Since the release of Windows Vista in 2007, Microsoft has released a new version of its Windows operating system every two or three years. New versions of Windows are always proclaimed to bring new features, reliability, ease of use and security.
Experience has taught me new releases of Microsoft Windows also bring new problems, headaches and landfills overflowing with newly-rendered useless computer junk.
Since the advent of Windows Vista, Microsoft has also been killing off its formerly glorious “new” operating systems at the steady rate of one every three years. You may recall Microsoft ditching all support for Windows XP in April of last year, leaving millions of computer users no choice but to trash their perfectly good computers and buy new ones.
Windows Vista will suffer a similar fate in April of 2017, when it reaches the end of what Microsoft calls its “lifecycle.” That means no more updates, no more patches, no more security fixes; Vista will have been officially abandoned. At that point, as it was with Windows XP in April of 2014, it will no longer be safe to put a Windows Vista computer on the Internet. Support for Windows 7 ends in January of 2020, and Windows 8/8.1 goes kaput in 2023.
Continuing its tradition, Microsoft is set to release its latest version of Windows, Windows 10, on July 29 of this year. What’s very cool about the release of Windows 10, and what truly sets it apart from its predecessors, is that, for the first year of its life, Microsoft is giving away Windows 10 for free. Try not to fall out of your chair in shock and awe reading this but, yes, you read it correctly: Microsoft will be giving away its new Windows 10 operating system for free.
Windows 10 will be free to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users until July 29, 2016. You may have noticed a tiny trapezoid-shaped window symbol started appearing in the lower right corner of your screen a few weeks ago. If you put your mouse pointer on top of it, it should say “Get Windows 10.” Click on it and you’ll see instructions for “reserving” your free copy of Windows 10. I suggest you do so; go ahead and reserve your copy. When it becomes available, it will download to a staging area on your hard drive.
However, I do not, repeat, do NOT recommend you immediately install Windows 10, although Microsoft will surely be urging you to do so. You have until July 2016 to install your Windows 10 download and have it remain free; don’t be in such a hurry to be on the bleeding edge of technology as a guinea pig for Microsoft. Take your time. All new versions of Windows for the past 25 years have had problems, conflicts and downright snafus when released into the real world. Give Microsoft five or six months to work out some of the major bugs in Windows 10 before you install it; you’ll be glad you waited.
I am encouraged, though, that Windows 10 may end up being a pretty good thing, much better than Windows 8. I have been playing around with the test “Preview” version of Windows 10 for a while, and I like what I see. Some things are different, for sure, and I’ve had it crash on me a few times. Still, the fact that I was able to install it on an aging Windows Vista laptop gives me hope that Windows 10 may be a way to keep some older computers in use and out of the trash.