The must-know Windows 10 details
The Windows 10 operating system will bring some new features, which slowly are discovered by the users.
It has a lot of hidden stuff which is used to gather information from you, but that is not new in the computer business, and Microsoft is not the only company doing this. But if you are a little paranoid (which is maybe not a bad thing) you better investigate before you upgrade to WINDOWS10, or at least make sure that you disable all this hidden gems.
What we also noticed is that Microsoft has changed the way of updating their operating system.
By Default WINDOWS10 is set to share the updates with other users over the internet. It takes a lot of load of their servers, and it can mean that you receive the updates faster. But it also means that other users are downloading from your computer the updates you already have installed, with that using your precious internet bandwidth and possibly costing you a lot of money if you are on a connection where you have to pay for your usage.
This can be turned off or switched to only local, where you only share the updates between your own computers, on your local network.
Minimum System Requirements
- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
- RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
- Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
- Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
- Display: 800x600
If you want to upgrade to Windows 10
- A Microsoft account and Internet access
-
Latest OS: Make sure you are running the latest version of either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update
Important Notes for upgrading
- An internet connection is required to perform the upgrade. Windows 10 is a large file -- about 3 GB -- and Internet access (ISP) fees might apply.
- The upgradeability of a device includes factors beyond the system specification. This includes driver and firmware support, application compatibility, and feature support, regardless of whether or not the device meets the minimum system specification for Windows 10.
-
Unexpected PC crashes could damage or even delete your files, so you should back up everything. Some printers and other hardware might not work, and some software might not install or work correctly, including antivirus or security programs. You might also have trouble connecting to home or corporate networks. To check for device compatibility and other important installation information, visit your device manufacturer’s website.
-
Some installed apps might not yet work as expected or might not be available in your country or region. For example, Cortana (Microsoft’s voice assistant) is currently only available in English (United States), English (United Kingdom), Chinese (Simplified), German (Germany), French (France), Italian, and Spanish (Spain). To be able to use Cortana, the country or region for your system must be set to one of the available languages, and you also need to have installed that language's version of Insider Preview. In addition, the Cortana features that are available in one language might be different from those that are available in another.
- Windows 7 desktop gadgets will be removed as part of installing Windows 10.
- Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts Games that come pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released their version of Solitaire and Minesweeper called the "Microsoft Solitaire Collection" and "Microsoft Minesweeper".
- If you have Windows Live Essentials installed on your system, the OneDrive application is removed and replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive.
- OneDrive does not support placeholder files in Windows 10. Windows 8.1 displayed placeholders for files available in OneDrive but not on locally on the device. In Windows 10, users can choose which folders to sync from OneDrive settings.
- Microsoft account required for some features.
Windows 10 Updates
In Windows 10 there is a new way to deal with the updates. Apart from the fact that you have no choice anymore if you want to download the updates, Microsoft has also decided that it would be best that each computer shares the updates with other Windows 10 computers. This can result in a complete standstill of your connection for anything other than providing internet updates to other users.
Follow this link to see an easy guide to disable this function in Windows 10.
More information and advice
Contact us or visit us in our shops for more information.