Warning: In just a few days, the ebooks you've purchased from Microsoft will vanish

It's a little while since Microsoft announced that is dropping the Books category from the Microsoft Store, but a serious deadline is now looming.

If you have bought books or downloaded free books from the Store, you only have a few more days to read them -- so if there are any you haven't finished, you'd better start reading quickly! While no specific date has been announced, Microsoft warns that you'll only be able to read your books "until early July 2019".

See also:

• Microsoft notifies users whose systems are 'not quite ready' for Windows 10 May 2019 Update
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• Microsoft stops selling ebooks, offers refunds to customers

It does not matter whether you have downloaded free books, or you have paid for them -- they are going to disappear. On the plus side, you will get a full refund for any book purchases you have made, so you can then go and re-purchase the same books elsewhere -- hopefully at a lower price.

There is bad news -- but with a softener -- for anyone who has made in-book notes:

Mark-ups and annotations made in books acquired from Microsoft Store will be available until early July 2019 when your books are removed from Microsoft Edge. If you have made mark-ups or annotations in any of your acquired books prior to April 2, 2019, you'll receive an additional $25 credit to your Microsoft account at the same time refunds are processed.

As mentioned, Microsoft has not given an exact date for the disappearance of books, but does say "your books will be removed from Microsoft Edge when Microsoft processes the refunds".

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