With the release of the Windows 10 operating system on July 29, 2015, the general public is now receiving the option to update. After being traumatized by the drastic change from Windows 7 to Windows 8, I have been putting off the upgrade to Windows 10 for several weeks now. After a great deal of research on Windows 10, I decided to give it a try. There are some good points and bad points, but overall, I give it a rating of: "Ehh, it's okay."
When Windows 8 came out, I freaked out because there was no more Start menu, and it had been replaced by these confusing boxes that Windows called "tiles." I didn't use my computer for a month because I was so confused as to where everything was without the Start menu. Windows 10 thankfully has a Start menu now, but it also has tiles within the menu. I suppose it will have to do for now.
The Windows 8 Start Screen
The Windows 10 Start Menu
At the time I am writing this article, I have had Windows 10 for about six hours. Upon restarting my laptop after the update, it took my laptop five minutes to load the desktop screen after signing in. Also, I keep getting messages about how some of my files couldn't be merged with the new system, and it demands my attention. My antivirus software was deleted because it was not compatible with the system, but it gave me the Windows-compatible software in its place. I am not sure how effective it is at this point, but time will tell. Whenever I started the Origin gaming icon (I play Sims. Go ahead and judge me), it took ten minutes to load, which it has never done before. The Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox icons are smaller than before, which I do not like. They are also in the middle of the bottom bar because of Windows 10's new Siri-esque personal assistant named Cortana. I opted not to use Cortana because it requested access to a lot of my personal information, and--call me a conspiracy theorist--I do not want Microsoft to have access to all of my personal information such as browser history or email contacts.
Some of the good points are that it is more organized and user-friendly than Windows 8 ever thought about being. I would consider myself to be moderately tech-savvy, and I did not understand Windows 8. Windows 10 is much better in that regard. Overall, I would recommend upgrading because it has a lot of new features that I have yet to explore fully, but to be honest, anything is better than those awful tiles on Windows 8. I hated them. Microsoft did a much better job on Windows 10 than I was expecting.
