Unless you have a pressing business requirement, for example, a specialized printer or scanner that won’t run Windows 10, you should probably be running Windows 10.
Windows 11 is currently in its rollout phase. Depending on your hardware, you might or might not be able to download it yet. If you’re interested or curious, give us a call! If you’re still running Windows 7, 8, or earlier (not likely, but you might be surprised…), read on:
I think Cortana with voice recognition alone is worth the upgrade. Here’s what else you’re getting:
- Night-light mode, so after dark your display stops showing those sleep-killing blue frequencies
- Snappy Interface with a modern take on the “classic” Start Menu, plus the Quick Launch toolbar is back, leaving the weird Metro interface out in the Recycling Bin.
- Better security, as well as remote options available with Pro.
- Gaming Mode. (Archaically, I spent many hours making DOS boot disks so I could manually load TSR drivers to play games effectively.)
- Longer support time — Windows 7 is in its “end of life” support.
- Integrated OneDrive for automatic cloud backups.
Now, I honestly don’t know what Microsoft’s user interface designers have against the Control Panel. It’s gone from the right-click, but it’s still available by typing in the Cortana box.
Windows 10 is free if you have any Windows 7 or 8 license. Microsoft had originally published the free upgrade for any Windows 7 / 8 computer, for a limited time. If you’re installing fresh, you can use any Win 7 / Win 8 sticker code for the same version of Windows 10. You can even use Win 7/8 installation media, and then as long as you have an internet connection (and you don’t mind a lengthy update process) you can upgrade from there.
If you don’t want to reinstall fresh from scratch (i.e. you want to keep your files) then you can still upgrade using this link here. The page is intended for people who use assistive technologies, but the upgrade link is universal. It’s best to start the upgrade and download it at night, as it will take several hours.
An important note — if you are upgrading and you don’t want to lose any files, it’s way past time to get your files backed up. Accidents happen, cryptolockers can strike, hardware fails, and even your anti-virus software could be compromised. If you can’t recover from getting a brand new computer tomorrow morning, then your backups aren’t current enough.