There are some drawbacks but not enough to keep you from upgrading to Windows 10 and there are a few things that you should know before upgrading. The power of any system is the ability to handle problems. Windows 10 fails at this miserably and can leave you stranded. This originally started with Windows 8 and was carried over into Windows 10. Some very simple recovery procedures from Windows 7 are now very cryptic to use at best; and can lead to further corruption of your system instead of the help it promises. It is best to be prepared for these types of issues... You will need to optimize it a bit to keep Windows from using your bandwidth and telling Microsoft all about your habits. Especially those who go to adult sites or other private sites, if you don't turn those options off; Microsoft will track you... and your info will be in the cloud somewhere for someone to get access too.
- Initial Install:
After the initial upgrade process is finished, Create a restore point! This is very important for if a device driver fails (especially video) and you cannot boot into Windows (or Windows boots but you cannot see anything). If you have no restore point; you may have to reinstall Windows to get your system back. Those are your only options. In Windows 7 and earlier you could at least select to boot into safe mode or with the standard VGA video to get out of trouble.
- USB Recovery:
Create a recovery USB drive. This is very important for this may be your only option for any type of recovery or re-install. If you are upgrading from Windows 7 your recovery USB will need a 8GB USB drive (only about 4GB will be used). If upgrading from Windows 8 you will probably need a 32GB USB drive (only about 16GB will be used). This should give you an idea of how bloated Windows 8 is.
- Safe Mode:
There is no safe mode access via F8 or Shift-F8 on startup due to fast start. If you have a problems; the USB drive may be your only source of relief (if you made one). You can get into safe mode once Windows has booted up but if you cannot boot for any reason you are basically screwed for safe mode.
- System Restore:
It may be very important to delete any old restore points that you have after you complete (or before you start the install). I did a system restore to test if worked on a new install and it stated that it did not complete (Error 0x8000ffff). So I restarted the machine and then Windows booted and stated that system restore did complete. Once I started system restore and the machine restarted then hung. I did a hard restart and then system restore failed then when I restarted the computer again and system restore then completed. This process alone will confuse you thoroughly.
- Start from USB:
This is very hard to tell if you have booted from the USB drive or your Hard Drive in recovery mode. Computer wants to restart after any selection such as "Command Prompt" and even when you remove the USB drive and restart after getting to the command prompt, Windows starts again in the command prompt. Restart once more and it is back to normal mode. They took simple and made it ridiculous.
- Create a Restore Point:
This applies to every Windows OS but especially Windows 8 & 10. Always create a restore point before installing any new device drivers for with these OS's you may not be able to get out of a BSOD or Windows not booting issue without a complete re-install. If by chance you created a USB recovery drive or Windows can enter recovery mode; you can restore your computer to just before you installed the device driver.
- Create a Local Account NOT a Microsoft Account:
Most people who have had their computer setup by a non-professional will most likely have setup a Microsoft Account to use to log into to use their computer. Microsoft will attempt to fool you into believing that you need a Microsoft Account to use your computer (you don't). They will hide the option to use a local account on the bottom of the next page in small print in hopes that you wont read that far after confusing you so you won't get past the first page. This account allows Microsoft the ability to spy on your searches & habits if they so choose. The only reason for having this type of account is so that you can synchronize your data across multiple devices that are logged into your Microsoft Account. In short No Sync - No Need!
- Turn Cortana Off:
Cortana seems to be setup to spy on you for marketing purposes, to learn what you search for along with your habits and this information is sent to Microsoft. Microsoft has put out a press release that they are not tracking any personal information; but if you have logged on with a Microsoft Account the information from your computer can be tied to you by your Microsoft Account (email) of which you have given your personal information already and you can at any time be sent marketing emails (they know what you have been looking at). Also make sure you set Cortana to only search Windows not the Internet, you already have Google or other search engines for that and they only search the internet when you are actively using it. If you are looking for a program on your computer you don't need to search the Internet too. Cortana will slow your searches down dramatically causing your computer to be sluggish for it is always searching the internet.. You can't turn Cortana off in a standard users account; This is not a machine level setting and has to be done for each account.
- Windows Update:
This is now basically a P2P application. Microsoft has made this so that it will download and upload updates to and from your computer to other Windows 10 computers on the internet. Yes, this is the default setting; so if your internet is slow now... Updates are never deleted from your computer and if you do manage to delete the already installed updates from your computer; they will automatically be downloaded again to be available to share with other users of Windows 10 on the internet (this happens in Windows 8 also). You can turn some of these features off, but the settings are hidden and you have to know they exist (Details here (https://randemsystems.support/windows-10/turning-off-windows-update-p2p-options-in-windows-10/msg6192/#msg6192)). All the update downloads and uploads happen in the background but they still use your bandwidth. You can change this setting to only use computers on your LAN. On Home versions you will not be able to turn off Windows Updates, they will be installed whether you want them or not unless you are on Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows 10; then you can only defer the updates to a later time but they WILL be installed. The home version users will be the update testers for the business community, this is why the enterprise and pro editions can defer the updates up to a few months then they will be forcible installed. Now, if you don't mind helping the Windows community to install Windows 10 by being a P2P server; by all means do not turn these options off. This has to be done for each account; These are not machine level settings and has to be done for each account.
Even with the defer Updates setting checked, Windows will still force security updates to your computer. It will just defer the new feature updates.
- Forced Updates:
This can be terribly annoying if you happen to get a bad update for your machine that you cannot defer. if the update causes your machine to blue screen (BSOD), you may not be able to recover for if you manage to uninstall the update that caused the BSOD by using System Restore (if you created the USB drive); it will only happen again the next time Windows notices that you need the update that you just got rid of and decides to install it again against your will. This can be a never ending nightmare that may require re-install and that will still bring the update into play again sooner or later.
- Internet Band Width:
Anything on your desktop, menus or default installed apps that constantly update your screen with content are constantly pulling it from the internet. You can use a network monitoring program like AnalogX's Packet Monitor (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/Network/pmon/Freeware.htm) or Microsoft's Network Monitor (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4865) to view your network traffic while you turn on/off different areas of Windows to see how your bandwidth usage differs. You will be surprised on how much unwanted network traffic is active and that you can turn it off.
- Turn Off Microsoft Ads for Your Browsers:
Any browser you use will basically be hijacked and sent Microsoft Ads when visiting Microsoft and/or Microsoft connected website. This is the default and you will have to find the option to turn it off on a Microsoft website. It is well hidden, go to Settings->Update & Security->Windows Updates->Advanced Options->Privacy Options->Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalization info this will take you to the Microsoft website where you can turn off Microsoft Personalized Ads (Details here (https://randemsystems.support/windows-10/turning-off-windows-update-p2p-options-in-windows-10/msg6192/#msg6192)). Microsoft's new browser Edge is setup for receiving ads and is set for your default browser.
- Turn Off All Tiles:
On the start menu all the flashy items in the squares can be turned off from accessing the internet by right clicking on each item that you want turned off by selecting "Turn live tile off". You can also turn all live tiles off at once by using a registry entry or creating a .reg file with the info below. After adding the information to the registry, it will not take effect until you restart. WARNING: If you turn live tiles off with this registry entry; you cannot turn them back on unless the registry entry dword is reset to 0. Attempting to turn them on from the right click selections will not work.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications]
"NoTileApplicationNotification"=dword:00000001
- Wi-Fi Sense:
This one is an oddity to me. This will allow anyone in your Outlook, Facebook or Skype contacts to connect to Wi-Fi networks that you have connected to and allow you to connect to Wi-Fi networks that people who have you in their contact list. If you connect to a private network at a client's site; why would you want everyone you know to be able to connect to the client's network also? This sounds like a major security violation to me and especially for the client. Now this is supposed to work only when you are logged in with a Microsoft account; so if you did not use this kind of account you are probably fine but I would turn it off anyway to be sure. The setting is located in Settings->Network & Internet->Manage Wi-Fi settings then turn off Connect to networks shared by my contacts.
With all its faults; Windows 10 it is still much better than Windows 8 and does enhance Windows 7; so it would be worthwhile to upgrade to Windows 10 while it is still free. Why is it free? Well, with the trouble with Windows ME, Windows Vista & Windows 8; it is probably a good idea to get everyone on the same OS platform instead of having lots of server resources dedicated to older systems, they can dedicate those same resources to this OS. The older systems may not be actively supported but since they need activation to run and therefore probably cannot be shut down and abandoned for people are still using them.
All together; a flawless upgrade will take 4 to 5 hours or more to complete. The download alone on a fast internet connection takes about 2 hours or more. The install and Windows Updates to Windows 10 could take another 2 hours or more and finally changing the spy settings could take you 15 - 30 minutes. So make sure you take adequate time from your day to do the upgrade...