As part of a blog post, Microsoft has reminded users that time is running out to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. After July 29, 2016, when upgrades will again be charged, Microsoft will once again be the only major platform charging for upgrades. Windows 10 Home will cost $119, as noted in the blog post. Microsoft boasted in it's post that Windows 10 is now on 300 million devices worldwide. The time to upgrade for free is almost over.
With the above in mind, it may be worth considering upgrading. As a reminder, there are several good resources available to help you make the decision of whether you should upgrade from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to 10. If you're a JAWS or magic user, Freedom Scientific has provided a guide to upgrading. If you are on NVDA, NV-Access is still recommending most users not upgrade at this time. "Although NVDA functions well in most areas of Windows 10 and the experience is similar to that in Windows 7 and 8.1, we recommend that most users
delay upgrading to or purchasing a computer with Windows 10 until further notice." You may wish to read the info on the link provided above to make your decision. For AI-Squared's part, you can find Window-Eyes instructions here, but there appears to be no specific information available for Zoomtext. This blog entry by 22 Point Blog indicates there are no major issues with Zoomtext 10.1, and may give you some aditional insights as a screen reader or magnification user.
If you have decided Windows 10 is not for you, or that you may want to just buy a new PC to get Windows 10 later, have no fear. Microsoft has indicated that support for Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 will last until January 2020, with 8 and 8.1 support ending after that time. You can check out the specifics for your operating system directly from Microsoft's life cycle page.
Source: Windows BlogCategory: News
I really wish Microsoft would just leave it alone, and keep the free upgrade to windows 10. Both Apple and Google have free upgrades, so why should Microsoft charge? This is one of the main reasons why i prefer the mac operating system.
darknexus Friday, 06-May-2016 4:01 PM ET:
Microsoft's free gifts always come with a cost. In this case, the cost was that you could get Windows 10 even without your permission. If the end of the free upgrade period means I can stop needing to remove Windows 10 from people's machines who didn't want it nor ask for it, I say it's about darned time. Personally, I'm a Mac and iOS guy. I do have a Windows 10 machine so I can stay up to date with it and to be honest, I hate it. It's clunky and nothing works quite as it should. That's not even bringing up accessibility issues on top of that. Windows 10 messes up what otherwise would be a really awesome computer.
cw Saturday, 07-May-2016 09:21 AM ET:
I personally haven't really found a good reason to upgrade to ten. I have heard some podcasts about how to get around in ten, but I haven't heard a good reason to make the move. The thing that drives me from it, to some degree, is the whole MS trying to push it on me thing. My message to ms is that if I want it I will get it, else stop trying to shove it down people's throtes
darknexus Monday, 09-May-2016 11:41 AM ET:
@CW: Yeah, this reaction has been almost universal in my experience among all groups of people. It's the general reaction of people having something shoved on them. I don't understand what Microsoft's marketing department were smoking when they thought of this. I also wonder just what's in Windows 10 that they want us to have on our machines so badly.
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