Edna writes:
I have windows 8.1 and even though I hear a lot of people say they don’t like it, I love it. I do miss some things that XP had, but well I am good with some change. Anyway my question, I see that windows 10 is going to be available for free but will it be a clean install? Do I back up everything before I install or will it be like 8.1 where what you had was still there after. Will you have the option of going back to 8.1 if you don’t like it and will it only be available for laptops and tablets and will it be available for tablets that are running 8.1 RT. Thank You
Well, Edna – those are all very good questions. I will say to start off, that if you are comfortable with either Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, you should be just fine with Windows 10. I’ve been checking out the technical preview for some time and I like it.
We don’t know yet if 10 will be an upgrade like 8.1 or a clean install, so I can’t give you any answers on that one. I can tell you that it’s not looking good for Windows RT.
Microsoft has stopped manufacturing the RT tablets and other manufactures have already given up on them. The main problem for poor RT, was that tablets that run full versions of Windows were available for just a bit more money. Those tablets gave you the ability to run the full range of of desktop programs.
The Windows App store has a pretty sparse selection compared to Google Play and the Apple App Store, so a tablet limited to the Windows App store faced a struggle. The falling price of tablets running the full version of Windows 8.1 pretty much put the nail in the coffin of RT. If you can purchase a tablet running a full version of Windows 8.1 for $100, why do you need an RT tablet?
Microsoft is allowing makers of smaller Windows tablets to use the full version of Windows 8.1 for free on their devices, so that doesn’t give tablet makers any incentive to use the RT system. Microsoft leaders did say that they might have an update for Windows RT that will offer some of the Windows 10 functions, but they didn’t mention anything about an upgrade to Windows 10.
We should have more answers about which devices will be getting upgrades and when soon.
~ Cynthia
thank you for answering my question, I asked about the RT because when I bought my tablet a few years ago I did not realize there was a difference so I unfortunately I purchased an RT version.