If you’ve got any version of Windows, from XP to Windows 8, you’ve likely seen the new little icon on the bottom of your screen. It looks something like this:
The current information available is that this is a free upgrade offer from Microsoft It is available for a limited time. After the free offer expires, the upgrade will cost around $200. Microsoft is saying that the upgrade will be ready on July 29th.
I asked Chris why our customers should (or should not) upgrade to Windows 10. Here’s what he said.
Reasons to get the Windows 10 upgrade:
- It’s a free way to get the next version of the Windows operating system. My computer has Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, and I was presented with the choice to receive the new operating system as a free upgrade.
- This is the general direction of where Microsoft is going with the operating system, and you are probably better off with it than without it.
- There has been discussion about the Windows 10 user interface being more like Windows 7 than Windows 8. Since Windows 10 has not yet been released to the public, what it is is still an unknown.
Reasons not to get it:
- If you have applications which require Windows 7 or XP, or there is concern because those applications have not yet been tested to work with Windows 10.
- If you need to reinstall the operating system onto your hard drive or SSD in the future, you’ll have to install the previous version of the Operating System, but may not be able to receive the update to Windows 10 without paying for it.
The upgrade may not include an installation disk, which would allow a clean install of the Windows 10 operating system in the future.
More information about the upgrade can be found on Microsoft’s website. http://www.microsoft.com/EN-US/windows
Apple has been offering OS upgrades as digital downloads through their App Store for years, and no one is complaining. The no-media upgrade process tends to work, even though it takes several hours to download (1-4H depending on the speed of your line to the Internet) and install (1-2H depending on the speed of your computer and the speed of your hard drive).
However, I think this will be the first Operating System upgrade that Microsoft is doing that is a digital download. The Windows Operating System Upgrade is inherently more complex than the Apple Operating System Upgrade, because Windows runs on many more machines from different manufacturers (Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, etc., etc.,) than the Apple software does (which is exactly one: Mac’s). The Apple environment is proprietary and “closed”, eg: you are licensed to only run the Apple Operating System on Apple hardware, where the Microsoft Operating System does not have this constraint. Apple doesn’t charge for new versions of their Operating System, but Microsoft traditionally has.
Questions? Comments? Feel free to post them below. I’ll try to respond to every single one!
Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at www.GeekForHireInc.com. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area. They can provide remote service throughout North America.
