Upgrading to Windows 10 - How it went.

My trusty old Dell Latitude E6400 has had quite a few upgrades. It started with Xp then Vista, 7 before moving up to 8.0 and then 8.1. I had taken advantage when Windows 8 came out of an offer from Microsoft to upgrade from their website for under £30. I was quite happy with 8.1 overall although there were niggles when it came to performing some tasks that were much quicker and requiring fewer clicks with previous versions of Windows. Fast forward to yesterday and I got the notification that Windows 10 was ready to be installed, so here is a brief walk-through of the screens that I was presented with. The whole process took a little over an hour. I would suggest that all available updates should be installed before you upgrade should you choose to do so.

I should say that Windows is no longer my operating system of choice and I am not saying that it is the best Microsoft have produced as it's too early to say. Mainly I bounce around a Chromebook, iPad and smartphone, the windows computer is a means for doing other things when required.

So, should you upgrade?

If you are using Windows 7 and all is well then stay with it as I don't think you are going to be missing out on much - if you are on Windows 8.1 then its just a choice of whether you want the extra bells and whistles. I see from the news this morning that the good old Microsoft Solitaire games are no longer free, they are now subscription based.

Link to article on Yahoo about this Click here and on PC Gamer site here

When I had a Windows smartphone I did install the solitaire collection on my phone but I don't remember if I paid or not. Anyway I was able to play solitaire on my Windows 10 machine without being asked for any subscription or payment, I was guided through allowing the windows 10 game app to connect to my xbox profile (I have never had an xbox but you get an xbox profile when using a Microsoft game on a Windows smartphone) and away I went, it even found my old game data in my Microsoft account and imported it, so far I have not been asked for a subscription - I hate adverts on my phone and usually if I'm happy enough with an app I will pay for it but not subscribe.

In the main Microsoft are supporting Windows 7 until January 14th 2020 and Windows 8.1 until January 10th 2023 so there is no panic to upgrade. Please see this link for the Windows support end dates. So, if it's not broken then don't fix it. You are better off to make a complete image of your existing hard drive before upgrading to Windows 10 so that if you change your mind everything can be restored - I have heard there is a feature in Windows 10 that will restore you back but there is nothing worse than seeing those words on the screen "Something went wrong"! And you're stuffed. A good old fashioned manual back up is worth it's weight. The latest version of Acronis True Image is a great product for making a complete back up to an external hard drive, your entire system gets backed up - everything.