In an unprecedented move that aims to push Windows 10 firmly into the Chinese market Microsoft has said that when the new operating system comes out this summer consumers will be able to upgrade even if they are using counterfeit versions of Windows. “Anyone with a qualified device can upgrade to Window 10, including those with pirated copies of Windows,” a spokesperson for Microsoft said.

In China it’s thought that as much as 75% of all PC software is not legit. Microsoft has tried in the past to crackdown on its products being illegally sold in China, as well as other countries in Asia, such as Thailand, where eight out of ten computers reportedly run illegal software, but perhaps simply due to the costs being too high for the average user in some developing world countries, crackdowns have had little success.

While it has been reported that counterfeit software in the aforementioned countries is much of the time infected with malware, retail shops often store only computers running preinstalled counterfeit versions of Windows, and Microsoft never really managed to change that. It seems that the Redmond company has finally accepted defeat, or perhaps has realized how best to keep some Asian consumers in the Microsoft ecosystem. Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Windows, told Reuters, “We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10,” in an effort to re-engage with the many millions of Windows users in China, he added.

It may seem that Microsoft has gone a touch soft, but every attempt the company made in the past to address the problem of counterfeit software fell flat on its face. Microsoft attempted many times over the years to stilt illegal copies of Windows with Windows Activation Technologies, but each time it seems the pirates found a way to get around it. Many consumers in countries such as China do not even know they are purchasing counterfeit software, and even though Microsoft had asked consumers in the past to return their copies if illegal, no headway was ever really made. Even President Barack Obama joined Steve Ballmer back in 2011 to bring light to the issue of counterfeit software in China, but to no avail.

With Microsoft already working with China’s largest software companies, Lenovo, Tencent and Qihoo 360, and also forming an alliance with China’s largest smartphone distributor, Xiaomi, to test the new OS on its phones, it looks like Redmond is deadly earnest about making Windows 10 ubiquitous throughout China.

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