POLL Results: Windows 10 licensing for non-genuine users

Over the last few weeks the subject of the free Windows 10 upgrade has been discussed a lot.  It has specifically been focused on whether or not non-genuine users of older Windows operating systems should be made genuine through the free Windows 10 upgrade offer. 

That offer, announced by Microsoft earlier this year, will allow users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 at cost for the first year the new OS is available.

The reason things became very muddled with this non-genuine/genuine situation is because Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for the Operating System Group, Terry Myerson, told a reporter from Reuters during an interview at WinHec that even non-genuine users would be made legitimate during this free upgrade offer.

That statement was tweaked later the same week and clarified that non-genuine users would be able to upgrade to Windows 10 but there install would still be non-genuine.

So with all this talk happening we asked you in last week’s poll about how Microsoft should handle these non-genuine users of Windows.

Nearly three quarters of you (73%) believe Microsoft should allow those users to become genuine through the free Windows 10 upgrade program with 57% of that group feeling that Microsoft should charge a small upgrade fee for that opportunity.

There were 27% of you who responded and indicated Microsoft should not allow these non-genuine users to become legal through the upgrade.

Based on your response to this survey I suspect, much like Kip Kniskern does over at WinBeta, that this discussion is not over by a long shot. Getting users legal and able to access legitimate products and services makes sense for the company and the users.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.