As many of you may already know, Microsoft’s deadline for you to upgrade to Windows 10 has ended. That’s right if you left it until today, then you will now need to pay $100(£79) to upgrade to Windows 10. However, there is one exception.
Microsoft has extended the deadline to upgrade to Windows 10 for “assistive technology” users. What they mean by this term is people who use a screen reader (software that reads text on the screen for you such as Window Eyes) or other types of accessibility software. This may also include the built in Magnifier application in Windows 10 or the on-screen keyboard (which also comes with Windows).
You’re probably wondering “I use this kind of software Adi, how do I upgrade?”. Go to this page on the Microsoft website. Scroll down and click the button that says upgrade now. Run the installer that the button gives you and that should start the upgrade process.
As far as we know it’s not clear as to how far this extension of the free upgrade deadline will go though. Microsoft has not mentioned on the page as to how far they will extend this deadline.
The second issue that I have is that anyone (not just assistive technology users) could potentially exploit this loophole and upgrade to Windows 10 for free. It will be interesting to find out how they will actually ensure that someone is using assistive technology. Unless they are sending back some kind of usage data then I see no way for them to see who is an assistive tech user.
Whilst we are on the subject of free upgrades, I should also mention another thing. Most of you might have seen these pop-ups during the free upgrade period, where Microsoft is trying to get you to upgrade to Windows 10. Those pop-ups have started to go away.
Last but not least here’s a situation that I have heard a lot of people ask about. Let’s say that you have a computer that you upgraded to Windows 10 and then downgraded to Windows 7 or Windows 8. Because you had previously upgraded to Windows 10, you can then upgrade back to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.
Have you managed to upgrade to Windows 10 through this assistive technology loophole? Let me know in the comments.
Alternatively I would to hear from you in the comments if you chose not to upgrade to Windows 10 and you chose not to upgrade.