[Thundarr]

I have 10 and love it, although I don't use the Edge browser very much.....yet.  Chrome works perfectly for what I need it to, and the option to switch from Edge to Explorer is great since our work program isn't Edge compatible yet.  I think I might actually like 10 more than 7, or at least as much, and I HATED 8.  Skipped it altogether as I tried it several times and couldn't stomach it.  Incidentally, I have an iMac that's dual-booted to run both iOS and Windows on separate partitions so I have the best of both worlds.  No problems or complaints, and I downloaded it the week it came out.

[Thunder]

Mitzpah,

Thanks for clarifying that.  I haven't switched over to 10 yet.  I'm waiting to see how everyone likes it first.

I can't remember what Windows I first started with (all of them I suppose) but I never had any issues upgrading to a new version UNTIL Windows 8 came out!  What an utter disaster it was.

It's kind of like why fix something that is not broken?

[Songanddance]

I have 7 and 8 - if that makes sense. I have  8.1 as my new laptop format but I chose to stick with 7 as that was an option - let's put it this way I don't use the 8.1 desktop icons but I do use the 7 desktop.

You can see I know very little about platforms or servers or whatever. I use office 2010 and windows 7 at work and my laptop is the same.

I am interested in going to 10 but work hasn't done that yet so will wait until then.

Or am I talking utter rubbish...... Very very likely!

[OffRoad]

This is perfect! I am older than dirt and started on Windows 3.1 (and used DOS before that. Anyone remember storing your info on a cassette with a TI computer?), so I've seen them all. Windows NT was my favorite, followed by XP, but 7 is acceptable. Both of my kids have 8.1 and that is what I now have at work. It is so dysfunctional and not work efficient, I could never own 8.1. Touch screen takes forever and gives you one more thing to clean off. I can hot key at warp speed, so why change, right?

It's possible my fan is just gunked up. I remember when my son's old laptop started overheating, I switched out the hard drive, and it started working well again, but I also cleaned all the grime out of the fan, so that will be my first go to. I'm running the risk of never being able to get it back up if I disassemble it, so before I jumped off the cliff, I wanted to know the consensus. This place is so much better than geek sites, because most of you are real users, not power-let-me-tweak-my-computer-into-weird-configurations-and-wonder-why-I-only-get-two-years-out-of-it users.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. I will continue take any and all opinions until I get up the nerve to operate on my poor old Toshiba.

[hawk]

10 sounds ok.  What would l have to do to get 10 on my laptop? Could l do some sorta update thing or would a tech guy have to completely install 10  ?

Or is there some update you can get for 8.1 to fix it up a bit , drives me mad ?
l've got the hp fliptop laptop style, flips over to an ipad style but 3/4 of the things don't work though when l flip it over to ipad. dunno what's goin on there.

[Thunder]

It depends hawk.

If you have Windows 8 you should be able to upgrade yourself.  You can get the new version on line.
It's usually pretty easy.

[hawk]

When you say upgrade Thundy , what sort of upgrade could l do ?
Do you mean just some extras to make 8.1 a bit better or what ?

[terrified_in_TN]

OffRoad-

  I don't recall seeing if your PC is a desktop or laptop, but if its a laptop, often times it just the fan is either clogged up with lint, or just plain non-functional.  Pretty easy, cheap fix overall.

Warning:  Stepping on my soapbox, as this is sort of what I do for a living:  Microsoft is really pushing HARD for Windows 10 upgrades to 7/8 users.  Been reading some new articles, and their latest tactics...I mean "accident" was automatically putting a checkbox in the "upgrade to Windows 10" OPTIONAL update.  So if you hit Windows update icon manually and your not careful, you may end up with Windows 10 whether you intended to or not!

I grew up with the good old Commodore 64.  Got into my teenage years and traded the computer for cars, girls, and pot.  Didn't get my first "PC" until 1998.  But at work we have used all flavors of Windows.  Our production systems are STILL MS-DOS bases systems!

These days however, Microsoft has pissed me off for good.  While I still run Windows at work on Desktops (currently migrating from XP to 7), on my personal computer I use Linux Mint.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  And servers at work I run CentOS6.

-T

[MyBrainIsBroken]

This is perfect! I am older than dirt and started on Windows 3.1 (and used DOS before that. Anyone remember storing your info on a cassette with a TI computer?), so I've seen them all.

Been there, done that. Do you remember the  California Raisins game that ran on DOS? My kids loved that game. And making batch file menus?

I agree cleaning the fans is usually a good thing to do on laptops because the air intakes are often close to areas where it's easy to pick up lint, like when it's actually in your lap or sitting on a couch, chair, carpeted floor.