For my “convenience” and because in this way they can show ads and clickbait
Also: I SET A FUCKING GROUP POLICY THAT DISABLES THE SEARCH BAR; WHY THEY FUCKING IGNORE IT???
Just to clarify. If you bought a device. The maker aka you paid a fee.
Person above either using water market version or pirated it but more likely got it pre installed
Either they don’t understand windows economics with that stupid “comment”
Windows 10 was a free upgrade from 7/8. 7/8 was a free upgrade from XP. I mean, XP was installed on something, but I certainly haven’t paid for windows in decades.
Apparently it’s still a thing:
https://www.techspot.com/news/100334-microsoft-closes-windows-7-11-free-upgrade-loophole.html
And if you think about it, why would private customers pay for windows, given it’s loaded with spyware? I’m already paying to use it with my data. No different than using google software.
Sure, I prefer windows because I’m used to it and I’m lazy, but why pay for something that’s arguably inferior to open source software?
You may be right. I seem to remember there being a free upgrade for the visually impaired, but I may be mistaken.
In any case, I haven’t paid since I first bought this PC, which I’ve continually upgraded for over a decade. Ship of Theseus, basically. IRC because I never bought windows 10, and windows 7 (xp?) licenses weren’t tied to the system, I just used that the one time it asked me to verify my license.
Seemed pretty obvious microsoft doesn’t actually care about individual users with custom built pcs. They make their money off desktop pc and laptop makers. That and increasingly advertising/data harvesting.
