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Windows 10 Hits 14+ Million Installations

Still waiting for your Windows 10 upgrade? Don't.

August 1, 2015
10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 10

So, just how did the Windows 10 launch go? According to Microsoft, it's officially on 14 million PCs, though other reports tip up to 67 million installations.

We haven't experienced any horrible problems ourselves—at least, not this writer. Though Nvidia's GeForce Experience app has been a little problematic, switching up to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 did fix my "Dropbox won't load on startup" issue that was giving me grief over the past month or so.

If you're still waiting to get your hands on Windows 10 via the handy little update notification option on your taskbar, don't. Join the 14 million or so devices—Microsoft's official count—that already switched over to the new OS within the first 24 hours of its launch. Don't listen to silly little statements like this.

Windows 10 Bug Art "As we've shared, our top priority has been ensuring that everyone has a great upgrade experience, so, we are carefully rolling out Windows 10 in phases, delivering Windows 10 first to our Windows Insiders. While we now have more than 14 million devices running Windows 10, we still have many more upgrades to go before we catch up to each of you that reserved your upgrade," reads a recent blog post from Microsoft.

"Rest assured we are working 24×7 to continue the upgrade process and are prioritizing the quality of your upgrade experience over anything else. We are grateful for your excitement and enthusiasm and we appreciate your patience over the days and weeks ahead as we carefully roll out Windows 10 in phases to all of you that have reserved."

The heck with that. If you don't want to wait—and you shouldn't—all you have to do is head over to Microsoft's Windows 10 download page, grab the 32- or 64-bit tool, and proceed with the upgrade process from there. (You can also use said tool to create your own ISO, if you want to have a handy copy of Windows 10 to clean install at some point later.)

That said, there has been a bit of skepticism surrounding Windows 10's launch, mostly centered on security—security, and just what, exactly, your computer is giving to Microsoft and/or other people. There's the whole Wi-Fi Sense bit, where it was assumed that Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi passwords with all of your contacts. Not quite true, but here's how to turn it off.

There's also all the talk about what data Microsoft collects from you in order to improve your Windows 10 experience with services like Cortana (and customize the advertising it sends you). And, yes, that even includes Solitaire advertising. If you're concerned about what kind of information you're giving Microsoft, make sure you customize your privacy settings—don't let Windows 10 pick them for you.

Some people even went nuts over Windows Update—specifically, how it will now share updates with other Internet users and users on your network. (That's a feature you might want to flick off if you have a data cap from your ISP.)

Otherwise, we haven't heard of any catastrophic issues with Microsoft's gradual rollout of its new OS. It remains to be seen just how much longer Microsoft's upgrade timeline might take (for those who don't want to push the upgrade themselves).

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About David Murphy

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David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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