Ever since Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade for the first year of its release, some suspicions began to rise that the news is probably too good to be true. And despite Microsoft’s multiple attempts to clarify that yes the upgrade is indeed free without some nefarious bait and switch looming in the distance, those fears have persisted.
Hopefully those fears will finally be put to rest once and for all as less than two weeks before the launch of Microsoft’s newest operating system, the technology company released the license terms for Windows 10. Ed Bott of ZDNet reports that Windows 10 will continue the traditional 10-year support lifecycle and adds that:
“there will be no charges for updates during the supported phase. There will be no Windows 10 subscription fees during the supported phase.”
As Bott further points out, the only question that remains is what will Microsoft be offering in 2-3 years, the normal point in time when the next version of Windows is released. Microsoft has previously said that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows as the company will move to a Windows as a Service model, with ongoing updates rather than new iterations of Windows as a product.
Regardless of how that question is eventually answered by Microsoft, one thing that is even more crystal clear after today is Windows 10 is truly a free upgrade, and your license will remain free without any looming subscription pitfalls and traps.
Further reading: EULA, Microsoft, Windows 10, Windows 10 Free Upgrade
