Upgrade from Win7 to Win10??

[Jack Bauer]

Five things that you should consider when upgrading to Windows 10:

• Your upgrade is not permanent. Atleast not if you want to increase your ram or get a new harddisk in the future. When you're updated to Windows 10, windows changes your key to something else, which cannot be used to reinstall W10 (Or atleast that has been my experience with two computers). If you want to format your PC, you can format it and once you've updated to 10 on that PC once, it won't ask you for any keys. This is because MSFT sends your hardware hash (A unique identifier for your system's configurations) to it's servers and uses that to authorize your reformat. However, if you change your hardware (And microsoft has refused to release any information on exactly which components being changed comprises a change to the hash) you won't be able to activate your new installation. If that's before september 2016, you can simply reinstall W7/8.1 and then upgrade again. If it's after September 2016, you need to buy a W10 license.
• Microsoft can remove software from your computer. According to MSFT's EULA, they have the ability and right to go through your computer and remove 'pirated' software. Before you say that's not all that bad, remember that facebook didn't get rich selling only ads. MSFT can very easily find clients that would pay big bucks to purchase data about who is using their products and their competitors products. Further, their spying goes so far as to actually identify if the copy is genuine or not, meaning they are executing custom code to identify information about the software on your computer. That's worse than facebook could ever get.
• Cortana is a keylogger. Well, not exactly, but it's close. Microsoft sends your keystrokes to it's database ("Anonymously"). Even if MSFT themselves don't use this data, there is always the risk that a third party might hack into MSFT's servers and steal valuable information (It is not clear whether software like keyscrambler can actually stop this, as MSFT can easily hinder them if they want).
• Updates are no longer voluntary. This means that you don't get to decide when MSFT makes major changes to your systems.
• Of the 12+ systems i have upgraded to W10 so far, 2 broke down. Both of them had AMD APU processors (I did upgrade other systems with APU aswell and successfully, however). They got stuck at the getting ready part and upon rebooting again got stuck on restoring W8.1. Both the clients asked me to just do a clean install ASAP so i didn't do any research on how easy/difficult it is to fix it.

That said, currently i have installed W10 on my own pc (Clean install). I'm still not sure if i'm keeping it though.

Where did you hear about this? Can you post the source please.

[CharlieKasper]

• Microsoft can remove software from your computer. According to MSFT's EULA, they have the ability and right to go through your computer and remove 'pirated' software. Before you say that's not all that bad, remember that facebook didn't get rich selling only ads. MSFT can very easily find clients that would pay big bucks to purchase data about who is using their products and their competitors products. Further, their spying goes so far as to actually identify if the copy is genuine or not, meaning they are executing custom code to identify information about the software on your computer. That's worse than facebook could ever get.

Not true (anymore).

Update: Microsoft's Services EULA is different from the one governing Windows (Microsoft Software License Terms), which means that the amendments Microsoft added recently were to protect against counterfeiting of Xbox Live and Windows Store content, and not monitoring (or disabling) illicit content on Windows 10.

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-can-automatically-disable-pirated-games-unauthorized-hardware-your-windows-10-pc

So you can infact use counterfeit software (as long as it's not sideloaded or pirated Windows store apps).

• Cortana is a keylogger. Well, not exactly, but it's close. Microsoft sends your keystrokes to it's database ("Anonymously"). Even if MSFT themselves don't use this data, there is always the risk that a third party might hack into MSFT's servers and steal valuable information (It is not clear whether software like keyscrambler can actually stop this, as MSFT can easily hinder them if they want).

Incorrect. As someone who has been using Cortana for very long (since its introduction to Windows Phone) (and been a close follower of Windows and its services (both on PC and phone), I can confirm that this is not true.

No keystrokes are sent to Microsoft when Cortana is used. Cortana stores your information in your own account's notebook. The information Cortana gains about you is not used for someone else so there's no point of sending it to Microsoft. The information can be easily deleted later whenever you want (from your Cortana settings on phone or PC). It's all done to give you a better experience with Cortana and you can make Cortana forget everything about you without any problem.

EVERYTHING Cortana learns about you can be deleted. EVERYTHING.

[Fuzzy]

EVERYTHING Cortana learns about you can be deleted. EVERYTHING.

Or so they want to make you believe 

[CharlieKasper]

Or so they want to make you believe 

That's what Microsoft has always said. If they actually collected info behind the scenes I am sure someone will have already found that and MS would be in trouble.