Greetings,

I'm tempted to do the upgrade based on just the cost savings alone.

But,

I've still heard, and see many issues with win 10 that still give me concern.

I know win 7 support ends 2020, which isn't that long....

I just feel like I'm being strong armed into upgrading as the deadline approaches at the end of this month.

I also may be looking to run a small business in my future some day....

Doesn't need to be Pro advice, base win 10 is fine.

I've been doing my own research as well OFC, and I'm still having a hard time deciding.

Will I still be able to roll back to 7 after the deadline to upgrade if I want?

Have the privacy concerns been addressed yet?

Thanks

I haven't had any issues with Win10. I am no expert of course and I went through every privacy setting I could find and disabled them all. It has some great features that I totally take for granted now and some minor negatives that I don't really notice either.

10, for reasons given here: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/680330-your-preferred-os-and-why/page-2#entry5300705

On my own, I tried to make Windows 10 as private as possible. (Disabled defender/automatic updates/somehow telemetry and privacy tools, using offline account and no apps beside Edge.)

I think it is something you can live with atm but we can't know what will change in future, Anniversary Update is also about to come.

Is there a list of settings I should disable or be aware of?

As a total product, W7 has a cohesive, solid feeling that has always been fantastic. W10 doesn't, and continues today to feel like two OSes glued together in awkward ways. But the union is much more usable than W8.x, and doesn't interfere with the day to day. Mostly.

Is there a list of settings I should disable or be aware of?

Shut off all the telemetry stuff if that bothers you. Also you probably want to turn off the wifi sharing option, that stuff is garbage. Also, the system update settings are neurotic, you probably want to set it to Notify rather than Automatic.

I have actually grown to love Windows 10, but only after doing the following:

-Shut off telemetry

-Disable wi-fi sharing

-Set updates to Notify

ALSO! If you are upgrading, grab a keypuller, pull the key, backup your system and do a CLEAN INSTALL. Otherwise you may have some nasty side-effects from the upgrade process, such as slow file speeds. That happened to me, but once I did the clean install, everything worked out much better.

Otherwise, it feels like a very solid operating system. If you're not a fan of the flat look (I certainly am not), you can purchase WindowBlinds from Stardock software to tweak the looks of Windows. I think they even have a theme that emulates the look of XP!

The advantages of Win10 far outweigh the cons.

I like Windows 7 more... its the best Windows version I have ever used.

Having said that, Windows 10 is not totally horrible... compared to the trainwreck that was Windows 8, and the barely usable fix for that, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 is surprisingly usable.

I wished they would get rid of the whole Metro crap, and their new flat design, and just return to the old design of Windows 7. Drop the resource intensive parts like the see through design, I don't care. But the flat design really hurts my eyes, its what happens when designers get bored. They take something that isn't broken and change it for the hell of it.

But my complaints about 10 are mostly subjective, I haven't found any real bug with Windows 10 until now. Some issues at the beginning with drivers and all on my new machines, but IDK really if that is a Windows 10 issue. Most of it has been fixed in the meantime anyway.

If you have to get a new Windows at the current point in time, no point in going with Windows 7. If you have Windows 7 and are thinking about upgrading, might as well use the remaining time to upgrade for free, as long as you don't mind having to adapt to Windows 10 at the current point in time (which shouldn't be too much of a problem).

I am still not sure what is the status of free upgrades after the free upgrade period is over, if you get a legit serial or not. You are kinda at the mercy of MS here.... but that is true for any software. So IDK... maybe I am overthinking stuff in case of Windows 10.

If you have a Windows 7 PC that you are satisfied with, leave it. If you have no compelling reason to replace the OS, don't.

If you are wiping the machine anyway, use the OS of your preference.

If you are getting a new machine, use the OS of your preference.

Some machines I control at work and home run Windows 10. The core OS is good. As others mentioned there are some things to do, turning off telemetry and OS-provided ads, adding a long list of DNS entries to your hosts file (and blocking them on your router/modem as well), but those are well covered. The core OS has great features and is solid.

I am still not sure what is the status of free upgrades after the free upgrade period is over, if you get a legit serial or not. You are kinda at the mercy of MS here.... but that is true for any software. So IDK... maybe I am overthinking stuff in case of Windows 10.

They said 'free for the supported life of the device', IIRC. While there is ambiguity about what "supported life" means, it seems to be free for the life of your motherboard. Once your motherboard borks it, then you need a new license. If there is some other arbitrary cutoff, nobody knows. But that only applies to the free upgrades, not buying a full Win10 license for a new PC.

If you upgrade from an OEM license (which is tied to the motherboard) then your new license is also OEM (and thus also tied to the motherboard). Supposedly, if you had a non-OEM license that you upgraded from, then your upgraded license is also non-OEM... but I don't know if that's true or not.

I do know that my Win8.1 Pro OEM license turned into a Win10 Pro license - and it looks to be OEM also. I have my free Win10 license key taped to the DVD case of my Win10 iso (I found the key using ProduKey).