Windows 10 – Upgrade?

[Ponzio]

This last Monday I got a Windows 10 icon, in the bottom right-hand corner, notifying me that I qualified for a Windows 10 free upgrade and I could reserve it, from my current Win 7 Pro (64-bit) to a Win 10 pro (64-bit) OS. I’ve started to do some preliminary research on the pros & cons and it looks promising overall but there are a few niggles.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/1/8696949/windows-10-feature-loss

Of course I’ll wait until the very last minute to upgrade, if I decide to do so, to make sure they’ve worked out whatever inevitable bugs will pop up during the initial roll-out.

So has anyone here at AH done any beta testing and what are ur initial impressions, especially in regard to music file(s) handling/protocol? It will be interesting to see what the reaction/implementation is by the business community, which doomed Win 8, so that will bear watching too.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I should have access already, but typically I don't do beta testing windows, well 7 was an exception to this rule as Vista is horrible and xp was getting long in a tooth.
As that Verge "technical" article:
Media Center? It wasn't part of windows 8 ether. Hearts card game? No comments.
Now for forced auto windows updates - the only people who have anything to loose from it are Geek Squad and other home desktop support folk. Chrome browser has been auto updating for a very long time, and yet not a single person has an issue with them. As responsible it person I wholeheartedly welcome forced auto updates.

Ponzio, let me tell you the up sides : windows 10 should be built upon 8, but without the horrible start screen, going back to start menu, but now its more useful.
It should be much faster than 7, requiring less resources and be more secure. Keep in mind most recent attack vectors came from flash, Java and Adobe acrobat software. New browser for Internet called Edge, is rewritten from scratch, forgetting most of old and really bad parts of Internet Explorer.

 

[herbu]

This last Monday I got a Windows 10 icon, in the bottom right-hand corner, notifying me that I qualified for a Windows 10 free upgrade and I could reserve it, from my current Win 7 Pro (64-bit) to a Win 10 pro (64-bit) OS. I’ve started to do some preliminary research on the pros & cons and it looks promising overall but there are a few niggles.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/1/8696949/windows-10-feature-loss

Of course I’ll wait until the very last minute to upgrade, if I decide to do so, to make sure they’ve worked out whatever inevitable bugs will pop up during the initial roll-out.

So has anyone here at AH done any beta testing and what are ur initial impressions, especially in regard to music file(s) handling/protocol? It will be interesting to see what the reaction/implementation is by the business community, which doomed Win 8, so that will bear watching too.

Yeh, I got the same thing on my Thinkpad. Also have 64-Pro 7. And like you, I'm skeptical. Mainly because of so many bugs ALWAYS in a new OS.

One thing occurs to me though... Since I don't do business any more, my computer usage is just email and web shopping/surfing. I suppose they'll have the most extensive testing in these areas prior to release, so maybe the bugs won't be such a problem for me. I don't know. Changing an OS is always a PITA, even when it goes well.

I'm debating whether to take the free upgrade, or just wait until I replace my computer. The one I have could last for years.

 

[Ponzio]

Yeh, I got the same thing on my Thinkpad. Also have 64-Pro 7. And like you, I'm skeptical. Mainly because of so many bugs ALWAYS in a new OS.

One thing occurs to me though... Since I don't do business any more, my computer usage is just email and web shopping/surfing. I suppose they'll have the most extensive testing in these areas prior to release, so maybe the bugs won't be such a problem for me. I don't know. Changing an OS is always a PITA, even when it goes well.

I'm debating whether to take the free upgrade, or just wait until I replace my computer. The one I have could last for years.

I'm in the same boat ... new custom PC and it hums. I'm not part of the mobile social/cloud/apps eco-world; strictly MS Office, home networking & music. I'm gonna hang tight and see what the business community does for now.

 

[rojo]

The business community will at least wait until SP1 is released. Or they should, if they know what's up. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with WinTen -- it's just better to hang onto the tried and true Windows 7 Enterprise until all the home users and other early adopters have completed the gamma testing of 10.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Rumors say that Win10 will last a very long time with incremented updates, with heavy push of users toward their own cloud service

 

[haraldo]

Maybe the largest change with windows now starting from win 10 is with the rollout process, there will be a new release every 5 weeks, and you will have to update windows within a quite short timeframe, or the update will be forced upon you. This means that there is an end to the new windows releases as is today.

New features will roll in much faster and windows per-se will be in a constant change, allowing for much more agile rollout of new features.

Windows 10 is significantly different in the sense that the apps that run on your windows phone will be the same apps as run on you laptop or desktop, but according to the new gui frameworks the apps will be autosensing so that it adjusts to screen geometry and size and if you use touchscreen or mouse. both visually and functionally the apps will adjust to the technology platform on which it runs.

This means that the horrible touchscreen aware win 8.x gui on a laptop/desktop is gone, I see a much better user interface and more user friendly platform in all senses

From my point of view, upgrade to win 10 is highly recommended, no matter which platform you use

 

[Irvrobinson]

Watch out for your system having devices without ported drivers for Win10. Look before you leap.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Watch out for your system having devices without ported drivers for Win10. Look before you leap.

I doubt that would be big concern. Since Vista, drivers have been pretty interchangeable

 

[Irvrobinson]

I doubt that would be big concern. Since Vista, drivers have been pretty interchangeable

Dead wrong.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Dead wrong.

Not dead yet, and being doing it for a living for a while now. 15 years. Not every driver and not every device, but very often drivers from Vista work with windows 8.1

 

[Irvrobinson]

Not dead yet, and being doing it for a living for a while now. 15 years. Not every driver and not every device, but very often drivers from Vista work with windows 8.1

I have an HP laptop from 2009, and a couple of the devices do not work with Win8.1. HP's explanation is:

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/windows-8/about-upgrading.html

"Difficult or impossible"

My SD card reader will never have a Win8 driver.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Windows 8.1 requires very specific recent models cpu features, without them it won't install at all. Things like obscure sd reader or some specialized devices could pose a challenge, but typically I am able to locate compatible driver if not from pc vendors then from device vendor directly.
Keep in mind that your sd reader is not made by hp, nor even assembled by any hp owned or subsidiary. It's all outsourced to few very large vendors, which you probably never heard of.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Windows 8.1 requires very specific recent models cpu features, without them it won't install at all. Things like obscure sd reader or some specialized devices could pose a challenge, but typically I am able to locate compatible driver if not from pc vendors then from device vendor directly.
Keep in mind that your sd reader is not made by hp, nor even assembled by any hp owned or subsidiary. It's all outsourced to few very large vendors, which you probably never heard of.

What does Buddha say about stubbornness?

Circa-2009 laptops have Core2 processors which will run Win8. But if you do there may be devices that are unsupported. Other vintages from other OEMs may do the same or worse. Look before you leap. Ignore the bored sysadmin who is just stubborn and likes to argue.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

What does Buddha say about stubbornness?

Circa-2009 laptops have Core2 processors which will run Win8. But if you do there may be devices that are unsupported. Other vintages from other OEMs may do the same or worse. Look before you leap. Ignore the bored sysadmin who is just stubborn and likes to argue.

I do like to argue, but I also good at my job. Thing I could do with easy are often magic to non-initiated
Yes, Irv has a point - average consume might have SOME issues locating correct driver

btw: Dead Wrong on first point . Without CMPXCHG16b your PC would not install. Many Core2 don't have it

 

[herbu]

The business community will at least wait until SP1 is released.

Right. I can tell you it is extremely rare for a business to adopt any brand new OS platform. There are 2 initial types of customers.
1) Nerds/Geeks who love to explore and play with a new OS
2) People who have no clue about what they're ordering

IT Support costs a business money. Migrating to a new OS requires a lot of time and effort, and sometimes rewriting their own internal custom software. They don't want to, and are most often even unable to be a "first adopter" of a new OS.

Large customers often wait so long to change that they get special dispensation from Microsoft to continue buying the old level OS after it has been sunset and support is withdrawn. Actually, it is the computer manufacturer who preloads the OS that has to get the special permission from MS to continue loading and selling the old OS. It is frequently done, but under the condition that the manufacturer & customer pay for the new OS license, but actually load the old.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I agree with Herbu, yet at the same time I can't fight the feeling that almost 99% of apps functional on Vista would be working just fine on 10, just like they work on 7 and 8/8.1

Drivers are a bit more touchy feely since they operate on lower system levels, but like I said before with some effort alternative are possible .

With that all said, my company is going to stick with 7 desktops for a while

 

[haraldo]

I really don't believe there will be major issues with backward compatibility of drivers going to windows 10, the thing that a 6 year old computer has H/W that doesn't work with windows 8.1 has nothing to do with this thing, it's a completely different matter and it has nothing with backwards compatibility with drivers.
If you do have drivers working with win 8.1 I don't understand why there would be an issue with Win 10.... Still, you really should check that things are working before doing the full jump to win 10.

I understand that Irv has major issues and unfortunately it happens, as there are millions of variations of devices, generally, this issue is much less prominent with windows compared to any Linux distribution, so to say that windows is a poop because of driver issues is not something I would support.

If you look to this from Irv's side who is an Apple fan I understand and support him, Apple products are superior, but they have full control of H/W and S/W side so their job is much easier. Irv! I really don't like Windows that much too but I'm a professional and have to work with what's in the market and what customers want so I have to face windows whether I like it or not.

The new Macbook 12 is a blast!!!!
I would really like to get a top of the line Macbook Pro 15 retina, but I do have a job to do so it's Dell XPS 15 with Win 8.1 and I will upgrade to Win 10 as soon as my employer lets me do it.

I would rather see Linus Thorvalds gain world dominance on the Laptop and Desktop market, but lets's just face it.... it's never gonna happen.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I understand that Irv has major issues and unfortunately it happens, as there are millions of variations of devices, generally, this issue is much less prominent with windows compared to any Linux distribution, so to say that windows is a poop because of driver issues is not something I would support.

If you look to this from Irv's side who is an Apple fan I understand and support him, Apple products are superior, but they have full control of H/W and S/W side so their job is much easier. Irv! I really don't like Windows that much too but I'm a professional and have to work with what's in the market and what customers want so I have to face windows whether I like it or not.

Just to be clear and precise on my position regarding Win8 or Win10 upgrades...

I just said look before you leap. I didn't have "major issues" with my Win8 upgrade, per se. Win8 installed and runs as well as can be expected with an HDD-based laptop. You may or may not have device driver issues. I did, but the reason is that HP did not choose to invest in updating the older device drivers for obsolete laptops. It isn't really Microsoft's fault. The problem is that the PC industry has very little sense of customer loyalty or long-term support obligation. To HP, my 2009 laptop should have never been upgraded, and if I wanted Win8 I should have purchased a new computer.

My beefs with Microsoft are over their intrusive patching process, which seems to be needed weekly, that requires restarts, and their annoying and poorly-designed Win8 user interface.

It is true though, I do like Macs better. A lot better.

 

[haraldo]

Thx, maybe you should have ported to Ubuntu instead of going the Win 8.1 way
if the device driver issue is sorted there and for older devices it may stand a chance ....

I agree... windows update may be the most annoying service ever made

Well, I like Linux a lot better than Windows ....
you can just do like this: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
and everything works from there with one update in one go .... hardly ever any need for reboot