Windows 10

So yesterday night, this icon appeared in my taskbar (the one on the far left):


Hover over it and it says "Get Windows 10", right clicking gives a drop down menu. I know that Microsoft was planning on making Windows 10 free, however I wanted to check if this was the real thing. And rest assured it is, since I have checked some sites making recent topics about this as well.

PCWorld Site wrote:

UPDATE: Windows 10 will be available to download July 29, and existing Windows 7 and 8 users can "reserve" their copy today.

I guess the creation of this topic, is to have people talk about it. What scares me the most is:

PCWorld Site wrote:

Once you’ve claimed the upgrade, it's permanent, and Microsoft will keep you updated for the supported lifetime of the device.

Apparently restoring to factory settings won't work, which is quite strange.

well i did it might as well LOL

I dont trust this icon.... D:

I'll probably pick it up, might be worth checking out.

Vader wrote:

Apparently restoring to factory settings won't work, which is quite strange.

Take back up of your current system (In case you ever want to recover it), and then should the day arrive, download e.g. Linux Ubuntu to an USB and make it overwrite/take over the entire partition; then use the recovery disc to re-install your old system

At least that would be my best guess ^^ I once had a PC with Vista (Ugh.. And the PC could not even handle that shitty OS anyway xD), which would not allow me to install Windows XP instead for some reason, but then my farther did the Ubuntu thing, which worked like a charm, and installed Windows XP with ease

No clue if it would work in this case, but it would be worth a shot

Lies! I liked Vista :E.

You could always format your HDD, and re-install another windows.
For the rest i truly feel microsoft screwed over with their current windows crap.

I know there are ways, but just from reading the post I had thought that perhaps they somehow made it so you couldn't.

vista is garbage windows 7 is basically the best lol

Vader wrote:

I know there are ways, but just from reading the post I had thought that perhaps they somehow made it so you couldn't.

lol, they would have to hack like a madman beyond any legal way to make it impossible to get rid of windows 10 on normal every-day computer hardware.

Vader wrote:

PCWorld Site wrote:

Once you’ve claimed the upgrade, it's permanent, and Microsoft will keep you updated for the supported lifetime of the device.

Vader wrote:

I know there are ways, but just from reading the post I had thought that perhaps they somehow made it so you couldn't.

I think here they're just saying that it's permanent, as in they won't take it away from you later. You can keep it forever.

You should be able to go back to your previous operating system if you want to. The one thing you want to be careful of here is whether the upgrade invalidates your old Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. As long as the agreement for the Windows 10 upgrade allows you to "roll back" your Windows system to your previous operating system (Microsoft would hope you would only do this due to compatibility reasons), then you should be safe.

I only did a little bit of Googling, but all I found was a Microsoft MVP (forum member, not employee) saying that the update to Windows 10 will not invalidate your old Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. You can read here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/windows-key-after-upgrade-to-10/3692233e-553d-409e-96ac-2a2992207344

It would be better to find a more official stance from Microsoft, perhaps even from the legal agreement during Windows 10 installation. But usually Microsoft is very forgiving and flexible about their product keys. Usually internet activation works many times for the same product key, and even when it doesn't, I've called their activation hotline and they were always very polite and helpful.

So, as long as your product key for your old operating system is still valid, Windows 10 is not permanent if you want to go back. If you use the "Upgrade" option during installation, you can probably roll back Windows 10 to your previous operating system without doing a fresh re-install by utilizing the "Windows.old" folder that is created during upgrading. The forum post I linked discusses how to do that with the "Rollback feature." If you did a fresh install, you would have to do another fresh install of your old operating system. Whether a "Reset to factory defaults" option provided with your computer would work or not depends on the specific implementation.