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Microsoft Extends Windows 10 S Upgrade Offer to March 2018

Windows 10 S users now have three extra months to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro at no cost.

Microsoft announced the extension this week in announcement about the availability of Surface Laptops. Originally, the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 Pro was slated to end on Dec. 31, 2017, but Microsoft has now pushed out that date to March 31, 2018.

Presumably, it'll cost $49 to make the switch to the Pro edition after the new March 31 deadline. The $49 cost was part of the original terms of the deal.

Windows 10 S, which runs on Surface Laptop devices, is mostly aimed at the education market. It's marketed to students who don't want to be bothered about keeping things up to date, much like the Google Chrome OS used on Chromebooks.

However, Windows 10 S has some limitations on the Windows side. It can't run the older Win32 applications that ran on Windows 7. Users must use the Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer browsers, and Bing has to be the default search engine. Those limitations go away with the switch to Windows 10 Pro.

In addition to extending the free Windows 10 Pro upgrade offer, Microsoft announced that Surface Laptop buyers in certain countries can buy or preorder devices in four new colors: cobalt blue, burgundy, graphite gold and platinum. The platinum color is now available in Japan Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The four colors may be available in the following countries: "US, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Taiwan, HK, China, Norway, Australia, and NZ," Microsoft's announcement indicated.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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