Have you upgraded to Windows 10?

[tony20009]

If you have, what are your observations of how it's different, better, and worse than the version from which you upgraded? What version of Windows did you run prior to upgrading?

Edit:
I'm specifically interested in reading first hand experiences from folks who've upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 10 Home. I'm asking here because I hope to get input from more non-geeks than than I would find on a "techie" forum.

All the best.

[D3bian]

I've upgraded to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 Pro, and I have to admit that I like it. Apart from some small issues in regards to drivers in the beginning, all is now running quite smoothly.

Even though I like it, I'm still no Windows fan and will always run it in a VMWare environment on Linux (so Windows is my secondary operating system).

[G4BR13L]

Imho it is better than Windows 8.x but note that the new "Edge" browser does not support plugins (yet). But other browsers such as Chrome work fine.

I am a 38-year old IT-er and I sometimes struggle trying to find specific settings screens. Other than that there are still not a lot of drivers for Windows 10 for your devices but the drivers for Windows 8.x work too.

[Kadence99]

I upgraded from 8.1 and like the look and feel of 10. You should change your privacy setting once you upgrade.

[XxMerlinxX]

Guess I'm just stuck in my ways. Being a Windows 7 user, I was offered a free upgrade to 10, but a lot of reviews said that performance suffered slightly so I held off.

[tony20009]

Originally Posted by XxMerlinxX

Guess I'm just stuck in my ways. Being a Windows 7 user, I was offered a free upgrade to 10, but a lot of reviews said that performance suffered slightly so I held off.

That's exactly the position in which I find myself.

All the best.

[Sidewinderpb]

My new laptop came with Windows 8, which was abhorrent. Immediately accepted the free upgrade to Windows 10, and hey, at least I got my start menu back. What were they thinking getting rid of that? We buy PC's so that we don't have to deal with the illogical bullshit of Macs.

[G4BR13L]

I run Start8 on Windows 8 machines.

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

[bmw1racer]

I upgraded to 10 the day it came out... No difference in performance, IMO.

The look of the GUI has changed: All the windows look flat, like in Office 2013... The buttons, scrollbars, etc. don't have that 3D look anymore.

I did have to reinstall several programs, since they didn't appear to be functioning correctly.

[Z K]

Really not any difference from Windows 8 to Windows 10 besides the return of the start menu.

I think on a lower powered machine, it may be better as it is leaner and doesn't use as much resources to run. That is the direction of Windows now as tablets and other things run Windows.

The Windows 10 tablet experience is slightly worse than Windows 8.1. It makes app switching between Windows apps and desktop programs harder. You're always stuck in either tablet or desktop mode and need to use the switcher. You can tell Windows 10 is definitely more desktop oriented.

[BEMR]

Originally Posted by tony20009

If you have, what are your observations of how it's different, better, and worse than the version from which you upgraded? What version of Windows did you run prior to upgrading?

All the best.

Been running computer systems since IBM punch cards, so far windows 10 the absolute best operating platform by Microsoft of all time!

Upgraded from Win7 Pro, smooth and seamless, purchased Dell system with Windows 10 installed new, also seamless. Window 8.x worse platform ever along the lines of Mill and Ultimate.

Those of you debating and insisting on waiting until all the bugs are worked out, I suggest you install it now. I have 8 USB plug in devices, during the startup windows (new install) asked for my wifi key first, then by the time the system actually displayed the desktop ALL 8 devices installed with the new drivers. It all took about 5 minutes then done.

If you are a heavy user, you will see many differences within the platform, if your just an average user, maybe not.

Bottom line I rate the new system a "10" a windows 10.

[F32Fleet]

It's OK as I'm having to run everything as Administrator. Also there's some question as to whether it supports the X58 chipset.

[Nitrousbird]

I just installed it a couple days ago. I like it thus far. Edge is better than IE11 but so is everything else. I did discover IE11 is still packaged with 10.

I HATE HATE HATE that they killed off Windows Media Center. For those that actually know how powerful WMC is understands the loss (read - only PC software that has the DRM to handle copy once flagged cable channels - which are most of them).

This loss was what triggered me to build a dedicated Win7 HTPC and move my 360 extender to another room for use. So I basically had to spend several hundred buck to upgrade to 10...

I haven't seen any compatibility issues with anything but yet. I hate the new Windows Update process. Interface is nicer than 8.1 - I'd say even better than 8.1 with a Start Menu add-on.

[davis449]

Originally Posted by Nitrousbird

I just installed it a couple days ago. I like it thus far. Edge is better than IE11 but so is everything else. I did discover IE11 is still packaged with 10.

I HATE HATE HATE that they killed off Windows Media Center. For those that actually know how powerful WMC is understands the loss (read - only PC software that has the DRM to handle copy once flagged cable channels - which are most of them).

This loss was what triggered me to build a dedicated Win7 HTPC and move my 360 extender to another room for use. So I basically had to spend several hundred buck to upgrade to 10...

I hear this loud and clear. I use WMC for TV (HDHR Prime) and there's absolutely nothing else out there right now that does what WMC does. I love not having to pay cable box fees for the 5 places I want TV in my apartment.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally Posted by davis449

I hear this loud and clear. I use WMC for TV (HDHR Prime) and there's absolutely nothing else out there right now that does what WMC does. I love not having to pay cable box fees for the 5 places I want TV in my apartment.

Yep, I'm also running HDHR Prime, HTPC + 2 360 extenders. People that see it or hear about it in detail are amazed at how slick of a setup WMC can be as a cable box...my 360's are setup to boot to WMC, so it's just like having a cable box, without the extreme cost and lack of functionality of your typical cable box.

I find my extenders work like crap wirelessly, but since I have the whole house hard wired that's a non-issue. I'll have to experiment with an Ethernet over power adapter when I put an extender to the Gazebo I built on our patio recently, as there is no reasonable way to run Ethernet out there (doing an outdoor living room setup).

Plex Home Theater also links into WMC (but not on extenders) and is super slick. I also use the Arcsoft Total Media Theater 6 for Blu-ray playback through WMC.

There are some folks that have installed WMC on Windows 10, but it doesn't have any DRM functionality yet, so worthless to me at this point. I tried installing it but only had a few minutes to play with it and I wasn't able to get it to install yet.

Windows 10 does fix the issue of recognizing a SSD RAID array that 8.1 has (but 8 didn't have). 8.1 would recognize my 4 SSD RAID 0 array has a hard drive based array when it was installed and I had to use some command prompt commands to get it to recognize it correctly (which is a big issue, as it won't do TRIM if recognized as a hard drive). Windows 10 recognized it correctly without issue. I found Win 10 to handle driver install a bit better too.

I'd like to experiment with getting coding software installed on 10 - if I can get it working on my main rig I may upgrade the coding laptop to 10. 64 bit 7 and 8.1 didn't like it...

[Templar]

I grabbed a small laptop for use at school with Windows 10 already installed. It seems to run just fine, no real issues so far.

My desktop still runs Windows 7 and I won't be upgrading. If you haven't already, take a look into the automatic and unstoppable spying that Windows 10 does on users; numerous articles have been posted about it. Even Microsoft admits they can't/won't stop it. When push comes to shove, I'll probably upgrade since Windows 7 won't be supported for much longer (I think 2020). In the mean time, I'll continue to use what works well without the added baggage. For my laptop, if they want to spy on me running chemical reaction solver software, by all means, carry on. I rarely even use the internet on that thing.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally Posted by Templar

If you haven't already, take a look into the automatic and unstoppable spying that Windows 10 does on users; numerous articles have been posted about it. Even Microsoft admits they can't/won't stop it.

This article disagrees with that statement and basically states the whole spying thing is more of an anti-MS, tinfoil hat deal:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-micr...th-windows-10/

Another article regarding how they aren't spying:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/sof...ks-out-1305307

It seems all the spying articles are older stuff and the debunking stuff is more recent.

[Z K]

Originally Posted by Nitrousbird

This article disagrees with that statement and basically states the whole spying thing is more of an anti-MS, tinfoil hat deal:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-micr...th-windows-10/

Another article regarding how they aren't spying:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/sof...ks-out-1305307

It seems all the spying articles are older stuff and the debunking stuff is more recent.

+1

And you can turn all that stuff off through some easy tweaks. Most of it is for Cortana use anyway - which I don't use.

[Templar]

Originally Posted by Nitrousbird

This article disagrees with that statement and basically states the whole spying thing is more of an anti-MS, tinfoil hat deal:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-micr...th-windows-10/

Another article regarding how they aren't spying:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/sof...ks-out-1305307

It seems all the spying articles are older stuff and the debunking stuff is more recent.

Originally Posted by Z K

+1

And you can turn all that stuff off through some easy tweaks. Most of it is for Cortana use anyway - which I don't use.

Interesting, thanks. Got suckered in to an article about it I guess. Tough to say because for every article I find that says it's not true I find one that says it is true. Who the hell knows, lol...

I just don't want them seeing what kind of porn I look at!

[davis449]

Originally Posted by Nitrousbird

Yep, I'm also running HDHR Prime, HTPC + 2 360 extenders. People that see it or hear about it in detail are amazed at how slick of a setup WMC can be as a cable box...my 360's are setup to boot to WMC, so it's just like having a cable box, without the extreme cost and lack of functionality of your typical cable box.

I find my extenders work like crap wirelessly, but since I have the whole house hard wired that's a non-issue. I'll have to experiment with an Ethernet over power adapter when I put an extender to the Gazebo I built on our patio recently, as there is no reasonable way to run Ethernet out there (doing an outdoor living room setup).

Plex Home Theater also links into WMC (but not on extenders) and is super slick. I also use the Arcsoft Total Media Theater 6 for Blu-ray playback through WMC.

Yeah, most people are wowed by it when I explain it to them and show them the equipment that makes it all work. I use XBMC with an emby backend on my server for streaming content in the house. I have a plugin for WMC that launches it from withing WMC, so I never have to worry about using a mouse and keyboard to switch. Something goes wrong, I just reboot the PC from the remote. It takes a shorter amount of time to reboot ANY of my HTPC's than ANY cable\satellite box I've ever seen. I get my HD movies from, uh, other sources, , so BluRay playback isn't even remotely a concern of mine.

As for the wireless part, you can't do anything about the lacking of the built in wireless reception of your extenders, but I will say that only two of my HTPC's are wired. The rest are all on Wireless AC (at full AC bandwidth) and I have few issues with it. It did help my N reception as well when I used to use N on a few of them. Sundays during football season are the only times I get to saturated wireless network status. That is 2 HTPC's doing TV (because the third doing TV is wired), an Ultrabook doing RedZone via TWC's online stream, and three cell phones being played on.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally Posted by davis449

Yeah, most people are wowed by it when I explain it to them and show them the equipment that makes it all work. I use XBMC with an emby backend on my server for streaming content in the house. I have a plugin for WMC that launches it from withing WMC, so I never have to worry about using a mouse and keyboard to switch. Something goes wrong, I just reboot the PC from the remote. It takes a shorter amount of time to reboot ANY of my HTPC's than ANY cable\satellite box I've ever seen. I get my HD movies from, uh, other sources, , so BluRay playback isn't even remotely a concern of mine.

Trust me, my movies are from "other" sources, but I'm picky about quality, so either I'll mount the movie as an ISO or just burn it to disc. 7TB fills up so quickly with 45GB movies...

XMBC + WMC sounds interesting - I never looked that hard into it as I have an Apple TV for streaming (or the 360's, though they are only 720p for non-MS apps).

[mbro]

So you use WMC as a cable box or as a headend for a cable box sat behind it? Sounds interesting, I use kodi on a rPi and send to another rPi in uke dor satellite.