So this is how it started…
I was already aware that Windows 10 will be freely given to previous Microsoft Windows users (even pirates!) but I felt it was not such a big deal. All the machines worth spending time to keep up to date are pretty much doing it themselves and for free since they run on linux (Ubuntu).
The only machine I own and runs on Windows is my home desktop and it runs on Windows only because other people have access to it and I value democracy 🙂
So, home PC running Windows 7, opportunity for trying Windows 10 for free… a geek’s got to do what has got to do!
FYI, the specs of my machine were:
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz 2.34GHz
- 3,00 GB RAM
The update Golgotha
The core update to Windows 10 went smoothly but once I was prompted to login, Murphy jumped in!
- Wireless Mouse / Keyboard inaccessibility: Apparently is a known issue that Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 700 v2 doesn’t play well with Windows 10 (yet?). I didn’t expect every single device to work out of the box with Windows 10 but I would expect (at least) Microsoft hardware to be compatible 🙁 Anyways I changed to cable mouse / keyboard and proceeded.
- My DVD drive was not automatically detected ( o.O ): Thinking back, over time I have used: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. I cannot remember a single time when a CD / DVD drive wasn’t automatically detected! Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything.
- FIX: Should you face the same problem, this solution worked like charm for me! Don’t forget to restart 😉
- After logging in for the first time “special” buttons (start, notifications, search) did not work:
- FIX: Restart (legit: right click to the windows icon and choose restart) a couple of times and everything should be fine.
The One Drive Perk
Along with Windows 10, came the One Drive suggestion. Once you have updated, the one drive application starts automatically with windows and prompts you to login or create an account if you don’t already have one. Initially I thought about skipping the whole thing since the 59 gigs in Dropbox and the 15 gigs in Google Drive are more than enough for me (at least for the time being). However, since a little more free space to the cloud never hurt anybody I decided to enable One Drive as well. I was surprised (positively) to able to subscribe using my Gmail account and not having to create a new one to Microsoft.
Everything went smoothly and now I have 15 gigs of space that I’ll probably never use 😛
Microsft Office: The unexpected Perk!
After everything was solved I decided that it was time to relax and watch a couple of Gotham episodes! Since I keep the progress of the TV Series I watch on a spreadsheet, initially I went for Libre Office! Then I remembered that I always wanted to give a shot to MS Office 2013 since my last experience was with MS Office 2010. Normally you have to pay but thanks to my academic affiliation, as a PhD candidate with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, I get to use it for free!
I think academic accounts are also entitled to 1 TB One Drive space for 1 year!
The future!
Up to now, I have seen several pros and cons to Windows 10. I might get back with another post listing them. There’s also an interesting discussion about Windows 10 features & privacy to the following episode of This Week In Tech.
Enjoy!
[Update: SEP 13th, 2015]
After less than a month of using Windows 10 the graphics card’s driver stopped working. I tried to find a compatible driver with no luck so I (guess what?) rolled back to Windows 7 🙂
