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Windows 10 experience so far...
I'll start by saying that after a week I think that Windows 10 is a winner. My experience is a two part adventure so far. I'll start off with the upgrade.
The Upgrade:
I let Windows 10 Pro do the upgrade over top of my Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit installation and the only flaw was updating the Nvidia GEForce 9800 GT graphics. I quick download of the latest software/drivers from Nvidia corrected that issue and I was back up and running with my dual monitors set up just as I liked them. All my software worked flawlessly, and most of my settings were saved. I did have to go and change default applications for browsers, images, music, text and mail, but that is easily accomplished by typing "Default Apps" (or Default Programs for more advanced features) in the search box next to the Start button.
Anyway other than a couple of minor details that could be expected after a major OS upgrade I was very happy to see that all my Adobe and Microsoft suites worked fine, as well as XAMPP (my Apache, MySql development setup) and IIS was upgraded...
Windows Edge, the new browser seems to be pretty fast but I haven't tested it on any sites that it's predecessors in the IE family choked on. I'm not about to make it my default browser yet. I did like it's built in pdf viewer which appeared to me to be faster than loading Adobe Reader...
So to summarise, the install went fine, only took about an hour or so but the PC rebooted by itself and didn't need my presence at all times. I was happy to see that my 7 years of customisation came out practically unscathed. I didn't have any stability problems for the few days I left it like that. The iTunes upgrade actually took longer than upgrading the OS!
The fresh 64-bit Windows 10 Pro installation on a new SDD with new RAM
After spending a couple of days looking around at the new OS I decided to take the plunge and install the SDD and RAM that I've had sitting on my desk for the best part of a year. I tried downloading the 64-bit setup files from MS on my 32-bit installation but couldn't do that, so I had to get an installation by alternative means. Once I had prepared this bootable installation DVD I disconnected my current HD installed the new SSD and additional 4GB of RAM, and installed Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (necessary to see my newly added RAM) from scratch.
Windows 10 activation is machine based, so as I had already activated the 32-bit version after my upgrade from Win 7 Ultimate, no additional activation was needed in this installation.
Anyway, after resetting my BIOS to recognize my new RAM and SDD, I ran the Windows 10 installation DVD with no problems whatsoever. Of course this time I had to get all the latest drivers/software for my hardware to get the full features but everything ran out of the box.
Reinstalling all my software and starting the customisation from scratch are the most tedious parts of this. Some of my old customisations are not necessary anymore because Windows 10 has the features built in.
The only thing that is giving me a really hard time is my Xerox Workstation printer/scanner/fax is not installing properly (I will start another thread about this).
A couple of things I really like about Windows 10 so far:
- Responsive and easily personalised OS
- Typing a system function in the search box brings up easily accessible and readable options.
- Right clicking on the Start button give direct access to most of the admin tools that I would need to use on a semi regular basis (until I get my 7 years of customisation back) See screen shot Attachment 13395
- Right clicking on the taskbar also offers new options with window stacking...
- The mail feed is compatible with Gmail
- The calendar is compatible with Google Calendar
- Lots of other handy little items...
Things I don't like about Windows 10 so far:
- Nothing of note so far
- The lack of support from Xerox for my WorkCentre 6015 NI...
I'm sure I'll run into something at some point, but so far it appears to be very stable on my PC.
