With support for Windows 10 ending in October 2025, Microsoft is growing increasingly desperate to force people to upgrade to Windows 11. Its latest trick? To use a classic scare tactic, making people think they need to act quickly or else.
Microsoft Uses a Scare Tactic to Force More Upgrades
For a brief period on Wednesday (January 15), Microsoft appeared to announce that the free upgrades from Windows 10 to Windows 11 for those with compatible hardware were coming to an end. However, the company has now backtracked on the claim, clarified the situation, and deleted the offending blog post.
The post appeared on the Tech Community site, and was titled, “Free Upgrade to Windows 11 (For a Limited Time Only)”. Which clearly implies that the free upgrade path to Windows 11 will not be free for much longer.
In the post itself, Microsoft stated that Windows 10 users “still have time to make the jump.” Again, implying that time is a factor here, and creating a sense of urgency in any Windows 10 users reading the words.
However, it turns out that the author of this post had simply misspoke, with a Microsoft spokesperson telling PCWorld, “Apologies for the confusion from the Tech Community post. The free Windows 11 upgrade path remains unchanged. We’re working on getting it corrected!”
That correction ended up coming in the form of the whole blog post being deleted. We assume it will reappear at some point, but with the scare tactic of the title removed.
However, the same blog post announced that “Microsoft 365 Apps will no longer be supported after October 14th, 2025, on Windows 10 devices,” and any sites that linked to the post as their source are now redirecting users to the Tech Community homepage.
Windows 11 Upgrades ARE NOT for a Limited Time Only
So, to clarify, Windows 11 upgrades currently aren’t for a limited time only. While those that can should consider upgrading before Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10, there’s been no official change of policy when it comes to free upgrades beyond that.
Having said that, elsewhere, Microsoft has stated that “The free upgrade offer does not have a specific end date for eligible systems. However, Microsoft reserves the right to eventually end support for the free offer.” So things still could change as we get closer to October.
