Which windows is best

As for gaming, Microsoft bundles an Xbox app with Windows Outside of that, Windows 10 supports DirectX 12, which is a technology that helps render video and audio in Windows It is often a requirement for downloading and playing newer titles.

However, Nvidia is working to bring real-time ray tracing support to Windows 7 through Direct X 12 for those still holding onto the old OS. So, all hope is not lost. Although the free upgrade path to Windows 10 ended a long time ago , it is time to let go of Windows 7 and move to Windows Sure, there is the occasional bug, but Microsoft is always patching things quickly and working on updating Windows There are plenty of reasons for Windows 7 to hold a soft spot in our hearts, but in a world where malware and viruses are always attacking computers, going with the safer and more secure version of Windows is the better bet now rather than later.

Besides, there are always ways to make Windows 10 feel like the old system you love. The features: Notifications, search, and Cortana Also slightly similar to your iPad, Windows 10 has a dedicated notification center known as the Action Center. Beats Studio Buds just got a rare price cut for Black Friday. Typing into the void: The joy of one-sided conversations with K-pop idols.

Hubble gets in the festive mood with an image of the Snowman Nebula. Plus the ability to search by voice is both impressive in its accurate transcription and in its usefulness for the differently abled. The improved advanced search features in Windows 10 are very welcome, but its insistence on prioritising web search and app store results isn't.

Windows 7 still holds a place in our hearts for its quick, simple search results and network integration. Windows 8 had the unintended side effect of making people significantly more attached to Windows 7 than ever before. It was a happy medium sitting between the Vista mess and the Windows 8 Start screen nightmare. However, the time is right to move on.

If you're still on Windows 7, you can safely upgrade without fear of losing the things you loved most about that OS and Windows 10 is certainly an improvement over Windows 8.

Explore why the most efficient way forward is data-driven. Why the financial industry is turning to the cloud. Critical vulnerabilities in Philips EMR system could risk patient data. Skip to Content Skip to Footer. Vs Home Software operating systems.

Windows 10 release: First take Best Windows 10 tips and tricks for power users. The extended support cut-off dates for Windows are as follows: Windows 7 Service Pack 1: January 14th, Windows 8. User interface for desktops and laptops Windows 7 certainly set the benchmark for a relatively consistent and understandable user interface, although its key strength now is its familiarity. Winner: Windows 10 There's no question Windows 10 needed to make some serious improvements for desktop and laptop users, and Microsoft has delivered.

User interface for tablets Windows 7 only has the most basic interface elements and optimisations for touchscreens, which allowed the iPad and iOS to dominate the market for tablets. Security Windows 7 and 8. Winner: Windows 10 Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's latest operating system has the most advanced security features of the operating systems here. Performance Microsoft cautions that Windows 7 and Windows 8. Winner: Windows 10 Again, no surprises here; with no penalty in performance and DirectX 12, Windows 10 is an easy choice Search Search has become ever more important in operating systems, as file and folder hierarchies have become less important and searching for a specific filename has become a popular way of finding important files especially amidst messy desktops and haphazardly organised Documents folders.

Winner: Tie The improved advanced search features in Windows 10 are very welcome, but its insistence on prioritising web search and app store results isn't.

Verdict - which version of Windows is right for you? Windows 10 Microsoft Windows 8. Featured Resources Turning data into unmatched business value Using data to drive better outcomes Free Download. If I had to guess, it would be Windows 95—he's probably still really proud of the Start menu and enjoying the billions of dollars he made when Microsoft's stock exploded.

Or maybe he's feeling wistful about life and just wishes we could all go back to simpler times and Windows 3. Maybe he uses a Mac these days. We didn't ask Bill to rattle off his favorites, but with Windows 11 upon us, it felt like the right time to look back at the 35 year history of Windows and rank them all. There have been dark days Games For Windows Live and joys we've all shared that thing the cards do in Solitaire.

Mostly, there's been a lot of clicking that button that stops Windows Update from rebooting. What's included: Every consumer version of Windows and one professional version that enough normal people ended up using. What's not included: Business-focused versions of Windows NT. Windows Server. Windows Embedded. Minor variants like Windows XP bit which sucked, by the way. Windows Phone, obviously. Coming off the enormously polished, successful, and beloved Windows 7, Microsoft did the inevitable: screwed it all up.

Windows 8's obvious missteps make a lot of sense in hindsight. The early s were a time of huge and rapid change for the tech industry, mostly because the success of smartphones and tablets specifically, iPhones and iPads broke everyone's brains. Pundits called for the death of the PC. Everything needed to have a touch screen. Microsoft looked at the enormous success of Apple's combined software and hardware businesses, specifically the App Store, and said "We want that.

And so was born the worst version of Windows: an OS built for both desktops and touchscreen laptops that didn't excel on either. An OS that wanted to control and sell all applications through the new Microsoft Store, despite Windows' legacy as an open platform.

Microsoft tried to solve Windows 8's most egregious UI issues with Windows 8. It made Windows 8. The stagnant adoption reflected that. According to NetMarketshare , by spring , right before Windows 10 released, 8 and 8. Windows 10 would pass that percentage within a year. Wes: This was Microsoft at its absolute worst, a lumbering misguided company trying to put its finger in every tech pie and managing to spoil all of them at once.

I hated the Windows 8 user interface on PCs, but I'll give Microsoft credit for one thing: it was actually pretty great on smartphones. Windows Phone deserved better! Tyler: Wes, no. I had a friend who loved his Windows Phone, but think of the cost we'd be paying now had Microsoft successfully gone down Apple's path. Morgan: I always thought it was weird that the "Metro" interface was quarantined to its own zone on the Start menu.

The best thing I can say about Windows 8 was it eventually became Windows 8. That was the point at which I could tell friends running into compatibility issues in Windows 7 that, don't worry, Windows 8 isn't that bad anymore.

Chris : As soon as I saw all the rectangles and squares I thought: "I am in deep trouble. You know it's not a good sign when a version of Windows lasts less than a year.

Windows Millennium Edition is truly a perfect name for a poorly aged of-its-time piece of software. Seriously, ME is so , its installation CD was holographic. Information superhighway, here we come!! It was, in the sense that it collected all the bugs and problems of those versions and combined them into one perfectly crappy operating system.

In practice it looked about the same as Windows 98, and none of the new features it introduced did much to compensate for the infamous instability. ME crashed. It crashed a lot. It made Windows 95 look stable. At least, that was the experience for a lot of people—if you scored the driver and hardware lottery, it may have run just as well as Windows It ended a groundbreaking era of Windows with a whimper, but XP came in with a bang just barely a year later. That's what I associate with Windows ME.

A lot of anime VCDs were watched in that thing. It also had that amazing skin that was a green face with speakers for ears and a visualizer in the brain case. Wes: Basically all I remember about ME is that a family friend had a computer running it, and it reliably crashed pretty much every time I used it. This was the version of Windows for chumps, while those in the know landed on the rock solid Windows until XP came along and got its first few patches. These days I think people look back on Vista with some sympathy.

As Linus Tech Tips argued , Vista didn't entirely deserve its bad rap. There were certainly some painful performance issues at the start; Vista was certainly more demanding than Windows XP, and some systems that were touted as being able to run Vista really couldn't… or they only could if you turned off all the graphical niceties, like the Aero transparency effects. And Vista was such a major overhaul of the OS coming from XP, Vista needed entirely new drivers which were slow to arrive.

That meant some hardware just didn't work on Vista and many games ran far worse than they did on XP. It was a terrible launch. Oh, and the wonderful User Account Control pop-ups! Yeah, everyone hated those, and no one understood why Vista was taking over your entire screen to warn you every time you tried to change a setting in the control panel or launch a program. But underneath those very glaring flaws, Vista introduced a huge slew of new features and looked cutting edge compared to XP. But why?

There are a large number of pros but also some significant cons, including a few potential deal breakers. Cost - While some Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will not get Windows 10 free , for the vast majority there is no cost to upgrading whatsoever. Consequently even if you revert back to Windows 7 or Windows 8 in time, it would seem to make sense to take your free Windows 10 upgrade while it lasts.

Longer Support - Another key reason for getting the latest edition of Windows is Microsoft will support it for longer than both Windows 7 and Windows 8. The Windows Lifecycle page screen grab below breaks this down into two sections: Mainstream Support and Extended Support. Mainstream Support is the deadline for adding new features and functionality which makes it less crucial, but Extended Support is when Microsoft will stop supporting the platform with security updates.

As you will see Windows 10 gives five more years Extended Support over Windows 7 and two more years over Windows Flexibility And Universal Apps - Where Microsoft deserves a lot of credit with Windows 10 is its ambition because the OS will run across all future Microsoft devices from desktops and laptops, to hybrids, tablets and smartphones.

Read more- Windows Should You Upgrade? Gaming - Windows 10 brings with it DirectX 12 and for serious gamers this is a must have. Windows 7 and Windows 8 will never get access to DX In addition Windows 10 supports streaming games from an Xbox One. Controllers for the Xbox One are compatible with Windows 10 PCs and you can be playing The Witcher 3 on your desktop or laptop in minutes. Best of all, Xbox One streaming is fast and responsive and again it will not come to Windows 7 or Windows 8 at a later date.

Windows 10 is the single operating system working across all Microsoft desktops, laptops, tablets The secret to its success is Cortana, a voice assistant ported over from Windows Phone and whose name comes from the Halo video game franchise. Like Siri on iOS and Google Voice Search on Android, Cortana can respond to voice commands and perform everything from quick Internet searches to core tasks around Windows 10 like opening a new email, creating calendar entries and much more.