Windows 10: the good, bad and ugly. Since publishing my fall newsletter, numerous clients of mine have upgraded to Windows 10, successfully. I, myself have it running on a late model test bed and... it's been doing just fine. I have visited over two dozen clients to "roll back" their computers from Windows 10 to Windows 7 for numerous reasons. There were issues with missing drivers, software that wouldn't work with 10, software that worked fine until the software itself went through an update, in two instances the upgrade from 7 to 10 stalled and of course there were those who just did not like the new interface.
The most pronounced feature that 10 offers, is better search integration. Whether you're looking for a program on your computer, now called "apps" in a nod to apple's technology, a document you created or any item that might reside on your computer and anything on the internet the process is the same; key into the search box directly to the right of the start button and 10 will find it for you and in a reasonable amount of time. Menu items such as control panel, devices and printers and other familiar faces are gone, replaced by a "settings" button. Fortunately, everything you are familiar with is still there locate-able just by typing your request into the search box. I typed in "control panel" and the first, of many items, returned was indeed "control panel desktop application" and it looked and worked as expected.
Microsoft continues to push Windows 10 (in your face) onto those computers that are operating with licensed copies of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and the upgrade is free. The company insists that the free upgrade is limited to one year after release, but it's my belief that it will remain free indefinitely, a belief that is bolstered by the Windows 10 upgrade website.
It's my opinion that if you're presently operating Window 8 or 8.1, upgrade as soon as you can, 10 is more stable and certainly more user friendly than 8. If you've got a touch screen computer, ditto. If you are enamored with Apple's IPhone Siri, wherein you talk your requests, then Windows 10 "Cortana" might just be your new best friend. If you're on 7 and you're happy then there's really no net gain for you and I would wait a few more months for hidden issues to be resolved. What small improvements 10 offers for you are offset by the learning curve that 10 mandates.
If you decide to upgrade, be patient, the upgrade takes a while to gather up the necessary software and all the updates that have been issued since the release of the operating system. If you don't want to upgrade, not to worry, Windows will not attempt to change you over without your permission. Each time you turn the computer off updates for 7 will be installed but not Windows 10 itself. If you want to permanently remove the nagging refer to my
Summer 2015 Newsletter for instruction or make an appointment with me for a remote session.
Finally, you are under no obligation to upgrade. My corporate clients are still ordering new computers with Windows 7 and will continue to do so indefinitely. If Windows XP is any example of Microsoft's protocol, it remained available, orderable and supported for a period of twelve years. That means that the PC you now have with Windows 7 will become obsolete or too old to use well before 7 support ends.
In November I had opportunity to port a client from a failing computer to a new IPad and the process was seamless. When I downloaded and installed Microsoft Word for IPad it came with an automatic install of Microsoft's free cloud storage, OneDrive. Documents created on the IPad are by default stored in the cloud and become accessible by any device anywhere that has internet connectivity. See more on this story in the 
The Postal Service will email you photos of the front of your snail mail if you want. This could certainly come in handy when you're on vacation. The service, provided Monday through Friday, dubbed
If you've upgraded your IPhone recently, then you're on IOS9 and with 9 might come increased data usage. Why? Because Apple has included an app that automatically switches you to your Cell phone data plan when it thinks your Wi-Fi connection is weak. They call it WIFI-Assist. You should certainly turn it off when you're in your own home and on your Wi-Fi. Turn it off if your gobbling up data close to or beyond your data limit. Go to "settings" then "cellular data" and scroll down to Wi-Fi Assist. 