Update: Windows 11’s free upgrade path isn’t going away

Editor’s Note: Microsoft representatives said Wednesday that the Tech Community blog post was in error: “Apologies for the confusion from the Tech Community post. The free Windows 11 upgrade path remains unchanged. We’re working on getting it corrected!“

The original story continues below.

Yesterday, Microsoft posted on the Tech Community blog, once again urging Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11. The company has been nudging users in this direction for a while now, employing increasingly desperate tactics as statistics continue to show that Windows 11 adoption has plateaued worldwide.

It’s been bad news for Microsoft, who previously announced that Windows 10 will officially be no longer supported on October 14, 2025. You can still keep using your Windows 10 PC after that date, but you’ll no longer receive security updates so you’ll be exposed to greater and greater risk over time.

Microsoft has long offered a free upgrade to Windows 11 for anyone who’s still on Windows 10, with the upgrade bringing you up to the equivalent version of Windows 11 (i.e., Windows 10 Home to Windows 11 Home and Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro). But this free upgrade offer doesn’t circumvent the Windows 11 requirements: “You need to confirm that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for the update,” Microsoft’s Margaret Farmer writes in the post.

What’s interesting, however, is the title of the blog post — “Free Upgrade to Windows 11 (For a Limited Time Only)” — which uses the psychological trick of time scarcity to get you to do something you might not otherwise do. In this case, Microsoft seems to be suggesting that the long-available free Windows 11 upgrade won’t be around forever, and they’re likely hoping this will get stragglers switching over sooner than later.

It’s unclear when this “limited time only” offer will end. Could it be on October 14 with the end of support for Windows 10? Possibly.

If you don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11 and stick with Windows 10 even after end-of-support hits, you’ll either need to pay up for Windows 10 extended support or don’t pay up and accept that your system will be forever vulnerable to unpatched security flaws.