From Windows 7 To 10 And Back

Should you upgrade to Windows 10? Technology columnist Sean Doherty takes the new operating system for a spin.

I had no compelling reason to upgrade from Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Pro. But it’s hard to turn down a free upgrade. Otherwise Windows 10 Home is $120 and Windows 10 Pro is $200.

Microsoft’s upgrade offer is for a full not trial version of Windows 10. The Windows 10 upgrade offer is valid for devices with Windows 7 (Service Pack 1) and Windows 8.1 Update. The devices must be connected to the Internet and have Windows Update enabled. Some Windows editions are excluded, such as Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. And minimum hardware requirements need to be satisfied to run Windows 10.

Minimum Hardware:

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster.
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit Windows operating system (OS) and 2 GBs for 64-bit Windows OS.
  • Disk space: 16 GBs for the 32-bit OS and 20 GBs for the 64-bit OS.
  • Display resolution: at least 800 x 600.
  • Graphics card: support for DirectX 9 or later and WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.0.

I upgraded a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit operating system running a Lenovo ThinkPad T520 laptop with an Intel Core i7-2860QM CPU (@2.5 GHz, 2.5 GHz ) and 8 GBs RAM. I had plenty of disk space for the upgrade, a native display resolution of 1600 x 900, and Intel Integrated HD (High Definition) Graphics with an NVIDIA NVS 4200M and Optimus Technology. The T520’s graphics are supported by 1 GB dedicated video memory and DirectX runtime version 12.

I thought I was more than ready for the benefits of Windows 10, which included the new Microsoft Edge browser to write and type notes on Web pages; virtual desktops I grew up with on Oracle (formerly Sun Microsystems) Solaris OS; Cortana, a personal digital assistant; a fast boot and resume-from-sleep process; and the return of the Start Menu.

But before I could talk to Cortana and type on Web pages, I found that Windows 10 booted slow and took forever to load icons onto the task bar. And the grand return of the Start Menu turned into a non-start menu. It took over a minute to display the Start Menu using the mouse or the Windows button and another minute to start an application. Since icons were painfully slow to display and menus took forever to build, I suspected a graphics problem and investigated the ThinkPad’s Intel and NVIDIA graphics.

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The Lenovo T520 ships with two separate graphics processors: The Integrated Intel HD graphics processor and the NVIDIA NVS 4200 graphics processor. Why two? The Intel HD graphics processor is good for business applications, with low power consumption allowing for longer battery life. But what’s good for business is not good for graphic-intensive applications, such as Photoshop and video games. The separate or “Discrete” NVIDIA graphics processor has better graphics performance but uses a lot of power, which negatively affects battery life.

I have used multiple graphics cards in workstations and it was up to me to switch from one to another, depending on the use case. The T520, however, uses NVIDIA Optimus technology that automatically optimizes the laptop’s graphic performance to use Intel graphics for business applications and the NVS 4200 for high-end graphical processing. The technology provides longer battery life and good visuals without having to manually change settings. Unfortunately, Windows 10 always seems to want stunning visuals, which obviates the NVIDIA Optimus technology.

In the BIOS settings I disabled the OS detection for NVIDIA Optimus and changed the graphics device from NVIDIA Optimus to Discrete Graphics, a.k.a. the NVIDIA NVS 4200. I then got the fast boot that Windows 10 offered and a Start Menu that actually started. But I missed the low graphics capability of Windows 7 and its battery-saving graphics mode, especially when I was away from a power source.

Before you upgrade to Windows 10, check your computer system information under Windows 7 and 8 and review the Windows Experience Index scores: the base and graphics scores for Aero and gaming. Investigate the reasons for any score less than 6. Those reasons will greatly affect your Windows 10 experience. Once you upgrade, however, note that Microsoft removed the graphical interface to the Windows Experience Index in Windows 8.1. To get the scores in Windows 10, open an administrative command prompt and type winsat formal -v -xml c:\winstatresults.xml. This will run a test in verbose mode and provide an xml output of the results, which includes graphics scores. My score: 1.

After the free upgrade, I returned to my previous version of Windows by clicking the Start Menu and Settings, choosing Recovery, and clicking “Go Back to Windows 7.”

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Indeed. In a world where time is money, nothing is free.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Microsoft Windows 10


Attorney Sean Doherty has been following enterprise and legal technology for more than 15 years as a former senior technology editor for UBM Tech (formerly CMP Media) and former technology editor for Law.com and ALM Media. Sean analyzes and reviews technology products and services for lawyers, law firms, and corporate legal departments. Contact him via email at sean@laroque-doherty.net and follow him on Twitter: @SeanD0herty.

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