Windows 10, now on 300 million PCs, won't be free after July 29

For the past year, Microsoft has been giving away Windows 10 in an effort to get older PCs running the latest software.

But Microsoft says the free ride is coming to an end, with the software maker beginning to charge for Windows upgrades after July 29. A full copy of Windows 10 will cost $119 at that point — or free, on new PCs.

The move isn’t a shocker, as this was the first time Microsoft gave away Windows so broadly and the company had only said it would be free for the first year (Windows 10 launched July 29, 2015.)

It is a sign, though, that Microsoft feels comfortable with the level of upgrades it achieved.

Microsoft says there are now 300 million devices running Windows 10, a combination of older PCs, new PCs sold in the last year and a small number of phones. The company has said it wants a billion devices running Windows 10 in the next couple years.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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