Windows 10 is here, so are the computer makers ready?

Samsung

Samsung's Series 9: better than the MacBook Air in just about every way.

Up until a year or so ago, Samsung was pushing out some pretty solid entries in the world of computers, with the excellent Series 9 accompanying some top notch monitors. Recently, though, Samsung pulled back, and now we’re only seeing monitors locally, while the laptops make their way out to other places.

You can still see quite a few Android tablets, but Windows on a Samsung machine is kind of a dead thing.

But what if you still have one of these computers and want to upgrade?

Officially Samsung isn’t saying anything — not locally anyway, and not in the time we asked — but testing a Series 9 Samsung 15 inch we had, the move was fairly painless, and Windows 10 even did that thing that it’s now doing where it keeps all your files in the right place.

Provided you have a spare 20GB free, the move should be good, though as always, we’ll keep pestering Samsung to find out if there are any specific issues people should be aware of.

Sony

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Much like Samsung, Sony has pulled out of laptops in Australia, though with Sony, it’s heavier, pulling out of laptop computers altogether and selling off its VAIO division in early 2014 just as the company was really nailing it.

And we’re not kidding: the VAIO Pro was one of the better machines we’d ever seen, packing the right amount of features, weight, and design into a laptop that you’d find.

Oh well, though. All good things have to come to an end, and Sony’s computer department appears to be one of them.

But if you spent money on a VAIO Pro, a VAIO Duo, or anything out that wore the “VAIO” name proudly, you might be wondering what your options are to switching to Windows 10.

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At the time of publication, Sony Australia hadn’t yet provided a quote to us, but a simple search of the Sony website reveals that you may want to wait before you make the move.

According to Sony, the upgrade process “will vary by model”, and that upgrade information will be made available in August, with drivers likely to be made available in October and November.

That means if you update a computer that needs specific drivers for a Sony piece of hardware, it may not work as well as it should, with most of this warning being applied to computers like the VAIO Pro and Duo that were installed with Windows 8 or 8.1.

If, however, you have a Windows 7-based VAIO, your wait may be less time intensive, with Sony saying the upgrade information should be ready by August.

So while you could technically update today — and you can — you’d be better off waiting until Sony tells you to if you have a VAIO computer.

Until then, check the Sony Windows 10 update page (link in this text) to find out when this is going to happen, because the news will go up there.

Toshiba

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The creator of the laptop PC should be good and ready to go with regards to Windows 10, but it certainly has more computers out there than a lot of other manufacturers, which means the company might have had to work around the clock to make sure it was ready.

Is it ready?

Well, to help you find out, Toshiba has a webpage setup to inform you of what is upgradeable and what isn’t.

We suspect most of the Windows friendly hardware sold in the past few years will cleanly make its way to the new operating system, but just in case, you may want to take a look at what the company has to say (link in this text).

…question mark?

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There are a few other manufacturers we’ve missed, such as Razer, MSI and Gigabyte, as well as Aldi’s default brand Medion, but any brands that we haven’t been able to get in contact with, make sure to check their respective web page to find out if your computer is good to go.

In theory, most of the manufacturers should be fine for an update, and because Windows 10 has been in testing for quite a few months, we’d have to expect that quite a few processors, graphics cards, and other hardware combinations are good to go.

But there may be some instances where drivers will play havoc, and so as always, check with the manufacturer before signing up for one of those free Windows 10 upgrade downloads.

You have until June 29 2016 to make it happen, so there is time.

Pricing and availability

One thing we forgot to mention was how you update, which we’ve done in another article, but we can do it here, too.

So how do you get Windows 10 on your machine?

If you have a computer from one of the brands that says yes, you can make the update, the price is free so long as you have a copy of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 on that computer.

If you have Windows 7, an update will be made available that will add a Windows icon to your notification bar, and when you click that, you’ll get the “Get Windows 10” dialog box to pop up, allowing you to reserve your place in line.

If you have Windows 8, you’ll need to update to Windows 8.1, which is another download, and from there, it’s a separate update to get that same “Get Windows 10” box that you want. 

But once you have that, you’re merely reserving your place in line, because while Windows 10 is available now, it’s going to take some time for Microsoft to make its 3GB Windows 10 download available to all to get without any flaws or inconsistencies. That’s part of what Microsoft is doing with this one to help make sure the installation goes well for all.

It will take some time, that said, so if you reserve your place now, don’t expect a download until mid-August.

But hey, it’s free if you have Windows 7 or 8 (provided you’re not running Enterprise or Server), with that “free” price tag applied for one year, expiring on June 29, 2016.

If you’re building a new machine, Microsoft will be selling Windows 10 for either $179 for the Home edition or $299 for the Pro version, with the latter of these supporting some encryption, virtual machines, and remote login. Most will be fine with the Home edition, but if you know what those last features are in the Pro copy and know you’ll need them, you’ll want to go with that.

Alternatively, if you can find Windows 8.1 for a good price, you might want to go with that, since a free upgrade with a low cost Windows 8 is technically a more cost effective alternative to a full-price Windows 10, at least until June 29, 2016 when the free Windows 10 upgrade opportunity expires.