm-twisting by anybody. It is a commercial decision and
would you stop spreading lies here.

Jack wrote:
> On 30/09/2023 20:48, Paul wrote:
>> Well, it was done with a lot of industry arm-twisting.
>>
> What do you mean by Industry arm-twisting? Can you name one company that
> is involved?
>
> All the top brands gives you free Windows 10 or Windows 11 pre-installed
> on their machines so they can't be twisting any body's arms.
>
> So it leaves hardware manufactures. Are you saying Intel or AMD
> involved? Why would they do it because most users don't buy separate
> motherboards to build their machine. They don't have the knowledge to do
> so. If home users are currently using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 then they
> are doing it because their machine might not be suitable for the
> upgrade. Their OEM license cannot be transferred to any other machine so
> their only choice is to buy a new machine and get free windows 10/11 if
> they want to start using Windows 10/11.
>
> Microsoft has done this because they decided to shut off the old
> server(s) that was used to activate. They can't keep using the server
> when hit-rate on it was high. It needs to be replaced periodically and
> so they decided to stop supporting old operating systems and cut their
> costs.
>
> They can now concentrate on Windows 10 and Windows 11 and when time
> comes, they will do the same with Windows 10 and perhaps Windows 11 when
> Windows 12/13 is released.
>
> There is no arm-twisting by anybody. It is a commercial decision and
> would you stop spreading lies here.
>
>
>
+1

....with one exception
- All top brands gives free Windows 10 or Windows 11 preinstalled etc.

OEM's pay for Windows 10 by volume licensing. Their per o/s cost for
volume license isn't much different than MSFT employee costs for
Windows(Home $25, Pro $35). The majority of Enterprise(non-OEM) volume
licenses that include Windows 10/11 are bundles with
subscription(monthly/annual cost) for pre-determined number(baased on su
subscription) that includes M365 Office prodcuts.

i.e. OEM's that provides Windows pre-installed don't give free Windows
10 or 11. That cost is included in full or partially in the purchased
device cost.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 21:23:21 +0200, Marco Moock wrote:

> Am 30.09.2023 um 09:19:26 Uhr schrieb wasbit:
>
>> Microsoft quietly announced that it has stopped supporting free
>> upgrades from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10 or 11.
>
> I can completely understand this, Win 7 is EoL and ESU also ended.
>
> Why should anybody care about such an old OS?

Probably people who don't subscribe to the 21st century throw-away
culture. Make-do-and-mend was a thing following WW2 and is making a
come back now.

Unfortunately oldies and some others just switch machines on and
expect them to work just as they did when bought new. That seems
like a reasonable assumption but may not work these days. Even
plug-and-play, which seemed a great idea a few years ago, doesn't
always hold, as our neighbour trying to get a printer to connect to
her machine just found out the hard way. It doesn't help that she
has no clue about wifi or cable connections. Or that retailers don't
always support their products under all circs.