2016-07-12

Microsoft has made it official that Windows 10 free upgrade offer will end by July 29th, 2016 and will cost $119 for every upgrade which takes place thereafter. Despite this latest update, the upgrade to Windows 10 has not picked up says web tracking firm StatCounter and that’s due to the following reasons-

Privacy is prime concern- By default Microsoft’s latest operating system collects more data than many users are comfortable with. This includes info about how Windows and Windows apps are being used, what users are typing, what are they searching on web, contacts, location, calendar appointments and more. Users using Cortana – Virtual web assistance will also be exposing their web history to Microsoft servers. Although, Microsoft claims that it only collects info about security settings, quality related info- such as crashes and hangs, and application compatibility. But users have a different opinion on this data collection. They feel that the company is snooping on their activities and data— a kind of data security concern. Some even posted on various social media platforms that after disabling Cortana their PCs are still sending requests to Bing search engine that appears to contain a random machine ID that persist across reboots. Hence, all these reasons are making them back off from free upgrade offer.

Its a pain on older machine- All those users using Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs are fed up with the activity of contacting support services of the companies due to incompatible drivers . As a result, users are complaining that their devices are either failing or not working properly. For all such users, Microsoft has given a respite of degrading to their PC’s older OS within 31 days from the free upgrade. But in such cases either the rollback feature didn’t work or it did work, but the earlier OS is no longer stable, with previously working programs crashing.

If the upgrade process completed successfully, missing driver or firmware support has also caused difficulties for some Windows 10 users. Those affected cited problems such as monitors not working at their native resolution. Some of the Intel Integrated Graphic chips used in older laptops are also incompatible on Win 10 machines. So, running away from the free upgrade is making sense to most.

Less Control over updates- Many users who are using Windows 10 OS version might have already experienced the following. Browser freezing due to updates taking place in the background, incompatible display settings with drivers, PC becoming slow as week progresses and most importantly no control over updates. Some users even filed a petition saying that forced updates crashed their machines to which Microsoft agreed and a paid a compensation of $10,000. Another prime concerns for some users is Windows 10’s frequent updates which are weighing in at hundreds of megabytes. For those who are using metered connection, this concern can drill a big hole in their pockets when neglected.

Windows 10 interface- For those who love to use touch gadgets, Windows 10 will act as a boon. It is a product obtained from the fusion of Windows 7 and 8.1 best features- classic windows desktop and start menu. Those who are fresh from Windows 7 will need to adjust to windows 10’s new look. For Windows 8 users everything is the same( mostly).

Missing features- Earlier in Windows 8.1 there was something called “Placeholders” meant for Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage service. It allowed users to see all of the files stored in the OneDrive Service, whether those files were stored on the device or not. This feature is not available on the new 10 version. Absence of Windows Media Center, the software for TV, Music and movie playback is also making users back off from the upgrade.

So, all those who do not want to mess up things with the free upgrade are staying away from Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade.

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