Windows 10!  Is It Ready To Use? 

Aug 15, 2015

Windows 10 has officially been out for a week now.  Microsoft is offering a free upgrade for any Microsoft customer now using windows 8, windows 8.1 or even windows 7.  If you are using windows 7 you are probably more than a little skeptical about changing over and downloading windows 10.  Current users of windows 8.1 may be a little more inclined to make the change.  Regardless of what operating system you are using now I would wait another three to six months before making the change. 

Microsoft has a track record of releasing a new operating system that is not ready for prime time!  You know the drill, they release the operating system, then release patches and updates until they get it right.  This is not really as bad as it sounds if you know quite a bit about computers.  For the casual user it really can suck!  Microsoft does extensive testing of their operating systems and even invite technicians to download evaluation copies and make suggestions.  So here are the problems in order of importance. 

People who are using an operating system that they like do not like to make a change.  After all they have endured endless updates, patches and other changes to the operating system to get to where they finally like the system.  Just about then Microsoft announces the launch of a bigger and better new system.  Then the cycle starts all over again. 

Microsoft can do all the testing they like but there is no way to test how a new operating system will get along with any of the thousands of third party apps that users might love.  All the user knows is yesterday their printer worked and today it doesn’t. 

Open source is a term you should be familiar with.  These are free programs that do pretty much the same thing that an expensive program will do.  However these programs do not always get along with the new Microsoft operating system.  I’m not going to try and beat up Microsoft but they are after all a business. 

I happen to think that if you have windows 8.1 already you will be happy with windows 10.  Just wait a few months and give Microsoft some time to make some tweaks in the system.  If you currently have windows 7 you might want to wait a little longer to upgrade. 

The good news is windows 10 is a combination of windows 7 and windows 8.1.  You get your start button back and you can set it up to run pretty close to windows 7.At the same time you can try out some of the new features of windows 10.  There are some pretty cool new features.  For those who say “I just want to use my computer to surf the net, send Emails and just the basics” I would stick with windows 7 as long as you can.  You probably have another five years of support.