What's next for Windows 10?

Wow! We had a record number of calls yesterday as the Windows 10 roll-out started.  "Should we?", "Is it any good?", "Can I go back to Windows 7 if I don't like it?" were just some of the questions asked.

Windows 10 is now available as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. While millions are performing the upgrade this week, Microsoft is working hard on updates and fixes behind the scenes. Some of those patches have already started rolling out, but there are more to come. The first bigger collection of fixes will come with what Microsoft calls Service Release 1 (SR1).

We believe that SR1 is due to be released in early August, possibly as early as next week. While SR1 won't include new features, it will fix some of the issues people have been experiencing with Windows 10. 

After the initial patches and updates, Microsoft is working toward a bigger collection of fixes and feature additions for later this year tentatively scheduled for October.

Microsoft's dedicated Messaging app for Windows 10 will enter preview in the coming weeks. The messaging app will bring Skype integration directly into Windows 10, creating a more iMessaging- and FaceTime-like service. Microsoft is planning to release this to Windows 10 users later this year. You'll be able to make video and audio calls all without a dedicated Skype app, and Skype messaging will be supported through the built-in Messaging app. 

If you have any questions about your Windows 10 options, please call us on 020 8445 6700.

Nick Shah
Optima Computers.

Stories From The Front Line - Episode 1

Stories From The Front Line

We all have our share of stories to tell, and at Optima we have more than our fair share.

An Unhappy Customer

Today we had a call from an unhappy customer, let’s call this person Caller X. Caller X was very upset with Optima as we had put in a new anti-virus on their PC and now they were getting lots of popups from ESET reporting virus detected and quarantined.

A little history first. This client was a new client who had been infected and brought their laptop in for a clean-up. They were running an out of date McAfee Anti Virus product and had managed to get infected by opening an email.

We cleaned up the laptop and recommended the client install ESET Anti Virus to stay protected. Client accepted and we installed ESET Anti-Virus.

Fast forward to today.
Caller X was upset that ESET was popping up with warnings after their PC had been cleaned up. So we asked to remote into the computer to check what was going on. We soon found out what the problem was.

They were receiving a lot of emails, majority of which were spam. And many of these spam emails had attachments. Attachments which were malicious. ESET, doing what it was paid to do, was busy identifying these malicious attachments and quarantining them and alerting accordingly.

We explained to Caller X what was happening and the reason for the alerts. Caller X was still not happy. “My previous anti-virus never did that”. So we explained that was why they got infected in the first place and why we recommended ESET Nod 32. Still not happy.

Caller X said they checked their email on webmail and they had seen an email with an invoice attachment in a zip file. But they couldn’t open it via webmail as it said the attachment was not safe!  And now ESET had quarantined the attachment so they couldn’t open it in Outlook.

That’s because the attachment was infected, I said. Caller X wasn’t convinced. I proposed that we will make a change to avoid this happening. For a second, I was tempted to remove the ESET anti-virus altogether. The moment passed and I disabled the alerting feature in the ESET Nod32 program. This means they would not get alerted each time ESET removed a virus.

Caller X was informed that the problem had been rectified. And still unhappy, Caller X ended the call.

So I guess Caller X will not be using Optima again. I mean, how dare we put an anti-virus software which actually removes infected files.

Well, you can’t win them all.

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Seven ATE Nine.

Seven ATE Nine.The next Microsoft OS is Windows 10 

As you may have heard, the next Microsoft Windows will be called Windows 10. Apparently Windows 8 was SO bad, that Microsoft wanted their next OS to sit a bit further from Windows 8.

Windows 8 had it rough. It existed for post-desktop world that (still) hasn't quite materialised, met by a sea of people who weren't asking for something so new and strange. That's why even though it feels like a regression, Windows 10 is still such a marvel. It's a step backwards into what Windows 8 was supposed to be.
People hate Windows 8. Hate it. This is news to approximately no one, and the feelings were understandable. From launch it was confusing, clumsy, occasionally downright antagonistic. But it did do some things right.

Attempting to unify tablets and desktops was smart when Windows 8 launched, and it's even smarter now.


Windows 8's here's-some-tiles-and-some-more-tiles-did-we-mention-the-tiles approach was met with annoyance, but the intention behind it was spot on. And the traditional desktop in all its mouse-friendly glory never actually went away; the old, comfortable stuff just got hidden behind the new, scary stuff. Some people just couldn't — or wouldn't — learn to live with the changes. It confused and disoriented people who just wanted their old familiar Start Menu instead of a functionally identical ones with squares instead of rectangles.

The very best Windows 8 could hope to be was "good enough". It was forever fighting an endless uphill battle against itself. But Windows 10 is the fresh start Windows 8 was supposed to be. With the switch back away from tiles to menus and the very windows that gave Microsoft's operating system its name, Windows 10 is simultaneously the clean break Windows 8 could never pull off, and the return to form that the non-existent Windows 9 needed to be, without wasting time on the backtrack. It's Windows 10! That's two away from Windows 8 because <insert expletive> that thing! 

Windows 10 is exciting. The promising Universal Apps, which Microsoft announced earlier this year, will finally have the universal operating system they need to be able to thrive. The anaemic Windows Phone will be able to snag apps from its behemoth desktop brother with just a little UI tweaking. The Xbox One will bring software like Cortana to your living room. And all these new interfaces will feed back into the Windows Store, an app store that's no longer neutered by a mandatory full-screen requirement. The future is very bright.

And that's Windows 10's biggest feature: it's something we can all get excited about. Whether you hated the tiles and were willing to murder for a Start Menu/Screen in the bottom-right-hand corner, or thought the Start Screen wasn't actually that bad, Windows 10 has an option for you; Windows 7 in the front, Windows 8 right behind.


Love it or hate it, Windows 8 tore things apart in an attempt to put them together. Windows 10 is here to mend