I finally caved into applying the Windows 10 upgrade on my old laptop just before the free period expired. This was mainly because the old one was being rendered slowly unusable.
The upgrade wasn't seamless, I had to download the full ISO image since there wasn't enough space for the default upgrade and had 2 false starts and roll-backs, but it succeeded in the end.
Credit where it's due, Microsoft have certainly improved disc management. The upgrade recognised the C: drive was small and did some sensible splitting of folders across that and the larger D: drive. The OS is also much faster than my old Windows 7 (although I'll give it time to clog up with updates before I definitively say it's better in that respect).
While this whole experience did push me over to Linux for my primary PC, I'm forced to use Windows for working from home.
One not so nice new thing I've started experiencing is the laptop overheating. This can manifest in a couple of ways. First, the response of the machine slowly gets worse until it grinds to a halt and second, the machine just shuts down.
Now it's a fairly old machine so dust build-up could be a problem. I checked this first and the fan is running smoothly without any obvious blockages (I always have the laptop on a hard desk with plenty of space for ventilation). I haven't opened up though, so it's possible
This has also started happening since the Windows 10 upgrade. I have a feeling this might be exercising the hardware more than Windows 7 did but don't have any solid evidence.
Finally, August and September have had some pretty hot days, 25 degrees C or more indoors, which is a high starting point for the laptop already.
The solution was simple!
(The recent focus on problems with Lithium Ion batteries made me wonder if the laptop battery was running any extra risk with this overheating so I took it out after one of the shut-down events. Fortunately the battery itself was pretty much still at room temperature so the management infrastructure looks like it's working well - I run off mains when working from home.)
