Should I upgrade to Windows 10? How different is it?

Posted January 9, 2016

sharyn bainesAn upgrade to Windows 10 doesn’t have to be scary.  In fact I have definitely found a lot of positives and only one mild negative after making the leap.

Things I love about Windows 10

  1. This screen prompt was shown during the upgrade process which prompted me to say to the screen “they had better be”.  I don’t know who I thought was listening. Thankfully everything WAS where I had left it.
  2.  The Search button – by far my absolute fav thing.  If I was using my PC in tablet mode all of the time I’m sure there would be a constant smudge on top of the Search button.
  3. It’s free!
  4. The return of the Start menu. Welcome back my friend!
  5. The Web Note tool in Edge – especially the Clip tool and ability to save on-screen annotation and comments.  BTW, the Clip tool allows you to scroll while clipping so that you can capture entire web pages.  You can then paste it or save it (including your annotations and comments) to OneNote or your Favorites or Reading List. Fabulous!
  6. The Quick view in File Explorer.

Things I had to search for

1. How to switch between accounts

I have multiple accounts on my computer.  I have my personal account and another account that I use when I’m demonstrating applications.  It took me a while to work out that I needed to click the account name at the top left of the Start menu to locate the lock, settings and switch account options.

2. How to set the Search button to include searches on the Web

I was a little disappointed that the added functionality of being able to use the Search button to search the web wasn’t available straight off.  I had to click Search and then click the Settings icon [A] to turn it on.  Even then it was only by fiddling with the settings that I activated the functionality because the Settings screen told me ‘Online Search isn’t supported in the region and language you’ve selected’.  I went ahead and turned it on anyway and ‘hey-presto’ it worked. Odd! I can now direct my search [B] to ‘My Stuff’ (my PC and OneDrive) or the ‘Web’.
 

3. How to customise the ‘Most used’ list on the left of the Start menu

I tried for ages to pin my ‘most used’ apps and programs to the most used list on the left of the Start menu.  Tried right-clicking apps, dragging and dropping but I couldn’t get anything to work.  Turns out the ‘Most Used’ list is Windows driven not ‘me’ driven.  I can’t tell Windows which apps I use most often.  It will tell me. Also, I use Excel, Outlook and Word every day and none of these were showing in my ‘Most Used’ list.  Turns out if you have pinned an app as a Tile to your Start menu it won’t show up in the ‘Most used’ section. You can control a bit of what happens on the Start menu by clicking the Start button > Settings > Personalisation > Start.  However the options are limiting.
 

4. Setting up my Home page in Edge

Found it on the More button […] > Settings > from the ‘Open with’ option list select ‘A specific page or pages’ > select ‘Custom’ from the list > type the page address in the ‘Enter a web address’ box. Click the + to add additional pages.
 

5. How to see my libraries in the new File Explorer

Turns out I had to add them from the View tab > Navigation pane > Show libraries.
 

Habits I’m having to break

  1. I still find myself swiping from the side or right-clicking the Start button to shut-down my PC.  I’m training myself to now use the Start button > Power.
  2. In Edge, right-clicking the Back button to jump back to a previously browsed page.  I now click the Hub button and use the History list. [Note from author: thankfully this has been reinstated since writing this article].
 

I wasn’t happy having to…

It turns out Edge can only import favorites and bookmarks from Chrome and IE so to import my bookmarks from Firefox I ended up having to export my Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file, import this into Internet Explorer and then import them again from IE into Edge. I then had to move items from my Bookmarks folder into my ‘Favorites bar’ folder. It took me a while to work out I needed to pin the Favorites list > drag the Bookmarks folder into the Favorites bar folder > go into the Bookmarks folder > click and drag each bookmark up on to the “Favorites Bar” heading at the top of the pinned list.  I then had to turn on the Favorites bar.  Very fiddly but thankfully I only have to do this once.

I’m sure there will be a number of other things I come to love which I’ll share in a future blog.

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