So I'm using Windows 10 for just about a day now and found some pros and cons.
I will start with some of the pros:- Upgrade went very smoothly. It saved all my files and settings. It even gave me back my identical 8.1 desktop.
- Nice cool design.
- Separate virtual desktops (which is limited, in a way. See in the cons below).
- Task view. Gives you a pretty organized picture of what's going on in town. (Though it gets less helpful as you open more and more windows.)
- Microsoft Edge. The new web browser which is really powerful and quick. (And yes, it works fast also with a TAG installed filter, K9.)
- Web notes on Edge. You can annotate web pages, highlight text, add comments and even share them with others. The annotations can be saved and returned to later. They are saved in a space called "Hub" where you can find your favorites, reading list, history and downloads.
- Cortana. I did not use it much, so I won't say much.
- The "Touch Keyboard". This is much cooler than the traditional on-screen keyboard. It has bigger keys and even includes emoticons and little cute pictures to add to your text. I also find it more compatible, as it gets less in the way than the traditional on-screen keyboard.
- The "X" to close off windows from the taskbar is bigger and more easily accessible. This makes a difference to me when I need to quickly close many windows at once from the task bar; I now don't have to work so hard to aim. (This can also be done easily from the Task View.)
- In the settings menus, which can be at times difficult to navigate and find what you are looking for, you will usually find - at the end of each page - suggestions of other settings pages that may be related to you current page.
Some of the cons:- The search is terrible. It can be very misleading as it creates one mix between web search and local computer search.
- The search is terrible. Once I click elsewhere on the screen I lose the search and have to go through the painful process all over again. (Whereas in Windows 8/8.1 it was saved as a separate window/app to which I was able to return and tweak the search criteria as needed.)
- The start menu is an awful, messy, mix of "things". Very not neat and appealing.
- Task bar icons are small. (Not the end of the world, but still not practical.) Perhaps they are following suit after the "back" and "forward" buttons in file explorer, which shrunk in size with each version of windows ever since I know computers... (And yes, in windows 10 they got yet slightly smaller )
- Open windows can only be recognized as such by a subtle underline beneath the icon, which is kinda counter-intuitive. The old way of having it highlighted was more productive.
- When multiple windows of the same program are open, the taskbar icon will only indicate a maximum of two open windows (vs. 3 in previous versions).
- Cortana is limited to Bing search, which IMHO can be enriched if it includes Google. (But obviously MS will support MS.)
- Borders around windows are dull, and do not change colors based on the theme/desktop background.
- Search/Cortana takes up too much prominent space at the right-hand side of the taskbar. (Though, that can be easily fixed by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing your options from the "Cortana" flyout menu.)
- Open window preview. Previously, when hovering over an open-window icon in the taskbar it "popped out" in small to show a light preview; and when removing the mouse from the icon the preview disappeared. In windows 10, if you hover the mouse over an open-window it will give a pop-out preview but will not return when moving away the mouse. Furthermore, even if you scroll or click on the current window, the pop-out preview will still not disappear. This obscures precious real estate on the screen and is a big shame.
- The feature of multiple "virtual desktops" is not as promising as it sounds. The ideal would've been if the entire desktop can be different in a way that I can have different icons and separate taskbars for each desktop. The benefit of this would be that I can have a separate desktop for work with the apps, programs, and icons I need in that field; and a separate desktop for home use which essentially requires a complete different environment.
This list is not complete, and I'm sure that many of the cons can be changed into pros; so feel free to list your own pros, cons, suggestions and tips so we can all optimize our use of the new OS.
Disclaimer: The above is the opinion of the author alone and any implications this may have on the reader's decision to upgrade shall be solely at the reader's discretion. Additionally the author is coming from a Windows 8.1 OS and hasn't much experience with Windows 7, therefore the report is mostly in comparison to the authors prior experiences.