Windows 10 – What do you think of it so far and should you upgrade?

25.09.2015
Microsoft’s new Windows 10 launched on 29th July – how did you respond to the upgrade?

 

The company has listened to the feedback from Windows 8, and returned to us with a much more refined and well-thought out edition – a user-friendly operating system with some nifty productivity features.

Most businesses will have had a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs and devices. If that’s you – and you’ve not yet done so – plan this year to capitalise on the free Microsoft upgrade.

There’s a year to upgrade for free so work with your IT Support team or partner to plan your upgrades, schedule them for the least active times and upgrade in phases, starting with your least critical devices.

As with all upgrades there has been (and to some extent still is) the inevitable period of bug fixes when businesses could have faced teething problems like a printer not being recognised or, more critical, a major application not working. For that reason, we advise our customers to hold back on clicking the “Reserve your upgrade” icon and instead review this around six months after the release. This allows time for the initial issues to be resolved – you don’t want your business to be Microsoft’s testing ground!

New features and capabilities coming with this upgrade are set to create better ways of working.

Terry Myserson, Microsoft’s VP of Operating Systems, said: “We designed Windows 10 to run our broadest device family ever, including Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows phones, Windows for the Internet of Things, Microsoft Surface Hub, Xbox One and Microsoft HoloLens—all working together to empower you to do great things.”

The hope is that Windows 10 will win hearts and minds, bringing a seamless multi-platform experience as customers swap between fixed and mobile computers and use different software and Cloud services. With a test-base of over four million people, Microsoft are hoping for an operating system that’s more user-friendly and not so reliant as Windows 8 on touchscreen functionality.

Let’s take a look at a few of the improvements…

Cortana … this is Microsoft’s personal digital assistant – a star attraction for Windows 10. Cortana is about enabling businesses to interact in a more “human” way, talking or typing simple phrases to do things like book meetings, find information and set reminders.

Edge … another major new feature – Microsoft’s new web browser. This replaces Internet Explorer and is intended to be faster, more streamlined and more personal, with the ability to write notes on web pages, which you’ll see every time you access it.

Apps … Microsoft are also hoping to win over Developers as well as end users. The new app store is the same store across all devices which means that a Developer can write an app once and put 4 different ‘skins’ on it, making the app compatible for Xbox, desktop, Windows Phone and tablet. A big incentive for Developers to have a go at creating more apps? In addition, with ‘Edge’ the new powerful web developer tools, accessed by pressing F12, look like they can compete with Chrome and Firefox in the developer tools arena. Microsoft say they are focusing more on quality of apps than quantity the concept of the app store on the desktop is really innovative. The security model of the new app store is of huge significance too.

Notifications … The new action centre brings notifications from multiple sources directly to your desktop. It supports notifications from third party applications. Notifications on Windows hadn’t really changed since the Windows XP days but the new notification area means that developers can write an app that can deliver notifications in a balanced way – they don’t need to annoy the user and they won’t get missed

Is this the start of Microsoft reclaiming its stake as a software innovator, driving customers to do things quicker, better, smarter? And will your business be taking the first steps towards that over the next 6 months?

Microsoft’s Windows 7 support ended in January and their policy is to support a product for two years after the release of its successor. Therefore, the expectation is that general support for Windows 8 will end by July 2017 but Microsoft has extended support for Windows 8.1 to 2023.

If you would like help or advice on upgrading to Windows 10 call us now on 03300 886 116