Client Blog: Windows 10 – should you upgrade?

This blog was written by Sarah Ainslie for client, ITAAS 4 U. See the original blog here.

Windows 10 is the latest major software release from Microsoft. It replaces the, largely unpopular, Windows 8 and Microsoft claims it allows you to “create and share like you never thought possible”. The question for most businesses therefore, is whether to take advantage of this so-called ‘world changing’ software or just wait a while before committing to an upgrade?

While it’s tempting to take advantage of the free upgrade, to see just how much it’s moved on and potentially harness the latest in windows technology – especially if you’re using the clunky Windows 8 – our best advice would be to just hang on a while.

Here’s why:

• Windows 10 itself may be hot off the press but if your systems rely on third party apps then they may require some catching up time in terms of compatibility and performance. Over time, developers will bring these apps up to speed so it’s better to wait until the hard work has been done.
• There may be unknown bugs as people use the software and uncover glitches that are always present in new versions (eg there’s an issue already where laptops coming out of hibernation fail to start some services). Better to let other people experience all the problems and for Microsoft to sort them out before sauntering in like Johnny-come-lately to a glitch-free upgrade.
• Updates are now applied automatically with Windows 10. This takes some of your control away and could potentially break existing applications and macros.
• Windows 10 compatible drivers for PCs and laptops may not be available yet, potentially impacting on performance. The providers of all other third party apps, drivers and programmes will be hard at work now updating them to comply with Windows 10 protocols. You’d be best advised to let them get on with it and only upgrade when you know all your systems will work properly.
• Once you have upgraded, it is very difficult to ‘back-grade’, ie it’s not easy to return to Windows 7 or 8 once you’ve applied Windows 10 so if you go ahead too soon and don’t like it, you’re pretty much stuck with it. Waiting until the package meets your needs, and you can be confident it will work well for you, makes much more sense.

Our general rule of thumb with most types of upgrade is to wait at least until the first major service release becomes available. This way you let everyone else work their way through the glitches and problems and only come on board once Microsoft has resolved them – slowly slowly catchy monkey!

You may be worried that you won’t know when the best time to upgrade is. We keep a close eye on developments and when we feel the time is right, we’ll let our clients know. This may be a blanket ‘yes, the service pack is out – let’s go for it’ across the board or it may be more individual advice, depending on the system each client has and developments of the specific third party applications used.