Transitioning to Windows 10
Transitioning to Windows 10
I’d consider upgrading before the free option ends, though it’s not urgent. It could offer a small boost in performance, but the difference won’t be significant.
Yes, it should work better. (But not much more.) I recommend starting with an upgrade first, then proceed with a clean installation. (You must upgrade initially so it activates, after which you can skip entering the key, connect to the internet, and finish.) You could install it fresh right away using the key on your laptop, but that would be a waste of the existing Windows 7 key you have for another machine. (Unless your current setup already used that key—meaning you previously formatted Windows and entered it.)
Windows 10 brings improvements for laptops compared to Windows 7, especially in boot times, which are slightly faster. However, overall performance isn't consistently better across all tasks. Some features, like the photo viewer and calculator, tend to run slower in Windows 10 than in Windows 7. While there are cases where Windows 7 performs more smoothly, the differences are usually minor and don’t significantly impact daily use. For a full comparison, you can explore the linked benchmark results.
In my observations Windows 10 damaged my gaming PC but functioned smoothly on an affordable Best Buy laptop.