Worth moving to Win 10?

Well I've been solidly resistant to moving from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro but in November 2022 I bit the bullet and decided to give Win 10 Pro a try. I did read up first and made sure I was offline when I did the install. During the install I got lots of options to decline what looked like privacy intrusive stuff, so I declined all that.

Once I got it installed I instantly hated Win 10 but Open Shell soon dealt a mortal blow to that hated. If it wasn't for Open Shell I would never have stuck with Win 7 let alone Win 10 — in my book a 'traditional' Start Menu is an utter must have. In any case it took me two days solid to get Win 10 to how I wanted it to be and I found 'O&O Shutup' and 'Winaero Tweaker' to be immensely helpful in doing that along with frequent visits to this forum to get tips, tweaks and tricks. Now I'm happy with Win 10 and the way I have it configured, never thought I would ever say that, but, yes, I'm happy enough.

So to answer the OP: Yes go for Win 10. It might take a couple of days of tinkering it to get a system you're comfortable with but, in my experience, it is possible to get that, it just takes some research and investment of time. If you do go for it then I would strongly recommend making an image file of your Win 7 system and in that way if you don't want to stick with Win 10 you can restore your Win 7 system in a few minutes.

With Windows 7 help usually directed to the Control Panel. It then gave you the steps on how to do something.

With Windows 10 Settings was where Microsoft wanted you to go. The problem was it was not comprehensive so sometimes you had to bring up the legacy Control Panel to do what you wanted.

With Windows 10 help usually directed you Start > Search where you searched for how to do something. The problem was that you first had to know what to search for. That had to be frustrating for the beginner.

I read that Win 10 has better internals than previous systems.

Also, you can make it look like Win 7 using Open Shell.

Update:

Thanks for all the help, suggestions, etc.

In the last week I installed win 10 Pro on 4 machines here, all clean installs. Thanks to those who suggested imaging...I've been doing so for years, and use a 'progressive install image' strategy (make an image of the HD before I do software installs or significant changes on a new install). I also schedule 3 times/weekly overnight imaging of my system and data drives & partitions in all mission critical machines. My preferred imaging program is Macrium (paid version), although I've also used Norton Ghost (old days) and Acronis.

I used Win 7 pro and win 8 pro keys and all were accepted. Gotta love that. But here again, for any software I don't pay for, I assume that I am the product (as well as for software I do pay for).

All has gone fairly smoothly and I actually like WIn 10 (a far cry from my opinion when I test drove it during its first year). There are some idiocies (not unexpected), but overall, I like it.

Here is a list of what I've put in place in terms of limiting how much data collection occurs for the benefit of those who might be searching for ways to limit Win 10 data collection.

I'd also appreciate any comments/suggestions on any additional steps not listed and that I may not be aware of.

• All win 10 settings provided have been changed to limit data collection.
• Shutup ran and configured. I'll monitor this intermittently after updates, given that updates may change some of my settings back.
• Windows 10 Firewall Control (sphinx software) to monitor and limit outbound traffic (this is a firewall I've used for years). Latest versions have a setting to shut down updates and apps. I don't have the update restriction configured at present, because I do want win updates. Unfortunately, W10FC doesn't or isn't able to separate the apps from system/security updates. The workaround for that, should I choose to take it is to manually install updates.
• A vpn, which I only disable when necessary
• Edge removed as default browser, shutup used to turn off all Edge options, outbound firewall configured to restrict Edge to Lan Only.
• Firefox as default browser with noscript and other privacy addons, all privacy settings configured.
• I don't use the app store or app store apps.

Overall, privacy concerns notwithstanding, I'm pretty impressed with Win 10. I'm also impressed with Windows Defender and the security options put in place, along with the interface.

One other comment...although I've installed Classic Shell, I mainly use the Win 10 start menu. It's come a long way since the early days and I find it very efficient and easy to use. I miss the transparency of Win 7, and Classic Shell did make a noticile difference in the transparency of the TaskBar, but not the Start menu. A registry edit somewhat helped with that.

There are some other issues, but I'll post those in other threads.

Again, thanks for the comments.

Yeah, change can be difficult, but sometimes you just have to embrace the horror