Upgrade to Windows 10 Operating System

Windows 10 screenshot... the Start menu opened.

For the past few months, Microsoft has been nagging me by way of popup notices on my computers to upgrade my Windows 8.1 Operating System to Windows 10. I've been holding off downloading this incredibly huge (file size) upgrade in the hope that Microsoft would iron out all the little quirks, kinks and bugs. In the meantime, I would have to tolerate the constant barrage of nagging prompts from Microsoft.

I chat with a lot of photographers from around the world everyday and more and more of them have upgraded to Windows 10 lately. The general consensus was that the upgrade was relatively painless and there were no problems with any software and much of the hardware issues have been ironed out by now. This was the news I was waiting for so I decided to upgrade my laptop first and see how it performs.

In Microsoft's defense, the biggest problem up until lately was that third party software and hardware developers were dragging their feet in updating drivers. There were some little bugs in the operating system but nothing really crippling. The biggest frustration was waiting for all the third party developers to update drivers.

Wow... when I started upgrading the operating system on my laptop, I quickly realized that this was a huge download which would require a lot of time... in fact, it took me more than eight hours to download! The download kept stalling every 10-14% in the download process. In Microsoft's defense, I started this download on a weekend afternoon so I know that their servers were busy with everyone else attempting the same download.

After the download completed, the installation went relatively quick and it was painless. If I remember correctly, the installation required an additional couple of hours. I believe your entire hard drive is saved... compressed and stored... the new operating system is installed... then the hard drive is uncompressed and written back to the drive... then drivers are updated and a few other little thing are fine tuned. The larger the file size of your hard drive, the longer the installation will take.

The first thing I noticed was that my laptop was noticeably faster! Well, this was very welcomed news! I had no complaints about the speed of Windows 8.1 but I won't turn down a faster operating system!

At first, I must admit, I truly hated this new user interface (not nearly as much as I despised the early versions of Windows, but that is another story). Then I spent a little time customizing all the settings to set up everything as I like and need. Windows 10 started to grow on me. 

I spent the next few evenings using my laptop... getting used to Windows 10... more customizing to my own preferences... testing software... checking drivers...  I was liking this operating system more and more. The fact that my laptop was still operating noticeably faster than when running on Windows 8.1 was a huge factor in how I felt about this upgrade.

When I went back to using my desktop computer which was still running on Windows 8.1, it was feeling clunky and a bit dull. It was clear that it was time to upgrade my desktop computer as well.

This time, I decided to start the download at midnight when Microsoft's servers were more than likely less congested than on a weekend afternoon like when I upgraded my laptop. I was right.

This time, the entire process.... download and installation... took less than two hours... probably slightly longer than an hour and a half. What actually took the most time was saving my hard drive to a compressed file and then re-writing it after installation of the new operating system (the installation process does this all for you automatically). The hard drive on my desktop computer is very large with a lot of software, image files and video files so it required some extra time. Regardless, this whole process went very quickly this time around.

Once again, I had to spend the next few days personalizing Windows 10 to fit my tastes and needs. I then had some software to update. I definitely noticed a significant increase in the speed of this computer too. At this point, there is no doubt in my mind that Windows 10 is a much better operating system than Windows 8.1. 

I should also point out that Windows 8.1 was far faster and better than Windows 7...  which was far faster than Windows XP.  Windows Vista, which was between Windows XP and Windows 7 was a major disaster like all the versions of Windows before Windows XP. Although, now that I think about it, I was one of the few who was happy with Windows ME (Millenium)... most everyone else felt it was a disaster, however. Windows 10 is light-years ahead of all these older, archaic operating systems.

I did have one problem on my desktop computer after upgrading to Windows 10. After all the reboots required through the installation process (you need to be patient and just allow the computer to do its thing even while you are staring at a black screen for what seems like an eternity... this is the installation process), I booted up again... Windows 10 opened... and then I remembered that my sound was turned off so I turned it on... I immediately heard the USB connection sound immediately followed by the USB disconnect sound... over and over and over...  

I took a breath and reminded myself that, in the big scheme of things, this should be easy to fix. I first tried a reboot in case a USB driver didn't load correctly... that wasn't it... the sound was continually chiming. 

Then I decided to start pulling USB plugs to see which piece of hardware was causing this problem. After pulling four USB cables, I finally heard silence. The problem was with my uninterrupted power supply (UPS). I needed an updated driver for controlling my UPS. No big deal. Of all the things which could go wrong, this was hardly a problem and something which I'll probably forget before long.

I also want to point out that I don't feel I lost a single bit of data through this extensive installation process. And, that is saying something because it really is a huge feat.

After waiting for all the bugs to be worked out with Windows 10, I can honestly say this upgrade to Windows 10 is well worth the time to complete the upgrade. This operating system is faster, sleeker and more polished than any operating system previously released by Microsoft.

There are some new things such as a new browser (thankfully, Internet Explorer is a thing of the past)... and some other new apps. If I find some of these new changes worthy of a blog post, I'll write more about them. For now, the best reasons to upgrade are speed and a more polished interface.

If your computer is Windows 10 capable, download it and take a big step forward!


UPDATE - 4 November 2015:  A week after updating to Windows 10, my laptop developed some problems...

First, let me start with the positive news...  My desktop computer is still running flawlessly with this new operating system. Actually, it is more responsive and running much faster than ever before when running on Windows 8.1. There is no doubt in my mind that Windows 10 is a major improvement over all previous versions.

(Actually, Sheila and I were at Best Buy last weekend and we spent a significant amount of time playing with some new laptops... the Lenovo laptops running Windows 10 were stunning... fast, responsive, with the highest resolution displays. We even took a few of the best Mac laptops and desktops for a test drive... by comparison to the Lenovo laptops, they seemed old, worn, clunky and very "no thrills, basic" to both of us. We just looked at each other, crinkled our noses like something stinks and went back over to the Lenovo laptops.)

So, back at home, my desktop is running just fine but my HP laptop would not go to 'sleep' nor would it shut down.  In order to get it to shut down, I had to resort to holding down the power button until it eventually would power completely down. In trying to shut down the usual way with the menu, the screen would go black but I could hear the fans continuing to run and the power button stayed illuminated. This is actually a dangerous problem for a portable laptop that runs on batteries which could easily overheat so I needed to find a solution to this problem. 

I figured the problem was probably a driver issue so I spent a week reinstalling the latest drivers... well over two dozen of them to be exact. Yet, I still continued to have problems.

In this week of troubleshooting, I quickly realized that my problems were NOT with Microsoft but with either Intel or HP (the manufacturer of my laptop)....

As I was updating my Intel drivers I could tell they were not working correctly... not installing correctly... so I was coming to the conclusion that my problem was with Intel. I knew I had all the latest drivers so I was getting extremely frustrated with this problem. I highly suspected my problem was with Intel, however. 

At this point, I was about ready to toss this laptop in the garbage and buy a new Lenovo laptop.

This evening, I found a "solution" on the HP Support Page... apparently, the problem is with Intel. The latest Intel Management Engine Interface driver is not working with Windows 10... and, this driver was released because of Windows 10!  HP recommended turning off all automatic updates for this driver and then downloading an older version of the Intel MEI driver (the Windows 8.1 version). HP even provided all the necessary links to Intel for downloads as well as provided detailed step-by-step instructions on how to fix this problem. 

I followed HP's advice and this problem now appears to be resolved!

So...  in short... Microsoft = Great (Windows 10 is awesome... much faster than any previous version)... HP = Outstanding (for providing a solution to this Intel problem while Intel points fingers at Microsoft)... and, Intel = Sucks!



UPDATE - March, 2016:  Intel was clearly the company causing problems with my laptop compatibility with Windows 10...  Intel finally updated their drivers and this update was successful in installing and driving my graphics using Windows 10!  It is about time, Intel!  

My laptop is significantly faster and smoother now... the way it should be.

Why couldn't Intel do this back when Windows 10 first appeared?

(Note to self...  add Intel to my sh*t list of products I'll never buy again...  along with Dell, Apple, Nikon, Olympus, Hyundai, and a few others I can't remember right now.)