Windows 10 has been publicly available since 29th July 2015. Since then, Microsoft have been encouraging users to upgrade in many ways – consumers had a year window to upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 for free, along with Windows Update prompts reminding consumers that they can do so.
There’s always going to be complaints with any new operating system, but the in-place upgrade process has been the best yet from Microsoft. Gone are the days when any IT professional would strongly avoid it, it’s a much more stable and revertable method.
The upgrade has been optional, but we’re now getting much closer to being forced to go Windows 10 (not that I think this is a bad thing). The two big ways this is happening are:
New PCs with Windows 7 or 8.1 are going to be much less common come November 1, 2016. The top OEM vendors won’t be allowed to do this anymore (E.g. Lenovo, HP, Dell). You could still go to a whitebox builder and buy an OEM version of Windows 7, it just won’t be a pre-packaged option anymore. Windows 7 is very old now, and it’s unrealistic to expect Microsoft as well as all the hardware manufacturers to continue supporting it with new drivers.
The other main driver is Intel’s 7th generation of i series chip, Kaby Lake. This has already been released and seen in some laptops, with desktop CPUs due to be released early 2017. Microsoft is drawing a line in the sand and saying there will be no support at all if you’ve got this new CPU. I have yet to get my hands on a device with these new CPUs to try, so it will be interesting to see if anything breaks with this combination of OS and CPU.
Windows 7 has had a very good run, with great reasons; but the vast improvements that have taken us to Windows 10 (not to mention the better security architecture), as well as internal support for cloud services means this is the way of the future.
If you haven’t started the transition to Windows 10 it’s time to get planning, before you hit the above roadblocks and haven’t put the planning and preparation into the change.
I simply do not understand people who are so against the upgrades, even when it is free. Each time I have the conversation about Windows 10, there’s a new excuse as to why not every time.
I’ve been on Windows 10 since its public launch, and I’ve not had any issues with it outside of OEM device compatibility in its early days. Outside of that, it’s been awesome.
Probably people that would not like to have to buy new hardware, just for the sake of a new OS, while their older hardware is still working fine. Or expensive software, no longer functional with WX etc.
I’ve not heard of anyone needing to buy new hardware to run win10 from something that runs win7 – can you give an example? Ive installed win10 on a 7 year old laptop with no problems.
Expensive software, that’s a possibility but again, how old is it that it runs on win7 but not win10? Would be interested to know.
Thinking of printers, USB connected devices (Eye 1 probe for instance, or scanners) How many companies nowadays refuse to update their drivers because they rather see you buy new equipment than that they allow you to use your old one with a new driver they have to develop for it? As far as they are concerned, they already went the extra mile by providing a driver that allowed it to work in Windows 7. I wonder if my Logitech Squeezebox duet will work… Don’t care if it’s old and out of support, it’s irreplaceable…
It’s been a bit quicker on the push to get people on board vs earlier versions, but it’s a very stable platform as you said. The privacy argument I don’t buy in the sense that I don’t care about the data that does get sent back to Microsoft, and the value it provides in making the playform better for all.
It’s change, and a high percentage of people are adverse to any kind of change that they don’t feel is completely their decision. I’m also an early adopter of Windows 10 and I can only argue in it’s favor, and in almost every scenario it performs even better, and as Adam stated, it’s far more secure.
As a windows administrator, I’m concerned about the challenges we’re going to face moving to it as a business, but that’s not Microsoft’s fault, we’re just not a best practice outfit that would take the change easily.
Point – if you’re a home PC owner; upgrade. It’s free and it’s quality.
What I fount hilarious is that the nag windows to upgrade windows 7 to 10 also appear on computers that are not suitable for windows 10 X64 because of their 32 bit hierarchy… Stop nagging. Even after allowing Windows to attempt an upgrade, it discovered it was impossible, but yet, it kept nagging. I had to revert to third party software to get rid of those nags.