We are currently running 7 and are happy.
I was perfectly happy with Win 7, but couldn’t resist the siren call of a spanking new OS. So I did it.
There were a few issues, but overall I’m glad I did it. There are quite a few more convenient tricks and tips to learn, and the issues are gradually going away.
I went from 7 to 10 also. Love it. Takes getting used to like anything else. It’s a good cross between android and PC.
Seems to have made my ancient machine more fluid and user friendly too.
It is up to you. You are going to have to upgrade at some point even though that point is still probably several years away as a true requirement. Windows 7 is a good operating system. Windows 10 is about equal to it now and will probably surpass it in the near future as it matures and more software and hardware require it for compatibility.
Upgrading isn’t hard at all but it does take a while even with a fast internet connection. Plan on about 3 hours from start to finish but you don’t have to be present or do anything for most of it.
I have posted this in other threads but it is worth repeating. The OS itself is not the user interface. I didn’t like some of the default user interface for Windows 10 but that isn’t a true failure because you can make it look and behave like almost anything within reason through the myriad of customization options it has. If you just want to do it the lazy way, the free and very reputable Classicshell project will make your Windows 10 computer look and act almost like Windows 7 or some hybrid of whatever options you pick. I don’t like tiles and I want my start menu to work like Windows 7. Classicshell will take care of that for you in about 1 minute and it will stay that way until you change your mind.
Windows 10 really is better than Windows 7 in some ways even right out of the (virtual) box. The new Edge browser is still a little immature but it is vastly better that IE ever was. Cortana also has long-term promise as an artificially intelligent digital assistant like Apple’s Siri but its best uses and refinements are still being worked on. You don’t have to use Cortana at all if you don’t want to. The core OS is at least as stable as Windows 7 already and includes additional features.
There is really no reason not to upgrade at least in the medium term unless you know you will have some rare and unsolvable compatibility issue (unlikely for normal users with hardware made in the past 5 years).
Thanks everyone. Special thanks to Shagnasty.
I went from Vista to W10. My old PC was dying so I bought a new PC. So far I like W10 and it wasn’t too hard to make the transition.
My wife has W7 on her laptop. Now that I’m use to W10, I’ll probably upgrade it soon.
I wouldn’t. Or, at least, I’d make sure you have a good Windows 7 backup. The upgrade apparently goes fine for most people, but some like me have a lot of issues–ones that will probably require a complete “refresh” to fix, if I can fix them at all without upgrading hardware. (Apparently Windows 10 often has problems with slower hard drives that worked fine in Windows 7.)
I use it on my main desktop, and am very happy with it. The only issue is how some of the more obscure functions are harder to find, like disk manager. But I realize most people don’t use it as often as I do, and they’re trying to make a simple interface for the masses. It’s been very stable for me.
Bolding mine. This is what I like about it. Even though a lot of functions are buried deeper, the Start menu is much more customizable. So I just pinned Control Panel, Wordpad, character map, and other frequently-used but hard-to-find programs to the right-hand side of the start menu. And now it is even easier to use than Win 7 was!
I haven’t had any issues and actually my computer seems like it runs smoother. Of course, that might be just because I installed a new operating system and would have seemed as smooth if I reinstalled 8.1.
I found the upgrade from 8 to 8.1 horrible FWIW. As soon as I installed it, I had all sorts of issues with my wifi router, which didn’t get fixed until after months of patches.
Some here may already know my somewhat outlying proclivities in this regard, so may I just say, never has there been a more perfect username for a posted question! 
It’s funny how ever since Windows XP, subsequent OS upgrade descriptions have always been some variant of “well, I had all these problems, but one by one they got fixed or worked around, and now the new OS is almost as good as the old one I had before!”
Of course all this is IMHO, as befits the forum, and a little bit tongue-in-cheek, although for me, really quite accurate. There are good and valid reasons to upgrade, especially for those on the leading edge of gaming or whatever other apps and features are relevant to them. What I’ve always wanted in the home is a good and reliable computer that does what I need. Now I have several, all good and reliable and nicely networked together, and I’m not about to mess with any of them just because Bill Gates & Co. needs a continuing revenue stream.
The upgrade is free.
Not from XP it ain’t. Nor from Enterprise editions of Win 7 or 8.x.
Nor, really, from consumer versions of Win 7 and 8.x, either. The upgrade is only “free” of initial cost for a limited time (one year from release, I think), and as most of us have come to realize, Microsoft has been offering all kinds of “free” software for a long time that turns out not to actually be “free” at all, and Windows 10 is no exception. Windows 10 creates a lock-in to the Microsoft ecosystem, which is not necessarily evil, but it provides no end of opportunity for Microsoft to lighten your wallet. Moreover, it looks like Windows 10 will evolve to a paid subscription service in the future, but even now it provides hooks into paid services:
Cortana ramps up Bing’s market share with every search you make. OneDrive backs up everything to the cloud, and of course you can buy more storage space if you need it. The Video, Groove Music, and Xbox apps encourage entertainment purchases through Microsoft. The new Edge browser and the very operating system itself track you to serve targeted ads. The free Office apps encourage paid Office 365 subscriptions to unlock full functionality. Underneath it all, the Windows Store is the repository for all of Microsoft’s vaunted universal apps (and plenty of other things to buy). Heck, even Solitaire begs for a monthly subscription to ditch ads now.
In other words, while Windows 7 customers never contributed anything to Microsoft’s bottom line, Windows 10 is chock full of opportunities for Microsoft to make some money off of you, long after you’ve paid up for your Windows license. Which, of course, you still have to do. Microsoft isn’t crazy.
Nor from Win3.1. “Damn them! Damn them all to Hell!”
NM
Pity that you didn’t have the attention span to read past the first sentence.
Pity the first sentence was so obviously laughable.
I did. I wrote a long dissertation on it but then realized that this pretty much summed up everything I had to say on the matter.
Does the OP have any of the products you mentioned? Nope, they just say Windows 7. So anything said about Windows XP, or earlier is about as relevant as moose pooping in the woods. Now if they do have an Enterprise edition, then upgrades are through volume licensing agreements and they probably wouldn’t be asking about that here. So, let us assume they are asking about a product they can upgrade.
Having used Windows 10 since it was released, I haven’t had any issues with it. It works as expected and is quicker than the previous version. I like the interface and even though different, it took only minutes to figure it out.
I don’t use Cortana. I use Chrome. Google tracks my activity so that Cortana does it as well is a non-starter. Don’t browse kiddie donkey porn if being tracked bothers you.
Solitaire now has ads in it which I ignore other than when it advertises for games that are installed on my computer. It makes me wonder how good their tracking and ad targeting is if they waste ad space on stuff I already have.
I don’t have any problems with a subscription model for pricing. I use Office 365 and get a TB of Onedrive storage with it. Everything that I care about is now backed up to the cloud and on every device that I allow to sync. I have the latest version of Office software and don’t have to worry about incompatibilities that weren’t the case with the ‘free’ Office like products available for download. Formatting was always an issue using products like OpenOffice.
The first sentence described why the respondent’s snark to me was incorrect and irrelevant, since even the license is not “free” in my instance. And incidentally, major corporations and international organizations are still running OS desktops even older than XP, and still being fully supported by Microsoft, because – guess what: they just want to get a job done.
The rest of it described why the respondent’s snark was actually irrelevant to everyone else, too. Surprise: Microsoft is a company, not a charity. They don’t do anything for “free”. They offer a value proposition, and some of us look at it in objective and utilitarian terms. Others are fanbois, like the ones who used to line up in front of Best Buy at midnight to get Windows 9x, or still line up today in front of Apple stores.
This is not about opposition to change. Windows XP was one of the most phenomenally important advances in the history of consumer personal computing, and I was actually an enthusiastic beta tester and early adopter. I was also one of the first to comment on Vista in the following terms, and I quote: WTF?
The Forbes article I cited describes why Windows 10 is not only not “free”, but in fact has the potential to be exceptionally expensive.
Windows 7 is being supported until ~2020 or so. Unless you just want to play with a new OS, stick with 7.
10 isn’t bad overall but there are a lot of small quirks, and there are a lot of user spying allegations about Windows 10. I will say that the difficulty of finding things in 10 finally caused me to embrace the Windows key to do things like Windows-R to get a Run program box and just type the name of what I want to run. Much easier to clicking my way to a program that MS put who-knows-where.