Even though Microsoft stopped offering free upgrades of Windows 10 in August of last year, it left a loophole for users of assistive technologies. Now, it appears that loophole will be closing soon.
Remember when Microsoft stopped offering its free upgrade to Windows 10 for older Windows 7 and 8.1 users in July last year? It had left an intentional loophole for users of assistive technologies to still upgrade for free. At the time, it was indefinite offer. Now, it appears the end of that deal is coming on December 31.
In a stealthy update to its Windows 10 FAQ page, Microsoft said no-cost upgrade will expire at the end of the year. The new text was apparently added in the last update to the page on October 24. The change is also now reflected on Microsoft’s Assistive Technologies page in the first paragraph.
The original reason for the original delay was that Microsoft was planning to add more accessibility features to Windows 10 through the July Anniversary update last year. Since then, we have had accessibility addition in December Creators Update and last month’s Fall Creators Update. So Microsoft obviously feels accessibility is where it needs to be for users that need it to make a Windows 10 choice.
So if you qualify for assistive technologies, you better make your decision whether to upgrade before December 31.
Of course, this still doesn’t address the issue of being able to enter unused Windows 7,8 or 8.1 product keys to activate a clean install of Windows 10. That apparently still works fine. We will need to see if Microsoft decides to address that at a later date.
Source: ZDNet
