Ensure you get FREE updates before New years day

Bree · 17 Jan 2018

philipyip said:

So they have removed the Assistive Technologies Installer. Time to recheck whether the activation mechanisms still work for the standard Media Creation Tool/Version 1709 .iso.

My suspicion is that it will be turned off shortly....

Bree said:

... It was always a puzzle as to why it continued to work long after the 'official' end of the upgrade offer back in 2016. I suspect that it was too difficult to turn off for ordinary upgrades while it was still needed for the Assistive technology offer. Now that has ended perhaps it can finally be turned off safely?

We'll have to wait and see. I have an un-upgraded machine. I'll use it to test that in a few weeks time.

Free Windows 10 Upgrade for assistive technologies ends Jan. 16, 2018 (post #23)

philipyip · 19 Jan 2018

On the 19/01/2018 I managed to generate a genuine ticket .xml on a Windows 7 OEM SLP install on hardware never touched by anything Windows 10 and perform an upgrade install without any issues suggesting that all activation mechanisms still work.

Ztruker · 19 Jan 2018

I did the free upgrade from a Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro yesterday with no problem. Activated okay.

Bree · 19 Jan 2018

philipyip said:

On the 19/01/2018 I managed to generate a genuine ticket .xml on a Windows 7 OEM SLP install on hardware never touched by anything Windows 10 and perform an upgrade install without any issues suggesting that all activation mechanisms still work.

Ztruker said:

I did the free upgrade from a Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro yesterday with no problem. Activated okay.

That's encouraging news. Maybe it won't get turned off. But as it took a few weeks for the assistive technologies 'Dec 31st' deadline to be acted on, first being postponed to 16th Jan. maybe it's just a matter of time.

I've just got the one machine I can test with. so I'll hold off testing until at least next month.

It's no great loss if this PC misses out on a licence, I've already tested a clean install to check that it doesn't have an existing licence and won't activate. While it can run 10, it's more of a walk than a run - it's more useable left running its original OEM Win7.

sn00ker · 20 Jan 2018

Why would they bother in stopping it even if they said they'd . I'm thinking they're trying to get people aboard windows 10 by saying the free upgrade is coming to an end, scare tactics .

lx07 · 20 Jan 2018

MS said the free upgrade would end July 2016. It didn't.

Why everyone (well it was only @Bree really on this forum but it was mentioned elsewhere) suddenly started thinking the whole thing would end with the end of some program for minorities is beyond me.

MS will stop the free upgrade when they want which (if they have any sense) is never. Most people buy a PC with an OS installed which leaves those few who don't.

If some of those few buy a cheap Windows 7 key and upgrade then MS get what they want anyway (someone else on Windows 10).

If some buy a cheap windows 7 key and don't upgrade then what is the point of stopping the offer - it makes no difference either way.

My guess is the free upgrade will never end as MS honestly don't want it to. MS want people on 10.

Mark Phelps · 20 Jan 2018

legacy7955 said:

It'd be interesting to know how many more "upgrades" took place to Windows 10 during the claimed "last week" of the assistive technology offer. I always thought that MS would keep the door open because their goal was to get the overwhelming majority of users on 10 over the next year or so before Windows 7 is no longer supported. The numbers mean everything to them.

I did three of them -- to PCs that did not fare well with the original Upgrade back in 2015. My think was that, two years later, the Upgrades might actually work -- and they did, without issues!

That doubled the number of PCs that I now support running Win10.

Mark Phelps · 20 Jan 2018

Ztruker said:

I did the free upgrade from a Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro yesterday with no problem. Activated okay.

That's encouraging -- because I had one more PC try the upgrade on, but it's not nearby and I didn't have time to get to it before the Assistive Tech upgrade got turned off.

Did you use an ISO for this? And, if so, which build?

Ztruker · 20 Jan 2018

Yes, I used the latest, 16299.15 FCU 1709 ISO. Mounted it under Win 8.1, ran update.exe.

legacy7955 · 22 Jan 2018

Mark Phelps said:

I did three of them -- to PCs that did not fare well with the original Upgrade back in 2015. My think was that, two years later, the Upgrades might actually work -- and they did, without issues!

That doubled the number of PCs that I now support running Win10.

That's one of the PRIMARY reasons I waited, and waited, and waited some more until I attempted to upgrade my OEM PCs from
Windows 7 to Windows 10. I figured that with the combination of high volumes of upgrades occurring, and Window 10 in an early form there would be PLENTY of issues, issues that could create serious issues for what where then perfectly operating systems. Of course there were plenty of teething issues with those upgrades, I finally upgraded before the end of the year 2017 and had NO issues upgrading a
very compatible Acer from 2014, and a less compatible HP Pavilion (both desktops) from 2009. Both upgraded 100% fine with no problems.
I was concerned with the HP because it came with a HD5400 Radeon graphics card and I've heard there have been issues with this and incompatible driver. I update my driver BEFORE upgrading to 10 and things went fine.