I have written before about the problems I had with my Surface (still unresolved). My main computer is a 15" laptop with Win-7. I am given to understand that in a year or two, MS will pull the plug on supporting it. On the other hand, I am afraid that I will lose a lot if I upgrade. This computer does not have a touch screen and the limited experience I had with Win-10 tells me that I really dislike the opening screen with all the junk on it. On the other hand, I can change to a normal desktop. The other issue is that all previous versions of Windows (before 8) came with a selection of games, but with Win-8 and 10, you had to go to MS, set up a UID and password and then download them (free), which I really dislike. Now MS can bug me as often as they like.
The free upgrade window will go on until the middle of next year, so you don’t need to rush into anything.
My views, for what they’re worth:
If you’re happy with Windows 7, then stick with it. Win 7 is now in extended support, which will continue until 2020. There’s nothing around (at the moment) that specifically requires Win 10 - 7 should work fine for the immediate future.
If you’re planning on keeping your computer around for a few more years, then upgrade to 10 while it’s free (doesn’t have to be for a while yet).
If you’re planning on upgrading your computer in the next three or four years and you don’t like Win 10, then just stick with 7 until you upgrade your hardware.
If you like the features of 10 (Cortana, Edge, etc) or you like having the latest shiny thing, then you may as well upgrade - it’s free and reasonably easy to do. But there’s nothing critical in it (at the moment - that may change) that makes it necessary to upgrade.
I did not realize that Win-7 will be supported till 2020. That settles it; I will undoubtedly getting a new computer by then and, at that time, not have any choice in the matter.
I had a hard drive crash and figured it was probably a good time to upgrade, so I did a clean install of Windows 1 on the new drive. I REALLY like it. For the most part I can make it look just like 7 and it’s so much faster. The only bug I ran into was that it wasn’t seeing my SD card reader. I downloaded a driver and now it’s fine.
This is best. I have a Vista machine still and I’m going to be buying new hardware when the Win=10 bugs get fixed. Having new hardware also minimizes the chance of incompatibility. Even Vista is still supported - XP got end-of-lived.
Serious question: what are the most significant touch-and-feel differences? What are the things that I’ll have to get used to, that might be irritating, or just distracting?
(e.g., with Windows 7, I still haven’t figured out “Libraries.” Huh? WTF? I use the directory structure – folders and subfolders – to navigate my data. I do know how to put a shortcut on the desktop to go directly to most-often-used folders, but I do not have a clue in hell – and, yes, I’ve read docs! – on what Libraries are or how to use them. Will Win 10 have something like this that I’ll have to struggle to get used to?)
I’ve upgraded to Windows 10 on both my desktop (which has no touch screen) and my Surface (which does). I’ve had zero problems with either. It isn’t necessarily better for what I use my computer for, but I like that it’s the latest shiny thing :p. The only noticeable difference, really, is that programs are called “apps” (a nod to the times, I guess).
I upgraded a laptop (but not my desktop yet) and had an issue with the touchpad – scrolling with the touchpad didn’t work. So, I found a different driver and it works.
It doesn’t show the Start screen unless you tell it to, and I didn’t have to provide any MS ID. All of my existing software stayed works just fine. It looks different from Windows 7, but that’s about it. I’m happy with the upgrade.
I’m waiting on upgrading my desktop – I do most of my computing and gaming there and want to make sure there are no issues. I’m sure I’ll upgrade soon, though.
What was once called the Metro interface is now called the Start screen. It’s a screen with big, live icons that look more useful for a tablet than for a laptop or desktop.
Windows 10 (at least when upgrading from 7 or 8.1) has it turned off by default. My daughter has a Surface Pro 3 and when she upgraded, she asked me to turn that screen back on. On the laptop I upgraded, the Metro screen was turned off by default and I haven’t activated it.
(I’m very fond of using an Icon Editor to create my own shortcut/launch icons. I’d hate to lose that functionality, as obscure, trivial, and even pointless as it may be! Personalization is one of the keys to Windows enjoyment!)
I haven’t used Windows 10 a ton, but I haven’t seen anything I had to adjust to versus Windows 7. My wife is not an expert user by any means, and she hasn’t had to ask me for help even once since I upgraded her laptop from 7 to 10 last month. I’m not sure she even really noticed.
And a brief tangent on libraries: Libraries are a way of consolidating folders from multiple places in your directory structure. As a simple example: I have a folder that I have synced with a cloud account for backup. It has subfolders for pictures, music, documents, etc. - everything I want to back up. I have other separate folders for files I don’t need backed up, and these folders also have pictures, music, etc. I can take the folders containing pictures from my back-up folder, and the folders containing pictures from other locations, and add them all to my Pictures Library. It acts as a pseudo parent folder for all my pictures, no matter where I want to store them physically, so I can quickly access them or run searches only in that Library.
If you have a single folder on your drive called Pictures, and you save every picture in a subfolder of that, then a Pictures Library is redundant.
Well, I haven’t used an icon editor in years, so that’s not really something that I could test for you. I’ll give it a try if you shove me in the right direction.
I did my desktop and it works great. I noticed the apps on the Start screen but they don’t bother me. They are on the side and don’t really intrude on anything. I like that you can go to settings and make it look a lot like Windows 7 if you want. For example, I set my picture viewer back to Windows Photo Viewer from the Photos app.
Like any new OS, you just have to do some tinkering to whip it into the shape that suits you.
