This has probably been the most frustrating year of all for Windows users. Windows 10 was released on July 29 last year and not a day has passed without hearing something negative. Companywide, we’ve installed the new operating system thousands of times and have had plenty of follies.
Customers, for the most part, seem to like the new interface. 10 combined the best of 7 and 8 into an amalgamation for both computer and tablet use. Those upgrading from 8 tended to appreciate the return of the start menu while people leaving 7 hated the tiles. Customers transitioning from older operating systems seemed fairly indifferent.
Confusion was probably the biggest hurdle we, as a service company, had to overcome. It was fairly common to be asked the benefits of 10. Countless customers thought the new release required a new PC as was the case with previous versions. Even with all the advertising we still had Vista and XP customers requesting the free upgrade.
Microsoft touted their newest operating system as being compatible with 7, 8 and 8.1 computers. We quickly found out 10 was not compatible with all, and that it rendered many useless. Drivers, software that allows hardware to talk to the operating system, created a major hurdle from the start because many vendors hadn’t updated theirs to Windows 10.
Upgrading created a massive issue for customers with specialized software running on Windows 7. Sure, the software worked fine in 7, but as soon as the machine was upgraded to 10 the functionality vanished. Sometimes the software started fine with limited functionality, other times it didn’t work at all.
Due to Microsoft’s forceful tactics used to upgrade customers, they were sued several months ago. One of my employees compared their practice of forcing customers to upgrade to ransomware’s taking control of a computer. Customers were reporting that at one point the upgrade screen offered no easy way to cancel the process.
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the new system from my perspective are the constant updates we need to provide to our installation media. Every two months I am required to download updates for our USB drives. Windows 10 users notice the upgrades when their work is interrupted for an upgrade that could take an hour or more.
For better or worse, Windows users have become accustomed to Internet Explorer (IE) which has been superseded by Edge. Though IE is still included with 10, Edge seems to be a vast improvement. According to third party tests, using Edge for browsing improves battery life. On the other hand, Edge doesn’t support many third party plug-ins which limits surfing.
Windows 10 was supposed to be the most secure operating system yet. Granted it is slightly more secure, there’s a reason Microsoft can make this claim. Windows 10 simply will not allow the installation of certain software titles. I haven’t figured out the rhyme or reason for this, but a handful of benign utilities will simply halt on install with no option to proceed.
10 has made this an interesting year for my little business. Rather than spend time repairing issues after an operating system is used, it hasn’t been uncommon to make repairs caused from an upgrade. We have spent countless, tiring hours counseling customers on the best options for their needs. This was the first year in my history that I’ve ended up with perfectly good working computers that customers scrap out of complete frustration with Microsoft.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can read past articles at www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)