Not interested in installing Windows 10 on your computer after reading news reports indicating Microsoft will track your online behavior and save your search queries, private emails and contents of private folders, including photos?
Too bad. You may not be given much of a choice.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 is preparing to automatically download onto computers currently installed with Windows 7 or 8 – without the computer users’ knowledge, London’s Guardian reported.
According to the report, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will become a “recommended update” in 2016, and anyone who has automatic updates activated will have the new program installed automatically on their PC.
After it has downloaded, the Windows 10 installer will begin. At that point, users will need to actively cancel Windows 10.
That is, if they aren’t in the habit of just hitting “OK” when presented with a prompt, as many users often do.
In the meantime, until 2016, the Windows 10 upgrade will be considered “optional” and could still be downloaded if a user has the computer set to install automatic updates, which can be disabled.
“If you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous version if you don’t love it,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group.
Had updates already disabled on my tablet running windoze 8.1, it only has a 32gb HDD and the previous updates just totally ate all the free space left on that tiny hdd... Can't imagine what windoze 10 would do!
Found it suspicious that they were offering a free upgrade, microsoft are not in the business of just giving away free and newly released OS. Sticking to Windoze 7 for my pc.
Linux is very user friendly, and there are ways of running windows programs on it if there are no linux programs that do what the windows programs do.
It gives a graphic desktop interface with web browsers of your choice, and OpenOffice, which will open and manage MS Word docs, excel sheets, power point docs and all that.
My current recommendation is Linux Mint / Cinnamon. I use that and it installs easily. I think anyone can do that without any linux expertise. You should also be able to make your PC dual bootable, so when you turn it on, you choose whether you want windows or linux. That's a good option for people who know nothing about linux and want to try it out for a few weeks while still keeping the option to go back to Windows to get the everyday things done that they need to get done. Once you learn how to do all those things in linux, you're ready to make that the primary OS.
Here's the download page. www.linuxmint.com/download.php You can download an "iso" file that you burn to a DVD in Windows, and then you use that to boot up. Just make sure you choose the correct ISO depending on whether you have an older 32 bit or newer 64 bit computer. There are a few variants on the page to choose from but the first option on the top (Cinnamon) is for general personal use. Booting up on the disk lets you try it out without installing anything to the HD. Most operations will be slower starting up only because it's using the DVD drive instead of the HD to do things, so give it some latitude that way, but otherwise enjoy.
So for the cost of a blank DVD, anyone can try out Linux Mint.