I LIKE WINDOWS 10 for several reasons and can base my opinion on running the preview edition for several weeks along with wanting to tinker with the way my operating system works. First impressions: Edge is faster than Chrome. And Cortana is better than Google Now, especially when connected to the Bluetooth head unit in our Nissan Qashqai.
Photo of Windows 10 starting to update.
Because I have a Windows 10 Mobile, I've seen big innovation with the web browser. Edge does some clever things. I like how its Hub works. I'd like to see a way to import my Lumia 1520 Hub content onto the Microsoft Surface.
Although I don't mind learning to leverage Bing search, I have years of content archived in a process that connects Chrome to Clearly to Evernote. I still use Chrome's Clearly plug-in to strip excess baggage from web pages. Originally, I would save Clearly content into Evernote. For the past year, I've changed my process and now shift the Clearly content into OneNote or to use Edge's "Reading View" as a stripped-down mechanism.
The Big Win for me with Windows 10 is that I can collaborate better with fellow lecturers who also use the campus Exchange servers.
Behind the scenes, I've started auto-uploading family content into OneDrive. That storage service lacks strong photo editing tools, but we get far more free storage than any competing service. Plus the auto-uploading to OneDrive allows me one view for three different handsets when creating photo albums immediately after family events.
The biggest surprise I've encountered is how Windows 10 has helped me regain productivity through better usage of e-mail. And since we use Exchange at work, the native Windows 10 apps (People and Calendar) will sync with Outlook across all of my devices.
It's early days for me in Windows 10, but upgrading to it makes feels like I'm already more productive on the Surface and with my Android phone.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches workflow as part of the creative multimedia curriculum at the Limerick School of Art & Design.]
