Is Windows 10 going to be the right choice for you?

Who loves an upgrade? Some of us do and some of us really wish the world would stop spinning and technology would stand still for a while.

I hear all of you and I know we all just want our computers and devices to work smoothly and to stay connected to our data all the time so we can just get on with our work.

I often get asked when all these things we have will just work smoothly together like they ought to. Of course the answer is as simple as: when we can all agree universally what it should look like. We are diverse beings and software and hardware are created by very large teams of individuals.

Microsoft tells us there are now 1.5 billion people using Windows in 190 countries. Some of them read from left to right and others from right to left. Some even read vertically. So clearly diversity in user interface requirements is vast even before we consider the language factors.

What Microsoft has worked really hard on with Windows 10 is giving us more ways to interact with our computers with support for more devices, from speech recognition with Cortana to digital pens and now holograms. There are a heap of new and improved tools for getting stuff done. We finally get to move away from Internet Explorer to the new browser Microsoft Edge.

There are plenty of other features that we will love, like the ability to use one large monitor with windows arranged as we see fit, so we can do away with the multiple small screens we have today and just have one large screen with information as we want it.

With curved screens improving, I can see a time soon where we sit with one screen curving across our desk from left to right, with our various windows strategically arranged so it is easier to read an email, find the relevant slot in a diary and create an appointment while looking for venue details in a Windows Edge browser page. We’ll be able to do all this without losing sight of the Skype for Business video call we are on to discuss the appointment. Add to that the fact Microsoft is making its applications more touch friendly.

Now you want your big curved screen to be a touch screen so you can let go of the mouse and work more productively? OK, so not all of that is going to be on the shop floor for a little while, but it is coming.

Of course we can look forward to the tight integration of Microsoft Office 2016 with the new platform and the very tight integration between devices offered by OneDrive storing data we are working on in the cloud.

Let’s not forget security, which is becoming a bigger issue each year. Microsoft has made windows 10 their most secure product ever with the inclusion of biometric authentication by face, finger or iris. There’s also inclusion of free Windows Defender for anti-malware.

With Windows 10 being released on July 29 on new devices, we do not have long to wait. But if you are not yet convinced, I have saved the most interesting news for last. Any computer with a version of Windows less than six years old will get a free upgrade.

You can’t rush out and get this today, but you should start planning to get your entire business working on this one new platform as soon as it makes sense. Your business depends on stable computer systems, so please do your planning and testing before any of your staff start upgrading to ensure you do not create hours of unnecessary work getting your early adopters systems to work with older technologies in your business.  

Just because the software is free does not mean that the upgrade process in a business with a complex array of software and connections can just leap to the new platform. Seek advice and make your transition to Windows 10 a smooth one that creates value in your business. You may even wish to move some of those old systems to new solutions in the cloud to make the transition easier.

If Windows 10 delivers, it will be a great opportunity to get all of your computers, laptops, tablets and other devices onto one platform. This should in turn drive your support costs down significantly as you reduce the range of problems to the one system.

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that is known for Business IT that makes sense. How can we help?