Two changes to Windows

Most of the time old folks like me need changes to keep us on our toes. I just wish they weren’t so severe that I get cramps in my legs and my vision gets all blurry.

Forbes reports that Microsoft will start charging for Windows 7! A monthly charge is planned for the operating system that will INCREASE each year! The reason for this is because Windows 7 is considered software by Microsoft and Windows 10 is considered a service. It is much easier and cheaper for Microsoft to download the operating system to you than to provide you with a DVD and accompanying paperwork.

Windows 10 was given away free for a time last year and many folks took advantage of the offer with accompanying bugs and delays. If you bought a new machine in the last year, as I did, it came with Windows 10 already installed.

The Microsoft Blog post confirmed that they will be ending all support for Windows 7 on January 14th, 2020. Yes, that’s just 15 months away and it includes security updates, therefore opening the floodgates to hackers and rendering the operating system effectively useless. I always thought that this was considered extortion.

Understandably, many Windows 7 users will be reluctant to jump to Windows 10. After all, they declined the opportunity when Windows 10 was free and there’s a lot less control on that platform than previous editions. So it seems unlikely the current starting price of $139 for an online download will appeal to them. You’d think it was good business to keep such a popular OS going given hundreds of millions of Windows 7 users will run other Microsoft programs. Did you know that 40% of ALL windows users use Windows 7. Let’s see if Microsoft walks this one back a little bit.

Surprise/Change number 2: Microsoft quietly announced that Disk Cleanup is now deprecated (on its way out), news that was buried at the bottom of a blog post. Disk Cleanup isn’t going away immediately but is on its way out the door. Disk Cleanup has gotten more and more useful over time. Whether it was removing a few hundred MB of temporary files on Windows XP or removing more than 10 GB of leftover files after installing a big update to Windows 10, it always worked well to free up the disk space we needed. On a complicated operating system that kept adding new features over time, Disk Cleanup was always the one-stop location for freeing up disk space. Finally the good news about Windows, Disk Cleanup will be replaced.

The new “Free Up Space” tool in Windows 10 is basically a modern, faster Disk Cleanup. It does everything Disk Cleanup does—and more. To find this tool, head to Settings > System > Storage > Free Up Space Now. It will automatically scan your system for everything Disk Cleanup looked for.

Windows 10’s new utility is a more than capable replacement. Really, there’s no loss in functionality. We shouldn’t be concerned. But a part of Windows we’ve known and relied on for 20 years is going away, and we’re going to miss it. The new “Free Up Space” tool in Windows 10 is basically a modern, faster Disk Cleanup. It does everything Disk Cleanup does—and more. To find this tool, head to Settings > System > Storage > Free Up Space Now. It will automatically scan your system for everything Disk Cleanup looked for.

Windows 10’s new utility is a more than capable replacement. Really, there’s no loss in functionality. We shouldn’t be concerned. But a part of Windows we’ve known and relied on for 20 years is going away, and we’re going to miss it. You should see some updates to this story in the coming weeks or months. Let me know if anything new and exciting happens, and I will do the same.