Microsoft revealed this week that the free ride to grab an upgrade to the company's new operating system Windows 10 will indeed be over at the one year launch mark.

This means that devices running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can only be upgraded for free to Windows 10 before July 29th, 2016, and that the option to do so expires on the day of the anniversary.

Users who want to upgrade their PCs to Windows 10 after July 29 will have to pay for a license. It is unclear right now whether special upgrade options will be made available, or if users interested in Windows 10 need to buy retail copies.

If that is the case, users who want to upgrade their devices after the first anniversary would have to pay the same amount of money -- $119 for Windows 10 Home or $199 for Windows 10 Pro -- that users pay to install the operating system directly on a system without previous version of Windows installed on it.

Windows 10 will remain free for some

It turns out however that Windows 10 will remain free for some users. A new blog post on the Microsoft Accessibility Blog confirms that Microsoft will continue to offer the operating system as a free upgrade for users who use assistive technologies.

As you may have heard, the free Windows 10 upgrade offer for customers running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is set to end on July 29, but we want to clarify that that deadline will *not* apply to customers who use assistive technologies.

Assistive products are specialty software and hardware products like voice recognition software or screen readers that provide accessibility.

Microsoft has yet to reveal how customers who use assistive technology products can take advantage of the offer. The company plans to reveal details on the Microsoft Accessibility Blog in the future however. One way to stay informed is to subscribe to the blog using RSS.

It seems highly unlikely that Microsoft will grant free upgrades to Windows 10 for anyone who is turning on accessibility features on Windows 10 after July 29. This would leave only a couple of options including detection of installed hardware or software products for accessibility, or to require some other form of proof before the free upgrade is granted.

Note that it is still possible to upgrade systems to Windows 10 for free, provided that a genuine product key is available

Summary Article Name Turns out, Windows 10 will remain free for some Description Microsoft revealed on the company's Accessibility blog that upgrades to Windows 10 will remain free for users who use assistive technologies. Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

Advertisement