Mark Pickavance outlines some of the plausible motives you might have for passing on the free Windows 10 upgrade
As we’re almost six months into the free upgrade period, it seems an appropriate time to consider the choice that is facing millions of Windows users. By making the upgrade free, Microsoft cleverly removed some cost (but not all) from the equation. But with regards to Windows 10, the devil, as they say, is most certainly in the detail.
Next week, I’ll give ten good reasons to accept Microsoft’s offer, but this week we’ll look at a bunch of valid problems and concerns that might encourage you to stick with the OS you’re currently running.
1. The Devil You Know
This might seem an obvious thing to say, but as you get older, continual change becomes a less compelling exercise and one you might like to avoid, given the chance. I’ve learned to use every version of Windows and Office so far, so surely Windows 10 is just another transition?
Yes, it is, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying to find that methods that worked perfectly well since 2008 when Windows 7 arrived are now potentially void.
But actually, if you didn’t use Windows 8, then Windows 10 is a more radical experience, as it still breaks with many of the traditions that stayed with Windows from 95 until 7.
While Microsoft can reel off a long list of improvements in its new OS, but one that it doesn’t include is a full Windows 7 compatibility mode, which is one of the reasons that Enterprise stayed away from Windows 8 almost completely.
In fact, one of the biggest criticisms of Windows 8 was that when it arrived, there was no tutorial to guide you through the interface changes, and you were left to encounter the ‘charms bar’ and other obscure additions entirely by chance. Windows 10 does have more help, and it got rid of ‘charms’, but lots of parts don’t work like Windows 7 or even Windows 8. The major bugbear I’ve noticed is that there are now two entirely separate settings interfaces, one in the traditional control panel and another in ‘settings’. An, there are overlaps in functionality, but equally there are things you can only do in one side. Opening the control panel to add system desktop icons only to find they’re now missing and are in settings under ‘Themes’ (why?) is only the beginning. And with each subsequent patch and version release, more things move around.
Whereas Windows 7 remained largely unchanged since its conception, aside from bug fixes, Windows 10 is a continually shifting topology, often with very little warning or notice of what they’ve actually altered at each stage.
If you don’t like change, then stick with Windows 7, because it isn’t broken for the most part.
2. I Have A Full Windows Licence
This point highlights a flaw in the way that the free upgrade to Windows 10 works, in that it essentially converts all Windows 7 and 8 licences to the OEM model.
If you have a full retail version of Windows 7 or 8, then you’re entitled to remove it from your existing PC, build a new one and then install it there.
With an OEM licence, once installed on a PC, the licence is then permanently glued to that hardware, and when it dies the licence expires with it.
Exactly how much flexibility Microsoft allows on hardware activation changes has long been debated, and it seems almost to depend on who you end up talking to in its support centre whether it will reactivate you after, say, a motherboard failure.
Clearly, Microsoft’s thinking is that by converting these retail licences into Windows 10 OEM ones, they’ll be removed from circulation once their host machines die, necessitating a new PC and a new licence sale. Therefore, by offering the free upgrade, Microsoft has treated OEM and retail customers the same, to the detriment of those who paid full price for their OS.
The logic here would suggest that if you don’t want your Windows 7 licence converting to Windows 10 OEM status, then you have three choices.
• Buy Windows 10.
• Buy an OEM version of Windows 7, and upgrade that.
• Don’t upgrade.
Given that it’s possible to still get Windows 7 OEM licences for £20, the second option might well be the preferable one, allowing you to keep your Windows 7 retail code for some other use.
A retail Windows 7 licence is worth more than the OEM one, even if the upgrade treats them as equal.
3. Software Compatibility
For this user, initially I concluded that most Windows 32-bit applications would run on Windows 10 without much of an issue, because in pre-release testing that seemed a reasonable conclusion to make, based on the software I’d tried. Most things ran on Windows 8, so surely Windows 10 would be the same? No, not exactly. And actually since release, Windows 10 has started to manifest a dislike to some applications that is rather aggressive.
If code won’t run or causes a crash, that’s one thing, but recent versions of Windows 10 have actively deleted apps that it has decided are incompatible with it. There isn’t any choice or debate here; after the upgrade process completes, you’re glibly informed that your application was deemed not to be compatible and has been removed!
What’s really odd about this is that on a few occasions, I’ve then reinstalled exactly the same code, which Windows 10 has allowed, and it has run perfectly.
There’s a fine line here that Windows 10 appears to be crossing, because the last time I checked, this was my computer, not Microsoft’s, and in that respect, I decide what goes on and what comes off it.
However you interpret this, clearly Windows 10 is more paranoid about what code it considers to be acceptable on the platform than prior releases. And as it evolves, things it once was happy to run it suddenly takes exception to. Therefore, it isn’t something you’d want to take chances with if you’re running a mission critical tool, given that you can’t effectively control the upgrades, and the potential for subsequent deletions.
Whatever the technical arguments against Windows 7, I’ve never seen it remove my software without any reference, and in that respect it’s clearly preferable.
And that brings us neatly to the subject of the new policy regarding updates, which isn’t to everyone’s liking either.
4. Updates You Can Control
I wouldn’t entirely recommend it, but on Windows 7 you can decide not to do updates, for whatever reason you decide. And there are occasionally very good reasons not to do this. Windows 8 first introduced the idea that Microsoft would like to change that control, and in Windows 10 the ability to defer updates entirely vaporised.
There are only two options with Windows 10: receive updates or get none. There is no cherry-picking the ones you’d like and ignoring those that do undesirable things to your system.
This can be a problem for home users, especially if they’re connected to the internet via a metered connection, but it’s a complete nightmare for business users. What a business user doesn’t want is an update to be applied before the company IT team has had a chance to evaluate it and for it to do something undesirable.
To placate businesses, Microsoft has a greater degree of control over updates in the enterprise release, but you only get to delay them temporarily. Some updates are considered mandatory, so they’ll have to be applied within a relatively short timescale even if that breaks your local systems.
IT departments that don’t like this idea have a simple solution: stick with Windows 7, where they can defer some updates indefinitely if they prove to be problematic.
Without general acceptance in the business world, Windows 10 can’t fully succeed, and given the failure of Windows 8 to penetrate that market, this might be a policy that Microsoft is forced to revise in time. But for now, this is a very good reason for business users to stick with Windows 7, where they have 100% control over updates.
5. Hardware Compatibility
This isn’t something that Microsoft is talking much about, unsurprisingly, but a significant number of older computers have problems either running Windows 10 or the upgrade process to get you to it.
The complete inability to run the OS is more likely on those machines that once ran Windows XP, but it’s not exclusively true and some that ran Windows Vista and 7 can run into hardwarerelated problems.
Unless the PC just doesn’t have a feature (like sufficient memory) to run Windows 10, then the problem is most lively driver related, because systems that rely on drivers that were either butchered from Windows 2000 or XP drivers might well break rules that Windows 10 applies to its driver model.
If you’re unsure about your PC, the best policy is to swap your hard drive out for a blank one, if you have one spare, and try to fresh install Windows 10 using a USB key and the installation .iso you can get from Microsoft. If it errors or won’t install, then you just avoided trashing your existing system to discover that problem.
There is a possibility that it will run a fresh installation and not an upgrade, probably because of the aforementioned driver issues. In that case, you’ll be backing up your PC and doing a fresh installation, using the product key from Windows 7 to activate it (hopefully).
Systems made by Lenovo, Dell, Acer and Toshiba all have web locations where they list equipment that they’ve made that is supported by Windows 10. If you don’t see your machine on the list, then I’d be prepared for disappointment. A quick trip there might prevent lots of problems and save you tons of time, because even if Windows 10 is free, that doesn’t guarantee it will work on your computer.
6. More Privacy
Privacy has become something of a hot potato for Microsoft, since it started introducing features like Cortana and entirely altered the way it tracks customers with an ‘Advertising ID’. Technically, that last feature was introduced with Windows 8, but relatively few people knew about it, until someone decided to find out exactly what information Windows 10 was phoning home.
There is a fine irony to all this, because previously Microsoft ran a lengthy ad campaign critical of Google (“You’ve been Scroogled”), and now it’s doing exactly the same, if not arguably worse.
Microsoft’s defence is that you can turn many of these privacy features to not allow this information to be used, though it will damage the usefulness of Cortana, if she’s not allowed to gather intelligence from your email, contacts and calendar. However, in the recent November upgrade, Microsoft accidentally reset all these settings to the ‘on’ position, and it was forced to patch that error and retrieve users’ preferred settings from the cloud, where it keeps them safe for (or from) you.
Those who find Microsoft’s attitude to personal privacy concerning won’t be inspired by a service that it added recently called DiagTrack (Diagnostics Tracking Service). Analysis of this code revealed that it’s a spyware tool devised by Microsoft to grab your name; email address; preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; and phone call and SMS data.
When this became common knowledge and people began disabling it, Microsoft responded by removing it – before renaming it and then reinstalling it.
If you’d like more control over your personal data, then stick with Windows 7, because whatever Microsoft says, it’s playing the same game as Google and Apple as far as your personal information is concerned.
7. The Media Center
When Media Center first appeared in Windows XP MCE, I thought it was one of the slickest interfaces I’d ever seen on a computer. However, it remained largely unchanged over its entire lifespan, because according to Microsoft’s data, very few people actually used it.
In 2009, they took the people responsible (or is that ‘person’?) and put them to do something else but only ended the availability of the application in Windows 10 this year. Technically, it could be got with XP MCE (Media Center Edition), Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, and through an add-on pack to Windows 7 and 8.
If you use this tool to manage your media playback, then you need to either find something else, like Plex, or stay with a version of Windows that supports it.
What’s extra annoying about this change is that while better media management tools existed for the PC, this one was designed to specifically work with the Xbox 360 – something it did rather well.
One extra point about Media Center that you need to be aware of is that should you have a system with it on and convert that to Windows 10, then Microsoft will kindly delete it for you from the resulting system. But one step better than that, should you decide you want to regress back to Windows 7 in the 30 days that you’re allowed, Windows 7 will come back but Media Center definitely won’t.
Those thinking that they can find a version of this software that will install on Windows 10 will be disappointed, as it appears Microsoft has seen that possibility coming and it will not install.
Those few people who like Media Center need to accept that they’ll be sticking with a version of Windows prior to version 10.
8. DVD Playback
Microsoft added the ability to play DVD media a long time ago, but for whatever reason (licence costs?), it decided to remove it from Windows 10. And as if to add insult to injury, it pushed that functionality into an official app that costs you £11.59 to return DVD playing to the system. I’m not sure why anyone would pay this, given that you can install programs like VLC that do it for free.
Unlike some of the other things mentioned here, this isn’t a deal-breaker; it’s just another job you’ll need to do to your upgraded system to make it work as well as the previous one.
9. Regressive Apps
Many of you grew up with Windows, so you generally expect each new release to be better and all the apps that come with it to be superior or at least identical feature-wise to the ones that came before. However, with Windows 10, that notion seems to have been stood on its head to a degree, because some of the critical apps that come with Windows 10 aren’t actually as good as the previous versions or, even more disturbingly, the ones that are currently on Windows Phone.
The one that has got people most perturbed is OneDrive, where some really powerful options that Windows 8 introduced have been unceremoniously junked.
Under Windows 8, it was possible to selectively sync files in a way that all machines that shared the same Microsoft accounts could see all the files, but you could control exactly what files lived on multiple machines. In this way, you didn’t overload a machine with limited storage (like the original Surface), yet you could edit some files on one drive that would be synced back to your desktop machine.
OneDrive in Windows 10 doesn’t work like that. It’s regressed to a former functionality, where you sync specific files and folders without the ‘placemaker’ option of seeing everything stored on the cloud account.
This is much less useful, although it does avoid the scenario here you get on a plane thinking you’ve got a file, only to find out that you haven’t locally synced it.
OneDrive is an problem, and so are some of the other critical apps, including the very poor Mail app and Microsoft’s new browser, Edge, which doesn’t have any plug-in support.
The Mail app is especially bad, considering that this universal app doesn’t even contain some of the features of its phone cousin.
That we’ve got so far down the line with Windows 10 and these things are still a problem is a concern, and it makes this writer wonder exactly how many people are working on the standard app selection for this to be the case.
Microsoft has promised to being add-ons to Edge in 2016, and to continually improve the other apps, but at this time they’re not a compelling reason to move to this OS or the Universal App model.
10. Windows 10 Is Unfinished
As I write about these things I have a machine with Windows 10 on it that’s part of the Insider Project, and it gets all the patches ahead of when they’re released into the mainstream. And since July, there have been a continuous stream of patches.
Some add features that are missing, others fix problems, and some create totally new problems. The overall impression is a ‘work in progress’, rather than a finished and polished product for sale.
Going back to the initial release, it’s quite worrying to consider what condition it was in when Microsoft launched it. Today, it’s more stable, has more features and some of the default apps are better, but it’s far from finished.
There are still errors that I noticed the first time I ever used it that remain, either because they’re not considered a high priority or there are so many of them that they’re way down the fix list.
If customers were paying for Windows 10, they’d probably be causing more of a stink over some problems, but because it’s free, they seem to be getting a pass for now. But in about seven months from now, Microsoft will be asking for money for Windows 10, and at the current rate of development, it still won’t be completed to the level that Windows 7 is, and it may never be that polished.
If I wanted to see the development of an operating system slice by slice, I’d opt into a Linux distro that issues nightly compiles. This is ‘Windows’, and it’s meant to launch mostly working, and then be all there when the first service pack arrives. Windows 10 has had its first major upgrade already, and it isn’t close to being a unified and complete OS.
Conversely, Windows 7 is as good as it’s ever going to get, and that’s substantially more polished than Windows 10 is at this time.
Final Thoughts
Reading the thoughts of another writer in Micro Mart recently, I don’t really see that upgrading just because Microsoft wants us to do that is actually any sort of justification. It’s a business, not a person we’re trying to please. What Microsoft wants is in its best interest, and not necessarily identical to the needs of its customer base.
Like a shark always moving forward in water to survive, Microsoft must convince us to buy Windows, Office and whatever services it has to remain in business.
It’s taking a massive gamble that giving Windows away for the first time ever won’t just convince us all that operating systems should be free, like Android, and call time on the company as a commercial entity.
Did its users want activation or features removing, Bob or Bing? No, they didn’t, and we have only Microsoft’s assertion that Windows 10 is the future – something it said about Windows 8.x, which it subsequently retracted.
While it launches its products in the hope we’ll like them, there isn’t any loyalty program we’re all invested that make it compulsory to go along with Windows 10 or anything else it makes.
Because of that conflict of interest, and the cost and time implications of transition, this is a choice that every Windows 7 or 8 user needs to make for themselves. And they don’t really need Microsoft sat on their shoulder like the demonic offspring of Clippy asking every five seconds ‘Are we there yet’? Or ‘I can see you’re using Windows 7. Would you like me to screw that up for you?’
We each can either see the value of Microsoft’s proposition or we can’t. Going along with it for any other reason than it’s decided it’s right for us is a ludicrous idea, however much prodding and pushing Microsoft tries.
Next week, I’ll send the negative thinker away, and come up with some good reasons why you should upgrade, other than how much Microsoft badly wants it. If you can resist the temptation to upgrade in the meantime, that would be helpful.