After reviewing the pros and cons of updating our computers to Windows 10, we  went ahead and set aside a day to accomplish the task.  (Our existing Linux servers remain Linux).  After nearly a day’s worth of updating, I have to say that Windows 10 is smoother and faster than Windows 7 and even Windows 8.1.

We have reviewed the various issues regarding Win 10’s security issues, and feel that we have addressed any security issues through use of redundant firewalls. With that said, we also disabled the “secure” login associated with the Microsoft accounts, and use “local” logins instead.

Unlike Windows 8.1, Win 10’s interface is closer to Win 7 as far as ease of use and functionality. There were very few problems upgrading, with the following exceptions:

  1. The “automatic download” on an older Win 7 failed to work after repeated attempts. However, downloading the upgrade tool from Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10  went smoothly the first time.  This method was also required to upgrade an ASUS Transformer.
  2. We only encountered one driver that was problematic, that being of Canon scanner software. After reloading the driver, it worked flawlessly.

Our servers are all Linux-based, SAMBA in one flavor or another.  So far, we have encountered no problems, and the computers seem to work slightly faster with the servers.

During the upgrade, Win 10 saves the prior OS for a month before deleting it.  As we have run our computers through a battery of tests without incident, we deleted the “backups” to conserve space on the drives as most drives are SSD.

In conclusion, we studied the pros and cons of upgrading, and went ahead and upgraded. There were virtually no issues in compatibility, and we are pleased with the performance of Windows 10.