Alan Danbury - PC Support

Windows 10 - should I upgrade?

Microsoft released the latest version of Windows on 29 July 2015. This upgrade for any machines running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 is free for the first year.

Some people are asking whether they should take advantage of this upgrade? My advice at present is NOT to upgrade.

You have 12 months from the release date to upgrade for free, and from experience to date, most customers are having problems after the upgrade and have had to revert back to their previous version of Windows. Microsoft have already brought out several updates to Windows 10 to fix some of the problems, but I suspect that it will be some months before the majority are resolved. Particular problems that you might encounter are that there are no Windows 10 drivers available for some of your peripherals, e.g. printers, scanners etc nor that some older software is incompatible with Windows 10. It may take time for other companies, e.g. Anti Virus program vendors, to bring out fully compatible versions.

Other users may be upset to find that some features of older versions of Windows, e.g. Windows Media Centre do not exist in Windows 10, neither does it include a program to play DVD's. There are some free alternatives around, but you have to locate them and install them yourself.

There have also been concerns raised in the press about privacy issues with the latest version of Windows. For example, if you chose to use Cortana, the voice activated assistant, all your requests are sent back to Microsoft's servers so that the command can be analysed and turned into something that the computer will recognise.

I will update this advice as Microsoft bring out more updates.

Update 16 October 2015

It has been reported that one of the "features" of the latest preview of Windows 10 is the inclusion of adverts on the Start Menu. Given that users cannot refuse or delay download and installation of updates, this is likely to appear on all copies of Windows 10 in the next few weeks or months. Who knows what else Microsoft will incorporate in subsequent updates? My advice remains NOT to upgrade at the present time, and I am having some doubts whether I will ever upgrade my own machines to Windows 10.

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