Generally speaking, Win 10 seems pretty solid. I haven’t tried OpenOffice…you may of course want to double check on that before making any decisions (though Google Apps provides a very good online office environment as well).

Now, the flip side of the coin. Many if not most of the issues I’ve had can probably be chalked up to drivers, but I can’t say that for a certainty.

My laptop is a so-called 2-in-1, so the screen can be flipped back 180 degrees to make it a tablet. Obviously, when you do that the input changes: the keyboard and mousepad will shut down because you’re using the touchscreen. Problem number one was that it’d sometimes boot up in tablet mode, even though it was physically configured to function as an ordinary laptop. It’s not an issue anymore because I’ve got an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and leave the lid to the laptop closed all the time. It’s possible that updates have solved the issue anyway.

Problem number two, almost certainly a driver issue: I could configure a usb drive for ReadyBoost, OR I could use an SD card for additional storage–not both. When I popped in an SD card, the usb drive would vanish, and vice versa. Out of frustration and pure laziness, I stopped swapping things out one day while the SD card was in, and I haven’t bothered trying again since. Again, updates may have solved the issue in the meantime. Or not.

When I first got the computer, Bluetooth simply would not work. It’d report that it was on, and it would appear to look for devices, but it would never connect. Maybe a month ago I tried–again–to get it to connect to a Bluetooth keyboard, and viola, it connected just like that. Updates, gotta love ‘em. This one *may* have been on Microsoft, because I’ve heard of Bluetooth issues with Win 10.

One kind of fun little addition is Cortana, the Win 10 voice interface. Not only can she tell you tomorrow’s forecast and what time it is in London, but I can say “Hey Cortana…” then wait for the chime that indicates she’s listening, “…open control panel.” And Control Panel opens without having to dig through the Start Menu for it. She’ll fire up pretty much anything for you.

Overall, though,I tend to chalk the negatives up to Dell rather than Microsoft, but I haven’t bothered doing any legwork to see if I’m right.

It’s what I’m running on my PCs.

Windows XP is no longer supported, and upgrading Vista to Win10 requires a clean install, and reinstalling all your programs and data.

You can get a program to check your system’s Win 7 compatibility here. See what that tells you.

I don’t know which version of Win7 would give you the smoothest upgrade path from Vista. If you’re running 32 bit Vista, you’ll probably want a 32-bit Win7.

I always buy a complete version, not an “upgrade only” version. A bit more expensive, but a lot more flexible.

I’m pretty sure you can get a version of OpenOffice that will run on any Windows version.