Why would the old licenses become invalidated?

Also, it depends on the kind of license you have, Retail licenses can be installed on as many computers as you wish (as long it's only one at a time), while Original Equipment Manufacturer licenses are tied to the motherboard.

(Also, when Microsoft did the "upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for 15€" promotion, it gave out Retail licenses, even if the Windows license you upgraded from was not Pro, neither Retail!)

Dude.

1) SP1 is not a 'gateway' for MS to automatically update your PC. The list of updates that do that is well-known.

2) It is very, very easy to block GWX (the auto-updating program). Here is the script I use, it's very comprehensive and blocks only the needed updates: https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/853510 I prefer a script because I can read it. There are many other programs like this if you prefer to get one.

Think of updating your PC as doing regular car maintenance. Cars need to have their oil check and replaced, tires adjusted and replaced, etc. PCs need similar types of things, on a regular schedule.

Just because low oil and crappy tires haven't killed someone yet doesn't mean they don't need to take their car into the shop, it just means they're a danger to everyone around them. Similarly, a PC that hasn't had updates in years is a danger to you and everyone around you - it's probably part of a botnet or has some malware on it.
You can maybe live without SP1, but everyone around you can't live with you not updating your PC.

Do you know the #1 cause of being part of a botnet / having a virus or malware? It's running an outdated version of the OS. Do you know what botnets and computers with malware do? Pose a danger to everyone else on the internet. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm really not - computers can be part of a botnet from anywhere, and organized crime hiding their tracks behind innocent but infected PCs is a real problem.

Think of updating your PC as doing regular car maintenance. Cars need to have their oil check and replaced, tires adjusted and replaced, etc. PCs need similar types of things, on a regular schedule.

Just because low oil and crappy tires haven't killed a driver yet doesn't mean they don't need to take their car into the shop, it just means they're a danger to everyone around them. Similarly, a PC that hasn't had updates in years is a danger to you and everyone around you, and you need to do the responsible thing and either:
1) Remove the PC from the internet (irritating) or
2) Update the OS (much less irritating, generally)

I think that the "Infectious Disease" analogy works even better in this case than the "Car" analogy, don't you think?

Good point!
Maybe "Sexually-Transmitted Disease" then? :p
(P.S: for the "shaming aspect".)

"Don't you dare to put that USB stick in my socket!" XD

LOL

I do IT support professionally, so my go-to metaphor needs to be usable in a professional setting. Plus, there are still a scary number of people out there who don't bother practicing safe sex.

In general I've found that people are less motivated by their health than their means of transportation, so health-based metaphors just do not work to actually spur them into action. I think it's because health is so confusing that most people feel intimidated. But everyone knows that you need to take cars in for a tuneup and it's irritating but important.

makes me think of those 'heroic' windows xp users who swear they'll never need anything else but then piss and moan that nothing made within the last eight years works on their system.

There are good reasons to keep using XP, like expensive hospital equipment that hasn't had updated software released. But yes, general users should be onto 7 now, or at least have airgapped their XP PC and do their internet and email on different OS.

of course of course, i was mostly talking about stubborn home users.

Yeah. Those definitely need to be moved to another OS.

If you're used to XP, Kubuntu or Xubuntu are very, very close to it and also free. Dual-installs are much easier now. There's no excuse for having an XP PC that is used for going online.

I'm pretty sure that if I got an old version of MS-DOS running and ran lynx on it to surf the web, there would be 0% chance of me getting infected. Just having 'an old outdated OS' or an old version of one isn't enough to get malware.

I'm not saying updating is pointless, but updating isn't really possible it seems for me.

Outdated browsers or operating systems are one of the top causes in malware infections. A lot of malware, particularly drive-by downloads that people don't even know have been installed, rely on browser or OS bugs. Lynx might filter some out by virtue of it not running Javascript IIRC but it's also a pain to use for general web browsing, and won't do anything to protect you from vectors like email, chat programs, infected phones, etc.

You don't even need to update your Windows copy - although really, for a home user that's the easiest thing.

You can download and install a Ubuntu variant on separate partition - not too hard, there are several tutorials available. Then you have a secure browsing environment and can run games on whatever OS you like (just pick the OS you want on startup).

Or you could install Tails (a Linux variant that is designed to be run from a USB) on a USB drive and run that whenever you want to do internet stuff.

Or you can get a $200 Android tablet and do web browsing and email on that.

Or you can get a cheap used PC from Craigslist, eBay, whatever, wipe it and re-install its operating system (PCs almost always come with a Windows key). Or wipe it and install Linux.

There are many easy options. If you're overwhelmed, I'm happy to help you sort out what would be best in this thread, another thread or PMs. But please don't think that updating isn't possible for you. It's very possible.

Have you tried the program Never10 to prevent a Windows 10 upgrade?

Ok, so I succesfully installed Windows 8.1 from the official image to an empty SSD on my notebook and it was automatically activated from the UEFI injected key. Not so lucky when I tried installing Windows 10 on another empty SSD as it not only refused to activate manually, but also the phone option was a complete failure because even the living breathing person over the phone just informed me that I must upgrade over the existing Windows 7 or 8.1 installation.

That will not happen, so I just asked that the higher ups will be informed that they can now count out over a dozen upgrade elidgeable computers as I will not be wasting my time on setting them up if the clean install shorcut does not work.


No Windows 10 for me then, at least I now have Windows 8.1 installed without creating an account for the marketplace...

Maybe we should be pissed about having to run Windows games when DOS based ones worked just fine.
Those bastards. :-P