Microsoft today said that the free upgrades of systems to Windows 10 will end on July 29. The company initially said the offer would only last one year, and indeed that date marks Windows 10's first anniversary. After July 29, you'll have to shell out $119 to upgrade to Windows 10 Home (or to put it on a new device).

The free upgrade offer was a bold move from Microsoft. After Windows 8 failed to entice developers and consumers, the company needed to do something drastic. And it seems that the strategy has paid off: Microsoft says Windows 10 is now running on 300 million devices around the world. Among other notable stats, Cortana has answered more than 6 billion questions so far, and people have spent over 63 billion minutes in the Edge browser just in March.

The upgrade offer wasn't just a smart way to get people running the latest OS, it was also a way to build up the overall Windows 10 ecosystem for developers.