Should You Take Advantage of Microsoft’s FREE Windows 10 Upgrade?

There are quite a few questions that you will have to ask yourself before you should pull the trigger. With the deadline coming up the end of July, 2016, You have just a short time to make your decision before it costs you money to do the upgrade instead of being free.

1. Can my hardware take advantage of Windows 10? If your hardware isn’t capable of taking advantage of Windows 10 then maybe you should do your upgrade by purchasing new hardware. It obviously will cost you money to do this but if your system was an entry level device when you purchased it, and it is 4+ years old then you may be in this category. Minimum requirements are not always acceptable performance levels. Here is what Microsoft says are for Windows 10 System Requirements.
2. Will my software work with Windows 10? This is a big issue especially in a business environment. Do you have legacy software that performs poorly or not at all in a Windows 10 machine? While you might want to jump onto this new operating software, your application software might not work. How will that affect your job and the things that you need to do? Obviously in the best of all worlds your software will be compatible but this might not be the case. Take for instance the number of “Cloud-Based Applications” that we now use that require a specific browser to be able to work correctly. You would think that with the application being online it would always be up-to-date and be able to take advantage of newest and greatest operating systems. Not the case, especially in the financial industry where things move at a slow crawl. So, you need to look at all of the applications that you are using before flipping the switch and make sure that they will work in Window 10.
3. What is it going to take to learn Windows 10? If you find yourself not adopting will to change, or your users are of the ilk, then this has to be a real consideration. If you are running in a WIndows 7 environment you have until 2020 before EOL sets in for you. That’s almost four years before you will forced to do something. If you are running Windows 8.0, I think that it is a “NO BRAINER”, jump and upgrade. You’ll be much happier especially with the how Microsoft has compromised between the Windows 7 interface and the Windows 8. But for a lot of people, change is hard. You want to keep what is familiar to you at hand. But, if everything else is pointing you to make the change, do so. It really isn’t that bad and there are some real advantages especially if you are running a laptop with a touchscreen.
4. Support? Do you have a support network to help you through the transition? Not everyone has a tech department to fall back on. While we do offer these services, they are not necessarily cheap. There are many online videos that can help you transition and learn the little nuances of the operating system and there are plenty of books available as well. If you have been around computers for awhile then you are not a stranger to change I’m sure.

With all of these things in mind and you want to make the leap, this is the time to do it. Make sure you have good backups before starting the process and follow the instructions exactly. Microsoft has a booklet that will help you through the process located right here.