I have taken Commercial Law courses at the University.
I have 27 years as a Bureaucrat with State Government.
I cannot grasp what the email I got from Microsoft means.
Note–I use Windows 8.1, & the software that comes with it.
Hello,
You’re receiving this email because we are updating the Microsoft Services Agreement, which applies to one or more Microsoft products or services you use. We’re making these updates to clarify our terms and ensure that they remain transparent for you, as well as to cover new Microsoft products, services and features.
The Microsoft Services Agreement is an agreement between you and Microsoft (or one of its affiliates) that governs your use of Microsoft consumer online products and services.
You can read the entire Microsoft Services Agreement here. You can also learn more about these updates on our FAQ page here, including a summary of the most notable changes. The updates to the Microsoft Services Agreement will take effect on August 15, 2022. If you continue to use our products and services on or after August 15, 2022, you are agreeing to the updated Microsoft Services Agreement.
If you do not agree, you can choose to discontinue using the products and services, and close your Microsoft account before these terms become effective. If you are a parent or guardian, you are responsible for your child’s or teenager’s use of Microsoft products and services, including purchases.
Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.
It’s very unlikely that you will notice any changes. As long as you agree to the new terms, you should be able to continue using everything that you’re currently using, in the way that you’re currently using it. This is not changing your version of Windows, or your programs, or anything like that.
To simplify: most of the software or software-based services you use, including Windows and Office and iTunes and Chrome, is not “yours” in the traditional sense, it’s licensed to you by its publisher (Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc.) under some specific terms.
Service suppliers and software vendors change their terms often. This can be a result of government regulations or court findings forcing the company to change its terms, their legal department wanting to cover a loophole they had missed, or the company wanting to tweak its business model to increase its profits. They’re usually required to notify you of the changes, and some companies will provide a summary of the changes so that you don’t have to compare last year’s terms with this year’s terms in a 200-page legalese document.
Since it’s a unilateral change by the publisher / supplier, it makes logical and legal sense that you should be able to at least opt out by renouncing the service or software, but in practice nearly nobody does that. The wording just means “if you keep using our stuff without saying a word, that means you agree to the new terms”.
As Bootb said, it’s unlikely that you’ll notice any changes in practice. But if, for instance, the new terms say that any and all documents you have will be shared with government agency XYZ, and you object to that, then yes, one of your recourses is to opt out of the licensing agreement… and stop using the software or service before the new terms come into effect. This is not always realistic, of course : to “stop using” Google Android, I would have to turn off my smart phone forever. (There may also be grounds for lawsuits against the company in some cases.)
You should review the proposed changes; you will probably find that they don’t contain anything horrible. In that case, don’t do anything special; just keep using your computer and Hotmail as usual. After August 15th, you will be considered by default to have accepted the new terms.
ETA: As for the end of support for Windows 8.1, it will probably keep running for several years, but you run the risk of getting hacked since any security flaws are no longer being patched. The “recommended” course of action is to upgrade to a more recent, supported version of Windows. The latest major version is Windows 11, but it will probably not run on a computer that was made before 2018. You can purchase a license for Windows 10 to upgrade the OS on your current computer (this upgrade was once offered for free), or simply buy a new computer that will include Windows 10 or 11.
99% of people are going to delete the email without reading past
So if they were making any changes that really mattered to customers, they would communicate that much more prominently, and require positive acknowledgement, not just the passive
It’s the equivalent of the shrink wrap licensing agreement back when people bought software on CDs or DVDs. By opening the package and installing the software you agree to the license.
You’ve probably agreed to similar things from lots of vendors a million times without noticing.
Legal agreements are like software. Every so often they find an issue or flaw, or (thanks to some clever lawyer) need to clarify or limit something - so they issue updates to the terms of service. If this materially affected you, they would have made the notification more prominent.
It could be something as trivial as “this portion of the agreement is overridden by consumer law in the following locations…” type of update. It may clarify copyright of content, or something.
BTW–to all–I’ve decided to shop for a rebuilt computer.
The local rebuild joint has found a way to put Win 11 on a computer that theoretically shouldn’t be able to use it.
Nertz to Microsoft.
To be fair, those ways are ways that were included by Microsoft—albeit begrudgingly at the behest of computer manufacturers—and aren’t guaranteed to keep on working.
Also, just a bit of warning: It’s easy for rebuilt computers to get more expensive than a new computer. If the computer can’t run Windows 11 natively, it’s very possible that you could get a new computer that can for cheaper. Or even that your oldcomputer could do a better job.
