Thread: Is Windows 8/10 actually usable anymore?

The screen on my laptop running XP died a couple of weeks ago so I bought a new laptop with Win 10 installed, a Lenovo as it happens but that's not the problem. I expected to migrate my old programs to run in 32 bit mode but no, it's going to be quite a task to set everything up using emulators, virtual machines etc. I'll get back to the conversion in a few weeks but am using the kitchen's TV in the meantime as a screen for the laptop. It's no longer portable though.

Windows 8, I absolutely hated. Windows 10 is much better, and much more Windows-like than the whole crappy tiles thing going on in W8. However, I have 64-bit edition of W10, and a number of the bits of software I'm using haven't caught up yet, so I have to use VMs a lot.

Where I used to spend maybe 12 hours a day on Windows based PCs and laptops, it's now 15 mins a day maximum.

Hi Dave, I spend, on average, about 70% of my computer time of Macs and 30% of my time, writing code on my ( old ) PCs.

This hasn't changed much in the last 8 to 10 years, but this new PC sees about an average use ( waste of time ) of less than 1 minute a day.

I have not been game to try Windows 10 as I can't get Windows 8 to work!

Both you and Graeme are simply confirming that I am likely to have problems running the gear I want to run on this PC, if I ever get it to work.

W10 is a lot more friendly (in my opinion) than W8, but still not as user friendly as W7. If you are struggling with 8, I don't think you've got anything to lose by upgrading.

I think I've used Macs fewer times than I have fingers.

Win 8 was very quickly superseded by Win 8.5 but Win 10 is supposed to be much better. My wife's pc was upgraded from 8 to 8.5 then to 10 ASAP but that PC only runs standard, current s/w, not old or technical s/w.

Upgrade to Win 10 before starting to convert.

I skipped windows 8 and went straight to win 10.
I have been using x64 windows since XP, so I have always had to run a VM (or in windows 7 "XP mode") for some of my software.
I find win 10 to need more customising to disable the in built "features" I don't want running, and the fact an every day user has no control over if updates are applied is a small problem.

I have actually had less issues with my windows 10 install so far in comparison to my windows 7 on the same computer. Windows 7 used to hang at least once or twice a week (computer is on 24/7) whereas windows 10 is only once since I installed - current uptime is just shy of 24 days, and was turned off only due to blackout.

Linux.

Mac or XP