Free Windows 10 Upgrade Still Available, Win 10 Adoption Rates Still Low

free Windows 10 upgrade still available. What is the state of Windows 10 adoption rate around the world?

If you’re wondering whether you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade, you can! We’ve just verified that Microsoft’s Accessibility page on its site still has a valid download link for those with genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 licenses.

On July 29, Microsoft had officially closed the doors to the Windows 10 free upgrade. However, for about a couple of months after the deadline, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users were still able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free using their old software activation keys.

We’ve already got the free Windows 10 upgrade for our systems, so we’re not sure that option is still available, but we do know that Microsoft has left the door slightly ajar for those with disabilities. Essentially, it’s meant for people who use assistive technologies for Windows, such as a Skype translator for the hearing disabled, speech recognition for the mobility impaired and so on.

The odd thing is, Microsoft doesn’t seem to care whether you actually use these assistive technologies, and has made the free Windows 10 upgrade download freely available for anyone.

Get your Free Upgrade to Windows 10 from Microsoft’s Site

How Well is Windows 10 Really Doing? Confusion around Commercial Windows 10 Adoption Rates

Microsoft recently released its quarterly earnings – on October 20, and the company seems to have finally turned around its fortunes. Income from cloud-based products and services is finally reaching a level where it can offset the losses that Microsoft is seeing in Windows licensing revenues, as you can see in the graph below.

Microsoft segment revenues FY 2017 Q1

Though consumer adoption of Windows 10 hasn’t been stellar by any standards, it’s overtaken Windows 7 in countries like Norway and Denmark. Globally, however, as of September 2016, only 22.24% of the world’s PCs had moved to Windows 10, with 35.88% of desktops still on Windows 7, arguably one of the most popular desktop operating systems that Microsoft has ever released.

On the commercial side of things, Windows 10 adoption seems to be strong in Western Europe, but in the United States things are a little different. According to a study by Softchoice, as reported by Beta News, U.S. businesses are “reluctant” to move to Windows 10.

“The findings show that 91 percent of machines were running on Windows 7 (an increase of 18 percent over the same period in 2015). A worrying five percent were still on Windows XP (a decrease of 20 percent from the same period in 2015). Four percent were on Windows 8 (up two percent from 2015).”

“Based on an evaluation of more than 400,000 Windows-based computing devices between January and May this year, across 169 organizations in the US and Canada using the TechCheck asset management solution, the study reveals less than one percent were running Windows 10.”

That’s odd, because earlier this year, data from SpiceWorks, which was quoted by sources like Tech Republic, shows something else altogether. In the Tech Republic report, they cited SpiceWorks as saying that 18% of enterprises were “testing” the OS. This was in February. Subsequent data from SpiceWorks’ own site showed this:

“…as of June 30, 2016, 38% of organizations across the globe had adopted Windows 10. Of those, a majority (58%) have implemented and the rest (42%) are still testing.”

So if you extrapolate from that, 58% of the 38% of organizations who have reportedly “adopted” Windows 10 have “implemented” it. That comes to an actual figure of 22%.



To confuse things even more, Lisa Gurry, senior Director for Windows at Microsoft, said in June that 96% of the company’s enterprise customers were “testing” the software.

Since Microsoft doesn’t disclose commercial numbers for Windows 10, our best guess is that around a fifth of the world’s companies have moved to Windows 10. That’s about the same as global Windows 10 adoption across both consumer and commercial use. 22% seems to be where both currently stand. Much of the transition in the enterprise space will happen only in 2017, says research firm Gartner.

Nevertheless, for individual users, it seems that the free Windows 10 upgrade option is still available. We’re not sure when that might be taken down, but as of 5 am ET on October 22, the download link is still available. It’s also great for IT pros looking to get a feel for Windows 10 for their company but were late to get the free upgrade.

Get your Free Upgrade to Windows 10 from Microsoft’s Site

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