Windows 10 was launched last week, leaving questions in the minds of individual users as well as businesses that run the Microsoft based operating system. My previous blog edition addressed some of the common questions that you have in your mind before updating to Windows 10. Digitallagos will open this week’s technical blogs with an attempt to answer some more concrete questions. I’ll also talk about certain features that are added to the new version and share some news going around.

So here’s a discussion on what’s new, what’s can push your business to upgrade and what can hold you back.

  • Single codebase! Microsoft claims that 10 will be the base for the future operating systems and is designed keeping in mind the vitality of mobile and cloud computing in the upcoming technological world. This is the next gen OS for laptops, PCs, tablets, smartphones and servers. A good enough reason to upgrade if your business is into serious Windows based development. That will give you Windows Only environment to run and test software and applications.
  • The start menu is back. So 7 users who used to hate 8 for this, now have a reason to rejoice. The start menu is not just reintroduced, but has been improved. You can call it ‘back with a bang’. It contains all the windows apps, making them more usable, gives a list of most used apps on the left just like windows 7. The bottom has the shortcut to file explorer and all other apps plus the power options. The menu is customizable and resizable. So if your employees are much used to the 7 style of working, 10 is likely to give a similar feel. Keep this thing in mind while upgrading.
  • The new search menu is quiet visible now. In 7 it was a part of the start menu. In 8 it was hidden and was nearly wizardry. So this comes up better, right in on your taskbar and ready to serve you. Obviously this can’t compete with the spotlight search for Mac based systems, still Microsoft has done a great work here. The search and Cortana are pretty much the same for Windows 10. The Windows phone users already know what Cortana is. You can type or talk to her and she’ll be ready with a response. Apart from basic search, you can also commit a smart search like ‘Remind me to reply to John’s email’ or ‘how’s the weather going to be tomorrow’. Cortana can set alarms for you, guide you to places and what not?

Cortana-Commands-List-Windows-10-Phone-Voice-Commands-300x159

  • Is it a busy time of the year? This can be a climacteric decision. The update is going to cause some disturbances. So, plan at a relaxed time of the year depending upon your business.
  • Size of the company? If you are a small company things will move fast for you. But a testing within a company that encompasses 10 people won’t be justified. On the other hand, things will move slow for a large company.
  • Hello gamers! DirectX and Xbox integration is now here and this is said to be the biggest reason to upgrade to windows 10. DirectX 12 will bring 30-40% gain over 11’s performance. This is the future of gaming. This probably won’t affect your business upgrade decision.
  • Low spec requirements. Windows 10 won’t need much to run. Now a 2 gigs system is good to go for a 64bit OS with a 1GHz or faster processor. So if you are planning to add new computers to your business, this is the time to upgrade to 10.
  • Good thing, it’s free. Bad thing it’s not free for everyone. These exclude XP and Vista users. With 13% of the PC market using XP and Vista, an upgrade is not a good idea unless they plan to upgrade their hardware. If your business falls in this 13% you are less likely to consider an upgrade.
  • It’s not completely ready yet. Be ready for new glitches. Start menu refuses to start at times. There exist some driver incompatibilities. Edge, the new IE is almost a shell with no extension support for the time being and limited tab functionality. Driver compatibilities with hardware are critical for some businesses and hence it’s definitely not the time for them to upgrade to 10.

Having read the key points about the new features, what do you think about the update? Companies who were planning to deploy 8.1 in near future should think of going with 10 now. Companies having rock solid performance yields from 7 should not do an upgrade at all till the time Microsoft force updates everything. This may be around 2020. My verdict will be to give it some time. Microsoft identifies and rectifies new bugs and problems in this time in every release. Though this wasn’t the case with 7 as it came as an early stable release. Let Digitallagos know about your views by commenting below. Stay tuned for the next technology news.

Tags: ,

Chat plugin