Windows 10 Reviews

We use Windows 10 as a client to run all the software we develop in-house. It is a development platform for the software we're developing here. We also use it for web and email. 

Windows 10 is ubiquitous, so everyone knows how to use it. 

I would like the updates to be less intrusive. It would be great if Windows could update without restarting. They've made some improvements in that regard, but there is still some room to do better. I would still like monthly updates, but it would be nice if I didn't need to tell everyone to log out and save their work because their computer needs to be rebooted. 

I could also do without the advertising and notifications in the default browser. It's annoying. One of the first changes we make is to switch off those extra distractions that it tries to put in there.

I have used Windows 10 since it came out. 

Setting up Windows is straightforward. We usually buy it preloaded, so there isn't much to do. 

Windows 10 is included with the computers we buy, so I'm unsure how that breaks down. When I worked for an OEM years ago, I know that OEM licenses were quite cheap, but I don't know if that has changed since then. 

I rate Windows 10 nine out of 10. My suggestion to people who plan to use Windows 10 is to disable all the notifications and advertising that are enabled by default, like the news, weather, etc. 

I think it's used by the majority of enterprise customers. It's the primary workspace for virtual desktop computing as well, and most of the native Windows applications use Windows 10 as the base operating system. For example, SAP applications for financial transactions or development applications, which require Visual Studio and Visual Basic. Most of the developers still use Windows as their primary operating system. Although there is a penetration of Mac and Linux going as well into the environments, Windows is the most dominant OS at this point.

It is predominantly on-premises, but as I'm specialized in virtual Azure computing, anything I deploy on Azure uses Windows 10 as well. For the Azure Virtual Desktop product, under the hood we deploy Windows 10 to deliver those virtual instances to the end users. It's physical plus virtual.

We have around 69,000 employees in our company, and 99% of them are working with Windows 10.

One feature I have found most valuable is Windows Hello. Windows Hello brings in a password-less solution, wherein users don't need to type in their password. They can do biometric logins or pin-based logins. It has also come up with some modern apps, which is useful for an app store kind of experience, like when we open Google Store or Play Store on our Androids or devices. So, that is important. I think adding apps to the system has become relatively easy with Windows 10, and I think it also comes with the modern experience. More widgets, more notifications, which are consumer friendly.

It already has a wide penetration in the enterprise environment, as well as a consumer environment. There is an ecosystem that is already built, and Windows fits well there. Replacing it with another operating system will require a lot of investment, as well as training the users. There's a sharp learning curve if we have to change the operating system. There are business workflows that are already built. There's a lot of documentation, a lot of IP that the industry has built around Windows, and changing that base layer will actually invalidate all that IP.

The negative is that the OS has made the room heavier, so it requires much more hardware than before. That's based on Moore's Law, that you will keep increasing the hardware as the application keeps developing.

The experience could be a little more modernized. I can't compare it with Android, where the experience is really user friendly. The compatibility of having an Android app being run inside a simulator on Windows is something that can be added. I think that's still a long way to go, but I think that's a scenario that could possibly address some of the concerns.

I started deploying Windows 10 around 2015 or 2016, so four or five years. That's when we started an upgrade project for a big insurance industry client. They had about 10 sites wherein they had to upgrade the laptop industrial environment from Windows 7 to Windows 10. That's where we used SCCM, which is predominantly called the contact manager. We used that to upgrade all the systems there.

From a performance standpoint, it's very stable. Stability is very, very high. We don't see a lot of apps failing or a lot of things failing in the system, and it has a wider compatibility. We have more universal drivers, more peripherals that can be added, more features of the modern world like biometric single sign-on fingerprints. Everything is getting very well integrated. Overall, they are well-engineered solutions. From a performance standpoint, I think it's not about the OS, but what Microsoft is also making its own native apps heavier. 

I think Windows has become more stable if I compare it to the previous generations of Windows, which used to create more errors and more blue screen of death scenarios. Recently, I haven't seen that many.

Within the OS, they would supply some of the native tools, like OneDrive and Teams. They have some performance challenges, which Microsoft isn't addressing very well, at least up to six months ago when I last read about it and last tried it. It uses an indefinite amount of resources, which is a concern for a majority of the environment. In a physical environment, you won't see that many problems, but yes, in a virtual environment, because the things go into a ripple effect, the problem increases. I don't know where it will fall within the OS or the application teams of Microsoft, but it's still a concern. For something that is very much integrated into your operating system, like OneDrive and Teams, it has to be addressed.

There are tools and features like Hyper-V, wherein you can run virtual machines inside Windows 10 and add new functionality, like making it as a server, like an IaaS server. Scalability is easy. It's quite user friendly if I compare it with any other operating system. Windows gives you the most scalability across any other OS.

My personal experience with technical support wasn't very good. This is not for the consumer world, but for the enterprise world. I usually log cases from an organization point of view. There are some regions that do not provide in-depth technical support. They would take a screen sharing session and take a lot of time on your system and actually hijack your system. You won't be able to do anything else. They just want to start from A, B, C, D. You don't always want to start there because you're expected to know up to at least G or H. That's where you should start. So, that was a painful experience for me. It has happened at least a couple of times in the last two years when I logged some cases. For two out of three cases I had, this was what I experienced with technical support.

There are ways of doing it that have gotten better in the last few years. The traditional way of deploying it is still cumbersome and complex. For the native on-premise tools that you use, Configuration Manager, you put in all the drivers and customize those images. It has become a little simpler compared to the past, but it's still in the range of medium complexity. The simpler way is you buy a device, any retail device, and then you enroll it with a modern management solution like Intune. The OS works as a mobile OS, not as a fat client OS, and that's the reason it can easily gain the enterprise class abilities, by running a package on top of it. That part is easy. Both options are available: a simple option and a medium complexity option. In most cases, enterprises still have to go with the medium complexity option because they're bound to that and because the new solution isn't for everyone.

The formal method of deployment, the relatively complex method I was talking about to engineer that solution, takes about two to three months at least just for the engineering itself and then deployment. Of course, we won't do it on a single device. We do it on multiple devices in phases, and that takes around 6 to 12 months. Overall, you can consider an 18-month deployment for an organization with an average of 5,000 to 10,000 devices.

That's a typical deployment timeline you would see. Of course, there are people who are trying to shorten that timeline, but that timeline is the default.

I'm not sure about how much it's priced in the consumer world, but within enterprise it comes with a Microsoft 365 license, which is very easy. It has become an easier commercial model. Microsoft licensing was always a great pain for every enterprise customer because it was so complicated. It was so complex to understand and comprehend that in any large deal we had to give a call to our licensing officer from Microsoft, and only they could solve those complexities. Now we can at least take some of the rudimentary decisions and some of the basic calculations. From a pricing standpoint, it's well priced. I guess it's not a lot to ask for, especially when it comes along with a package for the solution. It's quite competitive.

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.

My advice is to leapfrog and not look at Windows 10 anymore. Start looking at Windows 11. The long path, the safer approach if you're not an agile organization that makes quick decisions, and you want to run a marathon rather than a sprint, is to go for a traditional upgrade into Windows 10. There is an upgrade path that is already available in a more seamless manner through some of the enterprise tools that are available.

My advice would be to go agile, sprint it out, rip and replace your devices with the brand new Windows 11 and then get it enrolled into your enterprise environment. Of course, doing a POC would be part of the story. It would be better to go with 11 directly because 10 and 11 are not very different. if you go to 10, you will take almost the same time as you would take for 11.

My primary use case of Windows is to run VMware. We have migrated about 47,000 machines in the environment, all of which are using Windows 10. 

In Microsoft, in general, it's easy to configure the AD Group Policy and the exchange server. Previously, I was working with on-prem, and the PowerShell command is flawless. In our organization, Publisher and AD Group Policy have been beneficial. Also, if you want to switch over to using VMware at the same time, you can switch it. 

One of the most valuable features is the ease of multitasking. It's easy to switch over different applications and multitasking is very free and flawless. Another useful feature is the ability to recover any data from a crash. Multiple benchmarking applications are supported by Windows, which isn't the case with Linux. So in case you need an application, you can Google it, find it, and easily install it. The user experience is also good. If you have the SSD installed in the laptop or machine, it will start like a boom. Windows is always ahead. 

Windows 10 could be improved by providing a data recovery application default. This is the most critical thing I have ever figured out in my career. If you accidentally deleted the data from the machine—the local machine—there is no way to get it back unless you install a third-party application. When your machine is connected to an IP domain, sometimes you won't be able to install a third-party application because it becomes a compliance issue, so you can get in trouble. Windows 10 should provide a data recovery solution.

For additional features, I would like Windows to come with a powerful video editor. If I am developing a presentation or something, I have to find it myself somewhere. If you want to put in GI for any kind of video and do a presentation, it's pretty difficult to open a video, edit it, or do anything. If you have a video, you can simply add it, right? But there's no Microsoft in-house product for that—we have to use Adobe Photoshop or something. There are just some little, very small features that, if Microsoft added, would make life easier. 

I have been working with Windows 10 since I started my career. This is the default machine in India—the first OS is Windows, then Linux, and then Unix. 

Windows 10 is stable. Unless there are any hardware issues or any bugs in an update, Windows performs perfectly. Any patches and updates are directly handled by the SCCM team, and they test it before deploying it. If there are any bugs or if anything is compromised, they will fix it. They won't upload it to the server unless and until it's 110% perfect. 

Windows 10 is easy to scale. We have 47,000 to 48,000 users working on Windows 10, and we have an onboarding team to help them understand how things work, what the policies are, and what the dos and don'ts are. 

Three or four years ago, I contacted Microsoft support. I had a problem with OneDrive, which is a product of Microsoft, so they fixed it. They took six to seven days to get my OneDrive completely back. The experience was wonderful and my problem was resolved. 

We previously worked with Windows 7—the most stable version of the millennium, we called it. It's flawless. That's the word for Windows 7: flawless. Once Windows 10 appeared in the market, it was a little buggy with application updates and packaging. Now, they have stabilized things. 

Windows 7's boot time was much longer than Windows 10, so the UI experience was not too good. You can't install Windows 7 on the touch laptop because it won't give you the 110% exact feel of the touch panel. If you're using a Yoga kind of product—where you have the laptop and you can detach the screen, which then becomes your tablet—you can't use Windows 7. Windows 10 has features for tablet mode. 

The process is really, really straightforward. If you have a bootable hard drive, it might take more than 15 to 18 minutes. If someone is deploying it from the local site—not from the server—it's a fairly smooth and flawless process. Most of the instructions are on-screen and it will prompt you to do everything. It's easy to understand because the UI feature is really awesome and built smoothly. A newbie can do it easily. Nothing is in the backend or encrypted within the commands. It's purely simple and easy to deploy locally. 

I have 17 people in the SCCM team who developed the OS as per the organization policies and what we call a golden image. In a project, if a client wants a Cisco AnyConnect VPN, that has to be implanted into the same OS. So they have their labs and they develop it with their security, firewalls, everything. Everything is synchronized from there in the labs, and then it is deployed. 

We implemented through an in-house team. 

Windows 10 has multiple versions—Home, Home Premium, and Enterprise—so the pricing will be different for each version. The pricing is okay and if they're getting sold out, that means people are buying it. I must say, it's a monopoly, but I really like the way Microsoft fits into the monopoly. 

I rate Windows 10 an eight and a half out of ten, just because I have some requirements for improvement, such as the data recovery and video editing screen. 

Windows 10 is easy on the eyes because it has a dark mode feature. We work 16, 17, 18 hours on our laptop—I call it a second wife, because it is sometimes. We have 24 hours in a day, but we spend hours of it on the machine. You should use dark mode and lower the brightness to your liking, and continue your work. You will feel better. 

We use the solution as an operating system. 

Windows versions before 2016 had a lot of stability problems. When cybersecurity teams tested these devices or operating systems, we found many vulnerabilities to exploit. That's why if I could make solutions for a company, I'd migrate many things to other operating systems like Linux, Cisco, or other alternatives. Most of our company now opts for Windows because 99 percent of users can use it. But I prefer to use Linux for support, engineering, or design teams - the technical teams.

The tool needs to offer more information on hard drives. 

I have been working with the product for four to five years. 

I haven't contacted technical support yet. 

I recommend Windows 10 for beginners. But when an engineer or technician grows higher, I recommend migrating to Linux. It's very useful and very stable. As for rating Windows 10 on a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a seven.

The solution is used as the main operating system for end-user clients.

The solution's most valuable features are virtual desktops and continuous updates. The Microsoft Edge browser is also okay, but I prefer other browsers over it. The solution's user portal is better.

There are some risks involved in integrating third-party solutions with Windows 10. The solution's identity and access management could be better. There are some compliance blind spots regarding security threats in Windows 10.

I have been using the solution for three to four years.

I also use Windows 11. You already have encryption on Windows 11, but you need something like BitLocker for encryption on Windows 10.

It's very important to have a good 360-degree security solution to cover the risks associated with integrating third-party solutions. It's important to have a good endpoint solution and a good firewall. It's also important to have good patch management and asset management. I would recommend the solution to other users.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company for our standard daily operations and to use client Hyper-V.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that Windows 11 has been improved lately.

With Windows 10, there is room for improvement, especially in terms of the amount of time required to update the product. The time required to update the product should be shorter.

The tool's personal area network (PAN) features or screenshot functionalities need improvement since if you take two screenshots at once, one of them disappears in Windows 10. In Windows 11, if you take screenshots at once, you can get both of them in real time.

The stability of the product has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using Windows 10 since it was released.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven to eight out of ten.

There is no need to scale up the product in my company.

There are around 500 people in my company who use the product.

As my company uses Windows 10, it does not need to be increased since we use the right licenses. I believe that everything is already included in it.

There are no plans to increase the product's usage in my company.

Linux was one of the alternatives to Windows 10. I don't use Linux anymore.

My company usually opts for a server-based deployment model.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

Installing from an ISO file typically takes a minute.

There is a need to make a payment towards the perpetual licensing model offered by the product.

The security framework in Windows 10 is pretty much the same as Windows 8. Currently in Windows 10, you can enroll devices in Azure AD while also having access to BitLocker. 

I don't know if I can recommend the product to others since it is based on a user experience. Compatibility with most of the applications is possible, especially with the ones included in Microsoft's stack. The GUI is pretty much straightforward. The tool offers online support for the operating system.

Speaking about how the solution actually supports hardware compatibility compared to previous versions, I would say that it can pretty much work with almost any type of computer.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

We use Windows 10 as an operating system for endpoints.

Windows 10 wasn't a very stable solution.

I have been using Windows 10 for two years.

I rate the solution’s stability a six out of ten.

Around 450 people in our organization use the solution regularly.

The solution's technical support was quite good and reliable.

Neutral

The solution's initial setup was pretty straightforward because we got it preloaded from the OEM.

The solution’s deployment took about 45 minutes.

The solution’s licensing wasn’t expensive.

We faced no security issues as we were using the ordinary Defender features. We just had two L1 people who would maintain and deploy the tool. I would not recommend Windows 10 to other users because it is not a stable solution. Windows 10 supported our hardware compatibility quite well. Windows 10 gave us good value for money.

Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

I use Windows 10 for my private purposes, even after buying Windows 11, because this is the usual path for using the operating system generated on the client side.

Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise is a very robust operating system for the client side.

The solution's pricing could be a little cheaper.

I have been using Windows 10 from the beginning, of course, when it appeared on the market.

I rate the stability of the latest version of the solution ten out of ten.

The solution’s initial setup is very easy.

Depending on how you use it, the installation can take 50 minutes in some cases. In an unusual case, the solution might be installed in half an hour.

If you're using older hardware, the deployment will be a much longer process. The process is really easy if you use hardware matching the driver requirements from the Windows 10 environment. You have to manually input the information about the PC's name and set up the region, settings, clock, etc. After that, you must install the driver.

The solution provides a very high security framework that benefits our organization. I have been lucky to have the solution's compatibility with my client's hardware, such as laptops and notebooks. So, the deployment process is very easy. Windows 10 is a very straightforward, capable, and reliable operating system. However, it will be outdated in the future.

Overall, I rate the solution ten out of ten.

I use the Windows Operating System. It all works for daily data operations.

It offers third-party or media environment support. I also like native environment support. Camera, microphone, multimedia instruments, browsers, and patent integrations are better than Linux.

System resource consumption is more than Linux.

I would like better RAM and better memory optimization.  

I have been using it for almost a decade now. 

I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. The memory optimization is not there yet.

This isn't an operating system for network operations. That's why a single operating system. There are around a hundred end users. 

We plan to increase the further usage. 

I used Linux and Solaris. 

The initial setup was easy. It took an hour. 

Just consultant and user. Deployment is just a few simple clicks after you attach the USB drive.  

We needed around three people from the technical team to handle the installation. They were admins and IT managers. 

The ROI is okay. 

It is only a one-time purchase. I can use it for a lifetime. 

Overall, I would rate the product an eight out of ten. I would recommend it from an end-user's operating system.

Windows 10 is a user-friendly product. I do not encounter any struggle while using it.

The system's pricing needs improving.

The product is robust and has good stability.

We have around 40,000 Windows 10 users in our organization. It is a scalable platform.

The initial setup is easy. It only takes a few minutes to complete.

I can implement the product myself for personal use. However, I would require assistance from a consultant to deploy in a professional space.

Windows 10 is expensive. 

I recommend Windows 10 and rate it a ten out of ten. It is deployed on the cloud and has good functionality.