Can someone point me in the direction of the 'real' upgrade benefits

cereberus · 10 Feb 2016

DeaconFrost said:

I wouldn't say most of them have high end systems at all, to be honest. Very few (percentage-wise) of all computers are high-end. Given the number of installs on record, the vast majority wouldn't be high-end. As an example, my best friend recently upgraded his Pentium D 820 system to Windows 10 by himself. It has 4 GB of memory and an old Nvidia card. His update went through flawlessly, and he has, by his own admission, zero tech skills. He's a CPA.

I would agree based on a lot of posts I have seen. I think it is more 7/8 related actually.

Whilst it is hard to generalise, it certainly seems upgrades from Windows 7 are more problematic than upgradess from Windows 8 (fairly obviously due to drivers in 8 being largely Windows 10 compatible), and of course Windows 10 was largely built on the 8 infrastructure.

Run of the mill mass produced pcs seem to be less problematic than custom built pcs (graphic cards seem to be the main issue).

Of course, many high end gaming pc users still use Windows 7, which creates a double whammy ie old OS and less standard drivers.

At the end of the day, the best advice stated here by several posts is to image backup current install, upgrade (get your free upgrade), and revert if issues.

The question is often asked when is the best time to upgrade, and the answer people often give is wait until July.

Actually, that is not necessarily such a good idea - suppose you leave it to the last week or so of the free upgrade, but have problems getting it installed and/or activated - you could go past the free deadline.

DeaconFrost · 10 Feb 2016

You seem to make up your mind that there is a large potential for issues, and that's not the case. If someone had an older, stable system, that's a great reason to upgrade. If a system isn't stable, chances are, the upgrade won't be stable, either.

I'm not sure the car comparison is accurate, because most cars, if not all, don't get the advertised gas mileage. If it is drastically lower, then yes, there's likely a problem. A warranty should cover this. If we wanted to use a car comparison, imagine having a 2007 Mercedes, and being offered a 2015 for free, but declining.

The only way a person if going to know for sure if Windows 10 works for them is to try it. It's free...nothing to lose but a small amount of time. Rollbacks are easy, thanks to programs like Macrium Reflect. These horror stories are almost always a combination of a person upgrading their system (with malware or other instabilities) and them wanting to hang on to everything on their system, rather than backing it up. I've had 100% success rate upgrading systems to Windows 10 if I choose the "keep nothing" option.

CountMike · 10 Feb 2016

BunnyJ said:

You do remember that 7 wasn't perfect right out of the gate either?? Was that junk because of that?

And it's still not "Perfect". I had all kinds of problems with W7. from printers and scanners not working to full potential, awful sound latency, my IPTV was cutting out all the time, some problems with triple monitor setup, networking thru 2 and 3 routers, IPV4 not there, older analog and digital TV (BT898 chip) had to have XP drivers modified to work at all, Sound Blaster before Xwave not a chance. etc., etc. - W10 P&P
Scanner Berapaw, W7 barely there, driver modified - W10 P&P.
HP Lj 4L, W7 no chance - W10 P&P.
HP LJ6, W7 barely - W10 P&P.
HP 1300, W7, OK but in W10 P&P, full range printing.
W7 (before SP1) had trouble with UEFI, SSD had to be manually adjusted, now in W10 all is made default.
BOOT W7 45 seconds, W10 12 seconds.
W7, Gadgets, had to close everything just to see them, W10 Live tiles, one click away.
W7 Start menu, unusable with 200 + programs, in W8.1 awful, W10 perfect.
All of that was fixed in W8.1 already and made even better in W10.
One would need a big gun pointed to my head to make me use it again.

DeaconFrost · 10 Feb 2016

CountMike said:

W7 Start menu, unusable with 200 + programs, in W8.1 awful, W10 perfect.

Never thought of that. Good point.

I worked for HP between 2001 and 2006, and I had an LJ4 running perfectly up until last year when it finally died. Those things were built like tanks.

Mystere · 10 Feb 2016

gator2013 said:

Get Real!

Extended support for W-7 - 1/14/2020

Extended support for W-8.1 1/10/2023

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

2020 Will come faster than you think. That's less than 4 years from now.

By Comparison, Windows 8 was released 4 years ago. And that seems like almost yesterday.

gator2013 · 10 Feb 2016

Mystere said:

2020 Will come faster than you think. That's less than 4 years from now.

So if you are running W-7 that gives you about 3 1/2 years to not even think about it, providing your current hardware is still working and with W-8.1 which I run, I have about 8 years of bliss.

It seems like it offends some W-10 lovers when others choose to stay with W-7 or 8.1 which I think it is down right weird.

whs · 10 Feb 2016

In 2020 they will stop shipping you bugs which will make your system more stable. And there are many ways to deal with the security question.

Trust_No1 · 11 Feb 2016

I see no reason to upgrade, there is nothing compelling about Windows 10, other than they removed some programs and tools, in exchange for Cortana and Edge. Both sub-standard IMHO.

DeaconFrost · 11 Feb 2016

Trust_No1 said:

I see no reason to upgrade, there is nothing compelling about Windows 10, other than they removed some programs and tools, in exchange for Cortana and Edge. Both sub-standard IMHO.

It is unique to the 2-in-1s, but I finally get an OS that works very well as a standard laptop and flipped over as a touchscreen tablet. I am using Windows 10 on four computers, and I don't use Edge or Cortana with either.

There are plenty of benefits to running Windows 10. The only issue is if a person has closed their mind to it or not.

whs · 11 Feb 2016

There are plenty of benefits to running Windows 10.

Generically that is probably true. But when I checked those "benefits" for my own case, there was really nothing appealing.