Arataniello Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Does any IT savvy part of the Board HiveMindTM have any insight into the above topic? I currently have Windows 7 on my home machine, since I knew to avoid the quagmire that Windows 8 appears to have been when buying a new machine a couple of years ago. Running the Office 2013 suite of standard apps, I would hope those will all still be compatible with Windows 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straits Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'd like to know more about this as well. I saw the notification and wouldn't mind "reserving", but don't want to deal with reformatting of any nature, or displays that are a drain on virtual memory, so I'm on the fence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrum Aeternum Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'd like to know more about this as well. I saw the notification and wouldn't mind "reserving", but don't want to deal with reformatting of any nature, or displays that are a drain on virtual memory, so I'm on the fence. Same. My Windows 7 system runs perfectly fine right now, so while I will keep an open mind about this I'm hesitant to 'upgrade' unless there is a real benefit do doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angalin Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Same here. The upgrade notice just popped up on my machine. Until I get a sense of whether my current programs and files will still work smoothly, I'm holding off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arataniello Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 The linked website above does state that it is not currently known which programs will or will not work with W10. For now, it does seem that the most sensible thing to do is do nothing, apart from ignoring the annoying extra icon in the bar at the bottom of one's screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altherion Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'm not sure how this will work. The laptop I'm using right now came with Windows 7, but it needs a bunch of drivers from HP to work properly. When my hard drive died and I reinstalled Windows 7 from scratch, a long list of devices (including even the Ethernet controller!) simply would not work until I had downloaded the drivers from HP. HP is certainly not going to develop new drivers for a 4 year old laptop, so what is Windows 10 going to do? Is it compatible with Windows 7 drivers? And yeah, I'm not too interested in reinstalling all of my programs from scratch again or messing with the dual-boot to get Linux to work (changes to Windows always break the boot process so that only Windows boots). I suspect this falls under "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." Regarding the icon: you can't get rid of it altogether (not easily, anyway), but if you click on the little triangle and then on "Customize", you can hide it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 If your computer is running fine with the current OS, especially if it's 2 or more years old, I would NOT upgrade. Really, I would only upgrade if your PC came w/ Windows 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ab aeterno Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Personally, I'm going to upgrade ASAP regardless of the compatibility risks (and I face more potential risks than the average user.) W10 has been available for a few months in pre-release builds and I haven't heard any major issues that would make me hesitant, and the wide array of new features and optimisations really make it a no-brainer, IMO. Some of the highlights include reducing the footprint of Windows itself to save storage space, significant increases in graphical performance (especially from lower end machines but also from the high end,) and the death of Internet Explorer. - Although it's worth noting that IE11 has actually been a very strong browser, despite expectations and perceptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angalin Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Personally, I'm going to upgrade ASAP regardless of the compatibility risks (and I face more potential risks than the average user.) W10 has been available for a few months in pre-release builds and I haven't heard any major issues that would make me hesitant, and the wide array of new features and optimisations really make it a no-brainer, IMO. Some of the highlights include reducing the footprint of Windows itself to save storage space, significant increases in graphical performance (especially from lower end machines but also from the high end,) and the death of Internet Explorer. - Although it's worth noting that IE11 has actually been a very strong browser, despite expectations and perceptions. Give me five minutes' notice to get some popcorn then live-post your experience for us, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ab aeterno Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Give me five minutes' notice to get some popcorn then live-post your experience for us, please. :lol: Sounds like a plan. I'll probably forget though, after the perfectly smooth transition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Does any IT savvy part of the Board HiveMindTM have any insight into the above topic? I currently have Windows 7 on my home machine, since I knew to avoid the quagmire that Windows 8 appears to have been when buying a new machine a couple of years ago. Running the Office 2013 suite of standard apps, I would hope those will all still be compatible with Windows 10. Windows 8 was a quagmire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pebble thats Stubby Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 well since I'm thinking of doing a restate on my desktop, I might as well play around with windows 10 first. If things don't work right I can hallways go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Windows 8 was a quagmire? Yeah, not sure where that opinion comes from. Runs super slick on my surface after upgrading to 8.1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalbear Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Work has a beta test of this for bringing in devices, and I'm going to bring in my desktop. I'll let you know how it goes after tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Yeah, not sure where that opinion comes from. Runs super slick on my surface after upgrading to 8.1. I mean I realize that I'm not the normal opinion, since when it came to Vista my thought was "it's a little resource intensive, but fine other than that." Not that that stopped me from upgrading to 7 fairly quick, then entering the 8 beta. I also never realized the loss of the start menu was that big of a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonmag170 Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Yeah, not sure where that opinion comes from. Runs super slick on my surface after upgrading to 8.1. The problem with Windows 8 was that it was developed for touch screen devices- like the surface. It was made to be a "universal" OS- something that would run on your phone, tablet, and computer, allowing lots of overlap between apps and therefore lots of ability to move between devices with any work you were doing. The problem with this approach is the fundamental difference between a touch-screen device and a computer- a computer generally doesn't have a touch screen. This seems so unimportant, but it is really critical when you design an operating system. The main complaint (still) with W8 is that it is completely un-intuitive to use it with a mouse and keyboard without installing 3rd party software to make it easier to look at. For example, having a start button on a tablet is kind of useless, when you have a hardware button which brings you back to the home screen and you generally will not be managing the file system at all. On a computer, having an interface to allow the user to browse through the file system is critical- as is having a place where it is easy for the user to access quick, important links (my computer (for file browsing), control panel, and other pinned program shortcuts) without exiting the current program. The start menu is an oddly important feature on a keyboard/mouse configuration- even apple computer operating systems have the dock, which offers similar functionality, and the top bar which has drop-downs. These features would not be needed in a tablet. That is, in my experience, the main complaint with W8 on computers. It simply wasn't made for them. 8.1 set out to fix some of these problems, but because so much of the interface and functionality was rooted in touchscreen capability, they could only do so much. That said, I have seen nothing to suggest that Windows 10 will be anything like that. The discussion I saw from people who used the preview(for those who don't know, Microsoft allowed some people to download and use Windows 10 for bug-testing and feedback last year, still ongoing) was generally positive. If you want some details about what people saw, here, here, and here are a few videos, here is an article that talks about the user-oriented side, here is an article that also gets somewhat into the technical end, and here is one that talks about the differences between W7 and W10. A simple google search will tell you far more, if you want to do your own research (which you should). I will personally be waiting to decide until after the release date. According to Microsoft, if you do not pre-order an upgrade you will have one year to make your decision before they will make you pay for the OS- I think this is the smartest move. Wait at least a month after release to make your decision. That will give the experts time to really check it out and give it solid, full reviews. That will give time for many of your programs and apps to get updated so they will be compatible, and that will also allow many of the questions in this thread (such as dual-boot, updating MSOffice, etc) to be thoroughly and clearly answered. Then weight the pros and cons, and make your decision. For you other gamers out there- I have no idea if I am upgrading my gaming desktop or not, I probably won't for at least 6 months. I doubt some games will get compatibility, and I haven't been able to find much information on how backwards compatible W10 is with games. Has anyone found any news on this? Edit: I added a little clarification in one part, and fixed some spelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gears of the Beast Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 They have a compatibility scan in that notification app. AFAIK there shouldn't be many compatibility issues. If you're a gamer with a DX12 compatible graphics card I definitely recommend upgrading, DirectX 12 gon' be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonmag170 Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 They have a compatibility scan in that notification app. AFAIK there shouldn't be many compatibility issues. If you're a gamer with a DX12 compatible graphics card I definitely recommend upgrading, DirectX 12 gon' be good. I haven't gotten the notification on my desktop yet, but when I do I'll run the scan- I hadn't seen this yet. Thanks! I'll probably still wait at least 3-5 months, though. I want to see what reviewers say, and run it on my laptop first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Lord Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 If your computer is running fine with the current OS, especially if it's 2 or more years old, I would NOT upgrade. Really, I would only upgrade if your PC came w/ Windows 8. Can you elaborate on why? I have Windows 8.1 and after more than a year, I still strongly dislike it...but that's from a rather non-savvy point of view. I prefer having a Start button and being able to navigate menus, rather than a home screen that I despise and have to run searches to find things like the calculator. I am inclined to upgrade...but hesitate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalbear Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 If you don't like W8 and liked W7, you should almost certainly upgrade to win 10. If you like Win7 and want some very cool features - like being able to stream your xbox one to your PC and play - you should upgrade.If you want to be able to do things like buy a game from microsoft and want to play it anywhere - xbox, phone, pc - you should upgrade.If you want some neat features - the retina password scan, cool adaptive background and foreground videos, good touchscreen support and a much better start menu than win 7 - you should upgrade. If you fear the early adopter thing or none of the above apply, you should probably wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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