Late last night I was just trying to action a couple of emails before going to bed, when I started getting popup messages telling me Windows 10 had downloaded and was ready to install. Duly informed I closed the message. However, every few minutes the message annoyed me by reappearing, so I was unable to concentrate on my emails.

I was tired, yet sufficiently alert to recall Microsoft’s promotional spiel that “users will be able to defer the installation until a more convenient time” so I clicked the OK button. Yes, there was an option to defer, but the only dates offered were the on the next three days and I wanted to defer until Tuesday of next week at the earliest! Still wishing to finish with my emails, I tried to close MS’s installation window but it just would not go away. Opening Task Manager to try and close the open application or process did not do anything. The installation window just would not go away.

Having the bright idea of rebooting the computer did not help either, because as soon as I logged on again that damn Windows 10 installation window was there waiting for me and still with the same three deferral options. I had many things planned to do on my computer in the morning (Thursday), so I decided I had no choice but go for so called upgrade to Win10.

Just under an hour later I was delighted that the installation of Win10 was complete. Or so Windows told me. That was my last good thought until well after dawn! From the onset of being in Win10 I did not like it and I was being bombarded with popup messages advising me what I could…and should do. I did get as far as noticing my fav tool in Win7 “Recent places” was missing from Explorer. Instead Microsoft in their wisdom provided 8 icons showing recent (frequently used) places. This as opposed to clicking on ‘Recent places’ in Win7 which instantly showed me around 30 of my last used folders or files, in a pane on the right. For the next several hours in my new Win10 I was confronted with the blue ‘busy’ circle spinning all time. I assumed the new operating system was indexing my folders or something similar, hence the infuriating circle. An hour after first seeing it, it was still there and I was unable to do anything apart from moving the cursor. Nothing would run or open and it was as if everything had frozen. Several times I just powered down my computer by using the on-off button, but the dreaded ‘busy’ circle kept reappearing. The dawn chorus was laughing at me from outside so I changed tack by digging out my vintage laptop computer and went on the Internet to search for “how to rollback Windows 10” Easy when you know how…Start button>settings>system security etc.

I ignored numerous warnings from MS popups advising me that I may lose access to certain features or have to reinstall certain applications. Less than two minutes after clicking on “rollback” (or whatever the button said), I was back in my faithful Win7 environment and everything worked as before. Having had a few cat naps during the day, interrupted by two wrong number calls, I have been able to do most things today…except routines on Ipernity.

Well past bedtime again and I have just had a popup window saying "Your Windows 10 is ready to download" !!! So apparently I have not burnt my bridges....yet.

Moving to Win10 may not have been such a big step forward for those who were moving from Windows 8.1 - but for me, coming from Win7, it was a completely different environment. The one analogy which comes to mind is that comparing Win7 and Win10 is akin to comparing Ipernity with Flickr! Horses for courses and all that!