Windows 10 – Dragging Humanity Along With It

There’s going to a million articles soon about Windows 10 and how bad or good it is, what we can do and what we can’t, I was one of the lucky first 14 million people to get it and it’s fine, rest assured upgrading won’t be the end of the world and fundamentally my advice to our clients is swim with it and let it happen.

Microsoft have a real predicament though – nevermind the world of Windows is shrinking fast as Mobile takes over, there are 2billion Apple and Android devices out there compared to 1.5billion Windows systems and only 80million Windows Mobiles, all the stats suggest Windows will increasingly be a smaller world as other ways of communicating come online.

However, take your mind into Microsoft, lots of intelligent before, often visionaries, people highly paid, high successful, people that want to change the world, and most importantly people with access to the most advanced technologies ever thought about.  All these tech companies have unlimited budgets when it comes to thinking up ideas for the future.  Working for companies like Microsoft must be a privilege of sorts and equally a curse at the same time.

A curse because – what ends up on our plates – well Windows and Office; what we read about in the Media – well everything that is wrong about Windows and Office; and what Microsoft employees must know – a fraction of the technology that is available.

People don’t like change – or humanity in general is wary of progress as a rule, so Microsoft make a bold statement such as dropping a ‘Start Button’ and their influence in the world can be wiped as happened with Windows 8, the same applies to Windows 10 – when we realise that you will be seeing personalised adverts in your game of Solitaire, you will resent it.

Yet, moving forward is the only way to go, Microsoft know that things can be done more efficiently, they reckon their Edge Browser will be better than Firefox or Chrome, they think having a Desktop, Tablet or Mobile mode will make things easier for us, they know their Windows 10 operating system should work on a TV, Table top or airport security scanner, anywhere in fact, it has to be secure and privacy settings have to have the right balance.  All this is right and necessary.

Yet – don’t you think they could do more to help mankind be more efficient.

Where I am going with all this – is that Microsoft and companies like them are in a unique position within the world, they know what will make the world a better place and yet they also know how far they can push humanity towards that goal.  They want to change the world, but have learnt that for many reasons humanity cannot cope with that much change.  It’s a genuine predicament that we should appreciate these companies have to deal with day in and day out.

Where does this all lead?

So – Microsoft are pushing ahead, humanity is being dragged along, that’s easy enough – but there is another element of resistance, 3rd party software, apps or the web industry.  There are plenty of examples in all this, from Adobe Photoshop through to Firefox and Chrome, Anti-virus Software and Open Office programs.  All this progress puts them far behind in tech terms.  Thus you may find your version of Anti-Virus program being really slow, or Firefox not opening quickly enough, your photo editor might not function properly or even old versions of Microsoft Office not working correctly.

Short term, all that is needed is a bit of patience, soon everyone will catch up.  Medium term and you can start to look for alternatives and for Long term – really you want to start thinking of ways to avoid being dependent on any one system, so that if you can’t access something on your phone, you’ll be able to access it on your Laptop.

Windows 10 should be a catalyst to progress – it should be giving you the impetus to look for new ways of doing things.  The obvious example is Photos – why are you still storing all your photos on your single hard drive?  Haven’t the lessons of broken or even stolen computers taught that the risk of leaving all your photos in one place could be catastrophic? Now is the time to consider putting all your photos in the ‘Cloud’ – using simple apps like Google Photos, or more complex ones like PhotoBox – means years of enjoyment for your photos.

The same rules apply to Music – find a service that you can upload all your music to and it will be available to you wherever you are on any device.  And the same applies to documents, accounts, files, bank details, even passwords.  Find services or ways to change your habits, all be it slowly and then when you look back you’ll realise just how far you have come.

The Windows 10 operating system maybe seems a daunting and advanced system for the more sluggish computer users, but really it is not – it is just a small cog in a potentially easier world, my recommendation is do not be fearful of updating.  Sure you might get some surprises, but the benefit of using all the ‘new’ ways of doing things easily out weighs any hindrances you might come across.

And please don’t forget to let us know your experiences, right here on this blog.