Microsoft enterprise users will not get free Windows 10 upgrade

Microsoft have announced that the Windows 10 free upgrade does not apply to Enterprise customer and users that wish to continue using Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 On their official blog Microsoft stated:

“For enterprise customers and partners, we will continue to deliver exclusive value and offer extensive flexibility in how Windows 10 is deployed and managed as Windows evolves to become a service. For companies that require these enterprise-grade capabilities, Windows Software Assurance (SA) will continue to offer the best and most comprehensive benefits. Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise are not included in the terms of free Windows 10 Upgrade offer we announced last week, given active Software Assurance customers will continue to have rights to upgrade to Windows 10 enterprise offerings outside of this offer – while also benefiting from the full flexibility to deploy Windows 10 using their existing management infrastructure.”

For enterpriser users that want to use Windows 10 features which have been tested for security and stability Microsoft has reassured them. They have said Windows 10 helps keep enterprise customers more secure and up to date stating:

“We are introducing a new approach for business customers, which we are referring to as the Current branch for Business. By putting devices on the Current branch for Business, enterprises will be able to receive feature updates after their quality and application compatibility has been assessed in the consumer market, while continuing to receive security updates on a regular basis. This gives IT departments’ time to start validating updates in their environments the day changes are shipped broadly to consumers, or in some cases earlier, if they have users enrolled in the Windows Insider Program. By the time Current branch for Business machines are updated, the changes will have been validated by millions of Insiders, consumers and customers’ internal test processes for several months, allowing updates to be deployed with this increased assurance of validation. Enterprises will be able to decide if they want to receive updates automatically via Windows Update, or via WSUS to have control through management tools over how the updates are distributed in their environments.”

Microsoft has big hopes for Windows 10 which they will be releasing later this year. They are also confident about their plans to placate enterprise customers and users regarding security and updates.