It’s been almost a week now since the release of Windows 10. Did you get it yet? I actually have it running on two computers and I will give you my humble opinion of it. Remember, I am 90% or more committed to the Apple world, but still use Windows a fair amount.
The Good:
Actually, almost all of it is good. I think Microsoft has hit a home run with this release, even though it is not 100 completed. The rest of the important bits will be coming in October, if all the rumors are true…but that doesn’t mean it is a stripped-down version. Most reviewers are saying it is faster than 7 and 8.1 and I agree with that assessment. For sure, it is definitely safer! Microsoft put a lot of effort into making it more secure.
Cortana, the voice activated search engine is working much better than it did in previous versions. To be honest, I don’t use it that much as I am not used to having it. But it answers the simple questions quite easily and the female voice is quite lovely. The majority of the answers are displayed on a Bing Search page, and they are almost always what I am looking for. It definitely shows promise. I hope Apple will put Siri on its OS one of the days.
Also, the Microsoft Solitaire collection is excellent and looks good. It is a free download from the Windows Store. And speaking of the store, it has been improved and is quite quick to load and easy to search. Downloads and installs from the store are a breeze. For the fun of it, you might want to check out Bloom Diary or Journal. They are also free. There are some really good, free apps in the store.
The Bad:
The special Office for Windows 10 is almost pointless. It is really made for touch devices. But to use it on a desktop computer, you must have an Office 365 subscription. Well, if you have one, there is no reason not to put the full version on your computer. The Windows 10 version is basically for portable devices, which makes sense.
The free OneNote app also stinks. It is a stripped down version of the full OneNote with many good features left out. The original free version for Windows was not stripped down. I often add page color and lines to my OneNote pages. I can add color on my MAC version, but not lines. On the Windows Version, I can lines, but no page color. Silly.
The new Edge browser that Microsoft that is supposed to replace Internet Explorer is not finished. Many features like add-ons are not yet available. Ironically IE is not included with the Windows 10 upgrade. Edge shows a lot of promise and is quite fast, but you can’t use it now as your full-time browser. You will need to download IE, Firefox, or Chrome for you browsing pleasure.
The Ugly:
Now this issue is only for people like me who run Windows 10 inside the Parallels application on a MAC. I run Windows 7 and 10 on my MAC. I have had the Preview Edition of 10 running for months. The Windows 7 copy received the Upgrade Icon months ago. But when I went to install it, it said Windows 10 will not run as it has a problem with the Parallels video. Hello!!! Windows 10 has been running for months inside Parallels. I am not sure who is at fault here, Microsoft or Parallels. Lots of folks have run into this issue and both companies claim they are trying to solve it. Whatever.
Another big ugly is OneDrive. It has problems with all computers right now. I won’t go into it other than to say it is unreliable. Paul Thurrott, journalist, blogger, and writer has been a long-time proponent of OneDrive…but he has switched to Dropbox. I know I have had lots of problems with it on my MAC and have pretty much stopped using it. Too bad.
Well that is my cheesy review for now. I will keep plugging away with the occasional updates and mini-reviews. In the meantime, I have included more tutorials below on the new features of Windows 10. I suggest you save them in either Evernote or OneNote. Happy computing everyone!! -JRC
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