I have recently had a spate of calls from people who turned on their PC one morning and found it installing Windows 10 without asking. As the deadline for the Free Upgrade approaches, Microsoft has steadily been ramping up the importance level of this upgrade, so that it is now a “Recommended Update”, and many PCs are set up to install these with no further prompting.
A couple of months ago, I decided to take the plunge voluntarily. I had no problem with updating my Windows 8.1 laptop machine, and was very happy with the result. Then I upgraded my desktop PC – a much older machine and one that has been modified so much that I think the only original part is the case! This was not so successful. At first everything seemed fine. There were a couple of pieces of old hardware that no longer worked, as there were no new drivers for them, but I had expected problems of this nature and was prepared to do without them. However, I soon found my PC locking up. The screen froze and would not respond to mouse clicks or even Ctrl-Alt-Delete on the keyboard. The only remedy was to hold down the power button until it powered off. Soon this was happening 3 or 4 times an hour. I make a living from my computer, and have publishing deadlines, course development and client projects to complete, so I need a machine I can rely on. I used the option to roll back to my previous version of Windows, and have so far not been upgraded against my will.
If you find that your PC suddenly decides to install Windows 10 all by itself, don’t panic.The good news is that Windows 10 is actually quite good. It is easy to use – somewhere between Windows 7 and 8.1. It uses less in the way of system resources than earlier versions, and it is more secure. Programs work the same, there are a number of useful tablet-style apps, and your old documents SHOULD be untouched. If you find that you run into difficulties as I did, you can uninstall the upgrade for up to a month – and you will probably spot any issues very quickly.
I wish you good luck if you upgrade – whether it was you or Microsoft who made the decision to do so.
