[jatrax]

Windows 10 is not for everyone and I agree trusting the Microsoft verification tools is not completely safe. We are working on a gradual roll out at work and have had mixed results. One laptop updated with no problems and then after 2 months of no issues grabbed another update that basically shutdown the whole machine. Turns out the update grabbed an old video driver (from Microsoft) that conflicted with Symantec A/V and caused the screen to flicker so much that key presses or mouse clicks were not recognized. Took a full day of IT work to get it back.

But other (newer) laptops have been completely fine with no issues and so far all desk tops have been fine as well. If you are running an older Windows 7 machine I would say not to be in any hurry, there is not much to gain. If you have a newer Windows 8 or 8.1 machine then go ahead, I think it is worth the time to upgrade.

[bertwert]

Basically its like going from a high end DSLR to a full-auto P&S..

Go Linux...
Problem Solved.

I'm going to upgrade to Win 10 soon as I prefer it's interface than Win 8, and it's free so why not?

[Outis]

I hate Windows 10. I *HATE* Windows 10. With a burning, blazing fury that I did not even know it was possible to have towards an operating system.

A bit of history.

I loved Windows 7. The user interface was streamlined; there were helpful tools at hand when you needed them, there were plenty of options to tinker around under the hood if you wanted to, but they would be out of your way if you didn't. Yay Windows 7.

I hated Windows 8. The user interface made no sense, it was filled with visual garbage, and they did a lot of things to separate the user from the workings of the OS whether the user wanted that or not. My computer also came loaded with bloatware, but I'm not sure whether that was Microsoft's or Lenovo's fault. I managed to mostly un-stupid the user interface using Classic Shell, but still, it was an unnecessary annoyance.

When I recently bought a new laptop, it came loaded with Windows 10. "It's not Windows 8," I thought. "How could it be worse?"

Well.

The user interface was still terrible, and I had to fix it again using Classic Shell. The trend of removing the user from the workings of the operating system has continued, and to an alarming degree. A lot of the features I counted on from Windows 7 and to a lesser extent Windows 8 are just gone. Want to change the color scheme? You can pick one color now, instead of individual colors for everything. Want a blank startup screen for Internet Explorer or whatever it's called now? Good luck. That search bar on the taskbar? It'll search either your computer or the Internet, but it won't tell you which it's doing before it does it.

Most worryingly for me is how much control Windows exerts over low-level hardware and the UEFI (the new BIOS). For instance, Windows-- WINDOWS-- won't let me boot another OS off an external storage device. If you change the boot order of the devices in the UEFI, it doesn't work-- first, I have to go through WINDOWS to change the permissions so that this is something I even can do. Attempting to boot an OS from a DVD or a thumb drive is one of my first and most important troubleshooting steps if a computer won't boot, and if I hadn't noticed this now, Windows would have cut me off at the knees.

What I find the most offensive, however, is the advertising and rampant commercialization that Windows 10 keeps shoving down my throat. If I wanted to do a search in the search bar on the taskbar, it would first suggest a ton of news articles on Microsoft's news site. No thanks. If a file has a file extension that I don't have a program to open, Windows helpfully suggests that I buy something at their store. Ugh. Can I uninstall the store? Nope. Yesterday, Windows popped up a notification that I could buy Microsoft Office. I don't want Microsoft Office. My computer is either my work space-- which means I need to not have distractions-- or it's my home, where you're not welcome unless you've been invited in. Quit invading my home and my privacy, Windows.

So, I'm going to switch to Ubuntu for everything possible. I tried it out off a thumb drive and it was everything I wanted. The UI makes sense, I can change what I want, and I didn't have to spend 2-3 hours just un-stupiding the whole thing. I haven't installed it on my computers yet, though, because Windows has introduced so many minor petty annoyances to clear out of the way.

Honestly, if it weren't for certain programs that can only run on Windows, like Lightroom, most of my games, and ArcGIS, I would burn Windows to the ground and just use Ubuntu. Because seriously.

[jatrax]

Outis, please don't hold back. Just let it out. Seriously if you hold things in it will do bad things to your blood pressure. it's OK, you are among friends, you can tell us how you really feel.

[ramseybuckeye]

I


What I find the most offensive, however, is the advertising and rampant commercialization that Windows 10 keeps shoving down my throat. If I wanted to do a search in the search bar on the taskbar, it would first suggest a ton of news articles on Microsoft's news site. No thanks. If a file has a file extension that I don't have a program to open, Windows helpfully suggests that I buy something at their store. Ugh. Can I uninstall the store? Nope. Yesterday, Windows popped up a notification that I could buy Microsoft Office. I don't want Microsoft Office. My computer is either my work space-- which means I need to not have distractions-- or it's my home, where you're not welcome unless you've been invited in. Quit invading my home and my privacy, Windows.
.

I don't get any of these problems on Windows 10, so there is a way to turn them off, sorry I'm not sure what that way is. I bought a new PC this year because my 7 sear old Asus based home built system was showing it's age, even those the Window Vista OS was rock solid. I found that it I could buy a pre built system with what I wanted much cheaper than building one now, but it came with Windows Eight. I was not at impressed with eight and did the upgrade to ten, which really showed very little difference. Although it is not at all intuitive, once you get thing set up where you are in control and not Microsoft it's not too bad. Really I think it is mostly seven, with a horrible GUI.

I would advise anyone running a machine with Windows 7 or Vista and not problems not to upgrade, there's really no reason unless you've found software that only runs with 10, and I doubt that there is any.

[stevebrot]

What did you gain with Windows 10?

I am still waiting to find out what the gains are and have had Win 10 on my laptop for almost 2 months now. My install was a little rocky due to dependence on the Microsoft compatibility tools. The sad story went like this:

• Downloaded the installation ISO disk image (so glad I went this route)
• Did full file data and partition backup (highly recommended, particularly the file data)
• Installed from DVD over Win 7 Pro on my Lenovo ThinkPad E430 letting the installer delete all incompatible software and drivers (bad idea)
• Install completed, but was not stable
• Rolled back to Win 7 only to find that was also unstable
• Restored Win 7 from partition backup...whew! It worked!
• Went to Lenovo's Win 10 upgrade page and followed instructions to remove all the stuff (mostly bloatware and Lenovo utilities) that Microsoft did not detect
• Reinstalled Win 10 over Win 7.
• System was essentially stable with the exception that the wireless would not stay up after the first scheduled update
• Went through many attempts with different drivers and configurations with no success
• Fresh install from DVD doing a full (destructive) drive format. Say goodbye to all that came before.
• Success at last, though getting stuff such as my browser bookmarks involved dipping back into my file backups

I have Win 10 Pro and have the option to defer upgrades which I did (gun shy, I am). I also turned off the option to get and share updates from/to other PCs. I turned this off due to a deadlock between my laptop and another PC on my network that essentially disabled the update process. Fortunately, I was able to rollback the laptop to an acceptable restore point and redo the update with the other PC turned off.

My setup is currently stable and I have to admit that my laptop works much better with only a minimum of Lenovo stuff installed (drivers for function keys and power management, mostly). Easy configuration and customization appears to be very limited and the UI appearance is nowhere near as nice as what I enjoyed with Win 7 or even my Linux workstation under CentOS. I am still waiting for the feature that is supposed to make me love this OS.* I am also getting tired of the new Microsoft business model which seems to be a lame attempt to emulate my smart phone. No, I don't want your music service, your cloud storage, your news service, your lack of documentation, or your digital assistant that answers my OS questions with ads for product.

Bottom line? If I were to do it over, I would likely install Linux**.


Steve

* I have not tried out the built-in hypervisor yet. With improvements, the virtual desktop feature may be a winner, but not as presently implemented.

** The initial reason for migrating the laptop was because I was wanting to test my film scanner and printer drivers on Win 10 prior to the inevitable upgrade of my main Win 7 Pro workstation. If the upgrade tanked, I would have reinstalled Win 7 or Linux from scratch.

[stevebrot]

My computer also came loaded with bloatware, but I'm not sure whether that was Microsoft's or Lenovo's fault.

Lenovo's fault. I was dismayed when I saw all the crap that was present on my ThinkPad E430. If I wanted that stuff, I would have bought an Acer, Asus, or HP. Next time, I will buy a Dell business class unit or pay extra for a Lenovo with only the OS installed. Yes, Lenovo does offer such a package.


Steve

[jlstrawman]

This a cautionary tale: do not upgrade to windows 10 unless you check specifically that your make and MODEL is compatible. It may also need a BIOS and driver updates as well. DO NOT RELY ON MICROSOFT VERIFICATION TOOLS.

Easy there! Take a deep breath. Everything will be OK. I think just bad luck on your part. I have upgraded three computers from Win 7 to 10,
10 year old Pentium 4, 5 year old Core 2 Duo, and a 4 year old i5. All work flawlessly. All peripherals work flawlessly with each computer. Sure,
compared to the i5, the Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo are a lot slower, but definitely useable.

From what I have read, a major requirement is for the motherboard/processor to be 64-bit capable. By the way, I love Win 10.

[Quartermaster James]

I have no plans to upgrade from 7 to 10. The constant annoying pop-ups from Microsoft irritated me enough to seek out a tool to stop them. The website that lead me to the same tool also advised me that the files for the "upgrade" automatically download to the PC without permission and occupy at least 3.5 gigs (on my laptop it was 6 gigs). The tool allows them to be wiped. Sweet.

Ultimate Outsider: Using GWX Control Panel to Permanently Remove the 'Get Windows 10' Icon

[DeadJohn]

My Windows 10 "upgrade" went smoothly. I say "upgrade" because it was an all-new custom build, except I cloned Windows 7 from and old PC onto the new PC, then upgraded (the old PC is no longer used and I had a full Win 7 license that allows reinstall on another PC).

All told, it took around 5 hours to assemble PC, clone Win 7 from old SSD to new SSD, scrub old drivers from new SSD, install drivers for new hardware, upgrade to Win 10, update a few drivers. Yes, it sounds like a lot work to save $100 on a new Win 10 license but my way was less work than having to reinstall and reconfigure every program after a fresh Win 10 install.

I was very surprised to see most Win 7 drivers work as-is under Win 10. This was the smoothest OS upgrade I've ever done. I only found 2 software issues. My Acronis backup software was several versions old and needs a new license to work under Win 10 (I'm looking at other options before re-committing to Acronis). Adobe CC ran but the updater stopped downloading patches; I had to uninstall and reinstall LR and Photoshop to fix that.

[amoringello]

Microsoft is making it more difficult to avoid upgrading.
Microsoft narrows Win10 upgrade options to 'Upgrade now' or 'Upgrade tonight' | InfoWorld

With its forced collection of data (regardless of telemetric turned off),
With its forced automated reconfiguration of system settings multiple times a day,
And with its strong-arm tactics to upgrade...

Microsoft Windows 10 can pretty much now be declared Malware.

[Outis]

Outis, please don't hold back. Just let it out. Seriously if you hold things in it will do bad things to your blood pressure. it's OK, you are among friends, you can tell us how you really feel.

Ha. Yeah, there was a lot of yelling and pounding on the table the evening I was configuring my new laptop.

---------- Post added 12-23-15 at 04:29 PM ----------

Lenovo's fault. I was dismayed when I saw all the crap that was present on my ThinkPad E430. If I wanted that stuff, I would have bought an Acer, Asus, or HP. Next time, I will buy a Dell business class unit or pay extra for a Lenovo with only the OS installed. Yes, Lenovo does offer such a package.


Steve

Yeah, I used to only buy Lenovo stuff because I could get great employee discounts on it, but they alienated me enough that I got an Alienware 15 this time around. I love it-- an excellent replacement for my beloved T510. I had a hard time finding a laptop with a keyboard that wasn't terrible, but that's a rant for another day!

[arnold]

I upgraded from Win7 to Win 10 for three weeks, then went back to Win7, so did give it a try. Win10 is infuriating in the way it corrals one into an advertising stockyard. Taking away control of aspects like updates, and free games is annoying. The privacy issues are a battle I don't want to get involved with. Yes, Win 10 seemed to run faster, but there were glitches such as screwed up networking. Some may regard all this as an exciting challenge, but for me it is an annoying intrusion into my routine I want gone.

[Not a Number]

Want a blank startup screen for Internet Explorer or whatever it's called now? Good luck

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/open-internet-explorer-in-windows-10

Pin IE to your start or task bar, unpin Edge. Done.

I put Win7 on a separate hard drive on my 6-7 year old XP system and boot off the drive using the BIOS boot device menu. I made an image backup of Win7, upgraded it to Win10. Since it was 32bit WIn7 Win10 was 32bit also. I downloaded the 64 bit install image for Win10, partitioned my drive that had WIn7/Win10 on it, restored the Win7 image and did a clean install of Win10 64 bit on the new partition. Thus I can boot into WinXP, Win7 or Win10 64bit. I have no hardware issues with Win10 so far.

I downloaded WaterFox - the 64bit version of Firefox and 64bit Java. Getting 64bit Java to work with Internet Explorer is a pain. Edge does not use plugins and doesn't support 64bit Java.

I basically use Win10 to browse, play solitaire or run a few 64bit versions of programs. I have too much stuff to reinstall if I upped my Win7 to 64bit.

[Ex Finn.]

My Windows 10 "upgrade" went smoothly. I say "upgrade" because it was an all-new custom build,

Same thing here, except I did buy the disk for $99.00. I also bought an ASUS 2 in one laptop with Win10. So far, smooth sailing... I might just have jinxed it!