tomm Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 It finally happened, folks. Microsoft ended the free upgrade promo for Windows 10, so if you didn’t perform the switch to the new operating system before July 29, you can’t get to use it without paying for license. Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 on July 29, 2015 and decided to offer it as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users for one year – this means that everyone who performed the upgrade to Windows 10 during the first 12 months can continue using it without paying a single cent during the entire lifetime of their device. The campaign was possible with the Get Windows 10 app, a highly criticized app that’s no longer available and which was responsible not only for helping users to upgrade from Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10, but also for forcing the new operating system on a number of PCs without owners’ consent. In fact, this unexpected behavior, which Microsoft has denied from the very beginning, has brought the company in court, with allegations that Redmond forced the Windows 10 upgrade on some PCs even though users specifically refused it. Windows 10 Home available for $119.99 Right now, if you want to move to Windows 10 from Windows 7, Windows 8.1, XP, Vista, or from a non-Windows platform, your only option is to purchase a license. The Home version costs $119.99, while the Pro is up for grabs for $199.99 – these are the US prices, because pricing in the rest of the world varies by taxes. Microsoft says that Windows 10 has the same pricing as Windows 8.1 though. The company’s latest figures indicated that there were 350 million devices running Windows 10, but this probably improved in late July, so new data is very likely to be provided on August 2 when the Anniversary Update goes live. This is Microsoft’s next key milestone before starting work on Redstone 2, the second major update for Windows 10 which is expected to see daylight in spring 2017. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Thats not even true people can lie and say they use assistive technologies and get it free still. That is the way the upgrade should been for everyone to began with ,only thing has changed is there's no more get windows 10 updates on windows 7 and 8.1 for good of users that don't want too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashish.k Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Not really. You can still get the upgrade for free. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade Also works on normal installs which don't use any accessibility features. Another thing is if you have a Win7/8.1 installed PC and just run the upgrade normally via ISO it still works and you can get a digital entitlement. MS Still wants to hit a 1 Billion users mark. So the gates to Free Win10 will close only when they shut down those Activation servers which give digital entitlement. Enjoy Free Win10 till then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashish.k Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 6 minutes ago, steven36 said: Thats not even true people can lie and say they use assistive technologies and get it free still. That is the way the upgrade should been for everyone to began with ,only thing has changed is there's no more get windows 10 updates on windows 7 and 8.1 for good of users that don't want too. Exactly! No more GWX app on Win7/8.1, just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 14 minutes ago, ashish.k said: Exactly! No more GWX app on Win7/8.1, just that. More or less it protects them from being sued in the future because if you had to lie to get it no way you can sue them . and any complaints Windows 7 and 8.1 users have about Windows 10 are in the past not the present. The year of forced free upgrades is over.. But it may be a long while before they end free upgrades if you really want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakah Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 It actually is not quite fair to Windows users. Recently you bought the license, it is for LIfe and now you have to pay it every year. This seems really a cheating trick to all Windows users. The pity is, we have no choice but to accept it ! What happens to Microsoft Office? Is it also the same treatment as Windows OS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 17 minutes ago, hakah said: It actually is not quite fair to Windows users. Recently you bought the license, it is for LIfe and now you have to pay it every year. This seems really a cheating trick to all Windows users. The pity is, we have no choice but to accept it ! What happens to Microsoft Office? Is it also the same treatment as Windows OS? You don't have too use it , there's windows 7 good tell 2020 ,Windows 8.1 good tell 2023 and unless they go back on there word Windows 10 consumers will get updates for some version of windows 10 tell at lest 2025 . Enterprise is the version there going start chagrining so much a month for per seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
november_ra1n Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Believe or not MS has always been free since Windows 2000 --> That's where I have started... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 windows never cost me no money no how it comes in the price of PCs ..Unless you order one with MAC OS or Linux or no OS there would be no reason too buy windows really unless you run a very old PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirassol Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Good riddance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Quote I Microsoft Foolish to End Free Windows 10 Upgrade Program it's over. Microsoft's year-long free Windows 10 upgrade offer ended on Saturday and consumers who want to move on from Windows 7 or 8 will have to either pay $119 for the new OS or, more likely, stay put. Microsoft is certainly well within its rights to end the program, but At first glance, Microsoft's free upgrade program seems like an act of generosity. After all, we've been conditioned to believe that Windows should cost money, because all previous Windows upgrades had some kind of cost. I'm old enough to remember paying $100 to buy a Windows 95 disc from Compusa at midnight on launch day, because I was excited about being able to have filenames that were longer than 8 characters. However, in 2016, every other major operating system vendor gives its software away for free, both to users who want an upgrade and to manufacturers who want to install it on their PCs. Apple comes out with new versions of both its desktop and mobile operating systems every year, but since 2013, all of them have been free. Google not only provides free Android and Chrome OS updates to users, but also offers these platforms to phone, tablet and laptop vendors for free. Ubuntu and other forms of Linux have always been free. It undoubtedly costs Apple and Google millions of dollars to keep developing their platforms, but the companies realize that they benefit a great deal, just from having people use their ecosystem. Both Android and Chrome OS promote Google services like Gmail, Docs and Google Search, all of which are loaded with ads, the company's main source of revenue. Apple makes a bank on sales from its app store (and its devices), which can't exist without its operating systems. Just like Apple and Google, Microsoft didn't choose to give its operating system away out of a sense of charity or generosity. The company needs users on Windows 10 in order to increase sales from its own app store. The store doesn't even run on Windows 7 (an older version appeared on 8 , so every user who sticks with the old OS is a lost sales opportunity. With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced a new class of programs called "Universal Apps." This new type of software adapts its interface based on whether you're using a touch screen or a keyboard and mouse, but it doesn't work at all on Windows 7 or 8. If you're a developer and you know that only some of your potential customers are on Windows 10, why would you make your app a Universal App? If you're on Windows 10, you can buy a subscription to the company's Groove Music streaming service or you can buy videos from the built-in store. Since Windows 10 has great Xbox integration features, users of the OS are probably more likely to buy and stick with Microsoft's console rather than getting a Playstation or Wii. Microsoft also benefits a great deal from all the data it collects from Windows 10 users. Though the data is anonymized, the company can use it to spot trends and even to serve you targeted ads. There's no doubt that this data is worth money. In fact, it's pretty clear that every Windows 10 user has incredible value to Microsoft. Somewhere in the Redmond halls of power, there's probably a secret spreadsheet where the marketing department has figured out exactly how much one Windows 10 user is worth on It's fair to say that, after 12 months, most consumers have had plenty of time to upgrade to Windows 10. However, the upgrade process is not always as easy as it should be. Some folks may have tried, failed and given up for a while. It took my wife six months and over two dozen failed attempts (with awkward error messages like "something happened") before she finally decided to erase her hard drive, install Windows 7 from scratch and then run the Windows 10 upgrade. My mother's Windows 7 laptop failed over half a dozen times, reporting that it didn't have enough space for Windows 10, even though it had 140GB free. Other people may have chosen not to upgrade to Windows 10 during the first year, because they haven't seen a compelling reason to change. They're probably looking at Windows 7 and saying "if it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it." But these users may change their minds and want to upgrade in the future when they get to experience Windows 10 more closely or when Microsoft adds new features they just can't resist. Perhaps a family with a Windows 7 PC buys a cheap laptop for the kids and it has Windows 10 on it. All of a sudden, they understand the benefits of the new OS like they never have before and they want to run it on their main computer, but it's too late to upgrade for free. So why is Microsoft ending its free upgrade program? Revenue from OS sales can't possibly be the reason. I promise you that no one is going to pay $119 to upgrade to Windows 10 today, if they weren't willing to do it for free in the past. In May, Computerworld's Gregg Keizer argued that Microsoft has to end the upgrade program, because OEMs want to use the OS as a selling point for new computers. Again, if someone wasn't willing to upgrade to Windows 10 for free and isn't willing to spend $119 for a license, why on earth would they pay $500 for a new computer, just to get it? If the PC vendors can't make compelling enough hardware to entice consumers, they can't rely on the promise of preloaded Windows 10 to save them. Keizer also argues that Microsoft has to end its free upgrade program because Enterprise customers are annoyed that they have to pay to move to Windows 10 while consumers get it for free. But big businesses pay these fees because they are getting added security and networking features. Also, wouldn't these customers have already been annoyed during the first year of upgrades? That ship has sailed. The strongest reason for Microsoft to end the free upgrade program is to live up to its word. The company announced that users would have a limited time to upgrade and keeping to a firm deadline puts pressure on them to make the move to Windows 10. If Microsoft suddenly extended the deadline for Windows 10, what would that mean for next time? However, by standing on principle and ending the program after exactly a year, Microsoft is hurting itself more than its customers. Yes, 300 million devices are running Windows 10 but a lot more people are still on Windows 7. According to Net Applications, only 19.1 percent of devices run Windows 10 compared to 49.1 percent that run Windows 7 and 10.5 percent that run Windows 8 or 8.1. That's a lot of people who won't be buying apps from the Windows Store, won't be subscribing to additional Microsoft services and won't be sharing their telemetry Source: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/microsoft-foolish-to-end-free-windows-10 This explains why they left a free back door to Windows 10 without even having to prove you have a disability . Quote Microsoft didn't choose to give its operating system away out of a sense of generosity. The company needs users on Windows 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haxzion Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 I wouldn't even pay 19.99$ but i might have settled for 9.99$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heyyahblah Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 11 hours ago, november_ra1n said: Believe or not MS has always been free since Windows 2000 --> That's where I have started... My first retail copy was Windows 3.11 on Floppy's with my 486 DX/2 66Mhz. After that I received a free "upgrade CD" to Windows 95. Then after that a friend gave me his retail key for Windows 98SE and used that (skipped ME, 2000) until another friend gave me retail copy key of Windows XP. Since then it has always been free for me. The only copy we ever paid for was Windows 3.11 on Floppy's back in 1993. Oh and DOS, I had to pay for DOS 6 also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haxzion Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 20 minutes ago, heyyahblah said: My first retail copy was Windows 3.11 on Floppy's with my 486 DX/2 66Mhz. After that I received a free "upgrade CD" to Windows 95. Then after that a friend gave me his retail key for Windows 98SE and used that (skipped ME, 2000) until another friend gave me retail copy key of Windows XP. Since then it has always been free for me. The only copy we ever paid for was Windows 3.11 on Floppy's back in 1993. Oh and DOS, I had to pay for DOS 6 also. Now i just feel old. But those were THE days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heyyahblah Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 1 hour ago, haxzion said: Now i just feel old. But those were THE days. Those were the days brother!!! C64 and Amiga 500. Though I never owned C64 I was too young, my older cousins did, haha and it was so much fun. Our fist home computers (when my dad worked for this company) was Amiga 500, and then after the company went bankrupt and they had to get rid of everything my dad stole "borrowed" his work computer (386SX 25mhz 1MB RAM, 20MB HDD EGA graphic) to bring home, but forgot to "give it back" hahahaha. Our first 2 games on that computer were "Lesiure Suit Larry 1" and "Hero's Quest". Amazing Sierra games. But Amiga 500 had much more amazing games He even paid $100 for adlib sound card (craSy) which later used in the 486, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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