Originally Posted by
Loose rivets
I can't remember who it was, but one of the highest MS bods said in front of a sizeable audience, 'The free upgrade of W10 is permanent'. 'No charges, ever'. Unequivocal, and said in one of those sincere voices that make you think, Does he mean that?
He was being truthful. The limited-time offer was that if you ungraded to W10 within the specified period you would not be charged for it later (ie it wasn't a deferred payment offer). If you didn't upgrade within the specified period then you missed the offer and you would then have to pay for the upgrade.
Microsoft made this very, very clear and sent out gazzilions of email reminders to people with registered earlier windows versions reminding them "you have only x days left to upgrade", where "x" started at 300 days and continued down to 1 day in something like 25 day increments IIRC. I know we made a point of going around the house and doing installs on the 6 laptops, three desktops and three netbooks that were still serviceable at the time (many had been superseded, but retained as backups in case they were needed).
IMHO anyone who chose to decline the offer at the time only has themselves to blame.
PDR