This is a slightly different war room discussion, and it will involve the dispute over whether or not Windows 10 is a worthy successor to Windows 7. True enough we still have people here who use 8/8.1, but Windows 10 and Windows 7 are certainly still the most popular OS's on this forum. There are various means of which you can support your liking of one OS over the other -- whether it be security, privacy, game compatibility, speed, general integrated MS features, etc.
For me, the decision to upgrade 10 was an easy one. I was more than happy to upgrade from 7, but once I realized how hideous and clunky Windows 8 was (my opinion!), I went straight back to 7. Once Microsoft realized that it was highly unappealing to those who appreciated Windows 7's UI, I began to take great interest in 10's development. The first thing that I found appealing was, of course, the UI. It maintained the classic Microsoft desktop and start menu, but with a more modern twist. The folder system also remained basically the same, which is good. Cortana I feel like is a slight improvement to 7's search system, particularly it's internet capabilities. There was also significant improvements to Microsoft's integrated security options, namely Smartscreen and Windows Defender. However, WD feels a bit heavy for the still mid-tier protection it provides, and therefore, I'm not convinced that it warrants enough reason for users to avoid 3rd party software entirely.
Privacy is certainly a lot of (most?) people's primary grief with Windows 10. There's a great deal of concern that every application, every process, has some kind of backdoor that's spying on you. I do think that Microsoft did perhaps go a little overboard with the data collection/telemetry, however, it's not like this wasn't already being done on 7. Do I endorse such activities? To a degree, I think data collection is necessary for OS improvement purposes, but I question whether or not they need as much as they collect with 10 in comparison to 7. A slight con, but it's foolish to judge 10 on that alone.
Bloat software is another concern by many that's virtually non-existent in 7, but to be honest, I think that's more of a problem to do with the individual pre-built laptop and desktop computer manufacturers that add all that crap after the fact. However, there's still a lot of "apps" that come with Windows 10 native that I personally removed, and I don't think should come pre-installed. Speaking of apps, the Windows App store is a new feature that basically allows you to download "apps" onto your PC like an iPhone. It's of course hard wired into the OS, therefore disable/remove it at your own risk. A lot of people will never touch it, but it's there, and I only see it serving a positive purpose.
Internet Explorer vs. Edge. IE has been outdated for a very, very long time. It was riddled with vulnerabilities, later on it just generally ran slow, and it basically was just closet stuffing after Mozilla Firefox became popular. I am happy to say that Edge has proven to be an interesting piece of software. It runs much smoother, it will soon have extensions (though many question what restrictions there might be), and overall, it's made Microsoft pre-built browser actually worth using. However...again, it's hardwired into the OS, runs in the background even though you don't use it, and that's annoying. STILL, this is an improvement over Windows 7's IE, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Edge.
New settings panel vs. classic control panel - I actually don't mind Windows 10 "settings" app. It's got a clean interface, the settings themselves are well organized and it's easy to find things. However, I still find myself instinctively using control panel, so I'm not sure if in a future version of windows, control panel will be dumped. The new settings panel however is good enough that I wouldn't really mind.
A thousand times easier to refresh/clean slate your system in Windows 10. In Windows 7, if you wanted to redo your computer for whatever reason, it was a long and drawn out process, and a lot of people wouldn't have the patience or technical know-how to do it. Now, it's as simple as clicking a few buttons, and having the option to completely erase your system and return to default windows 10 settings, or keep your precious files and just refresh the system. This feature has proven to be a lifesaver for many, including me.
Game compatibility/game performance. As to be expected, there are concerns that people are losing compatibility with classic games that they could play on 7. I have personally had to deal with this issue, and it's frustrating at times. However, many said the same thing about 7 making it difficult to play games from xp, and from xp and so forth. As such, I don't really consider it a con, but I see why some might think so. In terms of game performance, I honestly haven't really noticed any significant gaming performance changes. But then again, that may be because I don't play a lot of games that are "optimized" for Windows 10.
Hardware compatibility - there hasn't been a single piece of hardware I've used in the last 10 years that hasn't been compatible with Windows 10. I even still use one of my old racing wheels from the early 2000's. Some might have the opposite result, but not on my end of the street.
There's a lot of other things I could go into, but for the sake of not boring people (I probably already have), that's it. Overall, I think Windows 10 has its problems, but it's a solid improvement over Windows 8, a good improvement over 7, and any problems that people do have with 10, can be rectified through doing a little bit of research. To sum it all up, I think Windows 10 does a fair job of bridging the gap between Windows 7 UI/functionality and the more modern look, more features, and greater security apparatus of 10.
On a final note, you have until July 29th, 2016 to upgrade to Windows 10 FREE OF CHARGE with any authentic Microsoft Windows 7/8/8.1 license key.
For me, the decision to upgrade 10 was an easy one. I was more than happy to upgrade from 7, but once I realized how hideous and clunky Windows 8 was (my opinion!), I went straight back to 7. Once Microsoft realized that it was highly unappealing to those who appreciated Windows 7's UI, I began to take great interest in 10's development. The first thing that I found appealing was, of course, the UI. It maintained the classic Microsoft desktop and start menu, but with a more modern twist. The folder system also remained basically the same, which is good. Cortana I feel like is a slight improvement to 7's search system, particularly it's internet capabilities. There was also significant improvements to Microsoft's integrated security options, namely Smartscreen and Windows Defender. However, WD feels a bit heavy for the still mid-tier protection it provides, and therefore, I'm not convinced that it warrants enough reason for users to avoid 3rd party software entirely.
Privacy is certainly a lot of (most?) people's primary grief with Windows 10. There's a great deal of concern that every application, every process, has some kind of backdoor that's spying on you. I do think that Microsoft did perhaps go a little overboard with the data collection/telemetry, however, it's not like this wasn't already being done on 7. Do I endorse such activities? To a degree, I think data collection is necessary for OS improvement purposes, but I question whether or not they need as much as they collect with 10 in comparison to 7. A slight con, but it's foolish to judge 10 on that alone.
Bloat software is another concern by many that's virtually non-existent in 7, but to be honest, I think that's more of a problem to do with the individual pre-built laptop and desktop computer manufacturers that add all that crap after the fact. However, there's still a lot of "apps" that come with Windows 10 native that I personally removed, and I don't think should come pre-installed. Speaking of apps, the Windows App store is a new feature that basically allows you to download "apps" onto your PC like an iPhone. It's of course hard wired into the OS, therefore disable/remove it at your own risk. A lot of people will never touch it, but it's there, and I only see it serving a positive purpose.
Internet Explorer vs. Edge. IE has been outdated for a very, very long time. It was riddled with vulnerabilities, later on it just generally ran slow, and it basically was just closet stuffing after Mozilla Firefox became popular. I am happy to say that Edge has proven to be an interesting piece of software. It runs much smoother, it will soon have extensions (though many question what restrictions there might be), and overall, it's made Microsoft pre-built browser actually worth using. However...again, it's hardwired into the OS, runs in the background even though you don't use it, and that's annoying. STILL, this is an improvement over Windows 7's IE, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Edge.
New settings panel vs. classic control panel - I actually don't mind Windows 10 "settings" app. It's got a clean interface, the settings themselves are well organized and it's easy to find things. However, I still find myself instinctively using control panel, so I'm not sure if in a future version of windows, control panel will be dumped. The new settings panel however is good enough that I wouldn't really mind.
A thousand times easier to refresh/clean slate your system in Windows 10. In Windows 7, if you wanted to redo your computer for whatever reason, it was a long and drawn out process, and a lot of people wouldn't have the patience or technical know-how to do it. Now, it's as simple as clicking a few buttons, and having the option to completely erase your system and return to default windows 10 settings, or keep your precious files and just refresh the system. This feature has proven to be a lifesaver for many, including me.
Game compatibility/game performance. As to be expected, there are concerns that people are losing compatibility with classic games that they could play on 7. I have personally had to deal with this issue, and it's frustrating at times. However, many said the same thing about 7 making it difficult to play games from xp, and from xp and so forth. As such, I don't really consider it a con, but I see why some might think so. In terms of game performance, I honestly haven't really noticed any significant gaming performance changes. But then again, that may be because I don't play a lot of games that are "optimized" for Windows 10.
Hardware compatibility - there hasn't been a single piece of hardware I've used in the last 10 years that hasn't been compatible with Windows 10. I even still use one of my old racing wheels from the early 2000's. Some might have the opposite result, but not on my end of the street.
There's a lot of other things I could go into, but for the sake of not boring people (I probably already have), that's it. Overall, I think Windows 10 has its problems, but it's a solid improvement over Windows 8, a good improvement over 7, and any problems that people do have with 10, can be rectified through doing a little bit of research. To sum it all up, I think Windows 10 does a fair job of bridging the gap between Windows 7 UI/functionality and the more modern look, more features, and greater security apparatus of 10.
On a final note, you have until July 29th, 2016 to upgrade to Windows 10 FREE OF CHARGE with any authentic Microsoft Windows 7/8/8.1 license key.
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