Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then
rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1 year free upgrade
period is up?

Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

Ron wrote:
If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then
rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1 year free upgrade
period is up?

Ah yes, hair splitting. We could have fun with hair splitting,
if we had clear policies to go on. But there aren't any.

Obviously, the free upgrade offer ends Aug.1, 2016. We can count
on that. There's no particular reason for Microsoft to leave the
qualifying OS and Win10 both in genuine state. But as for how
they figure out what you're using, I haven't seen any suggestion
of whether sampling will be used, only a check on Aug.1, 2016,
or what they will do.

I can't promise anything, but I took the Win10 DVD (from
MediaCreationTool) and loaded it into VirtualBox, and
the "skip" button appeared. I was able to do
an installation of Win10 with no license key. But
the OS was not activated at the end (as you would
expect), which means I could test that OS for
30 days.

What I don't know, is whether the OS "sensed" something of
the setup, to be presenting the "skip" button. Really,
the skip button should not have appeared, but it did anyway.
I've attempted to do other tests, like install on real
hardware, and it won't give the skip button, and it
just sits there asking for the key.

So if you want to play with it, load it into VirtualBox,
turn on the experimental 3D support features, and see what
happens. You might get an evaluation out of it.

Paul

Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

Ron wrote on 9/5/2015 1:34 AM:
If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1
year free upgrade period is up?
Once you upgrade and activate win 10, your system is "tagged" in MSFT servers as being valid. If you have to reload
fresh, or any other way, it will see the same pc/hardware and just automatically activate it.

I've never seen any ruling what a roll back does to this qualified activation. Does it remove it? Don't know. My
guess is that it does not and yes, you could upgrade later if you wanted to. I would use the media creation tool and
make a DVD / USB copy of the win10. You can fresh load or upgrade from that. You have to upgrade withing the year,
but you can reload forever.

HTH.

Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

Ron wrote on 09/05/2015 1:34 AM:
If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then
rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1 year free upgrade
period is up?

Yes.

It would be in your best interest to create a system image (using
Acronis, Macrium, Windows etc.) prior to upgrading to 10 and use that
image to revert to Win8.

Doing the above will allow you to revert back to 8.1 anytime (before or
after July 2016) and if reverted before July 29th, 2016 one can still
upgrade to 10 before July 29, 2016.

The 31 day limit only applies to how long the Win10 GoBack feature is
available for use.


--
...winston
msft mvp windows experience

Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

On 9/5/2015 10:48 AM, . . .winston wrote:
Ron wrote on 09/05/2015 1:34 AM:
If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then
rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1 year free upgrade
period is up?

Yes.

It would be in your best interest to create a system image (using
Acronis, Macrium, Windows etc.) prior to upgrading to 10 and use that
image to revert to Win8.

Doing the above will allow you to revert back to 8.1 anytime (before or
after July 2016) and if reverted before July 29th, 2016 one can still
upgrade to 10 before July 29, 2016.

The 31 day limit only applies to how long the Win10 GoBack feature is
available for use.



Thanks Winston.

Windows 10 Test Drive Question
 

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 10:48:05 -0400, . . .winston wrote:

Ron wrote on 09/05/2015 1:34 AM:
If I upgrade from Win8.1 to Win10 and use it for 28 days and then
rollback to 8.1 can I upgrade to Win10 before the 1 year free upgrade
period is up?

Yes.

It would be in your best interest to create a system image (using
Acronis, Macrium, Windows etc.) prior to upgrading to 10 and use that
image to revert to Win8.

Doing the above will allow you to revert back to 8.1 anytime (before or
after July 2016) and if reverted before July 29th, 2016 one can still
upgrade to 10 before July 29, 2016.

The 31 day limit only applies to how long the Win10 GoBack feature is
available for use.

Sound advice. Creating a back up of your current system is a good idea.
I hang out on anandtech and some of the guys are having difficulty with
the roll back. Apparently Win10 is very finicky about certain files
needed for the roll back to occur.