Which Windows 10 to replace my Windows 7 Ultimate?

[abcdefg]

I bought Windows 7 Ultimate for my current laptop several years ago instead of Windows 7 Professional because of its multi-language support. Switching between languages (English and Chinese) is easy in Win 7 Ultimate.

 

Now I'm getting ready to buy a new laptop and Windows 7 Ultimate upgrades are no longer supported by Microsoft. (Can't upgrade from Win 7 Pro to Win 7 Ultimate.) So I'm thinking about Windows 10 instead, but cannot figure out which version of Windows 10, if any, would offer the same language capabilities.

 

Anyone had experience with Windows 10 as a bilingual operating system or know of a good reference guide that I can consult? This official article didn't address the language issue:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/Compare

 

Thanks in advance. I have done a quick Google, but didn't see what I need. 

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(Background: I'm not totally computer illiterate, but also am not very "techy.") 

[roddy]

From Wiki, "All mentioned editions have the ability to use language packs, enabling multiple user interface languages."

I'm on WIndows 10 Home and seem to be able to change language easily (it's downloading and installing now). I'm quite happy with Windows 10 - I have a cheap as chips ASUS 2-in-1 netbook which runs it really well, light and great battery life for working away from home (small screen size is a disadvantage), plug it in to a full-size monitor and keyboard when I'm at home, and pop the screen off to use as a tablet for watching TV on the sofa. Wouldn't work for anything requiring a lot of processing power, but for web and Word, which is 95% of what I do, it's fine. Course, that's all about my hardware choices rather than your OS choices, so ignore me ;-)

[skylee]

Re #2, is that an ASUS Transformer T100 or similar model upgraded from Windows 8.1? I ask because I have one and am happy with it but very hesitant to accept the free upgrade to Windows 10.

Re #1, I don't think which version of Windows10 should be a concern.

[roddy]

Yep, it's the T100 - not sure how much difference it makes, the only one I can think of is you can stop seeing the Metro interface. 

 

Edit: Language switch went fine, downloading the language pack took a little while, but now I've got it I just make the change and restart. 

[skylee]

Re #4, thanks for the reply. Oh I dropped the Metro interface long ago by installing Classic Shell ( http://www.classicshell.net ).

[abcdefg]

Thanks, Roddy.

 

Anyone else using Windows 10 and frequently switching back and forth between English and Chinese? Opinions on how it compares in ease of use and reliability with Windows 7 Ultimate?

[skylee]

I have upgraded my ASUS tablet from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.  The first attempt took about 12 hours and it was a failure because of the 44% error (inserted memory card had not been removed).  The second attempt was successful and it took less than 2 hours. It does not seem to me that there are major differences between the two versions of windows (although there seems to be some more storage space), probably because I use Classic Shell so whatever the version it just looks like Windows 7. I already had google pinyin input method installed before the upgrading and it is still there so I don't feel anything different.

 

I think Windows 10 is OK. Nothing bad. So far so good.

[abcdefg]

Thanks, Skylee.

 

I'm back in the US for Christmas and New Years. Just bought a larger replacement SSD hard disc drive (increasing to 500 GB from the original 100) and more RAM (increasing to 8 GB from the original 4.) With the aid of a friend who likes to tinker with such things, and after careful backup, I'm going to try to upgrade the hardware on my existing Win 7 machine.

 

If that doesn't work, I will try Windows 10. Sounds like it should be fine from a switching-languages standpoint. But I'd rather not change operating systems unless I must. (This is just my laziness speaking.)

[Shelley]

I only upgraded to win 7 in the summer of last year and I only did that because XP doesn't handle SSD drives.

 

I will be sticking with 7 ultimate until there is another very good reason to change.

[Flickserve]

I only upgraded to win 7 in the summer of last year and I only did that because XP doesn't handle SSD drives.

I will be sticking with 7 ultimate until there is another very good reason to change.

A) Win10 is free for the moment

B) Updates to Win 7 will end earlier.

C) The earlier you change the less ingrained your habits are on Win 7 and less pain.

I usually upgrade every two versions - just waiting for a few of the bugs to be ironed out. The computer needs a good clean out and updating of other software. Iphone backups are giving me a problem as their internal memory is very large and I have to shift iTunes to a seperate HDD. Not that easily done.

[Shelley]

The fact that it is free is not a reason for me to change now.

 

They said updates to XP would end but they eventually had to give in to popular use and continued doing security updates, so not a problem. I will see what happens with Win 7.

 

There never seems to be any huge changes between versions that are impossible or difficult to learn.

 

Having started with a BBC Atom, a Commodore 64,  Windows 3.1 and windows 3 for pen and I really liked my Atari ST 512, changing operating systems is not a scary thing so if and when it happens it won't be a problem.

 

I will be happy to wait till win 10 gets mature.

[skylee]

“There never seems to be any huge changes between versions that are impossible or difficult to learn.”

I don't think this is very true.

[Shelley]

I don't think this is very true.

 

I guess it depends on what you use your PC for. i don't do anything apart from use programs, I am a user, not a programmer or anything similar.

[Luxi]

Sorry I hadn't seen this topic earlier. I've been using Windows 10 since day 0, I upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate. What attracted me to Windows 10 was the chance to have a truly multilingual system. It hasn't disappointed. 

.

After downloading the optional extras (free in Windows 10 Professional, not sure about the Home version) I can switch the keyboard from one language to another (there's no limit on how many languages you have) with 1 click. I can easily change the language for the interface and all the menus, or the language for particular programs/apps. I can have Chinese text read to me in a high quality voice - and change the speed and pitch to my liking, the tones in Mandarin are clear and the voices are pleasant. I'm planning to start chatting with Cortana in Chinese when I have more free time to train "it"...I could go on, but the best thing is to try it hands on.

 

The "optional extras" include: 'voices' for the languages of choice, input methods/keyboards, hand writing recognition, OCR and rare character recognition (for traditional Chinese). One can have as many languages as one wants. Chinese languages include both simplified and traditional (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore flavours are all available from outside China. Probably Taiwan isn't available in China, but Hong Kong is) and also Cantonese.

 

I am able to run most of the programs I had installed in Windows 7. Some may need re-installing after the Win 10 upgrade.

 

Windows 10 had quite a few problems at the start but the latest version is very stable for most purposes and has solved many of the problems. Yes, there are some questions about privacy and some bullish tactics to get people to upgrade, but to me the advantages far outweigh the snags.  I can go as far as to say, it is my dream OS, and I started using computers when I had to write my programs first (in a primitive unforgiving language called Fortran),

[Luxi]

@abcdefg, in answer to your initial question. I think Win 10 Professional and Home version may have the same language capabilities, but I've only tried Professional so far.

 

The main difference, as far as I know, is that Win 10 Professional is supposed to be for businesses, therefore it allows some say as to when or if to download updates (except for security updates, always compulsory). I would go for Profesional because, in traditional Microsoft fashion, some upgrades are very buggy and it's always better to wait a couple of weeks or so for any major bugs to surface and, hopefully, be solved.

 

It is possible to buy an upgrade from Home to Professional, I don't know how much it costs.

[abcdefg]

Luxi -- Many thanks, that's exactly the kind of information I was hoping to find.

 

Windows 10 Professional sounds just right for my purposes. I will go ahead and upgrade to it on one newer laptop and try it out while I replace the SSD hard drive and install more RAM in my older laptop, keeping it as Windows 7 Ultimate for the time being.