PSA: Windows 10 Is Still Free For Those Who Use Assistive Technologies (theregister.co.uk)

BarbaraHudson writes: When is a deadline not a deadline? The Register is reporting that the Windows 10 upgrade is still free for 7/8.1 users. [Microsoft] had previously said that those who use assistive technologies would continue to be eligible after the July 29th deadline had passed, and I pointed out in a story last month that Microsoft hadn't figured out yet how they would be able to tell who would be eligible. Looks like they never did figure that one out. [The Register reports:] "Microsoft's year-long Windows 10 free upgrade offer ended over the weekend, but it's still possible to secure Redmond's finest -- even the new Anniversary Update -- for the low low price of 0.00 in whatever currency you prefer. The free upgrade is reserved for those who use assistive technologies, the many features that magnify text, offer text-to-speech or otherwise assist those who don't see or hear with the perfect acuity. But The Register browsed the site and found no checks before downloading. It looks like it's open to anyone."

Comments

Oh thanks guys

[fustakrakich]

Ever think about keeping your mouth shut?

Now they're going to close the tap for sure...

Re:Oh thanks guys

[BarbaraHudson]

It looks like many of us suspected - the deadline was a "soft" one. It encouraged people who were on the fence to jump, bumping up the numbers. Can't really blame them, if they hadn't set an artificial deadline, people would just keep putting it off.

If they had killer assistive tech without the data mining, I'd probably give it a whirl ... but when simple things like the screen magnifier give me nausea and don't close by hitting ESC but need you to either remember a keyboard shortcut or kill the process manually, I'm a bit leery. Especially since the screen reader doesn't work until you're logged in. Imagine a forced update that makes the machine not boot - no screen reader, what are you going to do except ask someone else for help? Forced updates are a deal-breaker for those using assistive technology.

Re:Oh thanks guys

[Marginal Coward]

Yup. As hard as they tried to push Windows 10 on us, it doesn't make sense that they would vigorously enforce the deadline - which, as you suggest, likely was only intended to create a sense of urgency. ("This offer is limited, so call now!") However, the "assistive" loophole seems unlikely to produce large numbers of additional installs. So, I'm still expecting them to come out with some sort of excuse like "Due to popular demand, we've decided to extend the deadline, yada, yada, yada."

Theyre not trying very hard to make people pay for

[shione]

They're not trying very hard to make people pay for windows 10. From the free versions for OEMs making tablets to the insider program open to the public to the arrrrr me matey win 7 keys flipping into valid installs to this. When you think about it windows is still the only mainstream OS that costs money. OSX, *nix, Android, IOS are all free to the owners of the hardware. It's almost like microsoft wants to make windows free but the shareholders or someone higher up (bill gates maybe?) is against it happening across the board.

Redmond's Finest

[Anonymous Coward]

it's still possible to secure Redmond's finest for the low low price of 0.00 in whatever currency you prefer

Nice! So, free Xenix then? I didn't even know they were still supporting that any more.

Re:Theyre not trying very hard to make people pay

[Dracos]

Their motivation has changed. They still want Enterprise to pay for it, but they want consumers to use it, thereby subjecting themselves to telemetry, data mining, and OS-level advertising. MS has decided that consumer data is worth more than consumer money. They're obsessed with users as a commodity now; that's why they bought Skype and LinkedIn. They don't care about those services, they want the users.

The Win10 deadline came and went as almost everyone suspected, and with this change in consumer strategy they have zero incentive to raise the "price". I expect them to start moving up the non-enterprise end of life dates on previous versions instead. Win7 support ends in 2020? Not so fast, it's 2018. If you miss that deadline, pay $119 for the "safety and security" of Win10.

Re:Theyre not trying very hard to make people pay

[Kjella]

The Win10 deadline came and went as almost everyone suspected, and with this change in consumer strategy they have zero incentive to raise the "price". I expect them to start moving up the non-enterprise end of life dates on previous versions instead. Win7 support ends in 2020? Not so fast, it's 2018. If you miss that deadline, pay $119 for the "safety and security" of Win10.

I'm sure we could get more unwanted nagware or telemetry "features" on Win7, but they've never messed with already promised support deadlines. That would make all their corporate/enterprise customers question the validity of their support guarantees, it'd be shooting themselves in the foot in a major way. And I really doubt Microsoft will try to collect money on upgrades, sure they had to put a deadline and try to scare people into upgrading now rather than later but I'm sure there will be loopholes and new rounds to "encourage" people to upgrade. Feels good to get a $119 upgrade for free if you're smart, right? Setting a ridiculously high sticker price and slashing it is the oldest salesman trick in the book.

What about actual paying customers?

[CptLoRes]

Even if you pay for a Win10 license, you still get the Start menu ads, forced telemetry etc. I could kinda understand why when Win10 was for free, but how do they justify showing ads and not being able to disable Windows Store etc. when the user is on a payed for licenses?