A few days ago a friend forwarded this little spoof to me:

Then yesterday, as I was shaving and listing to ABC Radio National on my laptop, I received a pop-up announcement from Microsoft to the effect that I would be updated to Windows 10 in 2 hours! There was a tiny thing to click saying “I need more time.” I gave myself until 1900 yesterday, when Mrs SG and I would be at the theatre.

Walking home from the theatre I was in a state of nervous agitation, as you can imagine. I saw “Welcome to Windows 10” on my screen with a mixture of relief (no demands for money from a hacker) and trepidation (would I still be able to access my files and run my accustomed software?).

So far, 15 hours later, I can report that Microsoft seems to have done a good job this time. Everything looks and behaves pretty much as it used to. The same icons appear on my desktop and along the bottom of the screen. I’ve kept my default apps for editing photos and the like. Office 2003 still works and so does Outlook Express.

I am as surprised to be saying this as you may be to be reading it. We Windows users have been trained to expect everything to get worse with each new version, and Windows 10 may yet disappoint; but at least the transition has been painless.