I read a tutorial on the Windows TenForums about how to clean install 10 on an eligible computer without doing the upgrade process first. People said it worked. I have a Windows 7 laptop that I really don't want to upgrade but I wondered if using the same process would let me install Windows 10 on a separate partition as a dual boot with 7. I made the partition and proceeded to install Win 10 from an official ISO that I had burned to a DVD. I then used the procedure to activate it that was given in the tutorial and it worked. I then had a free copy of Windows 10 without losing the Win 7 installation. I didn't think I had done anything wrong since I was entitled to a free Win 10 and the procedure would not have worked on a machine that didn't qualify. (like one running Vista or XP). I posted in the forum what I had done and the author of the tutorial, who is also the main forum moderator, jumped all over me saying that I was violating the EULA by circumventing the usual upgrade procedures and that one or even both of the installations would be deactivated by Microsoft. I pointed out that it was his tutorial that had enabled me to do it and that his procedure also circumvented the norm. He of course disagreed and said that the intention of the upgrade was to move people off of older Windows versions and you weren't supposed to keep them. I pointed out that it had always been legal to have 2 versions of Windows in a dual boot configuration and that the EULA for Windows 10 said nothing about doing that very thing. He then proceeded to ban me from the forum for "advocating piracy". How is it piracy to obtain something you are legally entitled to? Granted, I couldn't have done it without using the procedure that he gave but wouldn't that make him more wrong than me?
Does anyone here think I'm wrong? If it is shown that I am, then I will report the method used to Microsoft themselves and reveal where I got it from so they can close the loophole, if it really is one, in the upgrading procedure. The procedure involves using a file that is in the Win 10 ISO to create another file called a Genuine Ticket which you then paste into your new Windows 10 install to get it activated. I assume that the program checks your computer to determine whether it is eligible to receive Win 10 free and also gathers the machine's configuration info so it can be registered in the new way that Microsoft is using for activation of the free product. I still don't see where I did anything wrong.
