Right, so as I was doing some massive, desperately needed edits to the blog post below this one, I was talking to Tulsi about trying to find cheaper alternatives to the hardware (mainly Windows 10).
He told me how he never once paid for a key, and he got the ISO off of a website and managed to mount it to a flash drive. Wow, technology.. wow. I remember when these little thumb drives didn’t exist, and you had to burn it to a CD-R (and then used a program to mount it).
Anyway, he also warned me about this ‘Windows Toolkit’, which generates the key. There’s a lot of sites that aren’t safe, and he just says to be very careful with them. So..I doubt I’m going to take that risk.
There’s also this ‘kenguin.net’, which is one of those sites that are…well, not good if you’re a video game developer. It’s a key reseller site, and they offer a Windows 10 key for $30. I personally felt “this is legit”..seriously, I did, completely ignoring about Pretty Good Gaming saying not to use these sites as they aren’t paying the devs.
Decided to ask Discord again, wondering if they think this is an OK site to use. Was told how they’re ‘in a gray area’, and the hoops I’ll have to jump to get customer support if something goes wrong.
Then one of them asked if I had the key for Windows 7, I said yes, and the person said that I might still be able to get the free upgrade direct from Windows. However….there’s a catch. I have to pretend I’m physically disabled (aka deaf) to upgrade freely using ‘assistive technologies’. Clearly I have no need to use such software, but this seems to be the only, legit way to get Windows 10 without paying for it.
Which brings up another reason why I was avoiding the free upgrade back in 2015 like the plaque. A ‘free upgrade’ isn’t a clean install/reformat(which is why I feel I need to get the OEM). Though I was surprised when I was told I can do both. I also asked if this is just an installer that I can throw on my drive, and pick a date to do it. But I was told it’s Windows 10 itself.
And as for if the key for my OEM copy of 7 will still work after installing this, I was told “it should” (and something about I’ll be stuck with it for a month if I feel I don’t like it and I want to go back to 7).
This is literally what I wanted; a ‘free trial’ of Windows 10. If I feel it’s worth it, then I’ll gladly pay the $100 for the OEM. But it’s going to have to really impress me. Though I don’t know if this is Windows 10 Home or Professional (I’m going to assume it’s Home), it will be interesting.
So now I got to backup my SSD (though I feel mostly everything’s already backed up on my external) and then pick a date to try this, as I’m going to be stuck with it for a month.
…And I believe I’ll pick October 1st to do it. It’ll push me all the way through Halloween. But why October instead of now? I just want to ‘say my goodbyes’ to Windows 7 before I smack that shiny ‘UPGRADE NOW >’ button. Also, call me quite nervous and full of questions.
“Will my hardware work flawlessly after upgrading to 10?”
“Will my games run faster (and be more stable) in 10?”
“How stable is 10 compared to 7?”
“Does 10 have full customization like 7 (aka, to not make the programs list look like a touch screen))?”
“What if my key doesn’t work and I’m stuck with an unauthenticated version of 10?”
“What if Microsoft finds out I’m not physically disabled and do something to me?”
And so on..and so on. It’s a lot to think about.