Dell Venue 8 Pro and Windows 10

I was putting off upgrading my Dell Venue 8 Pro to Windows 10.
I decided to try the upgrade and see if Windows 10 is any good on this tablet.

1. Took system backup in case something goes wrong.
     Using Dell Backup and Recovery and 8GB USB stick, I did system backup.
     It took about 1 hour.
2. Downloaded Windows 10 installer from Microsoft site.
3. Ran the installer - took about several hours
     I chose to erase apps and personal files
4. Updated BIOS
    Dell driver autodetect insisted on doing Firmware update but it always failed when doing    
    automatic update. I ran manually and the program complained there is already the same or newer
    version of the driver installed.

Caution: If you like Dell's default wallpaper on Venue Pro 8, I recommend backing up the wallpaper before upgrading. I forgot to back it up and ended up losing it. Nobody has the wallpaper online, even Dell.

Impressions:
1. Startup time is drastically faster.
2. Battery drain is noticeable. The usage of battery is increased.
3. When I boot up, the wifi connection always says No internet. I have to disconnect and reconnect to get the internet.
4. If you don't use Metro apps, you don't have to associate your MS account with the tablet so no annoying login screen shows up.
5. Most apps I used before run ok. CPU intensive apps choke up. (Arturia Matrix 12 V)
    Performance of Plex web access is good.
6. No Windows Classic theme!!! I hate wasting my precious screen space with unreasonably big white title bars. Since they got rid of Classic theme, I am forced to use it with the ugly windows title bars and huge close button. On the other hand, these buttons work well with finger.

Overall my impression of Windows 10 is positive. Just having Start menu is a big plus. I have my desktop all the time just like Windows 7. Windowed Metro apps finally made those apps usable on tablet. I hated switching back and forth between desktop and Start panels so it is now very useful. I hope they do the same with the new server version. It made absolutely no sense to put touch interface on Windows 2012 servers when nobody dare to use touch screen for their servers. I really hated the Windows 2012 server because of that. All previous shortcuts and convenience were gone. What was MS thinking?
While my Windows 10 experience with non-touch PC is on the negative side, with touch screen the experience is rather good. MS is not sitting still. They are improving the OS continuously and that's a good thing.
I liked Windows 10 on Venue Pro 8 so much I upgraded all 3 Venue Pro 8s to Windows 10 and I am very happy with these tablets for the first time after the purchase.

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