One of the first things I wanted to check out was how Mozilla had worked around Microsoft disabling the default browser API. I downloaded and installed Firefox 40 Beta on the freshly upgraded Windows 10 machine and upon first run I was asked if I wanted to make Firefox my default browser (Chrome was currently default and then I had switched it to Edge later for testing purposes).

Once you click the Use Firefox as my default browser button the Windows 10 Settings > System > Default Apps screen opens which is a lot more friendlier than the Windows 10 default behavior of giving the user this unfriendly message:

You will need to scroll down a bit to the ‘Web Browser’ section and click the + to set the default app.

Okay, so far not too bad. One the big ‘selling points’ of Windows 10 besides the extra two and three quarter years of support compared to Windows 8.1, is this has a ‘start menu’. Um well, it is not exactly the Start Menu people are use to in Windows 7. Looks like Microsoft took part of the Start Menu of Windows 7 and the Start Screen of Windows 8/8.1 and merged them together:

Windows 10 ‘Start’ Menu

Windows 10 ‘Start’ Menu with pinned Apps.

You need to scroll down to the bottom of the start menu to see your pinned apps (as tiles). I do believe you can rearrange your tiles. You can right-click on a tile and make changes (Unpin, resize, turn live tile off and pin to taskbar).

If you want to show everything that is installed listed in alphabetical order, select the  ‘All apps’ option. Warning: If you end up with more than 512 app shortcuts after the upgrade some of your short cuts may disappear.

My only gripe about the new start menu (besides the tiles) is the shutdown options are hidden. Users need to select ‘Power’ on the start menu then they are presented with a popup showing their shutdown options.

So, am I going to upgrade my other systems to Windows 10 as well? I don’t think so, I really don’t see anything that would make me want to switch over to Windows 10. Sure the process would be a little quicker since they both already have the update option in the taskbar. However, I like Windows 8.1 (with Classic Shell), especially the Power User Menu (WinKey+X). Windows 7 is okay as well and I have no plans on upgrading that machine to Windows 10 either. Remember, Windows 7 is supported until January 2020 and Windows 8.1 until January 2023. Windows 10 will be supported until October 2025.

This either the 8th or 10th version of Windows I have used, depending if you count Windows 98/98SE and Windows 8/8.1 as one version or two separate versions. I have used every version of Windows from 3.1 upto Windows 10 (with the exception of Windows ME).