Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline radio listener Richard in Hosston, Louisiana asked:
I’m 76 years old and I’ve had windows 7 professional for as long as I can remember. If I upgrade to Windows 10, is there any advantage to this?
Long term, eventually 7 support will be dropped before 10 support is, short term, not really. Not if you’re happy with what you have now and you don’t feel the need to change.
Windows 10 will have improvements over Windows 7, but “better” doesn’t really matter, “better for you” matters.
If you don’t want to learn how to work a new operating system that will essentially be a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 8, then you can keep the one you have.
Windows 10 does have several advantages, for example, it should boot up faster since it improves over the upgrades that led to the performance boost users experienced on Windows 8, it will give users access to a notifications pane (think like that drop down list people have on their smartphones), the search feature will be better and better integrated with the internet, and you’ll be better integrated with other online services like online storage too.
Having said that, the user interface will look different, they way you do certain things will not be the same, Microsoft will keep pushing you to create a Microsoft account online, since it’s more integrated with the web than Windows versions before it.
Windows 10 does look like a good upgrade, and after how Windows 8, was received Microsoft is probably motivated to put out a good product, but keep in mind that an upgrade is only an upgrade if it improves your personal user experience, your personal user safety, or if it in any other way helps you.
You don’t upgrade for the sake, you upgrade for yours, if you’re happy with things as they are, don’t upgrade on day 1.
You have a year to find someone with Windows 10 and ask to try it out in person, if you like it, upgrade then, if not… well.. Windows 7 has many fans for a reason.
Having said that… remember the dollar signs
One thing we should mention while we’re on the upgrade topic, however, is price. Microsoft is offering people who upgrade right now free copies of Windows 10. That will expire at some point. If you are at all on the fence and think you might want to upgrade, then now is the time to make the move.
For most people using Windows 7, however, we suspect they’ll just get Windows 10 whenever they buy their next computer. They’ve stayed with the older version for a reason, and Windows 10 is more like a fixed Windows 8 than it is a better Windows 7.
If anyone’s heard from Windows 9, please ask it to call home. We’re worried that no one’s seen it.