My upgrade to Windows 10

A Leap of Faith? Hanging 10?

So last month over the Thanksgiving holiday I did my free upgrade to Windows 10. After fretting and pacing and researching all of the software installed on my HP laptop for many weeks, I started the install on Friday morning after my 1st cup of coffee with a fresh 2nd ready to go.

Let me preface with the fact that this laptop is my creative machine. I use it primarily for videos and music, editing photos, writing, and surfing the web... It’s a Pavilion dv7 I bought back in January of 2010. That seems so long ago today, yet it’s aging nicely and still my favorite computer.

I upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 10 Home edition. The only free upgrade path available. I cut my PC chops on MS-DOS and have been a Windows user since the release of version 1.01 back in 1985. This long association with Microsoft products taught me that moving forward with new editions is inevitable, so with 3 days off ahead of me I decided to go for it.

Most likely, because I’m obsessive compulsive and a stickler for details, I was hyper vigilant about being prepared. The install was really smooth and without any negative incidence. Of course, I backed everything up to an external hard drive, burned a Windows 7 boot and restore CD (just incase) and I made sure I had all of the install files and the CD/DVD install disks with serial numbers and keys, and I saved a list of links to forums and new drivers and patches if I’d need them.

As it turns out, Windows 10 did everything for me. It took me about 2 hours altogether and I tweaked things over the rest of the weekend. Good news is all my programs are running better than they ever did.

Windows 10 was released back in July and I signed up for the free upgrade then, but put off the install until now. Afterwards it seemed (or simply felt like) the new operating system was continuing to figure out my HP environment and over the next week or so it did several downloads and installed updates in the background. Last week it downloaded and installed the first major upgrade, Threshold 2, which was a little annoying because I was working on a video project at the same time.

Ironically the first thing to happen after the upgrade (of course) was discovering all the “Microsoft is spying on you with Windows 10” blogs and YouTube videos. I did shut off a lot of the switches that control what information is sent to them from your machine. But then I thought about it and realizing that Microsoft has been collecting usage information forever, and so does Google, Apple, and every social platform online, I turned a few back on and stopped worrying about it.

I love the desktop and the ability to customize the menu. My HP is running faster and smoother and so are all the programs I have installed on it. Really, I found no negatives. I used Media Center in the past but moved away from it a few years ago so I don’t miss it.

I’m still adjusting to the fact all the updates are automatic. Guess I’m a little territorial about that. Unlike many of you I’m not running any MLS apps, or CMSs like Top Producer on this machine. So there’s really nothing mission critical and the world wouldn’t end if something didn’t work. I’d simply be annoyed until I figured out a work around.

I run a pretty lean system... no iTunes installed for my iPhone or iPad. I do that on my laptop from work and Windows 10 talks to my iPhone just fine for easy video and photo downloads. I don’t have MS Office installed, I’ve been a Google Docs user for quite awhile now, so it’s all in the cloud and Chrome is still my favorite browser.

For video I’m running Corel VideoStudio x7 and just this week updated it to x8.5. For music it’s ProTools and the open source Audacity, and for photos (from this machine) I only use online editing apps like iPiccy (my fav) and a few others. Besides that I have just a few other programs to do stuff like burning audio/video CDs and DVDs.

After a few weeks of using Windows 10 the changes are pretty much a total non issue. I’m enjoying the environment and very comfortable. I find it very intuitive to figure out. I never used Windows 8.1 and my HP laptop does not have a touch screen. Which is something I really don’t care about working at a full sized keyboard and have a mouse. Old school? Perhaps. If you upgrade from Windows 7 like I did I think you’ll find it a very easy transition.

This isn’t a technical review, per say. Like I said, there are enough reviews and YouTube videos to numb your brain for life. I found most of them rather subjective, opinionated, and of no real help. In closing, I say thumbs up to Windows 10 and well done Microsoft!

My funniest Windows 10 encounter so far is this one little scene from December 7th. I was just putting my iPhone down after talking to Siri to respond to a text message when I see...

“I’m Cortana. Ask me anything”... then on the screen “Think with Google”...

Oh my goodness! I'm dealing with a crowd! I trust the 3 of you will get along.