It's time for Windows weekly with
Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley.
Microsoft wants you for life,
and their ready to kill the next screen.
Paul is excited for the new Xbox and
Mary-Jo talks about Microsoft's
bad cloud day. Window's Weekly is next.
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This is Window's Weekly with Paul Thurrott
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September 21, 2016 Microsoft for life!
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It's time for Windows weekly with Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley.
I'm Father Robert Ballecer in for Leo Laporte
who is currently looking for the answers
to life, the universe and everything
acrossed the pond. Of course Paul Thurrott
is the guru behind Thurrott.com the
previewer of news, reviews and analyzes
for tech enthusiasts. Mary-Jo Foley the
mastermind behind ZDnet All About
Microsoft blog. Together their here to
bring a light to the deep cave of
Microsoft news, like a over charged light
bulb battery exploding in the darkness.
Paul, Mary-Jo so good to have ya.
(Mary-Jo laughs)
(Paul) It's like your introducing
Bond villains there.
(Mary-Jo) I know I was like Wow!
The masterminds.
(Paul) Master of Disaster Mary-Jo Foley.
(Father Ballecer) Do you have a cat?
and can you do this with your fingers?
- I think I need that on a business card.
If I still used business cards I would.
That is one of those strange things.
At these conventions that we go to these shows
we all do the business card thing and
I've even got down the whole Asian thing
of handing like this and a bit of a bow.
But, um, those collect dust afterwards,
I almost never use them.
- No, No! I don't even have one.
- I was going to say I think I have some,
but I've never brought them anywhere.
-Wait!, You two go to shows, don't you?
It's kind of a thing, it's how you say hello, right?
- uh
-Well now people just say, "where can
I find you?" and I just day "All About
Microsoft"
- Mary-Jo and I just bump our phones
together and say "Power twins activate."
(Mary-Jo laughs)
- No, I don't know every once in a while
someone will hand me a business cards
and I have a momentary bit of confusion,
like I don't have one of these things,
or I don't have it with me.
You know I feel, it's like a weird moment.
I feel like I need to give them something
in return, it's like someone comes over
with a gift and you don't have anything
to give them.
-Yeah, that's what it is. I know I'm handing
out cards like they are candy, but it's
just because I want to give you something.
It's like thank you very much for your time,
uh, here's something, and stop talking
to me now.
(laughing) yes, right!
(Paul) I've met the social obligation
(Father Ballencer) And if you actually want to see
where this is gonna be put up you can contact
ma at this other wise I'm just gonna assume
that you just don't care (Mary-Jo) Yep (laughter)
(Paul) I needed a resume for something,
you know, like a year ago or more, I. . .
Thurrott.com, what do you mean I...?
(laughing) I don't keep track of my
accomplishments, I'm not even sure what
I would do with that.
(Father Ballencer) Our Field producer,
Colene Goldstein, she's actually
really good LinkedIn. Before she hands over
her card, she'll just say can I find you on
LinkedIn and she's just building up this huge
network of all these people that she's connected
to and she says that's far more efficient
than trying to take a card and then remember
where it came from and who they
represented six weeks ago.
Because remember a lot of the people that
you meet don't actually work for that company
they work for a PR company that represents
the company that you are talking to. (Paul) Right.
and you won't remember who that is unless
you actually write it on the back of that card
and even then sometimes you don't remember
- I have to look at the lower third to remember
Mary-jo's name. (laughing) you know I'm
really not good at that kind of thing.
(Mary-Jo) He's bad at this thing.
(Father Ballencer) I have to look down here with her
If I don't see that?
(Paul) Hi! I'm Fr. Rob, What does that say?
(laughing) Sir Foley, ur no let's not do that.
I'll right let's get away from social convention
cuz we've got some pretty spectacular windows news
who's got this first one, because eventually
Microsoft has finally "oh! that's right we're not
offering the free version anymore, maybe we
should kill that nag screen"
Mary-Jo - Yeah I can start it off a bit. Um,
Yesterday, the 20th, Microsoft put out a
KB article that said "Hey we're finally going to
push through Windows update, an update
that takes away the Windows, get Windows10 app.
So if you remember July 29th was the actual day
the offer to get a free Windows 10 ended.
And at that time they said it might take us
a little while to faze this out because we've
so thoroughly inundated everyone with this app
and the promotion. So actually the real
day when this ended at least when the app ended
was yesterday. And it's starting to roll
through the Windows update. It replaces
the get Windows 10 app and it goes away.
But the weird complication not complication
but the weird kind of coincidence is
you can actually still get Windows 10 as free upgrade
You just have to use your existing Windows 7
or 8.1 product key and you can still unlock the free
upgrade, which is something Microsoft is not
actively advertising, but Paul has been verifying it daily.
(Paul) well weekly
(Mary-Jo) I've been asking him is it still up
(Fa. Bellencer) Cuz, I was told that if you do
the get Windows 10 thing and then you roll it
back you're always set you can always re-download it
(Paul) Oh! yeah, yeah this is for new installs.
In other words you have never done this before
you have a key you can do a clean Windows 10
right now and it would still work.
(Fa. Bellencer) Wait! What? That's not how
it's suppose to work.
(Mary-jo) Yep (Paul) I know, and by the way
one day it won't, I mean maybe this weekend
or the weekend after that, someday, I'm gonna
wake up, I'm gonna test it and it's not gonna work
you know it's just.. It's going to happen eventually.
But, um, I wrote an article about this
not working probably a month ago in anticipation
of it not working and it's just kept working
the things been sitting here at my desktop since
August. (Fa Ballencer) So you just try and
do an update everyday just to make sure it still goes?
(Paul) not everyday and least once a week.
- Now does this
(Mary-Jo) Yesterday, I said to him can you
still do it? And he's like, Yep you can!
-So does this now increase the value of the
Windows 10 upgrade, because now you can't get
it except maybe if you know this super secret,
now do people actually want it?
(Paul) I.. No.. I suppose.. I think the issue
is.. Well if you wanted to save some money
I suppose you could go buy Windows 8.1
product key and you know, well you
wouldn't actually buy Windows 8.1
I should say, it's possibly you can buy a copy of it
somewhere cheaper because nobody wants it
anymore and than you could upgrade now for less money
than buying Windows 10. Or maybe you just
had keys for some reason, maybe a company that has
keys allotted or you bought the package version
at some point, maybe you bought the Windows 7
family pack back in the day and you only used
two of the three keys and you've got an extra
one sitting around for what ever reason.
If you have a key it will work. If you
got them from TechNet that will work.
um, and someday it won't. So, we'll see.
-Microsoft won't say when they think
it will no longer work in fact they aren't
really publicly saying that it still works
if you ask them, they just don't answer
when you ask about this.
And I assume it's the same thing that they said
about the get Window 10 app
that it might take some time for them
to shut it off. But the other theory is they
are just leaving it open for those laggers
who didn't get around to updating by July 29th
and they can say to them "You know what, psst
by the way."
- It doesn't hurt anybody, I think that's the
point that if they are people out there in the world
with Windows 7 install that they've never done
Microsoft would much rather see them be on
Windows 10, if they're going to do a new Windows
install. Why wouldn't they want that.
- I can also see this heading off a lot of
complaints from people who said "oh man
I tried to upgrade and I totally forgot and I
did it in August and it didn't work anymore"
No that's not actually a valid excuse.