To upgrade or not to upgrade:
Since the release of Windows 10 many have wondered whether or not its a good idea to upgrade. This post is meant to help those who haven't installed windows 10 yet to decide whether or not its a good idea to get it.
Ok first things first. Lets list down the pros and cons of windows 10
Pros:
1) Improved desktop and startup graphic design
Windows 10 has a much better looking desktop than the previous windows. Instead of going into detail Ive left a picture of it below to let you see for yourself
As you can see from the picture the windows 10 start menu has a neat looking layout which organizes a lot of things in one place and the desktop itself looks pretty cool.
2) Cortana
Windows 10 features your own personal virtual assistant called Cortana. Having personally used her quite a lot, shes actually quite useful. You can use her to check traffic, emails, find an address, set events on the calendar and a lot of other cool stuff. Its not difficult to say that Cortana may be one of the biggest perk on windows 10
3) Xbox exclusives will now be on windows 10
If you're a gamer like me this might be one of the best thing for you about windows 10. Microsoft has announced that future xbox one exclusives like gears of war and halo will be coming to windows 10. Some of these exclusives belong to legendary series and getting windows 10 will give to access to these games.
4) DirectX 12
This is again mainly for gamers. Now I cant say for sure whether this is a good thing as some games have been proven to work better on the older DirectX versions but some have also proven to work better with DirectX 12. Ive put this on the pro list but for the time being whether or not DX 12 is an advantage is debatable
5) Microsoft Edge
The new browser that Windows 10 features is a major improvement over internet explorer. It runs a lot faster and lags a lot less. Its not completely free from bugs though and problems do occur from time to time such as freezes and unresponsiveness.
6) Fast startup times
Now how fast these startup times are depends a lot on your computers hardware and power but the start up times on windows 10 have been noted to be faster than Windows 7 and Windows 8. According to one test which was done on a certain computer Windows 7 took 27 seconds to startup, Windows 8 took 18 secs and Windows 10 took 15 secs.
7) Easier to multitask
Windows 10 makes it significantly easier to mulitask and it does this by giving you the ability to do two things
- viewing all your open programs on one screen
- Adding multiple desktops
Windows 10 allows you to preview all your open programs on one screen as shown in the image above and this is really helpful when you need to work with more than one program at a time. It also lets you create a completely new temporary desktop which can be used to avoid cluttering one screen with too many open programs.
8) Longer support from Microsoft
This one is fairly straight forward. Since windows 10 is the latest Windows OS it has more support left as compared to the others. Below is a picture of the support end dates for Windows XP to Windows 10
Now for the Cons:
1) Bugs and glitches:
This is a major headache when it comes to Windows 10. Since it's still relatively new it comes with a fair share of errors and bugs that really piss people off. Below Ill list a few common problems that occur:
- Random crashes
- Unresponsive apps
- Start menu not showing up
- Cortana not working
- Microsoft Edge not starting
- Getting stuck at start up
- Getting stuck during installation
- Sound card and driver issues
Microsoft has fixed some of these issues with updates but many of them still exist and its a major set off
2) Compatibility issues
Despite the fact that Windows 10 comes with a compatibility mode that is designed to be able to run older programs, many still don't work on it. This is a problem that occurs mainly with older programs and games that just aren't compatible with Windows 10. Because of this gamer's may not be able to play some of their favorite classic games and certain worthwhile programs may not work. This is also a problem that Microsoft has tried fixing with updates which did help but compatibility issues are still there with many programs.
3) Forced updates
Now ofcourse updates are very important but Windows 10 forces you to download them which is annoying for a lot of people. Basically what happens is that when updates become available Windows 10 automatically starts the updates when you shut down or start up your computer. This is especially frustrating when these updates start while you're trying to do some important work
4) Battery drain
This was an issue that was really prominent when windows 10 was first released. However, over time Microsoft has improved it quite a bit with updates. In spite of this windows 10 still drains battery faster than the previous Windows versions so you'll probably need to use your charger more often.
5) Installation issues
By installation here I mean the initial installation of Windows 10 itself. While trying to actually install Windows 10 you may encounter very long download times or the installation may get stuck. This happens quite often and its extremely frustrating to have to start the installation all over again
That concludes the Pros and Cons list. Now whether or not you should upgrade depends on how you
use your computer and what you want out of your OS. If you think that
the Pros I listed in this article appeal to you enough to tolerate the
Cons then go for it.
Verdict:
Windows 10 improves over Windows 8 in many ways. It features a much better interface with a better browser, layout and new features. However, it is not free from flaws. Compatibility issues and bugs are perhaps some of the biggest problems with it though they are being fixed with updates. In spite of this it is an excellent OS which adds a lot of new things and is easy to get used to so at the very least it is worth checking out.
Thanks for reading folks. If you feel I've left out anything in the pros and cons list feel free to mention them in the comments. Any feedback will be appreciated
