replace.me: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

Microsoft was criticized for the tactics that it used to promote its free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, including adware -like behaviors, [] using deceptive user interfaces to coax users into installing the operating system, [] [] [] [] downloading installation files without user consent, [] [] and making it difficult for users to suppress the advertising and notifications if they did not wish to upgrade to In September , it was reported that Microsoft was triggering automatic downloads of Windows 10 installation files on all compatible Windows 7 or 8.

Microsoft officially confirmed the change, claiming it was “an industry practice that reduces the time for installation and ensures device readiness. Other critics argued that Microsoft should not have triggered any downloading of Windows 10 installation files without user consent.

In October , Windows 10 began to appear as an “Optional” update on the Windows Update interface, but pre-selected for installation on some systems. A Microsoft spokesperson said that this was a mistake, and that the download would no longer be pre-selected by default. In March , some users also alleged that their Windows 7 and 8. It was concluded that these users may have unknowingly clicked the “Accept” prompt without full knowledge that this would begin the upgrade.

On January 21, , Microsoft was sued in small claims court by a user whose computer had attempted to upgrade to Windows 10 without her consent shortly after the release of the operating system. The upgrade failed, and her computer was left in a broken state thereafter, which disrupted the ability to run her travel agency. However, in May , Microsoft dropped the appeal and chose to pay the damages.

Shortly after the suit was reported on by the Seattle Times , Microsoft confirmed it was updating the GWX software once again to add more explicit options for opting out of a free Windows 10 upgrade; [] [] [] the final notification was a full-screen pop-up window notifying users of the impending end of the free upgrade offer, and contained “Remind me later”, “Do not notify me again” and “Notify me three more times” as options.

In March , Microsoft announced that it would display notifications informing users on Windows 7 devices of the upcoming end of extended support for the platform, and direct users to a website urging them to upgrade to Windows 10 or purchase new hardware.

This dialog will be similar to the previous Windows 10 upgrade prompts, but will not explicitly mention Windows Privacy advocates and other critics have expressed concern regarding Windows 10’s privacy policies and its collection and use of customer data. Users can opt out from most of this data collection, [] [] but telemetry data for error reporting and usage is also sent to Microsoft, and this cannot be disabled on non-Enterprise editions of Windows Rock Paper Shotgun writer Alec Meer argued that Microsoft’s intent for this data collection lacked transparency, stating that “there is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different settings screens and an external website constitutes ‘real transparency’.

The Russian government had passed a federal law requiring all online services to store the data of Russian users on servers within the country by September or be blocked. But Microsoft is held to a different standard than other companies”.

The Microsoft Services agreement reads that the company’s online services may automatically “download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices. In September , Microsoft hid the option to create a local account during a fresh installation if a PC is connected to the internet.

This move was criticized by users who did not want to use an online Microsoft account. In late-July , Windows Defender began to classify modifications of the hosts file that block Microsoft telemetry servers as being a severe security risk.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 7 December This article is about the operating system for personal computers.

For the related now discontinued operating system for mobile devices, see Windows 10 Mobile. For the series of operating systems produced from to , see Windows 9x.

Closed-source source-available through the Shared Source Initiative Some components free and open-source [1] [2] [3] [4]. List of languages. For the Windows versions produced from to , see Windows 9x. For the Windows version following Windows 8, see Windows 8. Main article: Features new to Windows See also: List of features removed in Windows Main article: List of typefaces included with Microsoft Windows.

Main article: Windows 10 editions. See also: Windows Insider. Main article: Windows 10 version history. Main article: Criticism of Windows This section duplicates the scope of other articles , specifically Criticism of Windows Please discuss this issue on the talk page and edit it to conform with Wikipedia’s Manual of Style by replacing the section with a link and a summary of the repeated material or by spinning off the repeated text into an article in its own right.

June Windows PC market share of Windows statistics Windows Business and economics portal. Retrieved August 31, Microsoft Support. Windows Insider Blog. November 10, Retrieved June 13, NET Core 3. NET Foundation. June 5, Ars Technica. December 5, Microsoft Update Catalog.

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Windows Observer. Archived from the original on August 15, October 8, Archived from the original on June 9, Retrieved June 10, Windows 10 now actually losing market share”. October 1, It was expected, that once Windows 10 stopped being free, upgrades would slow significantly. Yes, you read that right. February 1, Retrieved July 13, Retrieved December 17, Retrieved October 15, January 4, Retrieved January 4, Installing a copy of Windows 11 or 10 for a built-from-scratch computer can be costly — if you do what Microsoft wants.

This Windows tax is profoundly unfair to PC builders, because large OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo pay much lower licensing fees to put Windows on prebuilt systems though these costs are not made public. Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. No matter how or whether you pay for it, you can download Windows 10 opens in new tab or download Windows 11 opens in new tab for free from Microsoft.

And, in fact, you should only download it from Microsoft, as grabbing it from any other site or from a P2P network could give you malware. Microsoft offers a free media creation tool, which grabs the latest code from the Internet and then burns itself to a USB Flash drive or outputs a Windows 10 or Windows 11 ISO file you can write to a drive yourself. Once that’s done, you can boot from your installation media and start the process.

During installation, Microsoft asks you to enter a Windows 10 or 11 product key. If you are still on Windows 7 or 8, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you have an old, retail non-OEM copy of Windows 7, 8 or 10 you are no longer using on another PC, you can likely use the product key when you do a fresh install of Windows on your new PC. However, you must first make sure it’s deactivated on the old PC it came from.

See our article on how to transfer a Windows 10 or 11 license to a new PC for step-by-step information on how to retrieve and move your key. The process of transferring a Windows license varies, depending upon whether you have digital or non-digital license. With a the former, you’ll need to log into your Microsoft account to deactivate the old PC.

And with the latter, you’ll want to use a command line command to terminate the activation. Note that if the product key comes from a prebuilt computer that came from the factory with Windows on it, it has an OEM key that may not work on a different new PC.

Feel free to try it, though, because if it works you have Windows 10 or 11 for free. The good news is that you only have two serious disadvantages from not activating Windows 10 or However, if you are using a Microsoft account that syncs with another computer on which you have custom wallpaper, that wallpaper will appear on your unactivated Windows. But come on; does anyone actually do that?

Other than those inconveniences, unactivated Windows should work just fine and receive automatic updates too. You can see if your school is eligible and download your free Windows 11 key here opens in new tab. You might be able to get them for less with a Kinguin discount code though. These are all OEM keys and likely can’t be used on another computer after you activate them on the first one.

We recommend paying a little extra to get a key that has “online activation,” which means that it should activate automatically over the Internet. Keys that aren’t marked for “online activation” may force you to call Microsoft, wait on hold and ask a phone representative for help activating.

The representative may even ask for your Microsoft account, which is not great for your privacy. Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. While we can’t vouch for all of them, websites selling cheap Windows 10 or 11 keys are likely offering legitimate codes.

Kinguin has more than three dozen merchants worldwide selling Windows keys. It’s just another marketplace. We’ve bought keys from Kinguin a few times. So we tried calling the number and waited on hold for a few minutes.

We thought activating via phone would be an automated process where we just punched in the key and got an approval code, but instead we got a live representative who immediately asked for our Microsoft account ID.

Another time, we paid a few dollars more for an online activation key. Lo and behold, it activated as soon as we entered the code, with no phone call required.

Are you likely to be ripped off? However, both sites play host to a number of third-party sellers whose product keys may or may not be legit. The easiest but most expensive way to get Windows is to buy your key directly from Microsoft.

You can get these either as downloads or on USB drives. If you have an old Windows key you can carry over from a previous build, that’s your best option and effectively gives you Windows 10 or Windows 11 for free. If you don’t have a key on hand, you need to decide whether you’re comfortable using an unactivated version of Windows 10 or 11, which limits your customization options, has an ugly watermark and leaves you ineligible for Microsoft support.

Many would argue that downloading Windows without paying for or already owning a product key is ethically wrong. That said, Microsoft has made this process easier over various Windows iterations and lessened the limitations and nagging that happens when you don’t activate. We’ve even seen well-known vendors and Microsoft partners do press presentations with watermarks on their desktop. If you need to buy a Windows 10 or Windows 11 key, you can save a lot with a low-cost seller such as Kinguin opens in new tab.

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Windows 10 pro 5 pack free download.Download Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 from Official Microsoft Download Center

 
You can use this page to download a disc image (ISO file) that can be Windows 10 editions below are valid for both Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. The Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10 will install Media Player and related technologies on a computer running Windows 10 N editions. Create Windows 10 installation media. To get started, you will first need to have a license to install Windows You can then download and run the media.