You will find thousands of web pages offering advice on Windows 10. Some of these are more focused on helping you decide if the upgrade is right for you. The Tech Guys are always concerned about security (supposedly the most important aspect of Windows 10) but we’re also understanding of the time you might waste using technology. Our position on Windows 10, as with any other operating system, is that it takes time to learn it, and with that investment in time, we expect something in return. We just haven’t seen a lot of return yet.
Upgrading to a new operating system is rarely “transparent”, and even Apple caused a bit of a learning effort when they changed the way scrolling worked in 10.8. The bottom line question is always, WHY should you upgrade and the answer is not always what you might expect. The answer quite often is “You don’t need to upgrade”. In our search of worthy articles, the one here is one of the better ones, once you wade through/between the ads. Don’t worry about it being in the UK, Windows 10 is the same for us as for those across the pond. While the article is pretty high-level, it does contain some useful links that give you some more depth to Windows 10 features if you’re interested.
What about the “Free upgrade”?
The free upgrade offer ends July 29th, 2016, so that date is fast approaching. If you bought a new PC from us within the past few months, it will have come with a Windows 10 license, so you do not have any deadline, as you’re already licensed to use it whenever you want to make the change. But if you have an older PC, running say, Windows 7, it’s not a bad idea to work through whether it’s really worth the time and potential hassle of trying the upgrade, free or not. Windows Vista support ends officially April 11, 2017, and Windows 7 support ends January 14th, 2020. So, if you’re running Windows 7 on a five year old PC, it’s pretty likely the computer will stop working before the software will end support.
Will my hardware support Windows 10?
If you purchased a computer from The Tech Guys, then most likely you have a Dell, and you’ll want to click on the Optiplex or Latitude link, depending on whether you have a desktop or laptop. Dell offers a site here to determine if your hardware has been tested for Windows 10 or not. We’ve found some units, not found on the tested list, will still operate just fine. Most Optiplex computers use common features and haven’t changed much over the years, other than chipsets. That said, if your PC is not on the list, it’s quite possible that one or more drivers will not be available and some component may not work. As the PCAdvisor article suggests, having a backup of your data is strongly suggested before “trying” the upgrade. We have found most of our clients have had very good luck returning the PC back to Windows 7 after the upgrade, but a few have had small, subtle issues that cannot be resolved. Any kind of backup other than a full image backup, will not resolve such issues. Call us for more info if you want to be sure about the backup you are using.
So I did the upgrade a while back and I’m now reading this article…
What now? If it’s more than 30 days, then you can only look forward. If it’s less, then you still have the option to revert. If it’s all messed up and you really want back to Windows 7, we can always save your data, and then reinstall Windows 7, which means you’ll lose your applications and we’ll need to find installers for them. I think if you get to this point, it’s best to call us to talk through your situation.
And what if I actually LIKE Windows 10?
Congratulations! Write to us and let us know what you enjoy most about it, and we’ll be sure to share that with others.