Finishing work at 17:10 in the UK, the time has come to upgrade to Windows 10, a time even more exciting than going back to work after Christmas.
I had been using a 13inch ultrabook running Windows 8.1 for the past 3 months, my feeling on that were mostly positive, I was a fan of:
- Instant start up
- Clean interface
- Crash resistance
On the other hand I was keen to progress from a few things (which could well have been due to my inexperience with 8.1):
- Having to wiggle the mouse in the corner to get menus up
- Too much touch bias
- IE 11
Firing up the laptop I clicked on the Windows icon in the corner by the clock, this presented me with the option to "Get Windows 10". Clicking this I was presented with a menu to install the update, seemingly I had already downloaded it, which I found a bit puzzling as the computer had only been on for 15 minutes and I am not on a super fast internet connection today. Whatever the explanation it was time to click the install button, returning 2 hours later from dinner and Windows 10 was fired up.
Initial Impressions
I was pleased to discover my account and pin were still valid. Logging in I was confronted with privacy options which I mostly opted out of, this was actually very similar to 8.1. After that I was into the new desktop which looks very clean, with the key change (other than not having to go into the tablet style view initially) being the inclusion of a search bar next to the start button
Clicking the bar you are able to type or use the new Cortana voice search feature which apparently can even suggest meals. Cortana looks like it requires a large amount of access to personnel data, I will find out more before giving it a go. The bar itself will search your programs, local files and the internet.
The second change I spotted is the new browser, IE 11 is out and in its place is Microsoft Edge. This was pleasing to see as I wasn't a fan of IE 11 finding it generally fine to use but unintuitive at times and not always responding to my initial mouse click. Edge looks much simplified, flat actually, with a very clean interface and, so far at least, very precise response to my inputs. Having said that I am typing this in Chrome as I can't get the text formatting options to appear in Edge...
Thinking about my old setup, it appears all the programs I had installed previously are working without issue, though in 3 months I hadn't installed too many. The general speed of the laptop feels similar overall or slightly more responsive. I have an older Windows 7 laptop which had become decidedly sluggish that I intend to upgrade this weekend, that should prove a more useful test of whether Windows 10 will speed up your computer.
A positive experience so far, the simplified access and use of the desktop being the key improvements at this time.
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