Hold Off on That Upgrade… For Now
Continuing on from last week’s article about the coming Windows 10 we have had heaps of customers calling about the new white coloured “Get Windows 10” icon and whether to sign up or not. My last article was not clear on our recommendation here, so in short, I would suggest not opting for this upgrade at this point in time.
The ‘free’ upgrade period from Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 to the latest 10 runs for another 13 months UNTIL the 29th of July 2016 so you have plenty of time to get the upgrade – however like most new technologies it is sometimes prudent not to be amongst the first kids on the block.
Within a few months of its release you can bet there will be several 10’s of millions of users that have done the upgrade so let’s let them be first.
If all of these upgrade processes go to plan or not we will soon hear either way. Also keep in mind that it is always more complex to upgrade an existing operating system then to do a fresh installation of an operating system. It is for this reason that we will be recommending and selling Windows 10 on new PC’s from the start but recommending that upgraders hold off for just a few extra months.
The last thing to keep in mind is that the previous versions of Windows that can be upgraded for free were all good operating systems and unlike Windows XP – they have not expired. There should be no urgent rush to go to Windows 10 from any of them.
There will however be people that are having trouble with their existing PC that may see this upgrade as a saviour of sorts. So what problems could the upgrade fix?
If you have failing hardware then this upgrade will not help you. If you have a virus or malware ridden PC then it is also most unlikely that the upgrade will fix it. If you have some sort of Windows corruption then the upgrade could potentially fix this problem.
If you just have a slow PC (for none of the above reasons) then most likely you have a slow CPU or not enough ram or have too many programs installed. In these last instances the upgrade will also not be of any help and may result in your PC running slower or not at all.
People need to consider the age old adage of ‘if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix’ however as usual in this industry (and as seen above) there is no simple black and white one answer for everyone.
If / when you decide to do the upgrade then make sure you allow for plenty of time for it to happen. Do NOT start the process if you have any urgent or impending work for your PC and feel free to take it to a professional if you have any doubts.
In the case of new PC sales, we will still be offering our customers Windows 8.1 if they want it as well as the option of Windows 7 still.
These previous operating systems will still be available, although we have barely needed to sell a copy of Windows 7 to anyone for the last 2 years unless they had specialised software that required it. We are looking forward to Windows 10 and it will do a greater number of things for a greater number of people.
In fact this article was meant to discuss some of the new features of Windows 10 however with all of the above points now sorted out the new features will have to wait another week.
Until then, future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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