New Delhi: After announcing its plans to offer free Windows 10 upgrades to even users of pirated Windows, Microsoft further clears the air by saying that while PCs with pirated copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be upgraded to Windows 10, they will remain in a non-genuine status and will not be given any support.
"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. Non-genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. 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," says a Venturebeat report citing a Microsoft spokesperson.
But it is yet not clear will this non-genuine version expire and become unusable after a certain period of time?
The move is an unprecedented attempt by Microsoft to get legitimate versions of its software onto machines of the hundreds of millions of Windows users. Terry Myerson, who runs Microsoft's operating systems unit, announced the plan at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China.
Myerson said Windows 10 would be released globally sometime "this summer". That is the first time Microsoft has put a time frame on the release, although it has been expected in autumn, based on Microsoft's release history.
Microsoft said in January it would offer free upgrades to Windows 10 for users of Windows 7 or later in an attempt to hold onto users and make up for lost revenue by selling services such as Office over the Internet.
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