Windows 10 - best thing since you know what, or total pants?

[_D_S_J_R_]

My laptop has just downloaded and installed Windows 10. What the fugg are Microsoft doing??????

The task bar has gone flat like Win 2000 and earlier - why did they abandon the rather tasty aero effects (I believe a third party might be doing suitable plugins (are we allowed to call them that these days?), the browser is currently pants for non tablet users and the way favourites are displayed is ridiculous if you use a touchpad or mouse.

I probably know the answer already, but are laptops and desktops really so far on the way out that Microsoft don't want to know, or at least offer options accordingly?

I know, my Aspergic tendencies are fighting change, but how do you all feel about it - those that have 'upgraded' from 7 or 8?

[Daniel Quinn]

Is it not awkward verging on useless if you do not have touch screen computer ?

[Macca]

Windows 7 at home but I turn all the fancy effects off. I don't care and no-one else uses it. Not as good as XP was but it is adequate. At work it is 7 pro which is okay but Outlook 2010 is the worst thing ever - I would really like to slap the project lead on that one.

[terrybooth]

I've been running the preview version for some time now and will be updating all the PCs i can to this version. It's what Windows 8 should have been.

Windows 8 was a lot quicker on the same hardware than Windows 7 (which was better than XP - forget Vista, that was an out and out failure) but they forgot that their established market wanted a desktop (as opposed to tablet) operating system. Microsoft completely missed the move to mobile (as they did the move to Web in the 1990s) and have been playing catchup ever since. Windows Mobile phones - despite doing pretty much everything Android does - you can get them cheap and you can get them good - still accounts for less than 3% of mobile sales. They've made a bit of headway in the tablet market with the Surface and the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro 4 which will come out later this year (October) will probably be the first 'build for Windows 10' device and is currently being hyped as being pretty good. With Windows 10, Microsoft have an OS which runs on everything from a mobile phone to a PC but I don't know if they can turn that into an advantage.

In the meantime, consider what you want a computer to do. For most people, most of the time, it is 'run this Web Browser', which, for most people, means Chrome. Most of the stuff you used to use the PC for you can now do online (write documents, do spreadsheets and presentations, there's more Project Management and Collaborate web sites that you can shake a stick at, even drawings). So does the PC (and I include the Apple Mac in that definition) really have much of a future?

[Fretless]

I'm going to install Windows 10 firstly on a netbook that I use only for surfing and as a media player. Once I've seen how that goes then see if I want to upgrade my W7 laptop

[applemarc]

I can't see some rendering a video or edditing High res photo's on a tablet so I think computers are going to be with some of us for a few years yet

[_D_S_J_R_]

For now, I've uninstalled it and reverted to the Windows 7 Pro I was using, losing the network details in the process and having to -re-find- Windows live mail in the programs folder. I haven't a clue how to connect to my mail server in Windows 10 and Windows Live is unusable in '10 for me.

Maybe Microsoft will add some 'apps' (getting trendy now - it's no longer called 'software programs') to enable a more user friendly desktop setting for us oldies who haven't a tablet and hate touch-screen typing! The thing is, if the platform is alright, then surely it can be adapted to the individual's wishes...

[Shevans]

There was a "news" article that claimed Windows finally made it to two digits, if they did a teeny tiny bit of reserach they would have found Windows/286 was around a very long time ago and not that that long ago was Windows 95

[zebbo]

Windows 10 will be just the same as all the others, great at first install then just getting slower and slower and ssllooowwweeerrrrrrrrrrrr

[Fretless]

Now installing on netbook.