Should You Upgrade to Windows 10? 1

We answered this question when Windows 10 was first released: “Let’s wait six months and see how well it is received.” Undoubtedly there will be user community feedback or outrage if it turns out to be another lemon-like Windows Vista and 8. Still, even if it has a glowing reception, Microsoft will release many software and security updates in the ensuing months. With that in mind, let the early adopters get over those big humps before allowing this unknown entity to risk your office’s productivity and contentedness.

 Upgrade to Windows 10

Several months after its release to the public, Windows 10 seems to be successful, thanks in no small part to Microsoft listening to their customers and bringing back what made Windows 95 and subsequent iterations so successful, the Start button.

So, our answer to the question, “Should we upgrade… ?” or “Can we start buying computers with Windows 10?” has evolved into the following definitive, crystal clear, unambiguous response: It depends.

Does Windows 10 have a feature that you need? Is there a compelling business reason to upgrade?

If your sole motivation to upgrade is to have the latest and greatest and no high cost or risk (you have a good backup, right?), go for it.

The upgrade is free from Microsoft. However, suppose you are in an office with outsourced IT support. In that case, they will not be so likely to perform the upgrade and address the inevitable post-upgrade issues as a complementary value-add.

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2. Do your production applications support Windows 10?

Vendors such as HP and Dell will still sell you Windows 7 PC, which tells me a lot – there are great deals of people out there who still want or need Windows 7 for various reasons. The first two that come to mind are that 1) their production applications won’t run on Windows 10, and 2) they don’t want headaches associated with users who resist change. Some of our clients’ most productive users are in their 70s. They love it when they get fast machines loaded with Intel’s latest hypersonic processor, tons of RAM, and lickety-split SSD hard drives, but don’t you dare take away that keyboard with the letters worn off. And you’ll be wise to make their wallpaper the same as the old machine and get those icons just right, too. If you have these kinds of users, I don’t suggest going to Windows 10 unless you absolutely must.

Back to reason number 1, it would help if you verified that your production applications (QuickBooks, point of sale software, etc.) will run on version 10. You can do this by listing those applications and visiting their websites to see their requirements. You can safely skip the Office Suite unless you are running version 2003, in which case you’ll want to bump that up for other reasons (Microsoft ended support a few months ago).

If everything checks out, it will not hurt to enlist your least computer-challenged users in a pilot group with Windows 10 running all of your production software for a month or so. Once you know it works properly and won’t cause more problems than it solves, by all means, upgrade and order your future machines with Windows 10. At the very least, that nagging prompt to upgrade will go away!

If you need help deciding if Windows 10 is right for you, please drop us a line any time. We would love to talk to you!

info@plexus-it.com

In The Valley (818) 293-5592

Or in LA (310) 853-8822

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