Windows: to ten or not to ten
June 3, 2015 11:17 PM Subscribe
I got my notice from Windows the other day, notifying me that I am eligible to upgrade my system to Windows 10 for free. The full version will download automatically at the end of July. I guess it's legit, but is it? and is it a good idea? Details inside.
I'm a button pusher, unfit to do anything more complicated than keeping track of passwords and create file chains and new folders. I once thought to understand this stuff, because I love to write and thought the computer to be a great word processor. Now I use it for musical instruction, cat photo exchanges, and so on. I tried on the W95 versions (way back in the day) to deal with issues, but I discovered that I have a talent for accidentally driving an operating system insane. Since then I leave everything to the wizards, or sometimes, my son, who will link with me through a shared viewer to untangle my messes. I'd like to show him that I'm grown up now, and can do this without his help. (I don't intend to let him know I got help from MeFi.)
Windows claims the installation is quick and easy. Is there anything I need to know before I hit RUN ?
I'm a button pusher, unfit to do anything more complicated than keeping track of passwords and create file chains and new folders. I once thought to understand this stuff, because I love to write and thought the computer to be a great word processor. Now I use it for musical instruction, cat photo exchanges, and so on. I tried on the W95 versions (way back in the day) to deal with issues, but I discovered that I have a talent for accidentally driving an operating system insane. Since then I leave everything to the wizards, or sometimes, my son, who will link with me through a shared viewer to untangle my messes. I'd like to show him that I'm grown up now, and can do this without his help. (I don't intend to let him know I got help from MeFi.)
Windows claims the installation is quick and easy. Is there anything I need to know before I hit RUN ?
Seconding emptythought - register for your copy as this will be free for a limited time, but you don't need to install it right away. Wait for the dull roar of complaints to die down on the 'net - let Microsoft release a load of patches and updates, then take another look.
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 2:25 AM on June 4, 2015
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 2:25 AM on June 4, 2015
In your position I would follow emptythought's advice. Here is a sample pre-release review which attempts to tell you what you would be getting.
There is a popular theory that Windows consumer-side releases tend to alternate between "good" and "shit" versions going all the way back to the Windows 95 as the company makes attempts to move forward and then attempts to compensate for the mistakes it made during the advance - for example: XP - good, Vista - shit, 7 - good, 8 - shit. Windows 10 should thus be good, Insha'Allah.
posted by rongorongo at 3:11 AM on June 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
There is a popular theory that Windows consumer-side releases tend to alternate between "good" and "shit" versions going all the way back to the Windows 95 as the company makes attempts to move forward and then attempts to compensate for the mistakes it made during the advance - for example: XP - good, Vista - shit, 7 - good, 8 - shit. Windows 10 should thus be good, Insha'Allah.
posted by rongorongo at 3:11 AM on June 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
Thanks for this question, because I've also been wondering what to do. Can people here confirm that if you register (which I think I have done) you can then install at your leisure any time?
I have windows 7, and Have stayed the hell away from Win8 which I've found to be unusable.
The OddEven rule has (in my opinion) held up stronger for windows than for star trek, So I expect 10 to be good, but that doesn't mean I'd ever install an early release Microsoft thing. I just don't want to miss out on free upgrades.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:37 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have windows 7, and Have stayed the hell away from Win8 which I've found to be unusable.
The OddEven rule has (in my opinion) held up stronger for windows than for star trek, So I expect 10 to be good, but that doesn't mean I'd ever install an early release Microsoft thing. I just don't want to miss out on free upgrades.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:37 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just this guy: The review I linked to above says that the upgrade will be free for a year for all users of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Whether that year starts from the date of the offer - or the Windows 10 release dates - is not clear. This is obviously going to affect a lot of people - and will tend to have the effect of making the upgrade process faster than it might otherwise have been.
posted by rongorongo at 3:48 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rongorongo at 3:48 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm holding off for three reasons: first, it's probably not working as well as 7 now, for stuff such a drivers, stability, etc. second, this is a limp (ATI card burned off) 5 year old laptop, and HP had like zero driver upgrade since I purchased it (including for the now defunct ATI card, where the regular ones don't work). Third, I understand this laptop is about to die off sooner or later. The replacement is very likely to be W10 native.
posted by lmfsilva at 4:03 AM on June 4, 2015
posted by lmfsilva at 4:03 AM on June 4, 2015
From what I've seen so far with the minimal playing I've done with 10, it looks like an even uglier 8.1 that works a tiny bit better.
If resizing windows by grabbing their horizontal or vertical edges is a thing you often do, Windows 10 will frustrate you until you work out that you can grab the new nearly-nonexistent window borders slightly outside their edges.
It boots nice and fast, but only because it does the same hibernation-style shutdown by default that 8 does. If you're going to dual boot it, you'll want to turn that off; accessing a hibernated Windows instance's filesystem from some other OS is likely to make it horribly corrupt.
posted by flabdablet at 4:36 AM on June 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
If resizing windows by grabbing their horizontal or vertical edges is a thing you often do, Windows 10 will frustrate you until you work out that you can grab the new nearly-nonexistent window borders slightly outside their edges.
It boots nice and fast, but only because it does the same hibernation-style shutdown by default that 8 does. If you're going to dual boot it, you'll want to turn that off; accessing a hibernated Windows instance's filesystem from some other OS is likely to make it horribly corrupt.
posted by flabdablet at 4:36 AM on June 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've been using Windows 10 on an older daily driver since they opened up their preview program about six months ago. It's a lot better than it's getting credit for. Whereas Windows 8 was a major departure, Windows 10 is pretty much a better looking Windows 7 in terms of functionality. The preview program has been pretty open for a while now (and they've been reportedly tracking feedback like obsessives), so most of the major bugs have been ironed out. In my experience, it's been pretty much rock solid and reliable since about February.
One thing that I've found funny is that they're still ironing out their design language. After redesigning all the system icons to match their flatter design elsewhere, in the last update the iterated back to earlier version because the feedback was negative.
posted by General Malaise at 5:47 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
One thing that I've found funny is that they're still ironing out their design language. After redesigning all the system icons to match their flatter design elsewhere, in the last update the iterated back to earlier version because the feedback was negative.
posted by General Malaise at 5:47 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Upgrading will be possible for at least a year, so I don't think there's any rush. One thing you don't mention is what you'd be upgrading from, and what sort of hardware you have. I would imagine those would be factors.
(I'll probably upgrade my Win8 tablet once the full version is out, while leaving my Win7 desktop alone. That might or might not change down the line.)
posted by Shmuel510 at 6:12 AM on June 4, 2015
(I'll probably upgrade my Win8 tablet once the full version is out, while leaving my Win7 desktop alone. That might or might not change down the line.)
posted by Shmuel510 at 6:12 AM on June 4, 2015
mule98J - one really obvious thing that I don't think anyone has explicitly said here yet: back up all your stuff before you install! You might do everything right and the OS upgrade still screws up somehow, because hey software is complicated and MS has a less than perfect track record. Much easier to be able to go "oh well let's format the hard drive and start over" if the installation goes wonky when you don't have to worry about recovering your precious data.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:57 AM on June 4, 2015
posted by Wretch729 at 6:57 AM on June 4, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you all for your comments.
I have also looked at the Microsoft page that was linked to my notification from them. Others previewing this product seem to think along the same lines. But a few of their comments caught my eye. One of the commenters seemed to think that this OS upgrade, though free, dragged along a subscription fee that kicked in after a while. I didn't get that impression, so I'll just ignore it for now.
I find this point worrisome, though, because a bookkeeping program I bought (Quicken) actually did this sort of thing. I bought it for a one-time fee, but after a couple of years I had to pay for an upgrade in order to maintain the links between my bank and my home program. I realize that I can manually download and install the data from my accounts, but it pisses me off that they make me pay to be able to continue using the feature that separates Quicken from a goddam pocket calculator. Maybe I'm also miffed that I didn't sort this out when I bought the program. I guess I would have bought it anyhow. Still, being on the lower end of tech-savvy is a pain in the ass. I do not celebrate my lack of skill in this, but I've gotten over being embarrassed by it.
I neglected to mention that I now use W-7, which I like well enough, but I liked XP better. I don't really do online gaming. I used to like to mess with SIM City before the new one came out, and took away my god-power to drop meteors on my more problematic creations.
Backing up data is a fundamental safeguard. Fortunately my data storage requirements are simple, compared to most people. I can put all my photos and music files onto a stick with a few dozen gigs, and my texts in still less space. Reinstalling my snow-flake programs (Publisher, Quicken, and so on) is a task I'd rather not rather not mess with. Last time I did it, I spent several days just answering my update wizards, and I found out that Publisher's owner were assholes. I couldn't get the key to reinstall my old program. (The downloaded file got back in 1997, when I got the original bundle, was no longer operable) No new Publisher bundles were available, and I couldn't get any of the discounts provided student and others. I had about three hundred files I'd created for various uses (calendars and such, with event data) that was now useless unless I bought the new and improved Publisher program (this grar could go on much longer).
The most technically exotic thing I do nowadays is download music files to learn new licks to keep up with the other musicians who play with the Old Time Fiddlers here in southern Oregon. I'm one of the guitar players, not one of the fiddlers. Fiddlers are a dime a dozen but a good rhythm guitar player is a rare gem. Well, a mediocre rhythm guy is pretty rare, too. I don't need to edit music files, just manipulate them enough to review passages for study.
Mrs mule (RedBud, actually) bought an Apple desktop model that puts everything somewhere inside the flatscreen's casing, which clears up a lot of space on her real-life desk...no large stack. She also got more USB ports than the HP stack I'm using now. This made me yearn to get a similar set up (though I won't buy an Apple), to clear up working space on my own desk. The speed bump in this case is the reinstallation of my snow-flakey programs that can't be simply dragged into the new operating system (see Publisher grar). My son assures me that under most conditions the lack of a stack wouldn't mean a lack of utility.
Anyhow, before I drift further from the question at hand, thanks again for your input, all of you. You've given me lines of thought that help me do my cargo-cult thing with some degree of confidence.
posted by mule98J at 8:58 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have also looked at the Microsoft page that was linked to my notification from them. Others previewing this product seem to think along the same lines. But a few of their comments caught my eye. One of the commenters seemed to think that this OS upgrade, though free, dragged along a subscription fee that kicked in after a while. I didn't get that impression, so I'll just ignore it for now.
I find this point worrisome, though, because a bookkeeping program I bought (Quicken) actually did this sort of thing. I bought it for a one-time fee, but after a couple of years I had to pay for an upgrade in order to maintain the links between my bank and my home program. I realize that I can manually download and install the data from my accounts, but it pisses me off that they make me pay to be able to continue using the feature that separates Quicken from a goddam pocket calculator. Maybe I'm also miffed that I didn't sort this out when I bought the program. I guess I would have bought it anyhow. Still, being on the lower end of tech-savvy is a pain in the ass. I do not celebrate my lack of skill in this, but I've gotten over being embarrassed by it.
I neglected to mention that I now use W-7, which I like well enough, but I liked XP better. I don't really do online gaming. I used to like to mess with SIM City before the new one came out, and took away my god-power to drop meteors on my more problematic creations.
Backing up data is a fundamental safeguard. Fortunately my data storage requirements are simple, compared to most people. I can put all my photos and music files onto a stick with a few dozen gigs, and my texts in still less space. Reinstalling my snow-flake programs (Publisher, Quicken, and so on) is a task I'd rather not rather not mess with. Last time I did it, I spent several days just answering my update wizards, and I found out that Publisher's owner were assholes. I couldn't get the key to reinstall my old program. (The downloaded file got back in 1997, when I got the original bundle, was no longer operable) No new Publisher bundles were available, and I couldn't get any of the discounts provided student and others. I had about three hundred files I'd created for various uses (calendars and such, with event data) that was now useless unless I bought the new and improved Publisher program (this grar could go on much longer).
The most technically exotic thing I do nowadays is download music files to learn new licks to keep up with the other musicians who play with the Old Time Fiddlers here in southern Oregon. I'm one of the guitar players, not one of the fiddlers. Fiddlers are a dime a dozen but a good rhythm guitar player is a rare gem. Well, a mediocre rhythm guy is pretty rare, too. I don't need to edit music files, just manipulate them enough to review passages for study.
Mrs mule (RedBud, actually) bought an Apple desktop model that puts everything somewhere inside the flatscreen's casing, which clears up a lot of space on her real-life desk...no large stack. She also got more USB ports than the HP stack I'm using now. This made me yearn to get a similar set up (though I won't buy an Apple), to clear up working space on my own desk. The speed bump in this case is the reinstallation of my snow-flakey programs that can't be simply dragged into the new operating system (see Publisher grar). My son assures me that under most conditions the lack of a stack wouldn't mean a lack of utility.
Anyhow, before I drift further from the question at hand, thanks again for your input, all of you. You've given me lines of thought that help me do my cargo-cult thing with some degree of confidence.
posted by mule98J at 8:58 AM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
You don't mention which version of Windows you are using now...but since you received a notification, it has to be 7.1, 8 or 8.1. All good.
I have moved back and forth between 10 and 8.1 several times over the last few months. I've used Windows professionally and as enthusiast since Windows 95.
It's pretty much established (unless Microsoft changes their mind) that there will be no subscription for Windows. If you have a legitimate copy of Windows 7.1, 8 or 8.1, you will have one year from release date (currently July 29) to upgrade for free. It appears that if you register for Win10 now, you will download the upgrade and have a choice about when to install. The only time you should need to pay for Windows is when you buy a new machine (where it's included in the price of the machine), if you build computers for a living, or if you wait to upgrade longer than a year. Updates will be free for the life of the machine it's installed on.
In my opinion, if you like Win 7, you'll probably like 10. If you like Windows 8.x, you'll also like it. The only reason I've moved back and forth is because it hasn't always been as good on my Surface Pro 3 when I use it as a tablet as 8.1. But it improves with every preview release.
People have ragged on the Windows 8.x interface with good reason, but as usual, Microsoft improved the innards, making it a better OS than Windows 7. I think we'll see the same internal improvements in Windows 10, no matter what people think of the user interface.
posted by lhauser at 7:37 PM on June 6, 2015
I have moved back and forth between 10 and 8.1 several times over the last few months. I've used Windows professionally and as enthusiast since Windows 95.
It's pretty much established (unless Microsoft changes their mind) that there will be no subscription for Windows. If you have a legitimate copy of Windows 7.1, 8 or 8.1, you will have one year from release date (currently July 29) to upgrade for free. It appears that if you register for Win10 now, you will download the upgrade and have a choice about when to install. The only time you should need to pay for Windows is when you buy a new machine (where it's included in the price of the machine), if you build computers for a living, or if you wait to upgrade longer than a year. Updates will be free for the life of the machine it's installed on.
In my opinion, if you like Win 7, you'll probably like 10. If you like Windows 8.x, you'll also like it. The only reason I've moved back and forth is because it hasn't always been as good on my Surface Pro 3 when I use it as a tablet as 8.1. But it improves with every preview release.
People have ragged on the Windows 8.x interface with good reason, but as usual, Microsoft improved the innards, making it a better OS than Windows 7. I think we'll see the same internal improvements in Windows 10, no matter what people think of the user interface.
posted by lhauser at 7:37 PM on June 6, 2015
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I'd wait at least a few months before installing it. Windows 7 was mostly OK until service pack 1, but microsoft otherwise has an awful track record here. Fuck, apple does too. Windows 8 arguably needed 8.1 pretty badly, vista needed it, XP needed sp1 and even sp2 desperately, and the past 3 or 4 versions of OSX have been buggy messes especially on an upgraded system for a patch or two.
This is something i plan to install on like, one of my secondary meh machines(like the junker on my workbench that somehow had a windows 7 pro license baked in, but i basically only use to play music and look up stuff while i work on projects). I'm not installing it or recommending it on any client machines or my main windows 8.1 gaming/etc desktop until like... after christmas at least though.
Pretty much, as a TL;DR, right now it's only for people who MUST have the latest thing. It adds a few features for gamers that still aren't fully baked, and a few other random things. If you just need to use your computer for stuff and don't want to fiddle around or run in to weird bugs LEAVE IT ALONE FOR A WHILE.
I'm not looking forward to the calls this is going to generate from clients, at all. It's GOING to cause issues for the first few months.
posted by emptythought at 11:24 PM on June 3, 2015 [3 favorites]