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- Written by Frank Jones
A Windows 10 eXPerience: A real-life small business story
This article was originally written for Windows 8 64-bit. I've since upgraded to Windows 10 64-bit (and I'm also a member of the Windows Insider program, which receives the pre-release versions) and the vast majority of the comments below would still apply.
I'm not normally one to rush out and get the latest technology just for the sake of it, but I became an early adopter of Windows 8 within a few days of its release on 26 October 2012.
There were a couple of reasons. Firstly, I was still running Windows XP on my home and work computers. As a bit of a power user, I'd found XP was beginning to get a bit clunky: I'd had to find some obscure hotfixes to resolve a couple of issues, and software is now beginning to appear which won't run on XP any more (Adobe Photoshop Lightroom being a notable example).
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- Written by Frank Jones
Installation
In mid 2012, a friend gave me a defunct laptop - a Toshiba Satellite P300 (Core 2 Duo P7450, 4GB memory), perhaps 4 or 5 years old. It turned out that the hard drive had failed completely.
At about this time the Windows 8 Release Preview came out. I was able to get hold of a 60GB hard drive, big enough to install Windows, so I figured this would make an ideal test bed for the new operating system.
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- Written by Frank Jones
Compatibility
One of my first concerns in migrating to a new operating system, from a business perspective, was the compatibility of important software. After all, there's no point in paying $39.99 for an upgrade, only to be faced with a bill of several hundred dollars to upgrade critical software.
However, when I finally made the jump, I'd had the benefit of experience with the Release Preview and two prior installations, so I had a fair idea of what to expect.
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My Windows 10 64-bit Compatibility List
with Reinstallation Tips
* indicates that settings can be easily copied from an earlier installation; see the previous article in this series.
Firefox* – Compatible
Tip: To copy addons and bookmarks etc., copy the following folders:
Windows XP Settings: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXX.default
Windows 10 Settings: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXX.default
Restart Firefox to restore bookmarks etc. and re-do any customisations.