Windows 10 upgrade will not be free after one year

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 05/20/2015 08:01 AM | source: | 26 comment(s)

Microsoft is saying is that if you want the free upgrade you need to do it in the first year. After that time you will need to buy the upgrade just like you had to do with every other version of windows. Previous upgrades were around $99 to $129 (depending on version) and I imagine this will continue to be the case.

Microsoft has been heavily promoting the fact that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for consumers running Windows 7, 8 or Phone 8.1 when the OS is released later this year. While the company is clearly pushing this 'free upgrade' announcement to make sure they can hit their 1 billion users benchmark, ina post on the company's Australian Partner Network, they explicitly state that the free upgrade offer will expire after one year.

Microsoft will offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 for qualified Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the first year. After the first year, upgrades will be paid via boxed product and VL Upgrades.

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schmidtbag
Senior Member

Posts: 7148
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5076172 Posted on: 05/20/2015 03:47 PM

I don't really see what the big deal is. They have to profit from this somehow, and everyone who intends to make the upgrade is a pretty huge % of active Windows users. Those who are incapable of doing the free upgrade (basically, anyone willingly using Internet Explorer 6/7/8 on Windows XP) likely have no interest in upgrading anyway, and PC sales just haven't been as high as they used to be. So, MS probably realized that if they perpetually let W10 be a free upgrade, they're not going to break even. Therefore, their source of profit will be people who were "too lazy" to do the switch soon enough.

Remember too - they have to pay to maintain the servers that everyone is downloading the upgrades from.

I'm not advocating for MS here; I personally greatly dislike the company, and especially Windows. I just think that this move makes sense when looking in their perspective.

maize1951
Senior Member

Posts: 250
Joined: 2011-09-30

#5076302 Posted on: 05/20/2015 06:05 PM

So what happens if you want to reinstall Windows (Windows 7 in my case) with the free upgrade if your OS gets FUBARed in the future? do you have to buy Windows 10 then?

vbetts
Moderator

Posts: 15142
Joined: 2006-07-04

#5076357 Posted on: 05/20/2015 07:07 PM

So what happens if you want to reinstall Windows (Windows 7 in my case) with the free upgrade if your OS gets FUBARed in the future? do you have to buy Windows 10 then?

Same thing you would have to do in a single license case of Windows 7. Contact Microsoft, explain the situation, work out a solution.

I think it is also funny that people are surprised by hearing this again, when Microsoft has only said this since they pretty much announced Windows 10.

Dch48
Senior Member

Posts: 1821
Joined: 2011-10-09

#5076378 Posted on: 05/20/2015 07:26 PM

I just hope we'll be able to download the Windows 10 ISO separately and use our legitimate Win7/8.x key to install it directly

Unless there's a catch Microsoft haven't told us about, the only thing making me hesitant to upgrade directly is that I'll have to format everything YET AGAIN.

I'm confident the upgrade process will go smoothly but, just in case, I certainly will make an image with AOMEI Backupper of my 8.1 install first.

Dch48
Senior Member

Posts: 1821
Joined: 2011-10-09

#5076380 Posted on: 05/20/2015 07:29 PM

i think everyone even the stupid person can see that microsoft trying to push windows10 usage
which first year user base/adoption rate = success rate
first year is more important to create impression how success a product is

its no brainer for windows8.1 user to not upgrade to win10
afterall they used to metroui, 10should even better
what is interesting how far this grab win7 user to move to win10It should "grab" all Win 7 gamers. The non-gamers, I'm not so sure of. I may not do it myself for my win 7 laptop since it's GPU (Llano APU) is not DX 12 compatible. This 8.1 desktop will certainly be upgraded ASAP.

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