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Windows 7 users, as well as Win 8.x users, are eligible for the free upgrade to Win 10 until 29 Jul 2016.

On the other side of the coin, here are some caveats regarding the upgrade:

www.computerworld.com/article/2945195/microsoft-windows/9-reasons-not-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-yet.html

The operative word here is yet.

Both of you - wash your mouths out with soapy water! I was driven to Linux by Windoze 8.

Did you read M$ had reserved 40 Tbps (terabits per second) of data with the principal carriers to support the downloads?
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2953514/microsoft-windows/windows-1...

And it's being downloaded at in excess of 16 downloads per second:
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft039s-windows-10-upgrade-counter-show...

I refused to participate in the whole Vista/7/8 debacle. I'm stuck in the dinosaur days of XP, which I much prefer to V/7/8. We use 7 at work, and even after 3 years of daily use, I still don't like 7. And, despite it being a freebie, I'm going to pass on Win 10.

XP, I think I'll keep it. ;-)     (along with Slackware, Debian, CentOS, Puppy, and FreeBSD)
 

I upgraded my main desktop and I am so pleased with the result that I have now upgraded my 2 laptops.

I certainly understand people's reluctance to upgrade especially when WinXP already does what you want it to do. Previous upgrades have been a right royal PITA but it is looking very much like Windows 10 might be different.

There has been a major change in senior management at Microsoft recently and many of the old ways within the company have been thrown out of the window (aaahm!) and the result is Windows 10. It will be an easier upgrade than previous ones and if you are on Windows 7 or 8.1 then it is backwards compatible. I have now upgraded 3 x Win 8.1 and 1 x Win 7 systems and not had a single issue. Now I didn't say that with previous upgrades.

WinXP, Vista users cannot upgrade and so will have to clean install but as those don't get a free upgrade I can't see many of those switching just yet.

I have found Win 10 to be much faster, easier to use and much more sensibly laid out than Win 7 or especially Win 8. There are a few killer reasons to upgrade IMO... much faster, a search that works!, cleaner look that is easier on the eye.

Having said that... if it wasn't free there probably isn't enough change to pay for it and perhaps that is why MS is giving it away.

While it is free I recommend the upgrade if you are on Win 7 or 8 and as Win 10 uses Win 7/8 drivers there should be few driver issues. If your Win 7/8 system is already working then it should work in Win 10.

I've got the download but have yet to install - I foresee problems as I run a dual-boot system and haven't yet had time to back up Linux (in anticipation of losing at least the bootloader).

Have you installed the Arduino IDE, is there anything special/different to the W7/W8 instructions that needs noting?

WARNING: Get your update from the proper source - scammers are sending out emails with an "installer" that is ransomware. See http://www.neowin.net/news/scammers-capitalise-on-windows-10s-popularity...

I have the Arduino IDE and the processing IDE installed and working fine. The serial monitor works... in fact... I have given my systems a really thorough checkout since the upgrade and everything just works and it is noticeably faster.

I use everything. Debian, RHEL, Windows, Mac....

No one will ever agree on anything so hey ho, just use what you like best. But staying with an operating system from 2001 that no longer receives security updates or anything is pretty dumb in my eyes.

But hey, since I work in IT, im used to change.

I need to keep an XP system working. It's a pretty odd-ball case I admit, but it's like this:

I have a friend 300 miles away who lives in rural Scotland and he has security cameras. I do watchdog duty when he goes on holiday. The camera software only works with XP. Part of the ActiveX stuff doesn't work properly with Win 8.1, and I don't have a smartphone so I can't use gDMSS Lite natively, and I can't get gDMSS to work in Android 4.3 in VirtualBox under Ubuntu. As I said, a weird special case. So any helpful hints to get it working are welcome.

(I'd like to run W10 in a VM, but I sense problems as it's an OEM version. Are my fears valid?)

SnaxMuppet:
So no change is needed then for the installation instructions for the Arduino IDE and drivers? That's good to know.

I was eager to escape XP, until I got vista ! W7 is the best windows version as far as I'm concerned, W8 is completely alien as an OS it belongs on a toy tablet. W10 NEEDS to be fantastic just to get a consideration.

Robert - can you not use one of the compatibility modes for the XP program ? I've not found any SW that ran on XP but not W7. 

The arduino IDE is bound to work on W10 since microsoft have wormed their way into the Arduino camp too.

I hope they have changed their tune and that it's not too late to be believeable.

Paul

One thing that you may wish to consider is making a note of your Windows 10 'Product ID' & 'Product Key' which is generated when you upgrade. If you have these, you can always make a clean install of Windows 10 at a later time. It's like proof of ownership.

The easiest way I found was to use a free little program called 'ProduKey', which does not install on your system, but simply retrieves and displays the info for you.

I've attached it (zipped), simply unzip and run.

Paul

Paul B: "Robert - can you not use one of the compatibility modes for the XP program ? I've not found any SW that ran on XP but not W7."

Would that I could have got W7 - I was just a bit too late. There's only one compatibility in W8.1, and no it doesn't! - Most of it works, but the bit to select masking the picture shows the mask but no picture picture over the top of the mask instead of the other way round, which rather defeats the purpose. ActiveX clearly doesn't play well with W8.1.

[Edit: I remembered wrong! The software is called "Web Service" and comes with the camera system/recorder.]

"There's only one compatibility in W8.1, and no it doesn't!"

That doesn't surprise me, but I wasn't aware of that. I dislike 8/8.1 even more than Vista in fact I have a redundant machine purely because I hate using 8.1, the only good thing about win8.1 IS that it gave me a redundant pc to upgrade to v10 without risking my current W7 PC, otherwise I would of probably been reluctant to even consider it.

And I have to say so far it "looks" pretty good, I will test drive it for a while however,  before letting go of my W7 setup, 

Paul

So far, I'm not impressed with Win10... I played with it on my Surface Pro3 before it was RTM and that lasted about two hours before I wiped and put Win8.1 back. In general, I don't particularly like Win 8.1, being in IT and how 8.1/2012R2 is an EPIC pain in the neck with regards to doing even simple things like editing the hosts file (WHY do I have to run a notepad instance as admin and browse to the hosts file to open, modify and save it as opposed to just opening it and saving it when I'M ALREADY AN ADMIN (ENTERPRISE ADMIN to be specific)!!!!??? 'Disabling' UAC doesn't REALLY disable it....). However, on a TABLET, win 8.1 is pretty nice compared to Win7 IMO (aside from the afore mentioned UAC-related junk). On a desktop/non-touch laptop, not so much. It's stupid clunky with non-touch interfaces IMO. Win10 might fix the UI annoyances, but as an IT admin, probably the biggest thing that really rubs me the wrong way, along with the afore-mentioned UAC related annoyances, is the total neutering of windows updates (YOU WILL TAKE THE UPDATES WE TELL YOU TO, WHEN WE TELL YOU TO, AND YOU'LL LIKE IT!!!!!). One example of an 'update' I refuse to take on my Win7/2008R2 machines is IE9+ - IE9+ sucks big time IMO - I HATE firefox (and all other browsers even more than firefox - There is NOTHING wrong with IE8 and earlier, all problems I've EVER seen with it were caused by third part junk, most commonly, that piece of junk Google Toolbar) but I've taken to using Firefox where IE8 doesn't play nice. I REFUSE to install IE9+ if not absolutely required such as with Win8+. To not allow a user to be able to choose what updates are installed is stupid.

In My Opinion, Windows XP was one of the better OSes, however, Win7 is equal to it if not better. Vista really wasn't that bad (Ever heard of the Mojave experiment?) - I ran vista from pre-RC days and never had any issues with it, and Win7 is not HUGELY different from Vista. The biggest annoyance with vista, IMO, was the lack of a start button of any kind, especially in the server OSes (I used 2012 {non-R2} so infrequently and so long ago when one of my users came to me recently asking where's the start button/menu on a customers 2012 server I was at a loss lol).

I share your annoyances as an IT pro but to be fair... how often do you edit the HOSTS file? I try to assess programs from a general user's perspective as they are the bulk of the users. If you install, do as most people do and don't play around with things and just use it how most people will use it then it is, IMO, the best Windows so far. Mind you, it has a long way to go to beat Apple's UI but then again... Apple is even more tied down than Microsoft so very much horses for courses.

Just to illustrate that point... you hate Firefox - I love it and won't use anything else! :)

You'd be surprised how often I have to edit the host file to test access to things that don't have A records yet. But I was just using that as an example of something REALLY simple that is now a pain due to 'extra security'.

My hate of Firefox comes from years ago when it was my 'go to' browser, it would suck up 100% of RAM and CPU if even one window was left open, requiring a restart of FF to reclaim the CPU & RAM, only to have it come back after it has been running for a while. Even today, on the latest versions, it's performance sucks. On several different machines, I routinely leave FF windows open all the time with sites that I frequent, when FF is first started, things such as playing youtube or other videos is fine and normal, but over time, they get choppy and lagged, requiring a end task on FF and restart & recover, after which it runs fine for a while, until it's been up for a while.

IE9+ is worst though, IMO - Since day one I've always had random 'failures' of downloads to any network location using it where IE claims the download failed, yet the file was downloaded completely and it just didn't rename it from the .part file to it's real name. *shrug*.

And I'd burst into flames if I touched anything apple ;).

Just giving folk the heads up!
No surprises - 'there's a bug in Windows 10'!

Switched laptop on tonight and got the following error message
* Critical Error * Start Menu and Cortana aren't working.
but worse still, nothing else was either - couldn't run any programs and most other functions had stopped too.

Searching for a solution I checked the Microsoft community site on my phone - all 36 pages devoted to the same problem, with no obvious solution from Microsoft other than acknowledging the issue and claiming that they are trying to fix it ASAP. The thread has almost 27,000 views so this is a widespread problem.

Many people have offered solution to the problem - most of them useless and with no substance, however eventually the following worked for me;

1. In the lock screen, click the "power" button.
2. Press on the left shift key in your keyboard.
3. While still pressing on the left shift key, click on "restart".
4. Windows then starts to log off and continuing the update progress. This is similar to when you choose "update and shut down" in windows 7 or 8.
5. Windows is then restarted to safe mode. Just choose "exit and continue with windows 10".
6. Then windows 10 starts normally with the issue fixed/gone.

Paul

There are bugs in W10. Given the complexity of any operating system and given the huge combination of hardware and software components that it has to be able to cope with, it would be impossible for there not to be bugs.

However, I have now personally upgraded or installed over 10 systems now and I have to say that I have found a lot fewer serious issues with W10 then I found with previous versions of Windows.

Of course, if you are one of the unlucky ones to find a bug then it will be very annoying but I would say my experience so far is pretty good.

Just to put my comments into perspective... I ran my own computer shop for 3 years installing and upgrading everyday in our workshop and building our own brand PCs and I have been installing and upgrading systems professionally for the best part of 10 years. I realise that this doesn't make my comments more or less important than anyone else but I must have installed/upgraded thousands and so far W10, whilst not perfect, gives me  confidence compared to previous versions.

My W10 refuses to activate - both on the real machine and in a VM, so I have a very jaundiced view of it.

I upgraded my labtop to win10 without problems, and i seems to me that the battery can is lasting longer.

But however, I'm unable to view the dashboard on my EmonBase (8.5) using IE. Edge working fine.

Anyone else with that problem? its the same on my windows 8.1 phone, no dashboard.

For me, on my surface pro 3, everything in emoncms seems to work fine..... except my multigraphs.