It isn't.
You can. If your Windows is seen as genuine, you will upgrade to genuine Win10.

And if not, you'll get pushed a non-genuine Win10 which whines about you registering, and then pushing ads on you which cost you $15 a year to play solitaire without them popups...

Come to Quarks level of annoyances? Perhaps you have to watch a 20 second video ad before it will let you connect to the internet, or open up the control panel...

I thought the whining was on the level of WinRAR. You can use it, but have a bit of nagging (and have to jump through a few hoops to change visual options).

Heh... not from my experience. My experience is it gives you 30 days before it locks the computer and won't let you do anything (and if you switch enough hardware it immediately locks the system), you could only boot to safe mode at that point...

But maybe my experience is dated...

Or maybe it's a prophesy...

Is your experience with 10 or previous versions?

XP, and 98...

why is it not?

Outdated. Way outdated.
What Microsoft is doing is that it will be checking the store bought apps for modifications, not all software running on the PC. So no, Microsoft doesn't care about your pirated software, as long as it's not pirated store software.

And if it was Windows 7, it would still be outdated? Hmmm although i'm certain i'm not going to install windows 7 just so i can test this. But i certainly don't see why they would stop right there with it being in most versions of windows up to this point (as i assume if it's in XP and 98, it's probably in every version in between... like mouse cursors, and arial fonts...); Although they have removed some features recently (Floppy support and FAT16 file compression via DriveSpace3...).

Yes. And if it was Windows 8.1 it would still be outdated. Let me see if I can dig up some posts.

Hmmm... Well last i know and experienced, they were quite annoying at giving you reminders on a daily basis that you needed to register, and after 30 days it pretty plainly wouldn't let you do anything EXCEPT register, giving you the option of entering a long complicated code (which you'd get from calling them), entering a payment by credit card, or... ummm... i can't remember what the third one was... it certainly wasn't just entering a CD-key because you still needed to register to be 'genuine'....

As i recall right, wasn't the Windows Genuine Advantage pushed with the XP's SP2 patch?

Slight correction to my above post. Windows 8 onward there is no grace period of 30 days. You will be getting a watermark, and periodical full screen notifications, but you can continue using the OS.
Wikipedia link
MDL link
pedrovay2003 test

The good news is that while searching MDL, I found that there is another program that allows you to selectively download updates, without the need for scripts, even though it does the same thing. So forced automatic updates has been debunked, once more.
As for privacy concerns, O&O ShutUp10. Developed by a Microsoft Partner nonetheless.

Notes on wikipedia also say that personalization is limited or completely removed, early on it's 1/2 after booting, and later within minutes. Although third party software gets around that a bit so it's not as mean as it could be...

I think microsoft has already spoken on this before, that if they are going to get their software pirated, they want to control the main desktop space more than protect the product... i think... As for if it only does the watermark and minor annoyances permanently, or they wait until the 'free upgrade time' is up and then lock it with a forced update, we'll have to see..

Watermark... just hope that doesn't burn into the monitor... :P Reminded of the little mermaid screensaver in rinkworks for CRT monitors...

My Digital Life's forum, your place for all your Microsoft questions and needs.
pedrovay2003 installed cleanly in a virtual machine, then advanced the machines clock by 30 years. I don't think the free upgrade will be available for that long ;)