5 Reasons to upgrade to Windows 10

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 9, 2016
Updated • Jul 5, 2017
Windows, Windows 10
|
73

There are reasons for and against upgrading an existing system to Windows 10. I covered reasons to keep on using an existing operating system yesterday already and suggest you check it out first.

Today, I'm going to look at reasons for making the switch to Windows 10.

I want to make clear that you have to weight each reason individually, as you may weight them different than other computer users.

For instance, if you know of hardware or software incompatibilities, you may not upgrade even if you'd weight the reasons to upgrade higher.

It works the other way around as well. Privacy may be an issue, but if you think you can get it under control by adjusting preferences, then you may want to upgrade to Windows 10 after all.

Reason 1: Free until July 29, 2016, and longer support period

windows 10 free support

Windows 10 is offered as a free upgrade until July 29, 2016. That's a strong incentive for upgrading to Windows 10.

Instead of having to pay more than a $100 for Windows 10 Home, or nearly $200 for Windows 10 Pro, you get it for free.

One benefit of upgrading is that Windows 10 is supported longer than current versions of Windows. Windows 7 and 8.1 are supported until 2020 and 2023 respectively, while Windows 10 until at least 2025.

Additionally, Windows 7 has reached end of mainstream support already, and Windows 8 will reach it in January 2018.

End of mainstream support and the beginning of extended support reduces updates for operating systems to security patches and critical patches.

You extend the life of the operating system by five or two years depending on the operating system you upgrade.

Reason 2: Cortana, Windows Apps, Continuum

Windows 10 ships with a bunch of new or improved features. Cortana is a digital assistant that you can talk to. It provides you with answers to questions, may do certain things for you, and may provide you with information automatically.

Windows Apps are not loved by all users and there is a good reason for that: there is usually a desktop program or Internet service available that works as well, or in some cases even better.

Still, there are apps out there that are not available as programs or services, and games that you cannot play unless you use Windows Store.

Also, if you own a Windows Phone or Xbox, or other device powered by Windows 10 right now or in the future, you will benefit from automatic synchronization between those devices.

Continuum is an interesting feature that allows you to connect your phone through a wired dock or wireless to another screen. Benefit of Continuum is that you get a PC-like interface on the larger screen when you do so.

Reason 3: Security

font mitigation options

Windows 10 ships with new and improved security features, and underlying architectural changes that improve the system's security.

New or improved features like Windows Hello, Device Guard and Microsoft Passport are part of Windows 10. Windows Hello adds biometric authentication options to the operating system that enable you to sign in using a camera or your fingerprint. An added benefit of this, besides making sign-ins more comfortable, is that passwords can no longer be stolen through phishing or other means.

Windows 10 supports a stronger form of brute-force protection when tied to TPM. The operating system may restart the device automatically and put it in Bitlocker recovery mode when it detects brute force attempts.

Windows 10 ships with additional VPN profile options. You may set the VPN to always on when a user signs-on, or when the network changes. Also, there are options to connect to a VPN when specific applications are launched, to enable traffic filters, and lockdown mode to secure devices by only allowing network traffic over the VPN interface.

  • Device Guard is an Enterprise feature that prevents any application from running on a device powered by Windows 10 that is not trusted.
  • Credential Guard is another new security feature for the Enterprise. It "uses virtualization-based security to isolate secrets so that only privileged system software can access them".
  • Windows 10 ships with options to block untrusted fonts. When enabled completely, it blocks any font from being loaded outside of the main Fonts directory of Windows 10.
  • Windows Event Forwarding reads operational or administrative event logs on devices, and forwards them to a Windows Event Collector server.
  • Enterprise Data Protection (EDP) is designed to help protect data against leakage without interfering with an employees experience while using the computer.

Enterprise admins may find the Enterprise security guides useful that Microsoft published. They help with deployment of certain features, and explain them in more detail.

Reason 4: DirectX 12, and exclusive Xbox games

exclusive games windows 10

If you are a gamer, you may benefit from DirectX 12 support along the line. Support is not great currently but there are already some games making use of new features introduced with DirectX 12.

As adoption of Windows 10 continues to rise, companies will offer support for DirectX 12 features more frequently.

According to Microsoft, DirectX 12 offers better performance and power savings when compared to DirectX 11.

Mileage may vary obviously, but a 3DMark comparison of DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 in 2014 resulted in 50% better CPU utilization of the latter.

Best of all, most modern video cards are DirectX 12 compatible already.

Another reason for considering to update to Windows 10 as a gamer is that Microsoft started to make games available for Windows 10 PCs as well as its Xbox console.

Previously, if you wanted to play those games, you had to buy an Xbox to do so. Many games created or published by Microsoft for its Xbox console will be made available for Windows 10 via the Windows Store as well.

A recent Steam survey shows that Windows 10 is already the most used operating system on the platform. It sits at nearly 45% currently, which is way higher than then 20% or so that broader usage share services record for the operating system.

Reason 5: Most features can be turned off

This may not sound like a good reason to upgrade on first glance. Why would the ability to turn off features be a good thing?

The answer is simple: control.

You may dislike this or that feature of Windows 10. Maybe you are concerned about privacy, have no use for Cortana, don't want Windows Search to include web results, or don't want to use a Microsoft Account.

Windows 10 provides you with direct and hidden options to turn off most features you don't want or need.

While it means that you will spend time configuring the system, it gives you the chance to configure Windows 10 to your liking.

You may use one of the privacy tools designed for Windows 10, switch the start menu over to Classic Shell, or use a program like WinReducer to remove components before installation.

Now You: Have other reasons to upgrade to Windows 10? Let me know in the comments.

Summary
5 Reasons to upgrade to Windows 10
Article Name
5 Reasons to upgrade to Windows 10
Description
The article points out five reasons why you may want to upgrade systems running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Microsoft's new Windows 10 system.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
Logo
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

  14. Raphael Benzo said on September 24, 2023 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Tank you for your help

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.