Windows 10 is finally here and it is available as a free upgrade. In this Tech Talk report, Adam Balkin helps you decide whether you should rush to download the new operating system.
Microsoft has just officially launched Windows 10 and its taking lots of steps to make sure that if you are a Windows user, you will feel as if it’s almost a no-brainer to upgrade.
Windows 10 offers, among other things, increased security. Microsoft says it has integrated its own anti-virus solution, so you will no longer have to buy one
Quadrant snapping gives a new look and feel to multitasking. In an age when PCs turn into tablets and tablets turn into PCs, Continuum is a feature that automatically detects which device you’re using and optimizes the experience.
However, perhaps one of the features longtime Windows users will like best - the return of the “Start Menu.”
“This idea that you can have your apps and your familiar settings on the left hand side, but also the live tiles come through - which gives you contextual evidence and also information that’s presented up to date with tiles that move and update in real time," explains Bharath Mohan of Microsoft.
For Xbox owners though, Live Game Streaming may prove to be the tipping point.
“I can stream my Xbox games right to my Windows PC; that I can sit in my living room, I can be on my Windows device on my Windows PC and playing my Xbox games as if I was playing on an Xbox device."
In addition, many analysts who received an early upgrade predict all those users upset with their upgrade to Windows 8 should be pleasantly surprised this time around.
“I’ve gone through a lot of upgrade cycles of Windows, from XP to Vista to 7 to 8, now to this - this is probably the most seamless one,” says Dan Ackerman of CNET.com. “I haven’t really run into anything in the latest version of Windows 10 that’s really broken on any of the machines I’ve tested it on. I feel like under the hood, it actually works a lot like Windows 8. It’s that front-facing part of it that you use that feels different, that they’ve really fixed."
Part of the reason the upgrades will, in theory, be relatively painless - the Microsoft update tool inside Windows 7 and 8 is constantly checking your computer’s hardware and software and it will let you know when everything is fully supported so that you can pull the trigger.
As for the cost to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, if you do it within the next year, it is absolutely free.