14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8.1 is one of the products that Microsoft's hoping to forget as soon as possible, so the company's trying anything to make Windows 10 successful and convince users to upgrade as fast as possible.
Both Windows 8 and 8.1 failed to meet expectations, despite the fact that the latter came with improvements supposed to fix the top annoyances in the first, so it's no surprise that Microsoft wants to get over both quickly.
But it turns out that despite the arrival of Windows 10, Microsoft still can't let Windows 8.1 go, as some new ads that the company rolled out in anticipation of the back-to-school season do not use the new operating system, but its predecessor.
The Surface tablet is one of Microsoft's key products for the shopping season that will debut soon, so these ads are not at all unexpected, but on the other hand, seeing Windows 8.1 running on these tablets is definitely surprising.
Surface with pre-installed Windows 10
Just like all PCs running Windows 7 or 8.1, Surface tablets can be upgraded to Windows 10 free of charge (Surface RT and Surface 2 are not included in the offer because they run Windows RT – an upgrade for them will be released in September).
Users can wait for the upgrade to arrive on their tablets or can go directly to the Microsoft store and have them upgraded by professional staff, but either way, Surface devices can run Windows 10 flawlessly.
What's interesting is that Microsoft has already started selling Surface tablets with Windows 10 pre-installed, so seeing the company using a Windows 8.1 model in the commercial is a little awkward.
On a side note, expect major price cuts for the Surface product lineup during the back-to-school season, especially because the company is also trying to clear out inventories ahead of the launch of the upcoming Surface Pro 4 model.
