Alleged employee: Microsoft wants everyone on Windows 10

Dec 1, 2019 08:11 GMT  ·  By

Back in July 2015 when it launched Windows 10, Microsoft allowed Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to upgrade completely free of charge as long as the switch was performed during the first year of availability.

In theory, this free upgrade offer was supposed to come to an end in July 2016, and while Microsoft did say the promo expired, Windows 7 and 8.1 users were still able to do the upgrade at no cost even beyond this date.

Fast-forward to this day and the free upgrades are still allowed, with Microsoft remaining completely tight-lipped on the subject. What’s more, despite news on free upgrades making the rounds occasionally, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have any intention of blocking it.

It’s all about the numbers

According to an alleged company employee who discussed this subject on reddit, this is a strategy that Microsoft uses to bring all home users to Windows 10.

“That whole "free" upgrade for a year was fully marketing fluff. After the cut off happened, the direction given was that it requires a paid license HOWEVER, this was brought up by the brick and mortar stores that they were doing simple clock changes on customer devices during the upgrade challenge to get around it and then ultimately it was clear two years later that anything Windows 7 and up would go to 10 fully activated and still to this day,” the claimed employee says.

“WDG didn't care pretty much at all because Terry Meyerson at the time cared more about his upgrade stats than license revenue as Windows isn't Microsoft's cash cow anymore. It's the same stance back in the day where Microsoft would allow Windows Updates on pirated copies of Windows 7 as the bigger picture was to thwart security threats based from those copies.”

The alleged Microsoftie confirms the free upgrades are still possible, but reminds everyone that this must be performed as an in-place upgrade. A clean-install removes the free upgrade option.

This is the Windows 7 desktop, an image we won't see very often anymore

Via WL

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Windows 10 was launched in July 2015
This is the Windows 7 desktop, an image we won't see very often anymore
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