Win 8.1 Updating to Win 10

I've been out of touch with this lately , but a simple Q I think.

When you update your Win 8.1 to Win 10, you do get to keep all your existing programs & data?

Yes.

But is it a good idea? It's still nothing more than a glorified beta from what we see here.

Thanks, Bob. Yes, that was what I was also wondering.

I've been waiting to buy a high-end HP Desktop with Win 10 pre-installed. They are now available. I waited till Black Friday but they are only offering the low-end. So it looks like I'll wait for the new year. Based on what happened with Win 8 I'll think I'll now wait for Win 10.1. More waiting, but I'm not in a great hurry .

When I do eventually get a Win 10.x desktop, I was wondering whether to upgrade my Win 8.1 lappy to Win 10.x just have the same OS on both. I believe I have till June/July 2016 for the free upgrade.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

But is it a good idea? It's still nothing more than a glorified beta from what we see here.

Works fine for me on all my computers. What makes you think it is a glorified beta?

On the OP point though, yes, indeed, that is naughty, it shouldn't be doing that.

You're not going to see a Windows 10.1 anytime soon, or at all - and actually Threshold 2/November update is somewhat Windows 10.05 if you want to look at it another way. With the November update, I'd say go for it.

Programs and data are preserved as long as you don't change from a 32-bit to 64-bit version.

Those who have not upgraded will tell you it is a bad idea. Those who have done the upgrade will tell you it is a good idea. Windows 10 is a great improvement on previous versions, particularly if you have a number of Windows devices. Whether you believe those who have experienced 10 or those who haven't is a personal decision.

Yes as people have said, but even so make a back up, in fact make a image of your system then if you do not like or if something goes wrong it is easy to go back.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Programs and data are preserved as long as you don't change from a 32-bit to 64-bit version.

Those who have not upgraded will tell you it is a bad idea. Those who have done the upgrade will tell you it is a good idea. Windows 10 is a great improvement on previous versions, particularly if you have a number of Windows devices. Whether you believe those who have experienced 10 or those who haven't is a personal decision.

I have used Windows 10 before it was released and after it was released for a while until the drive I had it on went belly up. i did go back to Windows 8.1, but last week I put 10 back onto my computer after the new update.,

The core of Windows 10 is good, it is fast, takes less memory, processing power and storage space. The problem with 10 is the EULA, the spying, the way Ms seems to want control over your computer and the fact that Ms can just add on stuff and we have no choice.

The big November update got rid of users default settings, which I think Ms meant to do and the only reason they pulled it was because of the complaints. You can not tell me that Ms did not test the update and did not know that it would put all setting back to defaults?

It's not surprising really that you'll get lots of different opinions about the pros and cons of Windows 10. Even within this thread you can see vague statements that it's a great improvement on previous versions without defining exactly how that is, or that its still a glorified beta again without defining what that means.

To a large extent it depends on just what you want to do and the only way to find out if any version is best for you is to try it. My wife just browses the internet and checks email and she could just as easily do this on XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 10 or even Linux.

On the other hand I have a large number of paid for programs that I've run on Vista, 7 8 and tried on 10 and I can't say my experience was any better using the latest OS. What really made a difference in performance was updating the hardware.

So why did I update from Vista to 8, well mostly because some of the software I was using had features added in later releases that I needed ( need not want) and would only run in Win 8.

I've run Win10 for a number of months and can't say that it improves my life or productivity. What I really don't like is the lack of control over updates and the privacy issues.... meaning unless your careful you can finish up handing over a lot of your data to MS for them to make money from. The Apps I find mostly trivial and useless and I have no ambition to have all my life controlled by MS by using their tablets and phones and I don't use the Cloud for anything

But do try it if you must but dig deeply into the settings if you can find them. Always take a backup of your data before making any changes. You have 30 day in which to roll back to your previous OS, after that you're stuck with it.

Personally I wouldn't do the update but would do a clean install.

Each to his own and good luck if you go with it