Should I upgrade to Windows 10?

[sk1105]

Microsoft has just placed an icon on my taskbar inviting me to sign up for my free copy of Windows 10 when it becomes available. Ordinarily I would go for it (upgrades must be better, right?), but given the complaints levelled at Microsoft's last OS I'm not so sure. I currently have Windows 7 which I'm very happy with, and I'm reluctant to risk spoiling my experience. Do any of you with more computing expertise than myself think that Windows 10 looks likely to be worth it?

 

[phion]

I just got the notification yesterday. I went ahead an reserved my free upgrade because why not?

 

[MrWarlock616]

Why would you hold back? They're offering a free upgrade for the first time, and having used Windows 10 via the Insider Preview, it's pretty great. They've listened to a lot of feedback from their Insider program and will continue to do so after the launch of Win 10. I use Windows 8 right now, and really don't understand why people hate it so much.

 

[rootone]

I just got my notification.
I think I might as well try it, since I still have the win7 installer and can go back if I don't like it.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I just got it too. You have to wait until July 29th I think. My dad has been running preview for awhile and he enjoys it. I will be upgrading. The free offer is only for a year I believe.

 

[russ_watters]

So, I signed-up because it says you can cancel at any time. I'll need to do some research on it before I decide if I'll actually do the upgrade. I like Windows 7 and for software, newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

 

[Mark44]

Why would you hold back? They're offering a free upgrade for the first time, and having used Windows 10 via the Insider Preview, it's pretty great. They've listened to a lot of feedback from their Insider program and will continue to do so after the launch of Win 10. I use Windows 8 right now, and really don't understand why people hate it so much.

The reason that so many people don't like Win 8 is for its removal of the Start menu (added back in for Win 8.1) and that it presents an over-simplifed view of the file system as rectangular tiles. For anyone who is used to working with a hierarchical file system, many applications, and thousands of files, this arrangement is pretty brain-dead, in my opinion, and in the opinions of a large number of IT pros who didn't upgrade from Win 7 to Win 8 at their companies. I sincerely hope that a few heads rolled at MSFT after the sales figures from Win 8 came in.

The Win 8 UI is OK if you work with only a relatively small number of apps, but terrible if a "flat" file system is too limiting.

I'm running Win 7 right now on my home desktop, and have have Win 8 on a Surface 1 that I've had for about three years. When Win 10 is released, I will upgrade. Based on what little I've read so far, it seems that the UI is closer to that of Win 7 than Win 8. One important reason to upgrade is that MSFT supports its products for a set number of years. After that time, you can't get support for that product any more.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yeah from what I can tell win 10 is an attempt to fix 8

 

[rootone]

Win 8 seemed to me to be like an attempt to make everything mobile friendly while completely abandoning the expected utilities for a desktop OS.

 

[phion]

I've been running 8.1 for about a year. I guess I'm used to the new features by now.

 

[MrWarlock616]

Yeah from what I can tell win 10 is an attempt to fix 8

That and ensure apps run on as many form factors as possible.

The reason that so many people don't like Win 8 is for its removal of the Start menu (added back in for Win 8.1) and that it presents an over-simplifed view of the file system as rectangular tiles. For anyone who is used to working with a hierarchical file system, many applications, and thousands of files, this arrangement is pretty brain-dead, in my opinion, and in the opinions of a large number of IT pros who didn't upgrade from Win 7 to Win 8 at their companies. I sincerely hope that a few heads rolled at MSFT after the sales figures from Win 8 came in.

The Win 8 UI is OK if you work with only a relatively small number of apps, but terrible if a "flat" file system is too limiting.

I rarely use the start screen in 8.1. I always use the shortcut key Win + S when I want to launch an app. Using the start screen is difficult with a mouse, although they have tried to make it easy by making it scroll when the mouse reaches the edge of the screen. But the start screen works really well for touch.

Other than that Win 8/8.1 is mostly like Win 7.

 

[nomadreid]

There are some issues with Windows 10: see
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/06/12/free-windows-10-is-a-noble-but-stupid-idea/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/05/12/free-windows-10-has-high-cost/
I would be interested in the opinion of the contributors to this Forum about the points he makes.

 

[MrWarlock616]

There are some issues with Windows 10: see
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/06/12/free-windows-10-is-a-noble-but-stupid-idea/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/05/12/free-windows-10-has-high-cost/
I would be interested in the opinion of the contributors to this Forum about the points he makes.

IMO, you shouldn't take his word. In the 2nd article, the author has little evidence for his reasoning, and there are no statements from Microsoft fully backing his claims. Even if they were true, I don't see how upgrading is a major problem. You will not have to pay for Windows updates, but like previous releases, you may have to pay if you want to upgrade from a basic version to a pro version. As for the nagware, it will obviously go away after the free period (1 year) expires, and can be easily ignored. Updates to Windows 8.1 will continue after the launch as well. MS would have said something by now if they were going to stop updates for Windows 8.1.

windowscentral.com is a good site for any reliable news on Windows.

All Microsoft is doing with this free upgrade is increase and speed up the user adoption, so developers will not see it as a weak platform.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I've had Windows 8.1 for a year or so now and I really don't care for it. It seemed cool at first, but now it's just annoying. I basically never use the Start menu or whatever that field of tiles is even called now. I have it set to boot to the desktop, which is where I have all of my programs. I've had issues trying to run basically every older game that I still play, and I've never managed to get the majority of them to even work. I never had issues with ANY game in Windows 7. I loved Windows 7, and I feel like Microsoft basically threw out all of the progress that they've made with their programs with the release of Windows 8.

I've got the notification icon too, but I haven't reserved anything yet. From everything I've heard, Windows 10 is basically a 'fixed' version of Windows 8. I'm honestly considering just putting Linux on my computer. I'll likely try Windows 10, but unless it's a drastic improvement over 8.1 I don't see myself staying with Windows OS. I've had practically nothing but problems with Windows 8.

ETA - Well this is ironic. I just clicked on the notification icon just to check it out. The window came up and was loading really slowly...then it greyed out and said 'not responding.' I can't even get it to open up. Maybe I'll try again later when Windows 8 isn't being so temperamental.

 

[HyperTechno]

I'm having windows 8 and to get my free upgrade to win 10 must I have to upgrade to win 8.1?

 

[HyperTechno]

In the mean time , I 'm searching for a light weight Linux operating system, which is more trendy towards academics. Can some 1 suggest 1 for me?

 

[Arnaldy Jr.]

In the mean time , I 'm searching for a light weight Linux operating system, which is more trendy towards academics. Can some 1 suggest 1 for me?

You can try Lubuntu, is super ligtweight and its based on ubuntu so you can give it a try.

 

[HyperTechno]

Well I'll try. Thanks.

 

[nomadreid]

IMO, you shouldn't take his word. In the 2nd article, the author has little evidence for his reasoning, and there are no statements from Microsoft fully backing his claims. Even if they were true, I don't see how upgrading is a major problem. You will not have to pay for Windows updates, but like previous releases, you may have to pay if you want to upgrade from a basic version to a pro version. As for the nagware, it will obviously go away after the free period (1 year) expires, and can be easily ignored. Updates to Windows 8.1 will continue after the launch as well. MS would have said something by now if they were going to stop updates for Windows 8.1.

windowscentral.com is a good site for any reliable news on Windows.

All Microsoft is doing with this free upgrade is increase and speed up the user adoption, so developers will not see it as a weak platform.

Thanks, MrWarlock616 ( a bit belatedly -- I have been traveling) for the assurance. It is however precisely your statement that Windows will not pull the trick next year of starting a pay-for-service (including updates, which will become the equivalent of further versions of Windows, for which one does have to pay) that has me worried. It is logical that they would try this -- they have to get their money which will not be incoming due to no longer making Windows 11, 12, etc.They would of course do this after the offer for the free upgrade has expired, so as not to scare people away. They are not doing this for charity...

 

[DHF]

In the mean time , I 'm searching for a light weight Linux operating system, which is more trendy towards academics. Can some 1 suggest 1 for me?

For slim OS, I would go with Xubuntu . I recently loaded the latest version on a 20 year old desktop and it ran pretty smooth even with the scant resources.
http://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-15-04-beta-2/

If you find that 15.04 doesn't work for you, you can try an older version:
http://xubuntu.org/news/intrepidrelease/

 

[nomadreid]

Thanks for thé suggestion, DHF

 

[Fredrik]

I use Windows 8 right now, and really don't understand why people hate it so much.

For me the biggest reason is that they make programs that only run in full-screen mode. I really hate that. They have have essentially gone back to what was used in the 80s because they wanted to imitate operating systems that look the way they do because they run on 3.5-inch devices.

 

[HyperTechno]

For slim OS, I would go with Xubuntu . I recently loaded the latest version on a 20 year old desktop and it ran pretty smooth even with the scant resources.
http://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-15-04-beta-2/

If you find that 15.04 doesn't work for you, you can try an older version:
http://xubuntu.org/news/intrepidrelease/

Thank You for the suggestion. Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu performs superb on my PC. I'm interested on ELEMENTARY OS. It looks nice and I feel that's interesting. I'm downloading it...

 

[HyperTechno]

For me the biggest reason is that they make programs that only run in full-screen mode. I really hate that. They have essentially gone back to what was used in the 80s because they wanted to imitate operating systems that look the way they do because they run on 3.5-inch devices.

Yeah. That is one of the major problems of windows 8. Microsoft tried to make it easier with their Windows 8.1 update but that's an unsuccessful effort on my opinion. I'm using windows 8.1 right now but I do not feel any difference. These operating systems(windows 8/8.1) are majorly focused on touch devices not desktop PC s which uses mostly the mouse as the pointing device. I too hate this full screen app mode . But they are going to overcome it with the Windows 10 which majorly based on windows 7 instead of windows 8/8.1...

 

[thankz]

I'm going to upgrade to windows 10, my only concern is that because I'm running win7 ultimate I'm be downgraded to a home version of win 10, not cool because I need to eventually connect to a domain.

 

[HyperTechno]

I'm going to upgrade to windows 10, my only concern is that because I'm running win7 ultimate I'm be downgraded to a home version of win 10, not cool because I need to eventually connect to a domain.

I don't think so because they have stated that Win Ultimate and Professional users get the Windows 10 pro! Home and Home premium users of previous versions (7,8.1) get the upgrade to Win 10 Home!.

 

[thankz]

thanks for the info, I feel relief

 

[HyperTechno]

Welcome. If you have more issues I suggest you to go to Microsoft Site and get advanced information about other relevant things. The free upgrade is only for genuine versions , in case you may not know...

 

[thankz]

won't say anything about running a pirated copy but I do get all the updates and I got the win10 notification box and have signed up for the update so maybe... crosses fingers lol.

 

[HyperTechno]

Any way , nothing to worry if thinks are so on... I'm much interested on windows 10 mobile version rather than the desktop version. I wish the mobile version to be more revolutionary for the windows mobile devices to cope with android and IOS. I'm much concerned whether they would stick some kind of an option to run android and ios apps on windows 10...

 

[Chronos]

My with W10 is it looks like an MS apps store with minimal benefits. I think I will stick with W7 until the jury chimes in. Call me untrusting.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

My dad hated Windows 8 and he installed the developer version of 10 and claims it's the best Windows version yet.

 

[DHF]

Microsoft has traditional had a hit/miss pattern when it come to successful Operating systems:

Windows 3.1 - Hit
Windows 95 - MISS
Windows 98 - Hit
Windows Millennium - Epic MISS
Windows XP - Hit
Windows Vista - MISS
Windows 7 - HIT
Windows 8 - Miss

So give this fairly solid pattern for the last 20 + years, I think we can expect good things from Windows 10.
I also find it suspicious that they actually began work on Windows 7 After they producted Windows 8 yet they released 7 first...maybe they too are aware of the pattern and didn't want to mess it up :)

 

[StevieTNZ]

TechRadar have released a list of what is not included in Windows 10: http://www.techradar.com/news/softw...-ll-lose-when-upgrading-to-windows-10-1299655

 

[StevieTNZ]

I have asked this question in an email to someone who runs the IT system of a financial firm in Texas, who has Windows 10 Enterprise on his laptop (he gets it before 29th July):

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2951...windows-10s-wi-fi-sense-password-sharing.html

What is that feature? If I disable it, will it still keep the connections I’ve connected to, and saved? My half-sister uses Facebook on her wifi, and I have that wifi connection saved. She is also a contact of mine on FB. By disabling the feature do I need to manually re-connect to their wifi?

I don’t really understand the feature, in any case.

Anyone who has the beta installed on their computer care to elaborate on this feature?