Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[leebase]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

crapple? I don't own an IOS device, but I have a hard time giving any credence to someone using such a term with out substantial stated reasons. Have you had years of hands on experience with Apples?

Recent Mac convert - and they are by far the best laptops I've ever owned. I like OS/X and some of the Apple specific apps...but I also like Windows and Linux. I run all three of them on my Mac.

It's true that the new Macs are thin and everything is soldered in...no upgrading the memory. So buy the amount you will need upfront. Of course, with the latest Mac OS's...they actually compress the memory to get more done with the existing RAM. Works wonderfully.

I'll never again buy a computer without an SSD drive.

FYI - Macs also have great resale value. If you price a windows machine with the build quality and features of a Mac (retina/hi res screen, SSD, aluminum/high quality and light frame)...you will pay as much or more.

[wodin]

And how is that relevant to a thread about Windows 10?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by wodin

And how is that relevant to a thread about Windows 10?

It was rebuttal to crane3's post above about using win10 rather than OSX.

ApK

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by leebase

Recent Mac convert - and they are by far the best laptops I've ever owned. I like OS/X and some of the Apple specific apps...but I also like Windows and Linux. I run all three of them on my Mac.

It's true that the new Macs are thin and everything is soldered in...no upgrading the memory. So buy the amount you will need upfront. Of course, with the latest Mac OS's...they actually compress the memory to get more done with the existing RAM. Works wonderfully.

I'll never again buy a computer without an SSD drive.

FYI - Macs also have great resale value. If you price a windows machine with the build quality and features of a Mac (retina/hi res screen, SSD, aluminum/high quality and light frame)...you will pay as much or more.

Interesting. I have already blown my budget on the Surface Pro 3 for at least a year. Not regretting it for an instant, but may consider an IOS device next year.

Will/do you run Windows 10 on yours?

Helen

[leebase]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Will/do you run Windows 10 on yours?

Helen

Run on my Mac as in "instead of Mac OS/X"? No. But run in a virtual machine? Yes. We have some corporate web apps that require Internet Explorer (shocking, I know), which is the only time I run a windows vm on my Mac. Or the occasional use of Visio. Other than that, I have all the apps I need to run as native Mac apps or they are web apps that don't require IE.

I do have several windows computers around the house. Those I'll upgrade to Windows 10. I have 2 of them on Windows 8.1 already. I'm about to revive a 4yr old creaky windows laptop. I'm putting in a 120gig SSD, Windows 8.1...my daughters will be thrilled that this "Daddy, this computer is so slooow" as it won't be slow anymore.

Just wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows would help a great deal. Yeah, that's a pain to do every few years, but it's a known issue. They only use it for Office and internet. The SSD will give it new life.

I only use linux as servers...running in virtual machines. I had it as my main OS on my development laptop for a year....there are just too many things that require windows (printers, scanners and the like).

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

2001 actually

Yes. My teenager is using a computer with an OS pretty much exactly as old as he is.

[Greg Anos]

Just an FYI.

I broke out the stopwatch and measured the boot time for Win XP under Oracle's Virtual box. On an i5 Intel NUC (Haswell - notebook low power chip). Off a 5400 RPM harddrive boot drive.

From inital start of Oracle's Virtualbox to a finished boot of XP...

15 Seconds...

[Greg Anos]

On the other hand...it takes 48 seconds (including admin signon) to boot the underlying Linux Mint 17...

[eschwartz]

Arch Linux with Mint's Cinnamon desktop takes something like 15-20 seconds to cold boot for me and my laptop is thoroughly low-end.

Intel Celeron, sold ~11 years ago -- dunno the generation, but draw a conclusion...

[leebase]

Just spent $60 on a 120gig SSD to revive a 4yr old laptop that was very very slow. Now reinstalling windows alone would have helped a lot. Doing both? Win 8.1 boots in 20 secs. The computer is screaming fast now. SSD forever more...and I'll store excess files on a usb drive or network drive or cloud

[mewmartigan]

I used to be a MAC user specifically because their hardware was so much better...I couldn't care less which operating system I had. My MacBook was nice aluminum with the big glass multi-touch trackpad while Windows machines were still plastic with poor trackpads and buttons.

However, I just recently sold my 2011 Macbook Pro (they do hold their value well) and bought the new Dell XPS 13 with "infinity display".

It is the best laptop I have ever owned. Build quality has really caught up. It is my first experience with Windows 8.1 and I don't really mind it at all. The free upgrade to 10 will be nice but I will probably do it right at the end of the year-long offer to let them work out bugs and such.

Oh, and I bought the laptop from the Microsoft Store as a signature edition...that is the only way to go...very minimal bloatware and it works great.

Oh and count me in the group that loves the SSD drive. The computer boots up in about 10 seconds and applications like Word/Excel start up in about 3 seconds. I am happy to store large files on a USB 3.0 external device.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

Oh, and I bought the laptop from the Microsoft Store as a signature edition...that is the only way to go...very minimal bloatware and it works great.

It'd be nice if the manufacturers offered us that option without having to use the MS Store. Try finding one of those.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I used to be a MAC user specifically because their hardware was so much better...I couldn't care less which operating system I had. My MacBook was nice aluminum with the big glass multi-touch trackpad while Windows machines were still plastic with poor trackpads and buttons.

However, I just recently sold my 2011 Macbook Pro (they do hold their value well) and bought the new Dell XPS 13 with "infinity display".

It is the best laptop I have ever owned. Build quality has really caught up. It is my first experience with Windows 8.1 and I don't really mind it at all. The free upgrade to 10 will be nice but I will probably do it right at the end of the year-long offer to let them work out bugs and such.

Oh, and I bought the laptop from the Microsoft Store as a signature edition...that is the only way to go...very minimal bloatware and it works great.

Oh and count me in the group that loves the SSD drive. The computer boots up in about 10 seconds and applications like Word/Excel start up in about 3 seconds. I am happy to store large files on a USB 3.0 external device.

I have updated from win7 to win10 preview it runs a lot better than I expected. Performance wise it beats win7 and so far I have had no problems with app compatibility with whatever apps I have used . Has given my HTPC a new life. I was thinking about replacing it now might just change the hard drive to SSD drive.

[Jack Torrance]

I've been playing more and more with W10. Loading all the programs I normally use and trying to get the feel for it.

One issue it does have is loading AMD Catalyst. I've tried it twice and both times it crashes the system. I may need to go back to AMD and recheck for a newer driver package, but I seem to do so much on my iPad and phone vs my desktop it's been a slow process playing with it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Shane R

It'd be nice if the manufacturers offered us that option without having to use the MS Store. Try finding one of those.

Windows 8+ makes it very easy to reinstall Windows using the direct-from-Microsoft installation media, retaining your registration.
Absolutely no bloatware that way, homemade Signature Edition.

Even on Windows 7 it is pretty easy, you just have to hunt a little more for the right ISOs.

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...on-a-new-pc/1/
http://lifehacker.com/can-i-reinstal...loa-1512345361