So the results are in from the first day of the Windows 10 release, and they are mixed. John has gone through the the upgrade process successfully on two machines (Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 Pro). In my case I got the wonderful “Something happened” when trying to write a USB installer (from two different machines). Eventually I broke down and downloaded the Windows 10 ISO from MSDN and burned it to a USB using the
Windows 7 USB/DVD tool. It annoys me a great deal when there’s an error with no diagnostics information, fortunately I could work around it.
My first Windows 10 machine was my Surface Pro 3. Unsurprisingly everything worked out of the box, however I didn’t have terribly much time to play with it. So a few comments/notes in the Post-10 world.
- The install, once it actually starts, is very nice. It’s totally automated.
- Start8 — If you’ve got it, it will muck up your dock and Start Menu. Just uninstall it.
- Symanetc Endpoint Protection — Win 10 won’t do its upgrade magic if that’s installed, so uninstall it.
- The Edge logo reminds me too much of IE6, I’m getting PTSD again. I wish they would have changed it more drastically.
- “Settings” is the new control panel, it’s revised (yet again) from Win 8. However you can still use the old fashion Control Panel (thank god).
- It’s not that terribly different from Windows 8 with Start8 installed, so it won’t take that much getting used to.
- If you are upgrading from Windows 7, Cortana will prompt you to sign in with your Microsoft Account before you make use of her services (in the “Ask me anything” box on your toolbar).
Overall, I think Windows 10 is very attractive and Microsoft has done a good job on the OS. It certainly gets rid of a lot of things people didn’t like about Windows 8, while still being new and fresh. Little things like the new “Action Center” are a nice touch, especially if you’re on a touch screen device (like my Surface). Since everything has gone well without any major hiccups, I’ll be upgrading my main machine (my desktop) tonight. If you’re an early-ish adopter and not afraid of a program or two breaking, it’s a safe upgrade (Safer than those early betas of OSX 10.11 which caused me so much pain).