Windows 10 Installed On Over 300 Million PCs, Upgrades Will Cost $119 Starting July 30th

Back in late March, Microsoft announced that it Windows 10 had been installed on over 270 million PCs around the globe. Now, nine months after the operating system was released, Microsoft is announcing that Windows 10 has crossed the 300 million threshold and is still climbing.

Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate VP of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, threw out some more statistics to cap off the announcement, like the fact that Windows 10 users spent 63 billion cumulative minutes in the Edge browsing during the month of March alone and that over 9 billion hours of gameplay has taken place since Windows 10 debuted on July 30^th, 2015. The handy Cortana digital assistant has also “answer the call” by responding to over 6 billion search queries.

Despite the negativity surrounding the upgrade madness that is forever linked with Windows 10, it appears that the folks that have made the upgrade are for the most part happy, with Mehdi proclaiming that Windows 10 has the “highest customer satisfaction of any version of Windows.”

“Core to delivering our more personal computing vision, Windows 10 offers experiences that are familiar, safer and more secure, and more personal and productive – enabling innovative new experiences,” added Mehdi.

“We’re seeing people at home, at schools, at small businesses, at large companies, and other organizations adopt Windows 10 faster than ever, and use Windows 10 more than ever before.”

Now comes the part where we have to break out the bad news for those that are still clinging to Windows 7 and Windows 8. Your “window” of opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10 for free is soon coming to a close. Microsoft’s generosity with Windows 10 will end on July 30^th — that’s when you will have to fork over $119 to upgrade to Windows 10 Home (even if you have an activated copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed).

So maybe it’s time to give in to Microsoft’s nagging Windows 10 upgrade prompts and finally make the switch. Windows 10 truly is a fine operating system if you can get past Microsoft’s pushiness in forcing folks to upgrade. And the operating system will only get better when the Windows 10 Anniversary Update lands this summer that brings a number of new features including Windows Ink, Ubuntu Linux Bash, an improved Cortana, tweaks to the Start Menu, and a slew of other improvements and enhancements that are meant to make you more productive.