Saturday, March 5, 2016

Moving on towards Windows 10 Pro

AS the natural successor to my Windows 8.1 Pro Article, I have decided to write this short article on my experiences on Windows 10 Pro.

First off, I like Windows 10 Pro.  There are quirks, bugs, and outright compatibility issues that are frustrating, but I feel 10 Pro is a very polished and refined successor to 8.1 Pro.  I have yet to run across significant issues that make a move to this OS a problem, and, in fact, I have moved the majority of my home machines from Windows 7 Pro to 10 Pro using the free upgrade from Microsoft.

When given the chance to upgrade in early August, I jumped at the offer, reserved my upgrades and began the process of moving my home machines from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  My personal desktop and laptop, I had upgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro during the fall of 2014.  I was very pleased with 9.1 and saw the changes in the Windows 10 Tech Preview released late spring of 2015 to be quite positive.

Second, the majority of users I have run across who have problems with Windows 10 also had the same complaints about 7, 8, and 8.1.  I don't feel they understood the consequences of upgrading, they didn't look at solutions to adapt, they simply saw something new and different and refused to change.  Or, in many cases, they didn't understand that their older software may not operate in a new OS environment.

I have run across some common complaints about how updating to Windows 10 ruined their computer or how much they hate the newer software they are being forced to use.

I work in IT and support Windows, Linux, and Mac systems in addition to Android and iOS platforms.  If you don't understand that every software update may change your working environment, then you need to stay away from those decisions.  At the same time, updates do provide solutions to existing bugs, security fixes, and may resolve conflicts that exist for others, but you may not be experiencing.  What I'm saying is when given the opportunity to read the documentation on an upgrade, do so.  This may give you the chance to prevent making your system change in a way you don't like.

Microsoft makes their living by selling software and hardware solutions.  That being said, you need to understand their motivation is to sell their new product, discontinue their old products, and move forward.  Hardware revisions come along that make old solution obsolete and a vendor can only support an obsolete system for so long.

This takes me to my third point.  Microsoft wants to get everyone they can onto the newest version of the OS.  This can be for many reasons - marketing failures with Windows 8, as of yet unknown security issues with Windows 7, or simply to wean people off older systems.  The Windows environment has changed significantly since Windows XP in 2002 - that was nearly 15 years ago now and if you want to stay current with the changes, you need to move to the newest version of OS.

You will find there are driver issues, software incompatibility, and some feature you will need to relearn.  If you're not ready or willing to do so, stick with Windows 7.

Lastly, support for Windows 7 is due to expire in 2019-2020 - this gives you plenty of time to retire older systems and move forward to the new OS.  Unless you have to have features to run the latest and greatest games and software, you really should consider postponing the upgrade until you decide to move to a newer computer.

In my case, I moved all of my machines that could handle the upgrades to Windows 10 Pro, after having tested it on my own computer.  I run multiple systems that share the same or similar hardware specs, so I understood which challenges I would face with the other systems.  I also had the option to go back to the previous OS and had taken precautions by backing up important files and programs I would need in case it didn't work out.

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