Windows 10 is here. Perhaps, you are wondering if it is time to upgrade?
According to IT Partners’ David Hays, “Windows 10 is what Windows 8 should have been. There are lots of pluses, however, it’s important to consider your whole system.”
For a small business owner the decision to upgrade is never as simple as pressing the “upgrade now” button. There are 3 important questions to answer first:
- Are your practice management applications certified to run on Windows 10? Probably not. There is usually a lag time that can range from months to years.
- Do your printers, scanners, and other devices have Windows 10 drivers and do you have them? If not, they may not work if you upgrade operating systems
- What kind of equipment do you have and how old is it? If yours are more than three years old or if you have Asus, Compaq, Lenovo, or Toshiba laptops or if yours use flash or solid-state (SSD) drives, get an IT person to check if a BIOS upgrade is needed. Instead of a smooth upgrade, not having the right BIOS that can cause what might be called the “blue screen of death” with the ominous warning message your computer was now missing its operating system.
On the one hand, doing an upgrade is not difficult, but you want to be prepared for issues, on the scale of annoying to devastating. The best way to do an upgrade is call in your IT professional.
“But, it’s free if I upgrade now…”
Remember, just because something is free, does not mean it is without cost. Doing an installation before your network is ready may have unintended consequences that drive the price up way beyond free.
IT Partners is committed to making your business’ computing system as efficient and productive as possible. We’ll work with you so you can make the moves to upgrade when it makes sense for your business.
