Windows 10

[jean]

Do I want the free upgrade I am being offered?

[cloughie]

Do I want the free upgrade I am being offered?

I pose the very same question?

[Beef Oven!]

I pose the very same question?

A good time to switch to Apple?

[Old Grumpy]

I pose the very same question?

And thrice I say: Do I?


Edit: I posted a similar question on another forum. The answers so far appear to be YES! Much better then Windows 8/8.1 and gets rid of those ridiculous "tiles". Faster to boot up as well apparently. I did also raise the issue as to whether despite the upgrade being free, one would have to pay after 12 months. The answer seems to be that if one avails oneself of the free upgrade then the use of the software will continue to be free.

There is, so I am told, a good review of Windows 10 in Computer Active magazine - I may have to don my hoodie and go down and get one!

OG

[Beef Oven!]

And thrice I say: Do I?

And twice I say 'Apple'.

[Richard Tarleton]

Well I've been wondering the same - and as none of the experts have got here yet the advice that makes most sense to me so far is that my desktop (2008, Vista) is likely to be too old to benefit from transplant surgery, better to wait 10 months or so until they've ironed out the bugs in 10 and get new kit with 10 already installed. Might be time to ditch the desktop, gain a room and go for a laptop.

[Bryn]

Do I want the free upgrade I am being offered?

Having tried several times to get the Windows 7 (SP1) installation on this Acer Aspire 5740 to 'upgrade' to Windows 10, I have always got the same "unknown error" message. However, I did successfully 'upgrade' from Windows 7 (SP1) to Windows 10 on my little HP Pavilion dm1 yesterday. It's early days but Windows 10 does already seem a significant improvement on Windows 8/8.1. That, however might well be seen as damning with feint[sic] praise. Since security support for Wndows 7 is scheduled to continue for another 5 years, by which time further versions of Windows will surely have been released into the wild, if you are currently using Windows 7 you might be better off sticking with the devil you know. I will be moving an HP Envy 6, which I eventually managed to upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 recently, to Windows 10 when the opportunity arrives.

[Old Grumpy]

Well I've been wondering the same - and as none of the experts have got here yet the advice that makes most sense to me so far is that my desktop (2008, Vista) is likely to be too old to benefit from transplant surgery, better to wait 10 months or so until they've ironed out the bugs in 10 and get new kit with 10 already installed. Might be time to ditch the desktop, gain a room and go for a laptop.

Unless you have a touchscreen laptop (if there is such a thing - I am no expert) then it will be very much like the desktop to use, and by the sound of it better off with Windows 10 than Windows 8.

OG

[Bryn]

Well I've been wondering the same - and as none of the experts have got here yet the advice that makes most sense to me so far is that my desktop (2008, Vista) is likely to be too old to benefit from transplant surgery, better to wait 10 months or so until they've ironed out the bugs in 10 and get new kit with 10 already installed. Might be time to ditch the desktop, gain a room and go for a laptop.

Unfortunately, Vista does not qualify for the free 'upgrade'. You might consider biting the bullet and installing an up to date version of Linux (possibly along side Vista).

As to waiting 10 months for bugs in Windows 10 to be ironed out, Microsoft give you little option but to have a Windows 10 installation patched as soon as they release a kludge for such bugs. Avoiding Windows 10 updates is not easy. Connect to the Internet and they will force an update on you.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Since security support for Wndows 7 is scheduled to continue for another 5 years, by which time further versions of Windows will surely have been released into the wild, if you are currently using Windows 7 you might be better off sticking with the devil you know.

A-ha! That answers one of the questions I was going to ask.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Avoiding Windows 10 updates is not easy. Connect to the Internet and they will force an update on you.

Oh! I presume that they won't automatically try to put Windows 10 updates on my 7 "system"? (They've never tried to give me Windows 8/8.1 updates.)

[Bryn]

I would add that although I did not note the actual start and finish times, the 'upgrade' on the HP Pavilion dm1 took several hours to complete, and towards the end even involved screen messages advising that the process was taking longer than anticipated.

Why did I move the HP Pavilion to Windows 10? It had a much lower total value of software packages installed than my main laptop (this Acer Aspire 5740), and it is the only other PC I have for which Microsoft had offered an immediate 'upgrade' to Windows 10. The HP Envy (Windows 8.1) and the emergency fall-back Acer 5742 (Windows 7) still await the starting gate. I think the latter will probably stay with Windows 7, as might this 5740. I do have, I think, another 11 months to make my mind up before the free offer runs out.

[Bryn]

Oh! I presume that they won't automatically try to put Windows 10 updates on my 7 "system"? (They've never tried to give me Windows 8/8.1 updates.)

No, you can refuse the repeated offers. It's on Windows 10 that avoiding updates is very hard. The license agreement actually obliges you to accept them.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(And I think you're right that the free offer is available until around the end of July next year.)

[Dave2002]

Well I've been wondering the same - and as none of the experts have got here yet the advice that makes most sense to me so far is that my desktop (2008, Vista) is likely to be too old to benefit from transplant surgery, better to wait 10 months or so until they've ironed out the bugs in 10 and get new kit with 10 already installed. Might be time to ditch the desktop, gain a room and go for a laptop.

You could buy and try a laptop before ditching your desktop altogether. That would enable you to decide whether you also need a desk top machine - either making do with what you've got, or buying a new one.

In this house we now almost exclusively use laptops (a couple of Macbooks) but we have desktop machines as well - a couple of iMacs and some old PCs. The iMacs are great and if one wants to work with a large screen which is sometimes very useful that's very helpful. Desktops can also be more powerful, have more backing storage, and are good for really serious work. Also, having separate keyboards, trackpads and mice may be an advantage, as if a laptop loses functionality in the keyboard or trackpad area that may mean a replacement is needed. I'd say that a cheap laptop might last 3 years, an expensive one perhaps 6. I do get concerned about the way my Macbook gets hot with some programs running, or during virus scanning. That provides one way of keeping my knees warm in winter!

My pattern of activity is now such that I quite frequently take my laptop out with me, and on visits to relatives and friends. There is a risk of theft and/or damage.

The idea of reclaiming rooms is attractive, and I will eventually (when?) get round to decomissioning a couple of PCs which will help here.

One very quick word of warning - with some older Windows systems - don't change the monitor unit if you are about to decommision and discard the computer. I had
the idea of replacing the monitor on one of mine, to save desk space, and connected a TV by HDMI instead. At that point I could no longer get into Win XP as the ***** system decided that the hardware configuration had changed. Thus my expected one day or so of work to back off the drive has now been converted to a much lengthier procedure as I either try to recover the files by using Linux, or simply remove the disk drives and put them into caddies to be dealt with later.

I think I really will have to do this soon, to reclaim the room space, though.