This article is more than 1 year old

Windows 10 still free, even the Anniversary Update, if you're crass

Can you bring yourself to say you need assistive technologies for a free OS?

Poll Microsoft's year-long Windows 10 free upgrade offer ended over the weekend, but it's still possible to secure Redmond's finest – even the new Anniversary Update - for the low low price of 0.00 in whatever currency you prefer.

The free upgrade is reserved for those who use assistive technologies, the many features that magnify text, offer text-to-speech or otherwise assist those who don't see or hear with the perfect acuity. But The Register browsed the site and found no checks before downloading. It looks like it's open to anyone.

Microsoft's added plenty of accessibility features to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, with thirteen new languages spoken by its Narrator, spoken prompts during search and six levels of verbosity in audio descriptions of text. At the lowest verbosity level, Narrator just reads. At higher levels it does things like tell you the style applied to text so you'll be told if it is a heading or sub-heading.

Other inclusions mean there are more keyboard shortcuts to use across more apps, so Cortana can be keyboard-driven for those who prefer to do so, while Mail has more assistive features too.

All of which begs the question: is it acceptable to take advantage of an offer Microsoft's made to a very deserving group of users? Make us proud, Reg readers. ®

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