What benefits are there for Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10?

[mrmike16]

I have upgraded a few Windows 7 PCs, both for people and for myself, and I must say as much as I do love Windows 10, not a single one of those PCs avoided major issues. So, in some ways, it was a downgrade since Windows 7 (and 8.1 on one PC) were more reliable.

So when people ask me if they should upgrade or not, I don't know what to tell them. I don't want to be causing them problems on their computers. Yes, they could go back, but upgrading and downgrading back takes time that they (and I) just don't have.

I don't mean to bash on Windows 10, but there have been quite a few moves (and lack of moves) that Microsoft has made on Windows 10 that just makes me wonder if they are even listening to all of that Feedback they get.

I am aware that Windows 10 has some new features, like OneDrive integration, Microsoft Edge (Still no Ad-Block?!?), Universal Metro UI Apps, Cortana, and Continuum, but these are all features the average user would not make much use of. I personally do use all of those except for Continuum, but I'm talking about some guy who doesn't fix, code, or build on computers.

Thanks for any answers!

 

[CelicaGT]

I love the new UI, but I hate automatic upgrades...Pro ftw. I've moved all my PC's to 10 (total of 8) also have upgraded most of the fams as well. I find it a good mix of 7 and 8(8.1), boots and shuts down faster (had to disable fastboot on one machine for general weirdness) and it seems to be lighter on resources. Anecdotal for sure but I like it (so far).

 

[smorizio]

as a windows tester still on the new build side. windows 10 has been the bugfest of all os. i had to wipe and reinstall the os a few times do to buggy builds. the reason is windows 10 was rushed out to replace windows 8 that a lot of people were never going to use. with newer hardware not having windows 7 drivers and newer version of windows not supporting older hardware it put biz in a bad spot where there going to have to spend a lot of money on custom software upgrades that they use. a lot of people in work side of computers still run xp and wont upgrade unless they have to. with upgrading os....your better off doing a clean install of the newer os. there always old code and programs that newer os dont like and can cause issue. i seen it with av and burning software that was fine in windows 7 but would cause windows 10 to crash.

 

[techgeek]

Well first of it's free, there's that. It's also the OS that is going to have the longest support cycle. Windows 7 mainstream support has ended and extended support will end in less than 4 years unless they push it back.

DirectX 12 will only be available on Windows 10, so if you are a gamer and want to make the most of your hardware, then Windows 10 is the only game in town.

I've moved all my PC's (6 in total) to Window 10 when it released, and yeah it was a bit of a mess, though nothing that caused any serious problems. However I only did the upgrade to get the digital entitlement because at that time you couldn't do a clean install until you'd done the upgrade. Thankfully they've changed that and I've since done clean installs straight from the OS that was on the computer and it worked well. Of the 6 that I moved, I only kept 1 as an upgrade, the rest I followed up with a clean install. So I think I minimized my issues as a result. I personally think that the more the previous OS was used and abused coupled with the amount of software installed on the machine when it was upgraded, greatly increased the chance of and was directly proportional the the amount of trouble the system had following the upgrade.

So any friends that I helped get over to Windows 10, I did a clean install.

 

[mrmike16]

I love the new UI, but I hate automatic upgrades...Pro ftw. I've moved all my PC's to 10 (total of 8) also have upgraded most of the fams as well. I find it a good mix of 7 and 8(8.1), boots and shuts down faster (had to disable fastboot on one machine for general weirdness) and it seems to be lighter on resources. Anecdotal for sure but I like it (so far).

Thank you for your reply! I found it to be generally slower on all of them, actually. And also, they all have that weird long-standing common issue of the Start Menu, Cortana, the Taskbar, and all of the Metro UI Apps not working until a reboot. This happens so many times to me and everyone I know that upgraded, and reported by me multiple times since I started testing it in 2014!


"Well first of it's free, there's that. It's also the OS that is going to have the longest support cycle. Windows 7 mainstream support has ended and extended support will end in less than 4 years unless they push it back.

DirectX 12 will only be available on Windows 10, so if you are a gamer and want to make the most of your hardware, then Windows 10 is the only game in town.

I've moved all my PC's (6 in total) to Window 10 when it released, and yeah it was a bit of a mess, though nothing that caused any serious problems. However I only did the upgrade to get the digital entitlement because at that time you couldn't do a clean install until you'd done the upgrade. Thankfully they've changed that and I've since done clean installs straight from the OS that was on the computer and it worked well. Of the 6 that I moved, I only kept 1 as an upgrade, the rest I followed up with a clean install. So I think I minimized my issues as a result. I personally think that the more the previous OS was used and abused coupled with the amount of software installed on the machine when it was upgraded, greatly increased the chance of and was directly proportional the the amount of trouble the system had following the upgrade.

So any friends that I helped get over to Windows 10, I did a clean install."


So you don't have to upgrade now, you can just boot a Windows 7 PC from the installation media and not require a Windows 10 product key?

I found that the main issue my friends and I all have are the Start Menu, Cortana/Search, Taskbar, and the Metro UI not working. Often. And I find it quite irritating that I need to keep rebooting to fix it, even after complaining to Microsoft for a year and a half about it. There are other bugs, but I can't remember them right now. Oh, and battery life. I've been using Windows 7 this past week.

"as a windows tester still on the new build side. windows 10 has been the bugfest of all os. i had to wipe and reinstall the os a few times do to buggy builds. the reason is windows 10 was rushed out to replace windows 8 that a lot of people were never going to use. with newer hardware not having windows 7 drivers and newer version of windows not supporting older hardware it put biz in a bad spot where there going to have to spend a lot of money on custom software upgrades that they use. a lot of people in work side of computers still run xp and wont upgrade unless they have to. with upgrading os....your better off doing a clean install of the newer os. there always old code and programs that newer os dont like and can cause issue. i seen it with av and burning software that was fine in windows 7 but would cause windows 10 to crash. "

I was also a Windows Insider since October 2014, but many issues I had back then are still here. It's like a Vista release all over again, except this time Microsoft isn't admitting it.


Sorry, I'm not sure how to quote multiple people in one answer and I'm afraid of double-posting

 

[techgeek]

Well first of it's free, there's that. It's also the OS that is going to have the longest support cycle. Windows 7 mainstream support has ended and extended support will end in less than 4 years unless they push it back.

DirectX 12 will only be available on Windows 10, so if you are a gamer and want to make the most of your hardware, then Windows 10 is the only game in town.

I've moved all my PC's (6 in total) to Window 10 when it released, and yeah it was a bit of a mess, though nothing that caused any serious problems. However I only did the upgrade to get the digital entitlement because at that time you couldn't do a clean install until you'd done the upgrade. Thankfully they've changed that and I've since done clean installs straight from the OS that was on the computer and it worked well. Of the 6 that I moved, I only kept 1 as an upgrade, the rest I followed up with a clean install. So I think I minimized my issues as a result. I personally think that the more the previous OS was used and abused coupled with the amount of software installed on the machine when it was upgraded, greatly increased the chance of and was directly proportional the the amount of trouble the system had following the upgrade.

So any friends that I helped get over to Windows 10, I did a clean install.

So you don't have to upgrade now, you can just boot a Windows 7 PC from the installation media and not require a Windows 10 product key?

I found that the main issue my friends and I all have are the Start Menu, Cortana/Search, Taskbar, and the Metro UI not working. Often. And I find it quite irritating that I need to keep rebooting to fix it, even after complaining to Microsoft for a year and a half about it. There are other bugs, but I can't remember them right now. Oh, and battery life. I've been using Windows 7 this past week.

Yes they streamlined the process. You just enter your old Windows key and it'll activate and give you your digital entitlement. I think it changed in November, but I could be wrong on the timing. I've used it that way for a few family friends.

As for issues with the Start Menu, I had some oddities at first, but most of that was solved when I did the subsequent clean install. I don't use Cortana, I turned it off and just use the plain search function. I also don't use Metro UI apps, other than calculator that came with it. Would rather use a non-Metro version of this anyway. I don't have any issues with the Task Bar.