Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I know this is off topic for this forum - belongs over in the Computer Software column, but given the dearth of posts lately, the imminent release of Windows 10, the announcement that QU is in fact Windows 10 ready, would like to hear from some of you who have been running beta versions.  Especially for those of us running Windows 7, who knew we wanted no part of Windows 8, do we want to move to Windows 10?  How nicely does it treat QU?  Any pros or cons?

Mel W. Columbia, Md. 

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret.  ;)  QU 2016.100 has been under development for about a week.  We switched over to Windows 10 here (after making a backup of course) and started developing QU under Windows 10.  If you're part of the Windows Insider program, you can run the latest Windows 10 preview and it'll update to Windows 10 final on July 29.  At least that's the word from Microsoft.  So we figured we'd get a head start.

We've actually invested quite a bit in our latest setup.  My main development machine is now Windows 10 and of course, we still have Windows 7 and 8 machines as well.  We replaced my main software development machine with an 8 core machine driving a Quad HD monitor because 2016.100 will have final Windows 10 support, 8 core processing (thumbs, raw cache, and printing), and support for "more than HD" monitors.  On 8 core machines, QU 2016 builds thumbs and raw cache 30% to 40% faster, prints 20% to 30% faster (even on dual and quad core machines), and has the final Windows 10 support since we also upgraded our software development tools with the latest ones with Windows 10 support.  QU 2016 should be out within the next week.

As to Windows 10 itself, I like it.  I skipped Windows 8 myself, although we have two Windows 8 machines here for testing.  Going from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is a smooth transition, even with the preview version.  There are some minor bugs in the Windows 10 preview, but mostly cosmetic.  I'll spare everyone a full Windows 10 review, partly because I haven't tested the OS itself enough to point out all the changes and improvements, but I had no difficulty going from Windows 7 to 10.  All my windows 7 devices work fine in Windows 10 and between multiple printers, scanners, webcams, USB drives, and even a weather station, I have quite a few devices attached.  Between the computer and my hubs, I have 21 USB ports and I'm using most of them so if my own Windows 10 upgrade experience is any indication, I think Windows 10 is a winner!  Unlike going from Windows 7 to Windows 8 which felt like you just downgraded to a smartphone OS, Windows 7 just feels like a real OS.  Windows 10 boots to the desktop like Windows 7 but it still has the "mobile app store" UI from Win8 if you really want to use it (I don't).

Mike

Mike -

Thank you - couldn't ask for a better endorsement than that. I don't tax my machine to even 10% of that and I my S/W development days are in the distant past.  But mostly I was concerned about the UI and you have told me what I need to know there as well.

Looking forward to QU 2016 and Windows 10

Mel W.