My experience with Windows 10 upgrade!

July 29th was a special day, mostly due to the largest upgrade of Windows from Microsoft. They decided to skip Windows 9 altogether and skip from 8 to 10. You can upgrade by checking out this link.

I had not been using my desktop PC for a couple of years now. In order to at least test out the latest OS, I decided to upgrade my Windows 7 PC, which might be an excuse for me to work on a desktop once in a while. The upgrade process seemed painless, and I read that during the first weekend, over 14 million upgrades were completed and it received an overall positive review. 

The number one feature that I am looking forward to is - Cortana and the interface changes. No more awkward two systems - the Tile world and the desktop word has merged into one. Windows 7 was kind of uninspiring, so I look forward this upgrade to fall in love with Windows once again.

Below is a screenshot of my installation:

Update since installing Windows 10 as of Aug 7th, 2015:

My immediate reaction was that I liked the interface - A LOT. My favorite aspect of Windows 10 has to be Cortana. I recommend turning on "Hey Cortana" mode by clicking on the circle next to "Ask me anything" and then clicking on Settings. Personal Assistant is definitely the way to the future, and I love how Cortana responds to "Hey Cortana" - just like Siri, Google Now and Alexa. What makes the Cortana experience superior is that it suggests better searches. There seems to be more options within Cortana, which makes Siri look like an amateur. I also appreciate the decoding of the text as I speak, just as Google Now does. Apple is really behind in this feature and needs to up their game for the sake of their customers. Microsoft gets it right and deserves brownie points for this.

Just how awesome is Cortana? When you ask it to tell you a joke, it reminds you that it can tell you SCIENCE jokes. That's right! Let that sink in for a second, a personal assistant that has a database on science jokes to tell you on demand. LOVE IT!

Screenshot: Set up Always listen mode - "Hey Cortana" which is turned off by default

My disappointments

One of the downsides of the upgrade was a reminder that Microsoft Windows still has problems that Apple doesn't have with stability. The OS keeps restarting, for compatibility or driver issue. Somehow, I always started the upgrade with a virus, so I had to do a clean install. Reminds me why I hated windows in the first place. Studies after studies have shown that Mac is just more secure and stable. If this constant unexpected restarting keeps happening, I would not be comfortable doing any serious work on my Windows machine - just in case I lose my work.

Although I like the redesign of the Microsoft Edge, there are tons of compatibility issues especially with Google products. For example, Google Hangout plugin is not fully compatible with the Edge browser. Neither is Google Blogger interface, which does not allow me to edit posts. There is a deliberate attempt on Microsoft to make people use their Bing search engine, and I just don't see that happening.

How about you? If you upgraded to Windows 10 as well, what was your experience like?