And Here it is Again – Windows 10
We here we go with another Windows 10 article – the 7th in fact that I have written on the subject. I started to think about this topic & whether I was covering it in too much depth and boring people to death? The answer here lies in how many people will cross paths with Windows 10, so please read on!
Right from the start I need to point out that Windows 10 is without question, the best operating system Microsoft have yet produced. Once installed and setup correctly it is simply brilliant and offers some truly useful features that were previously not available. At the same time we now have a ‘tweaks & configuration list’ that is longer than any previous operating system.
For the last 18 years we have been customising operating systems to respond quicker and be more efficient and user friendly so we have our own list of tweaks that we do for each operating system. This list for Windows 10 now has around 120 changes as opposed to only 96 for Windows 8.1 and it simply reflects the number of extra options that Windows 10 offers.
What is happening on a daily basis now is that we are getting a huge volume of calls about failed upgrades to Windows 10. These vary considerably in their nature from the download never completing to asking how to stop the upgrade once in progress.
One of the traps that I haven’t spoken of so far is the size of the download. Depending on your existing operating system state it can be anything from 2.5GB to around 3.7GB which is often more than many users 3GB per month Wireless Broadband plan. So without realising it many users are hitting their monthly download limit and then having their Internet speed drastically reduced.
BigPond are also reporting a massive jump in the number of users hitting their monthly limits and are thankfully allowing extra quotas upon enquiry from their customers due to this once off situation. So if this applies to you, then make sure that you call your Internet service provider to explain what has happened.
Once the upgrade has been downloaded many of our customers are reporting the upgrade process hanging or timing out. Again this is due to the intricacies of upgrading an already complex operating system to another complex operating system. You need to keep in mind that this is way more complex than a simple phone system upgrade and it is expecting a lot to think that it will always be a smooth transition.
In another instance, we have even had a customer accept the download on the premise that they could then choose when to do the actual upgrade. Unfortunately this locked them into a maximum install date of 3 days’ time – which is way sooner than they wanted. They had specialised software which they found out would not upgrade and we then had quite a job to stop the upgrade from proceeding.
For some people the upgrade from 7 or 8 to Windows 10 will be one that runs smoothly – however if you have any special software or if you don’t have a complete backup of all of your important data then seek professional help. It is not like Windows 11 is going to be offered to users next week!
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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