In June I wrote about Windows 7 “End of Life” coming in Jan 2020 to give everyone a "heads up" to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. At the time, I talked about a few products that were coming up to end of life, including Windows 7 which is very prevalent in the market still. In this article I am going to talk about some of the benefits of migrating to Windows 10, knowing many users will be facing this in the very near future. Each migration will have its own challenges but it’s nice to hear about the “good news” associated with your Windows 10 migration, knowing that it is coming sooner or later, if you have not already done it.
Before I dive into some of the benefits of Windows 10, I should provide a little history of Windows, for context:
Windows 7 is more than a decade old now! (I know, right!? Like my kids, Windows grows old so quickly 😊). Windows 7 is nearing End of Life and will be unsupported as of Jan 2020. Windows 10 was released in 2015 and at the time, they announced that there will not be a Windows 11 or Window 12. Windows 10 (update “insert date here”) will be the brand use for Windows indefinitely. Windows 10 upgrades are typically rolled out a few times a year. 'Windows 10 May 2019 update' was the most recent one, and 'Windows 10 Nov 2019 update' will be the next.
OK, now to the fun stuff…
The Benefits of Windows 10 that you will enjoy when you Upgrade from Windows 7:
1. Speed Most devices these days have Solid State Drives (SSDs) which help with boot times, but Windows 10 is just built to be faster too. “Of all the benefits of Windows 10, none is more immediate than an improvement in operating speed. Users used to slower operating systems such as Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will be blown away by the speed of Windows 10. Even operating systems built on speed, such as Mac’s OS X as some may say, must compete with Windows 10’s initial start times. In fact, comparison videos exist that show Windows 10 opening faster on a Mac than OS X”. Affirma Consulting 2. Get all the New Features Windows 10 is the only way to enjoy new Windows features now! And it “works better together” with Office 365 services and Office subscriptions, which are more and more popular these days. Get the details about what is new with the Windows 10 Nov 2019 update! 3. Security Windows 10 also keeps up major improvements in security. The Secure Boot feature from Windows received an upgrade to include even greater security. Secure Boot requires any program that begins as the operating system starts up to be signed off by both Microsoft and the hardware manufacturer. Security additions with Windows 10 make the Secure Boot feature tamper-proof. Along with Secure Boot, Windows 10 also adds key security features such as Device Guard, Microsoft Passport and Windows Hello. Affirma Consulting 4. Usability Windows 10 brought back the popular Start button (removed in Window 8 previously, to the chagrin of many) which now opens a tile portal, that you can customize, allowing you to navigate to your commonly used tools and apps quickly. Some users like the “hello” face login feature too, which lets users login to their device just by looking at it.
5. Touch Screen Functionality
While most users will not use touch as their primary mode of usage, touch screen capabilities are still undoubtedly useful for certain actions. In a smartphone- and tablet- driven society, much of our communication with screens comes through touch. Windows 10 touch screen functionality allows for users to continue this intuitive experience on their desktops and laptops, with many apps and traditional tools, like Office. Affirma Consulting
6. Connect and Project With Windows 10 and a relatively inexpensive Microsoft Wireless Display adapter, you can wirelessly project your screen to any projector, or mounted monitor or TV (HDMI required). This can be very handy for boardroom settings or when visiting a client’s office.
7. Voice Typing Another cool feature of Windows 10: simply press Windows + H (for “Hear”) and your PC starts typing whatever you say. Similar tools in the past used to be very expensive as stand-alone software packages.
8. The “Action Center” The Action Center is a handy area that you can customize for quick access to your commonly used settings and notification preferences (ie. wifi, hotspot/phone tethering, screen brightness, project to screen, snipping tools, airplane mode, nightlight, new email notification pop-ups, etc.). You can pick what you like and want to see in your action center.
9. OneDrive On-Demand Syncing
Use OneDrive* to save space on your local device, and to be able to access files from anywhere, on any device. With the “files on demand” option, OneDrive looks like a regular folder on your desktop or in file explorer. OneDrive files are accessible in your browser, as well as in iOS or Android. OneDrive does well with photos too, by the way! You can view photos within a map, if you wish, and you can search using “object identification”, so you can find all your pictures of dogs or sunsets for example.
*Note that you can use the free consumer version of OneDrive (50G limit), or your OneDrive for Business account (1 TB) from within your Office 365 package.
Aside from the fact that Windows 7 will not be secure in the very near future (Jan 2020), you can see from the list above, there are many reasons to upgrade to Windows 10.
“The Windows 7 faithful have nothing to fear; Windows 10 isn't much of a paradigm shift from the now-decade-old OS. And in my experience (and that of many I know), it's been pretty delightful to use. Things like Windows Hello face login, touch-screen support, multiple desktops, Quick Access in File Explorer, improve my daily computing.” PC Mag If you have any questions about your Windows 10 upgrade give us a call - we can assess your environment and review your options.
