Windows 10 can still be had for free, weeks after they claimed to have closed the last free-WX loophole

BTW, I've just decided to start abbreviating Windows 10 to "WX," which is both shorter and consistent with GWX branding already used by Microsoft. For brevity and consistency, I'll also be using "W#" for earlier versions (i.e. W7, W8, W8.1), and simply adding the appropriate suffixes for other flavours of WX when needed for clarity (WX-Home, WX-Pro, WX-Core, WX-S, etc.).

It took Microsoft until two full weeks after their Dec. 31st deadline, and change, to finally close the Assistive Technologies loophole, which allowed users to upgrade to WX for free if they were willing to say that they used any kind of Assistive Technology... up to, and including, hot keys. You might thing that the end of the last of the Microsoft's officially free WX offerings would mean the end of stories about how you can still get WX for free.

Well, you would be wrong. Check out the "most relevant" result that Google News returns for "Windows 10."

Yes, that's Forbes, with yet another piece on how WX can still be had for free, now two weeks after the last free WX window was allegedly closed.

Windows 10 was free for a year after launch for anyone who had an older version of Windows. For those who missed this transition period it was possible to get an upgrade right up until the end of 2017, a loophole Microsoft has now closed - although it wasn't much of a loophole, as the company knew all about it.

However there are other ways to upgrade to Windows 10 that don't involve getting the upgrade assistant from the official site.

Yes, apparently this has always worked... meaning that this also isn't much of a loophole, since Microsoft clearly also knows all about it, i.e. working as intended.

It's unclear as to why this works, but if you have a product code for an old version of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 you should be able to enter this into a copy of Windows 10 and get an activation. You will be given access to the version of Windows 10 that matches the original product key. So Windows 8 Pro will get Windows 10 Pro, while Windows 8 Home will get, you guessed it, Windows 10 Home.

Hmmm.... so it's possible to upgrade from W7-Pro to WX-Pro? It's a shame the GWX app didn't work the same way; I might have been tempted to switch.

Right about now, you might be wondering why Microsoft would still have a WX upgrade left open that's large enough for an auto-truck to drive through? Well, Microsoft themselves are pretty quiet on the issue, but Forbes' Ian Morris has some ideas:

As I pointed out in my article about the closing of the accessibility loophole, I don't think Microsoft really cares about end users getting free upgrades. It makes more money from OEM sales of Windows 10 on new laptops and revenue from corporate users than the slender pickings of home users. Indeed, Microsoft makes more money - and more margin - on selling cloud offerings these days.

Windows isn't a cash cow when it comes to home users, so I suspect there's a lot of give built into the system.

Which makes a lot of sense, actually. It's just a shame that Microsoft are being so disingenuous about it all. I mean, they could easily partner with PC-OEMs to promote new PC sales ("Get the most out of Windows 10 with the latest AMD/Ryzen hardware!"), while also continuing to let tech-savvier users upgrade for free if they still want to... and without the fucking hard sell, this time. Because, honestly, the hard sell of the GWX campaign was a big part of the continued appeal of W7, which culminated in Microsoft simply switching over users who didn't take active steps to avoid the unwanted "upgrade," even after they'd repeatedly refused Microsoft's malware-laden Home version of WX.

Hell, Microsoft even have a better product to give away than they did a few years ago, with more features and (crucially) better privacy protections, and even better privacy tools due to be added to the platform in a couple of months. And if I can also use my W7 Professional license to upgrade to WX-Pro, rather than the gimped Home version, to gain even more features and even better privacy tools... when, that becomes one hell of a sales pitch, doesn't it?

So, what's the problem?

Microsoft's determination to make "fetch" happen may prevent Windows 10 S from happening, too.

In Microsoft's ongoing quest to become Amazon, and Apple, and Google, and Sony, few things have been as ineffectual, as desperate, or as irritating, as the way they're insisted on forcing Edge, and Bing with it, onto all their customers. Nailing Edge to Bing has prevented it from catching on among Windows 10 users - and since Windows 10 S limits users to Edge only, it may discourage users from picking up that version of the OS as well, along with the PCs that run it.

That's the argument put forth by Michael Allison, over at mspoweruser:

My issue with Windows 10 S lies in two aspects: search and the browser. With Windows 10 S, the browser remains locked to Microsoft Edge (or store skins of it), and Microsoft has now mandated that users of Edge use Bing — and only Bing as their primary search engine. This means that students who use Windows 10 S won’t be able to use Google Chrome, including its vast number of recommended extensions for education (cue the Microsoft fans arguing that you don’t NEED X extension because Y does just as well if you ignore its shortcomings in Z). [...]

Now, for fans of Microsoft products, there’s no reason why someone wouldn’t want to use Microsoft Edge or Bing. Both services are victims of a “works perfectly for me” mentality, and it is easy to imagine that both are completely serviceable apps and services with their own advantages. In the real world, however, many users aren’t a fan of Microsoft Edge, with users actively downloading and installing Chrome on their PCs despite Microsoft’s best attempts. Bing for its part is a lovely search engine, but it remains the punchline to many ribald jokes. [...]

I’d say that most people who use Google’s excellent Chrome browser don’t use it because it’s a classic Windows app, or because they have any particular love for Google, it is just that Chrome has a lot to offer. [...] It is in some ways its own web standard, with sites almost always guaranteed to be working with Chrome. [...] Similarly, most people who use Google use it because it is a good search engine. Google the company may have some odd practices, but that doesn’t matter to most people. Google the search engine is a pretty useful tool for research and general work. [...]

It has been argued in comments, in social media like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and elsewhere that the lack of these two services isn’t a problem since Microsoft’s services can be almost as good as Google’s if you give them a chance — or so the saying goes. Well, I disagree. Just like people who prefer different brands of similarly tasting pizza, people simply prefer Google to Bing. You can make all sorts of arguments about why they should give your preferred pizza a try, but if there are choices, there’s no reason for them to favor your brand over their choices (especially if you happen to own the said brand).

It may be trivial right now to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro — but next year when comparing a new MacBook to a Surface Laptop, a consumer will see a £1000 laptop that doesn’t run Google Chrome until you pony up, and a £900 one that does.

I don't really have a whole lot to add this, except to say that the whole article is well worth reading. Allison's occasional cheerleading aside, I agreed with most of what he writes, including the assertion (near the end) that "Universal Windows Apps aren’t going to take off ever," a conclusion that I'd reached already - it's interesting to see others not only having come to the same realization, but mentioning it in passing while making larger points, as if the failure of UWP was a foregone conclusion, unworthy of elaboration.

Seriously, though... Microsoft need to stop trying to make "fetch" happen, here, If Bing wasn't good enough for people to use it when Microsoft was offering to pay them to do so, then it certainly isn't so good that Microsoft should be barring them from using alternatives. You'd almost think that they don't have any faith in their own product, or something...

The soul of Windows is choice, not Edge or Bing

Most of the reaction to Windows 10S and Microsoft's new Surface laptops seems fairly positive, but the fly in the ointment is, once again, Microsoft's monopolistic, anti-consumer bullshit. Not only will Windows 10 S not allow you to install programs that you haven't bought through the Windows store, it won't let you change your default browser or search engine, either, and even people who might be more-or-less okay with the first restriction are balking at the second.

Por ejemplo, Aaron Souppouris at Engadget, who starts by calling Windows 10 S "a walled garden with a $49 exit," and rambles a bit about how that might still work anyway, before finally getting to the core of the issue:

Regardless of its OS, the first thing I do with a new laptop is install Google Chrome, and I'm not alone in that preference. Despite being shipped as the default browser on Windows 10 (and the OS constantly nagging you to give it a shot), data from last year suggests that only one in five Windows 10 users are using Edge. The vast majority are using Google Chrome, which isn't currently available on the Windows Store.

Even if Google brings Chrome to the store tomorrow, it won't make things much better. While it wasn't mentioned at yesterday's event, Microsoft has since said that the default browser cannot be changed in Windows 10 S. That means every time you click a link in an app or message, it'll open Edge.

Microsoft can and probably will point to improved battery life, RAM usage and security as a reason for this decision. By restricting user choice, it can ensure everyone is using a safe, modern browser that won't make cheaper machines run like garbage. But if that were true, why is it also locking in Bing as the default search engine? That's right: Unless you manually navigate to google.com and get searching, all of your search results are going to come from Bing.

Take these two restrictions together and it's clear that this has nothing to do with security or performance. It's Microsoft desperately trying to prop up its browser and search efforts by restricting choice. Yesterday Windows chief Terry Myerson described 10 S as "the soul of Windows," but to me and millions of Windows users around the world, the soul of Windows is choice, not Edge or Bing. It's an inherently hackable, customizable platform.

This is clearly user hostile [...] the fact remains that there are some users, myself included, who aren't happy with this behavior, and locking 10 S down in this way will only empower those warning about UWP to create a walled garden within Windows to complain louder. To me, restricting both the apps that you can install and the default search engine is pushing users a little too hard

Others, like Zach Epstein at BGR, are even more blunt, calling Win10 S "a complete non-starter:"

It has only been one day since Microsoft laid out its strategy to win back the classroom, so it remains to be seen how this new breed of affordable Windows laptops will be received. Overall, Windows 10 seems like a solid operating system, but for me personally, there’s one reason Windows 10 S is a complete non-starter.

[...]

Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, isn’t even available for download in the Windows app store right now. But let’s assume that Google decides to add it in the near future. Once you do install Chrome on your Windows 10 S laptop, you won’t be able to make it your default browser. Instead, any links you click on in emails or other apps will open in Edge.

Nope.

Now, once you’re in the Edge browser and you type a search into the URL bar, your search will be processed by Bing. Would you rather use Google as your default search engine like most people on the planet? Too bad, you won’t be able to change Edge’s default search settings.

Nope nope nope.

Windows 10 S looks like a reasonably good Chrome OS rival, and Microsoft has support from plenty of hardware vendors who are already planning to release Windows 10 S laptops. You know what? I won’t bother with a single one of those laptops knowing that Microsoft won’t let me take full advantage of apps and services I find to be superior to the company’s own alternatives.

Or you could look to Matthew Hughes at TNW, who points out, I think correctly, that Windows 10 S can't succeed unless Microsoft start learning from their mistakes, and changing their anti-consumer ways:

Yesterday, Microsoft announced its newest operating system: Windows 10 S. The S, we’re told, stands for several things, like speed and security.

Allow me, if I may, to propose an additional S: Slightly reminiscent.

That’s because Windows 10 S feels like a throwback to the short-lived Windows RT, which was a disaster of Michael Bay proportions.

Okay, that’s a bit extreme. There aren’t any gratuitous explosions here. That’s Samsung’s shtick. But there are clear parallels between Microsoft’s latest effort, and its previous misstep, Windows RT.

He then goes on the point out that the Windows Store is still a dumpster fire, in spite of Microsoft's ongoing efforts to improve it, and then goes on to ask who Win10 S is intended for, exactly:

One advantage Windows 10 S has over Windows RT is that it has a more clearly defined target audience: School students. The decision to launch it at the Microsoft Education event was smart, and for what it’s worth, I genuinely think it’ll do well in this space.

[...] By having a laser-focus on the lucrative education space, Microsoft will be able to craft a compelling message for Windows 10 S, and effectively market it.

But it seems like Microsoft has fallen back into its own ways, and is trying to pitch Windows 10 S to average consumers and professionals.

A clear example of that is the company’s gorgeous and appealing new flagship laptop, called the Surface Laptop, which is a triumph of style and design in one potent package. It’s expensive, too, retailing at $999. And yes, it runs Windows 10 S.

Why? I genuinely don’t know. It’s a head-scratching decision that only serves to hamstring some truly exceptional hardware. It’s a bit like asking Usain Bolt – the fastest man alive – to run a 200-meter race wearing flip-flops.

So, you have a platform that appears to have been intended for students and teachers, being marketed to everybody and their dog, installed on thousand-dollar laptops that can't even run the world's most popular browser, and which will still do everything Microsoft can imagine to force users to Edge and Bing, two products that The Market has very clearly declared that it has no interest in. Microsoft are still trying to make fetch happen, here, and muddling their message in the process. So, can this all still; work, in spite of Microsoft's own self-destructive habits?

Let's just say that Prabhakar Raghavan, the Google vice-president responsible Google's range of productivity apps, isn't sounding worried. From Business Insider UK:

"I'm happy to see a validation of the approach we've taken," the exec said mildly. "What educational institutions have demanded is simplicity. It's a real test tube for all of us, whether it's Microsoft or any of us, right."

[...] In short: Google says it's not worried about Microsoft's entry into the market, and they're focusing on looking at the changing ways people use products.

There's been one positive development since the big roll-out: Microsoft, apparently realizing that walled garden with a $49 exit fee may not be an attractive proposition, have announced that "upgrading" your Win10 S laptop to Win10 Pro will be free for the rest of this year. Of course, they also said that the upgrade to Windows 10 would stop being free, generally, at the end of last July, and that hasn't happened yet, so it's anyone's guess how long this latest "free" offer is actually good for, but it's something, at least.

Microsoft to finally start giving users what they want

With Windows 10 stagnant, Windows 7 users digging in deeper while growing in numbers, and even PC gamers apparently abandoning the new OS for the eight-year-old one, it seems that Microsoft have finally decided to acknowledge the obvious, and start giving consumers what they want. Kinda.

From Gordon Kelly at Forbes:

In a new official blog post Microsoft has admitted Windows 10 needs to improve in these areas and that significant changes are on the way:

“Prior to the Creators Update, Windows 10 made most of the decisions for you regarding when updates would be installed and didn’t provide ways to tailor the timing to your specific needs,” explained John Cable, Microsoft Director of Program Management within the Windows Servicing and Delivery (WSD) team. “What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates. We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time.”

[...]

Cable’s solution? With the Windows 10 Creators Update (coming next month) users will get far more options:

“For example, you can specify exactly when you want an update to occur (including the ability to reschedule an update if your original choice ends up being less convenient than expected), or ‘hit the snooze button.’ The ‘snooze’ capability allows you to pause the update process completely for three days when you need uninterrupted time on your device. In addition, we are widening the ‘Active Hours’ time so Windows doesn’t install an update at times when you want your device to be ready to use.”

[...]

But the Microsoft confessions don’t stop there. In the same blog post Michael Fortin, CVP of Windows and Devices Group Core Quality, also stressed that “new privacy-centric features [are] coming in the Creators Update. This new functionality will make it easier to choose the privacy and diagnostic data collection settings that are best for you.”

Was it just yesterday that I was asking when Microsoft would start correcting course on their Windows 10 bullshit? Apparently these changes will be available to Home users, too, which is another change: previously, this sort of control, however limited, was limited to users with Pro and higher licences.

Kelly notes, and I agree, that this is really just a good first step, and that Microsoft still need to do a lot more, on both fronts, if they want to lure users from Windows 7 to Windows 10. He also asks the obvious question: why now?

Again it’s commendable but this sort of control really should have been in from the start. And what motivated all these about-turns? Cynics will point to the stagnation of Windows 10 adoption since Microsoft began charging for upgrades, but those more forgiving will at least be pleased to see the platform slowly heading in the right direction.

Yes, the high cost of moving to Windows 10 just got a little lower…

Yes, the cost of moving to Windows 10 is ever so slightly lower now. Is it low enough to convince deeply dug in Windows 7 users to make the switch? 

Somehow, I doubt it. 

More than a year and half after launch, over six months after the official end of Windows 10's free giveaway period (although unofficially you can still get Windows 10 for free, if you want to), and after at least a year of unrelentingly bad PR resulting from their own anti-consumer bullshit, I suspect that Microsoft will need to do a lot more than these half-measure to repair the damage done to the relationship with their long-time customers.

So, what do Microsoft need to do?

1. Telemetry needs to be something users can opt out of, completely. After a year and a half of harvesting users' metadata and sharing it with third parties, and without telling us what data they were collecting, why they were collecting that data, specifically, where they were sending it, or who they were sharing it with, there is zero trust on this issue. Ideally, telemetry would be opt-in, and turned off by default, even for Home users.
2. Updates must revert from the current "roll-up" bullshit to the itemized list they used to be, complete with descriptive Knowledge Base articles on each included update item, so that users know what Microsoft is installing on their systems and why. Updates also need to stop reinstalling Microsoft's own bloatware that users had uninstalled, and they need to stop resetting users' privacy and security settings without users' knowledge and explicit consent. Any changes that Microsoft want to make to users' settings as part of an update need to be explained. 
• Also, stop adding the "compatibility" updates (KB 2952664, KB 2976978, KB 2977759, etc.) to Windows 7's update queue. Windows 7 users are using Windows 7 because they do not want to switch to Windows 10, and given how aggressive the GWX campaign was, it's taken no small amount of effort to avoid being switched over. These users aren't just procrastinating, they're actively saying "no!" Take a fucking hint, already, and stop pushing.
3. Cortana must revert to something that users can turn off, if they don't want to use the service. I don't care that Microsoft think this is the big marquee feature of Windows 10. The numbers don't lie; Cortana is not enough to sell Windows 10, and its big-brotherly omnipresence may be keeping users away. 
• Cortana also needs to be able to work with Google and Chrome, rather than being locked to Bing and Edge. Nobody likes Bing, and nobody uses Edge, and it's time to stop trying to make "fetch" happen.
4. Speaking of, which, Microsoft need to stop pushing Edge and Bing on users who have clearly expressed a preference for a competing product, and to stop pushing the Windows Store and the Universal Windows Platform. No more scare-mongering from the start menu or tool bar, and no more pushing Microsoft-branded extensions and add-ons for Chrome from the start menu or tool bar, either.
• It would also help if Microsoft fixed their fucking browser, but that's a secondary issue; more than anything else, Microsoft need to start respecting users' choices, here.
5. The same applies with the Windows 10 Store. Does anybody really believe that Microsoft wanting to lock out Win32 apps and restrict users to the Windows Store is about bloatware? Build a better store, advertise it outside of the OS itself, and maybe the customers will come. But stop trying to push us to your broken storefront. The market has clearly spoken, on this one. Seriously, stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

That's really what all of these points boil down to: respect for Windows' users, respect for their clearly and repeatedly expressed choices and preferences, respect for the fact that PC users clearly intend to go on owning their own machines, and controlling what gets installed on them (and when, from where, and by whom).

Microsoft have been desperate to change the paradigm of Windows from an open, user-controlled one, into a walled garden: a closed ecosystem where control resides exclusively with Microsoft, where the entire PC software marketplace is transmuted into an iPhone-style App Store, and where users will do what Microsoft say, how they say, when they say it. Windows 8 was based around this walled garden approach, and PC users avoided it like the plague. Windows 10 softened the messaging a bit, but its central design philosophy was identical to Windows 8's, and users have clearly rejected it again. 

Microsoft need to recognize that simple reality, and turn Windows 10 into the user-controlled experience that PC users are clearly demanding, and on which they're clearly unwilling to compromise. This latest move looks to be a promising baby step in the right direction, but that's only meaningful if they follow it up with more steps. If this is the only step they're planning to take, if they're just trying to figure out what the absolute minimum is that they can get away with doing, then it's not going to be enough.

Microsoft is now bribing users to use Edge & Bing

Apparently the anti-Chrome propaganda recently added to Windows 10 users' notifications isn't winning converts for Microsoft's new browser, since they're now resorting to bribery.

From The Guardian:

The newly rebranded Microsoft Rewards – formerly Bing Rewards, which paid people for using Bing as their search engine (another product Microsoft says is better than a Google product but that very few people actually use) – will now pay you for using Edge, shopping at the Microsoft store, or using Bing.

Users of Edge who sign up to Microsoft Rewards, which is currently US-only, are then awarded points simply for using the browser. Microsoft actively monitors whether you’re using Edge for up to 30 hours a month. It tracks mouse movements and other signs that you’re not trying to game the system, and you must also have Bing set as your default search engine.

[...]

Whether paying people really works, or whether people really want to be tracked in their computer usage down to the nth degree – or to be made aware that they already are at least – remains to be seen.

Pathetic? Desperate? You betcha!

It bears repeating that this "new" rewards program is just an expansion and relabeling of an existing Bing promotion... one that wasn't working. There's a reason why people just say "Googling," rather than "internet searching," or "Bing-ing" (definitely not the same as "binging"). Microsoft has been trying to bribe users to use Bing for years, now, with the predictable result that they're all still using Google. 

Repeating the same actions, while anticipating a different outcome... I feel like there's a word for that...

Worse, Microsoft's new Edge/Bing bribery program throws a bright, hot spotlight on one of Windows 10's other features: the total lack of privacy enjoyed by Windows 10 Home users. Yes, Microsoft must monitor your every every mouse movement to ensure that you're not gaming the Rewards system for "vouchers or credit for places such as Starbucks, Skype, Amazon and ad-free Outlook.com," thus reminding everyone that Windows 10 is already doing this.

But wait: it gets still worse! Because it's not going to work this time, either. And not because Edge is a bad browser, but simply because Edge was lacking basic features of a modern browser (like extensions) when it launched -- people tried Edge, realized it had less functionality than the browsers they were already using, and switched back. After that, it's extremely unlikely that they'll be willing to switch yet again, to give another chance to a product that's already disappointed them once.

You only get one chance to make a first impression; Edge failed to do this when it mattered, and this latest attempt at bribery (with a heaping helping of creepiness) is unlikely to convince people to give Edge a second try. The 58% of internet users who use Chrome seem to be pretty satisfied with their browser, and they're probably sick of hearing about it by now.