Windows 10 - Good or bad?

[Nachtmahr]

Hello there.

I've been looking at Windows 10 for a while, but it would definitely be wrong of me to claim to know an awful lot about it yet. Most of what I 'know' is based on hearsay and I don't know how much of it to believe.

I don't want to upgrade before I know what's going on though, and right now I'm hearing a lot of awful things about a lack of privacy and data-collection.

Is anyone here qualified/in the mood/able to give me and others in a similar situation a rundown of the basic Pro's and Con's of Windows 10 and whether upgrading from a 64Bit 7-Ultimate edition to a 10 is worth it? In case you'd need to know what I use my PC for, I'm an avid gamer and my rig does reflect this with a lot of fairly decent hardware.

Love
Nachtmahr. <3

[Keiro]

Fairly good, in my opinion. I've written a blog-post about my upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 but that may or may not apply to you. Still, it has some tips that may be of help during the upgrade. http://heimkoma.com/upgrading-to-windows-10/

So far, just about everything works... except for the Start Menu randomly not working and working at times. I've yet to figure out what is its cause. It's pissing me off because it shouldn't be happening with such regularity. A fresh install may be necessary to determine if the upgrade was the issue.

But, if you saw my blog-post, you'd probably notice I said it's great. And it is... and fast. I also like the fact that it can do Fast Restart but because I'm on a laptop, it's annoying having that on.

I'm enjoying Windows 10. Personally though, I'd advise against upgrading for a little longer. Say, another month or two.

[Rogue]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2015/08/windows_10_privacy_problems_here_s_how_bad_they_are_and_how_to_plug_them.html

This as well. I haven't gotten to play with it as much and I really hope there's a swipe to get to other desktops function on laptops but other than that? Better than 8. But it's honestly up to you from 7 ultimate.

[Thete]

I've upgraded from 8.1, and it's a big improvement. No more awful Metro UI and irritating sidebar with an accidental swipe of my touchpad. I don't need a program to give me a proper start menu, either. I like it, I think it was worth upgrading. Another big bonus for me is that I can stream Xbox games over from the Xbox one onto my laptop, which I find handy.

My boyfriend upgraded from 7 Home, and he finds the lack of customisation a downgrade. Actually, in retrospect, he finds it a total downgrade. He doesn't like it, not so far, at least.
Honestly, I probably would hesitate from upgrading from 7 just yet. I just really, really wanted to get away from 8.1 and all of it's annoying niggles.

[Galanthor]

Ok...do you have any vital information on your pc or do things like online banking? Because...if so then...NO! Windows is known for having security problems on launch and this one even sells them as features. Unless set otherwise it will save you wifi passwords and overall information about your pc usage on microsofts servers.

If not...it's a question if you want to risk a downgrade for your curiousity, because...10 doesn't have that many great features...maybe for newer directx versions if you are a hardcore gamer, but...yeah...It's generally a bad idea to get windows close to launch

[Kuje]

I've enjoyed it for the week that I've had it and had hardly no problems. Only one of the six computers that I installed it on had a problem with Cortana and the start menu locking up the computer. However after two hours of messing with some things, it fixed itself so I don't know exactly how that happened. Otherwise you really don't share your wifi passwords and the like as people claim. You can turn off that feature and besides it only works if you add someone to your network. So many people are up in arms about that wifi sense without understanding that the person behind the computer actually has to set things for it to work.

Streaming from the xbox has been pretty cool as well.

I like Cortana since it's easier to look up the news, have her remind me of dates/meetings that are coming up, and just plain fun to see what she says when you ask her something. Although she does need some work since she is a bit touchy on if she hears you or not but I expect, like they had to do with the Kinect, that they will work out ways to make it so she hears you better. As Theta said, I upgraded from 8.1 so it's much nicer not to have all the side windows popping up and to have a start menu is something I missed, so to have it back has been fantastic.

[Nowherewoman]

Much better than 8.  I've had a few compatibility issues (Chrome, most notably, though I did get it fixed), but the interface, once you get used to it, is much better than the cell-phone-wannabe crap of the previous iteration.  Also, based on only observation over a short period of time, it appears to run a bit more quickly than 7.

[undisclosedtoyou]

The only thing that's been acting up since I did the update to win 10 is that minecraft has gotten glitchy as hell.  Considering the fact that Minecraft is owned by microsoft now, this sort of amuses me.  And I can't really use mumble with minecraft without something going terribly wrong. 

[Aiden]

Did you go get the windows 10 minecraft beta from majong?

[undisclosedtoyou]

I did not.  I'm going to go check it out now though.  Thanks for the heads up, man!

[Amelita]

I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 and I love it so far. I'm very happy to be free from the annoying sidebar, I find settings and such easier to navigate, I like the start button deal (a nice customizable overview of anything I like to keep at hand with one click without leaving the desktop), I like the look.

Maybe I'm too trusting of my fellow humans or maybe I just think sending out an upgrade with tons of security glitches would be a REALLY bad business move, so I'm not too concerned with all the fuss about that.

I'd recommend it, if moving from 8.1 :)

[Rogue]

I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 and I love it so far. I'm very happy to be free from the annoying sidebar, I find settings and such easier to navigate, I like the start button deal (a nice customizable overview of anything I like to keep at hand with one click without leaving the desktop), I like the look.

Maybe I'm too trusting of my fellow humans or maybe I just think sending out an upgrade with tons of security glitches would be a REALLY bad business move, so I'm not too concerned with all the fuss about that.

I'd recommend it, if moving from 8.1 :)

It's not security glitches per say. Random hackers would have just as much of a time getting their hands on your info. The issue is the amount of information they're allowed access to on your computer because their Terms of Service is basically a giant grab all.

[Sabre]

I've elected to try Windows 10 on my laptop while holding out on my desktop.

The UI is an improvement over Windows 8.1 in some regards, though functionally it's not much different from Windows 7. It's fairly responsive, but the difference between Windows 7/8/10 seems minimal. I have not noticed any improvement in boot times over 8.1, and both it and 10 tend to use more RAM than Windows 7. Unless you enjoy Windows metro apps, Windows 10 comes with an assortment of pre-installed applications that are harder than ever to get rid of.

Task View is nice. The flat design is refreshing if you're into it.

But as mentioned above, this is Microsoft's most intrusive OS yet, and you have little to now expectations of privacy here. If you know what you're doing it's not too difficult to debloat Windows 10 stripping it of Metro apps and forced integration of OneDrive while also blocking most host connections to Microsoft servers. But it's quite annoying to do. And unless you have the Enterprise version of Windows 10 you have no option to completely disconnect yourself from Microsoft telemetry.

DirectX 12 promises greater performance in games, but for now Windows 10 doesn't seem to play nice with older games.

Edge isn't perfect, but it's a much improved browser compared to Internet Explorer.


Is it worth upgrading from Windows 7 Ultimate? That depends. If you like a modern interface but more desktop friendly design choices than Windows 8, and if you don't mind privacy issues too much, and you mostly rely on your OS to be comfortable and easy to use, then Windows 10 maybe worth it. I may eventually go back to Windows 7 Ultimate however, at least on my laptop. Windows 10 at the moment isn't as customizable or low profile as a properly configured Windows 7 installation can be.

[AmberStarfire]

I got a new computer fairly recently with 8.1 on it and have elected so far to not switch to 10. With Classic Shell I have a Start Menu, I don't use the start screen and I've got it set up to appear much as Windows 7 does. The only thing is that annoying bar on the right hand side, that I keep triggering somehow but seldom if I intentionally want to. The charms bar?

I'll have to see what the advantages of 10 are, but so far that's not reason enough to change. A programmer friend also said that he always waits for service pack 1 after a new operating system is released before he installs it, so I'm thinking I might do the same thing. I'm also not sure if it's still free since I didn't sign up before it came out but it shouldn't take much to find out.

[Kuje]

From the way Microsoft talks, there are no more service packs like they released in previous OS's. So waiting for that to happen, you might be waiting a very long time or never. Technically, the patch that came out last week is considered, "service release 1". So when updates happen that's how they are going to be in Windows 10. This one release for a service pack with major updates is a thing of the past.

I'll have to see what the advantages of 10 are, but so far that's not reason enough to change. A programmer friend also said that he always waits for service pack 1 after a new operating system is released before he installs it, so I'm thinking I might do the same thing. I'm also not sure if it's still free since I didn't sign up before it came out but it shouldn't take much to find out.

[borninapril]

If you are a graphic designer of any kind.... it's kind of meh right now because it doesn't support font management softwares like fontagent and suitcase.

[AmberStarfire]

From the way Microsoft talks, there are no more service packs like they released in previous OS's. So waiting for that to happen, you might be waiting a very long time or never. Technically, the patch that came out last week is considered, "service release 1". So when updates happen that's how they are going to be in Windows 10. This one release for a service pack with major updates is a thing of the past.

Ok. I've reserved a copy. I'm not sure when or even if I'll change over (with certainty) but it doesn't cost anything to keep your options open. It looks like I have a year to decide.

Windows 10 might be more useful on my other computer, which has Windows 7 but it's had bluescreen/crashing issues since it got virussed when it was new. I'm pretty sure something got damaged with Windows, so perhaps 10 will fix whatever the issue is with it.

[Kuje]

Yea, everyone with 7 or 8/8.1 does have that year to decide to upgrade if they want to do it for free. It might fix your other computers problems as well.

Ok. I've reserved a copy. I'm not sure when or even if I'll change over (with certainty) but it doesn't cost anything to keep your options open. It looks like I have a year to decide.

Windows 10 might be more useful on my other computer, which has Windows 7 but it's had bluescreen/crashing issues since it got virussed when it was new. I'm pretty sure something got damaged with Windows, so perhaps 10 will fix whatever the issue is with it.

[Kuje]

Another thing that I see that many people didn't mention because maybe they didn't delve into the settings for Edge or aren't using the new browser is that there's a setting in there that lets you turn off Flash or turn it back on with the same setting. Edge also has a setting to block pop ups, and a few other more options that people used to have to get add ons to do but is now built right into the win 10 browser.