By now, you’ve almost certainly heard the news. Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 10, is free for the moment, but that’s ending as of July 29. After that point, if you want to upgrade, you’ll have to pay.
There is no doubt that the launch and adoption of Windows 10 has been wildly successful. Hundreds of millions of people are now using it, and it has seen the fastest rate of adoption of any OS in the company’s history. At least part of the reason for that though, has been the fact that the company has been using some fairly aggressive tactics to get people to upgrade, some of which have mirrored tactics used by hackers who try to push malware onto user’s machines.
Predictably, these kinds of tactics have drawn a chorus of complaints from Windows 7 and 8 users who don’t want to upgrade for various reasons. Unfortunately, if you’re still using some version of either Windows 7 or 8, you’re in for one more round of ubiquitous “nag screens” before the deadline arrives.
From now until July 29th, every time you boot your machine up, you’ll get a full screen reminder to upgrade to Windows 10 while it’s still free. Even if you choose the option to delay the redisplay of this message, it will still appear every third day as a “friendly reminder.”
There’s no doubt that Windows 10 is a solid, secure, robust operating system. If at all possible, you should do everything you can to get yourself in a position to upgrade, so that you can take advantage of the free offer and save yourself or your company some money. If that’s not possible, you’ll see an end to the nag screen as of July 29, but until then, get ready for another wave of heavy-handed attempts to get you to upgrade.
