Well, it’s been a week since I received my complimentary copy of Windows 10. Not being one to assume everything will be hunky dory, I decided that I would use two of my laptops as test machines for the latest windows operating system. If it passed muster, then it would get loaded onto the main machine at home. If it failed, well, then I have my original OS in disk form and can always wipe and reload.
For those who are unaware, after the fiasco that was windows hate – I mean 8, and 8.1 – Microsoft decided, by way of apology, to offer anyone with a Windows7, 8, and 8.1 machine a free upgrade to Windows 10.
So I did it – but on two machines only, and only to see if the offer was as good as advertised. What follows is my assessment of Windows 10 after a week of typical use.
1. Installation.
As good a place to start as any. The offer to upgrade appeared as a small windows icon on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 PC’s around the beginning of June, announcing that you could “reserve your free upgrade to Windows 10”.
To reserve your upgrade, just click on the Windows 10 icon on the taskbar, (bottom right side of the screen), and follow the prompts.
Windows 10 was released to the public on July 29th, 2015. My download, however, wasn’t available until July 31st. Oh well, two days wasn’t any big deal. There were probably a lot of people upgrading.
Again, Windows Update announced that it was ready to upgrade my Windows 7 machine to Windows 10 with the usual “click here to begin” button.
The upgrade was a simple matter of following the prompts and then just walking away from the unit for a while as Microsoft did its thing. It was simple, efficient, and required no input beyond granting it permission to upgrade. I like that.
The first thing I did notice, however, was a lack of status bar on the upgrade page, so there was no way to tell the progress beyond the little "%" marker on the bottom left of the window. There were a couple times during the process, (because I didn’t walk away from the machine), that I though the installation had hung up.
Just as I was beginning to worry, though, the installation would flash some new data to reassure me that all was well. The unit also restarted several times during the process, which is normal.
So aside from a few nail-biting moments, the upgrade was a positive experience.
2. Configuration
Once the upgrade was complete, it was time to configure the machine. With Windows 7, this was a simple process of creating user accounts, (or doing nothing and not having to have a password), and I was expecting the same here.
...boy was I wrong.
First, Windows 10 asks you to log in using your Microsoft account. For those who don’t realize it, this could be another eye rolling moment because the user has to create another account, just to complete the upgrade.
Just to clarify, (because Windows 10 does not), if you have an old Hotmail account, or an Outlook/MSN email account, (by Outlook, I mean a NON business email), then, by default, you have a Microsoft Account, so you can use that.
Follow the prompts to set up your login with your Microsoft account. Then you can use that to log into your machine.
There didn’t seem to be any other way to configure the pc. I HAD to use my account, and I HAD to establish my password in order to proceed - not something I appreciated.
Once you navigate this process – and take your time, because it can be a little confusing – you were brought to your brand new desktop, but I’ll talk about that in a moment.
As to the setup process itself. It felt forced and was a little confusing when it came time to configure the machine. It was on rails and required that I use or create an account and secure the pc, whether I wished it or not, and there was no way to back out of the process and check for additional options. The directions given, while present, were hardly clear. So Windows 10 loses points in the set up process.
I want more control and the freedom to create an open pc, without tying it to personal information, if I so choose.
UPDATE: Trust Microsoft to hide the options. Thanks to Bald Nerd (www.baldnerd.com), I discovered that you CAN install Windows 10 without creating a Microsoft account. They just made it tricky to spot because they don’t want you to.
Follow this link to see the process: http://www.baldnerd.com/install-windows-10-without-a-microsoft-account/
Sneaky bastards…
Once you’ve made it past the configuration, now it’s time to start using. And in this, Windows 10 has delivered – mostly.
THE PROS
Windows 10 scores big marks with the new user interface.
What Microsoft has done here is take the best elements of both Windows 7 and Windows 8 and combine them into a simple to view, simple to manage display that is absolutely seamless.
The start menu has returned and now incorporates tiled elements of the Windows 8 Metra Interface. They did this by replacing the side column of the start menu with a simple version of the animated display that used to dominate the desktop on Windows 8.
This subtler, smaller view is much better in my opinion, offering information without being overwhelming.
The “All programs” category (now called "All Apps") lists all the applications on the PC in alphabetical order. No more stumbling through file folders with different names while you're trying to look for a specific app. Very nice.
The new icons are easy to read and look fantastic. You can organize your “Most Used” and “Life at a glance” sections by simply dragging and dropping what you want in the areas. Right click and select “Remove” or “Turn off live tile”, and unwanted tiles and apps are removed – dead simple and brilliant.
The “My Computer” or simply “Computer” from the old Windows7/8/8.1 has been renamed “File Explorer”, and is offered at the bottom left of the start menu, again, a good idea for people who are comfortable exploring files directly from the hard drive.
A new icon appears in the system tray (bottom right corner of the screen), that takes you directly to the action center and also displays available settings and lets you know about any activity on connected email accounts – again, handy for people who want one place to check their activity. I like it.
Another new feature, called Windows Snap, now allows you to have four windows occupy ¼ of your screen each. In Windows 7, you could only do a split screen, again, a nice little improvement on an existing idea.
Wallpapers and desktops are easily customized via the “Settings” icon in the start menu. Just click “Personalization” and change what you like.
Overall, the user interface is simple, familiar, and intuitive. Anyone with a Windows XP, 7, or Vista machine should have no trouble learning the Windows 10 Operating System, and Windows 8 users will see the return of familiar tools that were dropped in that operating system. The icons are similar enough to be recognized, yet still manage to have a crisp, fresh, and modern appearance.
Windows 10 also allows easy synchronization between your pc and your mobile devices via OneDrive, another nice feature that works well without needing to find a patch cable to plug your phone into a USB port.
Along with Windows 10, Microsoft also released a brand new web browser, Microsoft Edge. This is the replacement for the old and over ad ridden Microsoft Explorer, (Exploder). It harkens back to the days when browsers were browsers and not overpopulated ad pages.
The interface is simple, concise and intuitive, and best of all, no additional overly animated advertisements sucking up system resources and slowing the surfing!
Of course, home pages will still have the usual advertisements, but a majority of these can be blocked with the new and improved pop-up blocker included within Edge. Again, they went with simple and functional, and it looks and works great!
THE CONS
One of the things that have been hyped up since we learned that Windows 10 was on the way, was the incorporation of the virtual assistant, named Cortana. Anyone with a Windows phone will be familiar with Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri, and HALO fans anticipated having the Master Chief’s VR as their own personal assistant!
Sorry, had a geek moment there.
Cortana is part of Windows 10, but she isn’t everything she was hyped up to be. First, after a week of playing with settings, scheduling appointments on the calendar, and trying to ask questions, (both via keyboard and verbally), I have yet to hear the voice that harkens from HALO. According to Microsoft, the features are all there, but for some reason, I simply cannot get them working – more research needed, I suppose.
Microsoft is dead set on selling you something. When you explore the new desktop and all it's features, you will notice an offer to purchase the latest version of Microsoft Office (365?).
But what if you had a valid version of the Microsoft Office Suite before the upgrade? Where did it go?
Fear not intrepid user, under your list of apps, you will find your current edition of Microsoft Office. Just delete the purchase offer tile, drag and drop the icons for your current version of Office to your Taskbar/Start Menu, and you're ready to go.
Nothing like the sudden fear of lost applications to get the heart pumping.
I do not like Bing. I have never liked Bing. Bing, to me, is a four letter word. I am a Google guy. When I look for something, I do a Google Search. Not Ask, not Yahoo, Not Amazon, NOT Bing!
If I want my default search engine to be Google, then darn it, leave it as Google, no matter what. Because Windows 10 is a Microsoft product, they are going to push other Microsoft products, like Bing – it is their search engine, after all.
Cortana relies heavily on Bing as its main search engine, but she seems to have trouble locating what the user asks for. I’m not sure if this is a Cortana issue, or a Bing issue, (so I'll just stick with Google).
Windows Media Center is no more. That central place for people to play their music, movies, watch TV, etc., was considered surplus to requirements with all the streaming services available (Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc.), so it was removed.
While I will miss it, I can understand the decision. WMC was a redundant application that really isn’t needed any more.
One of the features I love in Windows 7 that did not make it into Windows 10 was the Aero Flip feature.
For those who don’t know. When you have more than one window open, hold down the ‘window’ key and press tab and watch as you rifle through 3d versions of your web pages. It was a sharp feature and I liked it a lot.
Windows 10 dropped that feature in favor of its snap display. Hit ‘window’ TAB and your snap screen appears, displaying small versions of open pages, use the arrow keys to find the one you want, press ENTER…
B O R I N G ! ! !
While I have extolled the virtues of “simple and functional” in this article, you can have a little flash can’t you? Poo on you Microsoft!
Finally, there are still some sites/apps that are going to need to upgrade to work well with Windows 10. If you use a third party software for anything check first. Most providers are on top of things, but not everyone has kept pace. This is typical of any new operating system, so I can’t really count it against Windows 10.
So, after all of that – and there was a lot on this edition of Tech Talk – what’s the final verdict?
If you have Windows 7, then the upgrade to Windows 10 will be a small step to a (mostly) improved system. While some tools are removed, what is gained definitely outweighs what is lost.
Add the fact that the upgrade is FREE until July 2016 for anyone who wants it, then it’s a no brainer.
If you have Windows hate – sorry – 8 or 8.1, and you miss the intuitive interface that was Windows 7, then by all means, get the upgrade. Microsoft is saying, “hey, we f’d up. Let us make it better.” Take them up on it.
Undoubtedly, hot fixes and service packs are in the future, so I expect improvements in some of the trouble areas mentioned here, but for a first edition, straight out of beta, Windows 10 is solid. I would definitely recommend it.
As with anything else, if you want the upgrade, but are unsure how to proceed, contact a professional for assistance.
Have a great summer!
For those who are unaware, after the fiasco that was windows hate – I mean 8, and 8.1 – Microsoft decided, by way of apology, to offer anyone with a Windows7, 8, and 8.1 machine a free upgrade to Windows 10.
So I did it – but on two machines only, and only to see if the offer was as good as advertised. What follows is my assessment of Windows 10 after a week of typical use.
1. Installation.
As good a place to start as any. The offer to upgrade appeared as a small windows icon on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 PC’s around the beginning of June, announcing that you could “reserve your free upgrade to Windows 10”.
To reserve your upgrade, just click on the Windows 10 icon on the taskbar, (bottom right side of the screen), and follow the prompts.
Windows 10 was released to the public on July 29th, 2015. My download, however, wasn’t available until July 31st. Oh well, two days wasn’t any big deal. There were probably a lot of people upgrading.
Again, Windows Update announced that it was ready to upgrade my Windows 7 machine to Windows 10 with the usual “click here to begin” button.
The upgrade was a simple matter of following the prompts and then just walking away from the unit for a while as Microsoft did its thing. It was simple, efficient, and required no input beyond granting it permission to upgrade. I like that.
The first thing I did notice, however, was a lack of status bar on the upgrade page, so there was no way to tell the progress beyond the little "%" marker on the bottom left of the window. There were a couple times during the process, (because I didn’t walk away from the machine), that I though the installation had hung up.
Just as I was beginning to worry, though, the installation would flash some new data to reassure me that all was well. The unit also restarted several times during the process, which is normal.
So aside from a few nail-biting moments, the upgrade was a positive experience.
2. Configuration
Once the upgrade was complete, it was time to configure the machine. With Windows 7, this was a simple process of creating user accounts, (or doing nothing and not having to have a password), and I was expecting the same here.
...boy was I wrong.
First, Windows 10 asks you to log in using your Microsoft account. For those who don’t realize it, this could be another eye rolling moment because the user has to create another account, just to complete the upgrade.
Just to clarify, (because Windows 10 does not), if you have an old Hotmail account, or an Outlook/MSN email account, (by Outlook, I mean a NON business email), then, by default, you have a Microsoft Account, so you can use that.
Follow the prompts to set up your login with your Microsoft account. Then you can use that to log into your machine.
There didn’t seem to be any other way to configure the pc. I HAD to use my account, and I HAD to establish my password in order to proceed - not something I appreciated.
Once you navigate this process – and take your time, because it can be a little confusing – you were brought to your brand new desktop, but I’ll talk about that in a moment.
As to the setup process itself. It felt forced and was a little confusing when it came time to configure the machine. It was on rails and required that I use or create an account and secure the pc, whether I wished it or not, and there was no way to back out of the process and check for additional options. The directions given, while present, were hardly clear. So Windows 10 loses points in the set up process.
I want more control and the freedom to create an open pc, without tying it to personal information, if I so choose.
UPDATE: Trust Microsoft to hide the options. Thanks to Bald Nerd (www.baldnerd.com), I discovered that you CAN install Windows 10 without creating a Microsoft account. They just made it tricky to spot because they don’t want you to.
Follow this link to see the process: http://www.baldnerd.com/install-windows-10-without-a-microsoft-account/
Sneaky bastards…
Once you’ve made it past the configuration, now it’s time to start using. And in this, Windows 10 has delivered – mostly.
THE PROS
Windows 10 scores big marks with the new user interface.
What Microsoft has done here is take the best elements of both Windows 7 and Windows 8 and combine them into a simple to view, simple to manage display that is absolutely seamless.
The start menu has returned and now incorporates tiled elements of the Windows 8 Metra Interface. They did this by replacing the side column of the start menu with a simple version of the animated display that used to dominate the desktop on Windows 8.
This subtler, smaller view is much better in my opinion, offering information without being overwhelming.
The “All programs” category (now called "All Apps") lists all the applications on the PC in alphabetical order. No more stumbling through file folders with different names while you're trying to look for a specific app. Very nice.
The new icons are easy to read and look fantastic. You can organize your “Most Used” and “Life at a glance” sections by simply dragging and dropping what you want in the areas. Right click and select “Remove” or “Turn off live tile”, and unwanted tiles and apps are removed – dead simple and brilliant.
The “My Computer” or simply “Computer” from the old Windows7/8/8.1 has been renamed “File Explorer”, and is offered at the bottom left of the start menu, again, a good idea for people who are comfortable exploring files directly from the hard drive.
A new icon appears in the system tray (bottom right corner of the screen), that takes you directly to the action center and also displays available settings and lets you know about any activity on connected email accounts – again, handy for people who want one place to check their activity. I like it.
Another new feature, called Windows Snap, now allows you to have four windows occupy ¼ of your screen each. In Windows 7, you could only do a split screen, again, a nice little improvement on an existing idea.
Wallpapers and desktops are easily customized via the “Settings” icon in the start menu. Just click “Personalization” and change what you like.
Overall, the user interface is simple, familiar, and intuitive. Anyone with a Windows XP, 7, or Vista machine should have no trouble learning the Windows 10 Operating System, and Windows 8 users will see the return of familiar tools that were dropped in that operating system. The icons are similar enough to be recognized, yet still manage to have a crisp, fresh, and modern appearance.
Windows 10 also allows easy synchronization between your pc and your mobile devices via OneDrive, another nice feature that works well without needing to find a patch cable to plug your phone into a USB port.
Along with Windows 10, Microsoft also released a brand new web browser, Microsoft Edge. This is the replacement for the old and over ad ridden Microsoft Explorer, (Exploder). It harkens back to the days when browsers were browsers and not overpopulated ad pages.
The interface is simple, concise and intuitive, and best of all, no additional overly animated advertisements sucking up system resources and slowing the surfing!
Of course, home pages will still have the usual advertisements, but a majority of these can be blocked with the new and improved pop-up blocker included within Edge. Again, they went with simple and functional, and it looks and works great!
THE CONS
One of the things that have been hyped up since we learned that Windows 10 was on the way, was the incorporation of the virtual assistant, named Cortana. Anyone with a Windows phone will be familiar with Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri, and HALO fans anticipated having the Master Chief’s VR as their own personal assistant!
Sorry, had a geek moment there.
Cortana is part of Windows 10, but she isn’t everything she was hyped up to be. First, after a week of playing with settings, scheduling appointments on the calendar, and trying to ask questions, (both via keyboard and verbally), I have yet to hear the voice that harkens from HALO. According to Microsoft, the features are all there, but for some reason, I simply cannot get them working – more research needed, I suppose.
Microsoft is dead set on selling you something. When you explore the new desktop and all it's features, you will notice an offer to purchase the latest version of Microsoft Office (365?).
But what if you had a valid version of the Microsoft Office Suite before the upgrade? Where did it go?
Fear not intrepid user, under your list of apps, you will find your current edition of Microsoft Office. Just delete the purchase offer tile, drag and drop the icons for your current version of Office to your Taskbar/Start Menu, and you're ready to go.
Nothing like the sudden fear of lost applications to get the heart pumping.
I do not like Bing. I have never liked Bing. Bing, to me, is a four letter word. I am a Google guy. When I look for something, I do a Google Search. Not Ask, not Yahoo, Not Amazon, NOT Bing!
If I want my default search engine to be Google, then darn it, leave it as Google, no matter what. Because Windows 10 is a Microsoft product, they are going to push other Microsoft products, like Bing – it is their search engine, after all.
Cortana relies heavily on Bing as its main search engine, but she seems to have trouble locating what the user asks for. I’m not sure if this is a Cortana issue, or a Bing issue, (so I'll just stick with Google).
Windows Media Center is no more. That central place for people to play their music, movies, watch TV, etc., was considered surplus to requirements with all the streaming services available (Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc.), so it was removed.
While I will miss it, I can understand the decision. WMC was a redundant application that really isn’t needed any more.
One of the features I love in Windows 7 that did not make it into Windows 10 was the Aero Flip feature.
For those who don’t know. When you have more than one window open, hold down the ‘window’ key and press tab and watch as you rifle through 3d versions of your web pages. It was a sharp feature and I liked it a lot.
Windows 10 dropped that feature in favor of its snap display. Hit ‘window’ TAB and your snap screen appears, displaying small versions of open pages, use the arrow keys to find the one you want, press ENTER…
B O R I N G ! ! !
While I have extolled the virtues of “simple and functional” in this article, you can have a little flash can’t you? Poo on you Microsoft!
Finally, there are still some sites/apps that are going to need to upgrade to work well with Windows 10. If you use a third party software for anything check first. Most providers are on top of things, but not everyone has kept pace. This is typical of any new operating system, so I can’t really count it against Windows 10.
So, after all of that – and there was a lot on this edition of Tech Talk – what’s the final verdict?
If you have Windows 7, then the upgrade to Windows 10 will be a small step to a (mostly) improved system. While some tools are removed, what is gained definitely outweighs what is lost.
Add the fact that the upgrade is FREE until July 2016 for anyone who wants it, then it’s a no brainer.
If you have Windows hate – sorry – 8 or 8.1, and you miss the intuitive interface that was Windows 7, then by all means, get the upgrade. Microsoft is saying, “hey, we f’d up. Let us make it better.” Take them up on it.
Undoubtedly, hot fixes and service packs are in the future, so I expect improvements in some of the trouble areas mentioned here, but for a first edition, straight out of beta, Windows 10 is solid. I would definitely recommend it.
As with anything else, if you want the upgrade, but are unsure how to proceed, contact a professional for assistance.
Have a great summer!