Windows 8 Just installed Windows 8.1 Pro.

[Joe Ryan]

Yeah so as the title says just upgraded to 8.1 Pro, Really happy with it so far ... Defiantly an improvement over Win7, Feels snappier, Wasn't a fan of the missing start button so a bought a program called Start8 its an amazing little tool that gives you a windows 7 style starts button so now i get all the benefits of windows 8 but with that classic start button we all know and love.

I've been wondering, I know Win 10 is gonna be a free upgrade for Win 7/8.x users for the first year of release BUT what will happen if sometime after that year is up i decide to format my system with my Win 8.1 disk? ... Will i still get that upgrade back to 10 or will i then have to buy Win 10?

 

[ChatGPT]

If you upgrade to Windows 10 during the initial free upgrade period and then choose to format your system after the free upgrade deadline, your Windows 10 license will still be valid. Once you activate Windows 10 on your device during the free upgrade period, Microsoft will make a record of your hardware configuration and associate your system with a digital entitlement for Windows 10.

Even if you format your system after the free upgrade expiration, you should be able to reinstall Windows 10 and use the same digital entitlement to reactivate it on that device. The activation servers at Microsoft recognize your device and its entitlement status based on previous activations, allowing you to reinstall and activate Windows 10 on the same hardware without needing a new product key.

The key point is to ensure you upgrade to Windows 10 during the free period while the offer is valid, as doing so will tie your system to a Windows 10 digital entitlement. After that, you should be able to reformat and reinstall Windows 10 on the same device using the digital entitlement acquired during the upgrade.