Windows 10 Review – First impressions

I have a laptop, 1 year old, HP Pavillion, with an Intel i5 processor (quite a recent one), with 8 GB RAM. It used to run Windows 7 before. And it was slow. I kept it as a backup incase my MacBook Pro failed (it never has). Well, I also have an octa-core AMD desktop running on Windows 8.1, which again is a backup when the first backup fails, or frustrates me enough.

The laptop, running Windows 7 was too slow to even use it just for browsing. And I tried all tricks to make it faster. Even then, it was only marginally better, which wasn’t good enough. So, I rarely used the laptop. Today, it prompted me that Windows 10 has arrived. I thought to myself, in worst case scenario, after the upgrade, I might stop using this laptop, and I pressed the “Download” button, anxiously. After a good 1 hour, it was up and running Windows 10. Read on for Windows 10 review and my first impressions.

The upgrade process was rather smooth. No problems at all.  All hardware seem to be working fine. And it didn’t lose any of my data, even my Wi-Fi passwords. All applications I checked worked fine.

After logging in for the first time, it wasn’t any better than Windows 7. I was just browsing through all parts of the OS, restarted it a few times, and it started showing signs of improvement.

Windows 10 promises very fast boot times. On this laptop, I didn’t notice much of an improvement than Windows 7. I did try to restart it a few times, but the boot time, and the logging in time seemed to take longer than I would have liked. From powering it on to getting to see the desktop, it was a good 3 minutes on this machine.

Interface: The whole UI has been refreshed, but I think, it could have been a little better. For now I am using the default theme. May be I should try a different theme. At first, you might get a little confused. As with all major OS upgrades, I shouldn’t be complaining about this.

• The PIN login is something new on a desktop OS. You can enable this (4-digit PIN), after you verify your account (outlook.com or live.com) with which you would be logging in to the system.
• The window styles have been refreshed with a minimalistic and less colorful theme (default).
• The Task Bar, Start buttons are a welcome change from Windows 8. People coming from Windows 7 might be a tad more comfortable than those upgrading from Windows 8.
• There are no hidden slide outs from all sides (as in Windows 8).
• The controls at the right bottom corner of the Task bar looks nice.
• Almost every icon on Windows 10 is more 3D-ish. You might find it a bit difficult at recognizing the familiar icons.
• The start menu is definitely more cluttered than Windows 7, but a lot better than how it worked on Windows 8.
• The new Task View is nice. I really liked it. It’s easier than ever to work with multiple desktops on Windows finally.

Coming to performance, for now, I am quite surprised with it. It’s fast and snappy as compared to Windows 7. Apart from the boot times, everything else starts up faster than before, and suddenly makes me feel using a brand new laptop. I am glad that I upgraded. Soon, I would be upgrading my desktop to Windows 10, but unfortunately, I have got no notification there. Probably because, that’s a custom built machine (AMD), and it would take some more time for Microsoft to support all kinds of hardware to ensure a smooth upgrade.

Microsoft Edge: The new browser is hell of an upgrade from the aeging Internet Explorer. Now, you won’t bang your head if you accidentally click on the browser from Microsoft. It starts up very very fast, and responds to clicks just like any other browser. Although I haven’t used it extensively, it’s definitely an welcome upgrade from IE. Bye Bye IE.

Cortana: Well, again, we have to see how it works, but at least, they made a start. The concept is like Google Now on Android and Apple’s Proactive Assistance. On the face of it, it seems very useful.

These are my first impressions of Windows 10 running on my laptop. So far, I would give it a thumbs up. However, I would probably wait for some more weeks before I give my final verdict.