A little Windows icon has probably popped up on your tool bar. (See picture.) What does it mean? What should I do about it? In the famous words of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” …”DON’T PANIC! “ (sorry we didn’t have the big friendly letters font on our computer.) Here is our take on what has happened and why. As avid Microsoft Watchers for many years , we have watched the “operating system polka” with great interest and occasionally with amusement or dread. This is one of those amusement times. The last iteration of the Windows operating system called 8 has pretty much been a bust. Everybody hates it. (Yes I know , there are some people out there who love it….these are the same people whose last computer ran Millennium. Frankly if I went from Millennium to ANYTHING ELSE I would love it too.) Normally when Microsoft puts out something with issues (almost everything they put out) they release a version upgrade to fix it for example 98 and 98SE or XP and SP2 (service pack). When they put out one that everybody hates they just go to the next one. Some examples of this were Millennium straight to XP, Vista straight to Windows 7. (there was a service pack for Vista but it didn’t get much play.) Hence Windows 8 straight to Windows 10 (notice no 9…we guess they are trying to put at least one digit of distance between 8 and 10) Besides being one of the greatest killers of PC sales in history and almost single handedly the greatest boon to Apple sales in the last decade, 8 just didn’t work very well. It was based on a flawed concept…everybody wants to work with a touch screen PC or tablet….all the time.
W10_Laptop_AUX_Clock-01-500x281So what do you do with the icon? Our advice….CLICK IT! All you will be doing is reserving your FREE copy of Windows 10…yes we said free!! This gives you some idea of the scope of the complaints and the heat that the PC makers were putting on Microsoft…Microsoft NEVER gives anything free…EVER. Wait a minute you say…..why would the PC manufacturers be putting heat on Microsoft? If all the new PCs have a crappy operating system that everybody hates , what happens to PC sales? They slow way down (spell that S-T-O-P). So in an unprecedented move , Microsoft is going to give you Windows 10. So that you will go ahead and buy that new pc…… Microsoft is also giving it to Windows 7 users also. In a blog post today, Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s operating systems group confirmed the availability date of July 29th. Here’s a link to the blog post.
Word to the wise, you might want to time that purchase closer to July 29th just to save yourself some grief.