A loyal reader recently asked if the time had come to move to Windows 10. That is truly a decision that you have to make for yourself. I’ll share a few of the reasons that I’ve not yet made the jump and don’t expect to make the jump in the near future.

Of course Microsoft frequently pops up a message letting me know a free upgrade is waiting for me (as it is for millions of others). I’m just not ready for the upgrade yet.

One question we all have to ask ourselves is whether all of our hardware and software will be supported. I am fairly confident that all of my hardware (on multiple computers) will be fully supported. Many of my software programs and utilities have seen updates that make them work great on Windows 10.

Unfortunately there is one software package that will cause me grief. I’ve heard from other users that menus in CorelDRAW X5 and earlier will appear blank unless you hover over them. I could survive without the menus, but it makes it hard me me to provide training when I can’t show the menus to others. This same issue is also present in early versions of CorelDRAW X6, though it was addresses in the later service packs.

Will Microsoft make a change in Windows 10 that will make the menus appear again? I doubt it, but anything is possible. Will a utility address the issue? Possibly, but I’ve not found one yet. Will Corel go back and provide a fix for older versions of their software? I also doubt this will happen, but it is possible. I’m sure Corel would prefer everyone upgrade to CorelDRAW X7. While I have X7, I happily use CorelDRAW X5 and X6 for my day-t0-day work and have no plans to move to X7.

Another problematic issue for many users is that Windows 10 will automatically download and install updates and then force your computer to reboot. It might even force that reboot when you are in the middle of something with unsaved data. Previous versions gave users the option of how and when to download and install updates as shown below with the Windows 7 options I use.

Right now there is no way to stop Windows 10 from automatically installing and rebooting. Enough users have complained that I think they will bring back at least other options. When that happens, I’ll re-consider Windows 10 for my computers. Until then, this update behavior is a deal-breaker for me.