Windows 10: What Happens When The Upgrade Timer Runs Out?

Can Windows 10 really be almost a year old? What will happen after July 29th? Does even Microsoft know? Well, probably, but it isn’t like their telling anybody….

For some of us it may only seem like yesterday we backed up our files, crossed our fingers, and got our hands on Microsoft’s newest flagship operating system for the grand old price of, well, nothing.

And most users of Windows 10 agree, that in the main, the free upgrade to Windows 10 was, a reasonably positive experience, and one they haven’t looked back from.

Of course for others, the upgrade wasn’t by choice, and rightly, perhaps, Microsoft have taken some heavy criticism for the aggressive manner, and malware like stealth tactics they have employed to get people to begin the upgrade.

In fairness to the Washington State based tech giant however, their batting average for the successful adoption of Windows 10 upgrades from 7 or 8, has however, been quite high. According to recently released figures from Microsoft, over 200,000,000 users have gone down the upgrade path.

Of course, this is also the week where the news broke globally that Terri Goldstein succeeded in winning a $10,000 pay out from Microsoft after her Windows 7 computer ‘upgraded’ itself to Windows 10 without her knowledge, and left her laptop virtually unusable.

But what happens when the free upgrade to Windows 10 runs out at the end of this month?

Microsoft’s strategy to release Windows 10 as the final ever version of Windows with a number, and to let anyone with Windows 7 or 8 to get it for free, was as the world has seen, an unparalleled success.

But when the offer to get Windows 10 for free ends at the end of July, there will still be millions of machines out there who haven’t moved to Windows 10. So what are Microsoft going to do?

The answer, according to some sources, is that Microsoft themselves don’t really know, or at least haven’t actually decided just yet.

“For the most part, all of those machines whose owners wanted the upgrade will hopefully have gotten one,” Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi told The Associated Press.

In light of the fact that Microsoft paid out to Goldstein, they’ve now said that upgrade notices will in future carry well defined and clearly marked options to decline the Windows 10 upgrade, so that will make it harder for the tech company to push Windows 10 on people unexpectedly.

Instead other sources have claimed that Microsoft will either extend the deadline for free Windows 10 upgrades by 6 months, or may equally just decide that people have had their 365 days to do it for free, and will now have to pay to get Windows 10.

Of course there is also the third way:

Last month Microsoft did announce permanent free upgrades for those using the ‘Assistive Technologies’ part of Windows 10. Of course, like most magic tricks using smoke and mirrors, this means users will have to have Windows 10 installed.

But considering that Assistive Technologies also includes things such as keyboard shortcuts, well your guess is as good as mine as to quite what that actually means.

In real terms, Microsoft are probably hedging their bets and won’t make any real announcement about what will actually happen to the free upgrade timer until after the deadline is up at the end of July.

If, however, upgrading to Windows 10 is something you’ve been meaning to do for a while, but just never quite got round to it, it might be a good idea to take the plunge, you know, just to be safe.