I kind of got drafted into Windows 10. My customer upgraded their mission-critical software and it would not run on my Win7 device. But that was okay, because Win10 wouldn't load on my device either. It's a homebrew desktop with some storage modifications that apparently threw the free upgrade for a loop. Ditto the ISO download. Ditto the Media Maker tool. All 100% snafu.
With deadlines looming, I got a new SSD C: drive, installed Win7 on it, and finally got THAT to upgrade through the original Windows Update path. Then all I had to do was load and test all my mission-critical software and tools. Not the way I expected to spend July.
Some other software, critical for another job, would not run. Win10 didn't relate to my network and I still haven't gotten it back in working order, save for the internet connection and one printer. The customer-essential mission-critical software did load and test clean. Just before the customer called and cancelled the job.
Aside from the installation hassles, which apparently were common with anybody with a non-mainstream PC, Win10 so far has performed well. It still has problems with my printer connection and, of course, the last update broke the web camera, also typical. If this were all, I'd call it about on par with Windows 7 -- not notably slower and for some things, faster.
But that's not all. Plainly Microsoft intends Win10 to be the foot in the door for a total PC experience including Office 365, Azure for cloud storage and backup, and of course Cortana, your friendly robot-voiced built-in software spy. The information being collected on my use of my machine rolls to Richmond to help them refine their marketing push. I'm very much aware that I am not merely using a small subset of the total package that is Win10, but that most of it is meant to stay out of reach, out of touch, and feed somebody else's development plan for what they think I should be doing with my own box. So it's intrusive even when it doesn't try to substitute its generic "apps" for my mission-critical software or plead like a robotic Mata Hari for more access to my system, my work, the sites I go to, what I download and upload, and to where. A good deal of the espionage is going on behind the scenes. I'm afraid to document all this and take it back to counsel; given my customer's constraints and my own security policies they'll likely tell me I should downcheck the lot of it. I have good reasons for not using cloud storage but I can't tell if I'm already doing so thanks to what Win10 is doing behind the scenes.
Remember when we stopped being able to service our own cars because there were Torxed plastic covers over everything and you had to take the smallest problem to the dealership? That's what Windows 10 is doing to my machine. From reporting on my usage to unannounced and unstoppable upgrades, Windows 10 acts as if it's the boss and I'm just the lowly operator. And Richmond plainly intends to increase its penetration and control of desktops, or they wouldn't be sending fake 'auditors' to report how much you're going to have to pay to 'upgrade' your system to something Microsoft likes. This isn't an operating system. It's more like an attack.
If Windows 10 were only an operating system, I'd call it okay. But it's a marketing and sales tool of Microsoft aiming to reduce me to the part-time user of data they consider theirs since their software touches it, and the aim is to turn all PCs into thin clients with Microsoft running the show remotely while sending you an invoice every month for licensing and usage fees. So on that score, it's a business and security nightmare just begging for a Congressional probe. I smell the putrid stench of mercantilism here -- Windows 10 is less about improvements in the product and more about making you pay more for what used to be free, or even your own. It's an octopus with a time bomb in it in every Windows machine in the world.
Microsoft™. Where do you think YOU'RE going?®
Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic