When Microsoft ended support for Windows XP in April of 2014,roughly 95 percent of all ATMs globally were still driven by thenow-dead operating system. The lesson here: financial technologyproviders often take the “if it ain't broke, don't fix approach”and shy away from operating system upgrades longer than perhapsthey should. And that brings us to Windows 10.

With the recent introduction of Windows 10, Windows 7 is now twogenerations back. What's more, Windows 8 may be the most despisedversion of Windows ever. With so many positive reviews of Windows10 floating around the Internet, maybe you're wondering whetheryour credit union should upgrade to Windows 10. The more importantquestion at the moment is: Can your credit union upgradeto Windows 10.

As we've already realized, financial technology providers can benotoriously slow when it comes to operating system upgrades. Sure,mainstream applications like those from Microsoft and Adobe areready for Windows 10, but can the same be said about thespecialized programs that your credit union uses day in and day outto keeping the operation running smoothly?

For example, does the client software for your core dataprocessing platform rely on any features that are built intoInternet Explorer? If the answer is yes, you may haveproblems with Windows 10. Internet Explorer doesn't get uninstalledwhen you upgrade to Windows 10 and technically you can still run itunder Windows 10, but the official default browser for Windows 10is Microsoft's new Edge browser. Will having two differentMicrosoft browsers on the same PC cause issues with your coreplatform? It's a question worth asking. And of course the sameholds true for any other specialized programs you're running.

In addition to software incompatibility, you also need toconsider hardware incompatibility. For example, many people havereported issues with their video cards when upgrading to Windows10. The fix may be cheap and simple or expensive and complicated.If a Windows 10-compatible device driver is available for downloadfrom the hardware manufacturer, the problem can be resolved in amatter of minutes. On the other hand, if the device is so old thatthe manufacturer has no plans for a Windows 10 software update,you're looking at hardware replacement. If your credit union's PCshave a standard hardware configuration, this can get veryexpensive, depending on the number of PCs that need to beupgraded.

Finally, if you're considering a direct upgrade from Windows 7,you may not be able to upgrade at all. According to Microsoft, it'spossible to tweak the settings in Windows 7 such that the Windows10 upgrade will simply fail to execute. Apparently, there are anumber of different setting combinations that can result in upgradefailure; no comprehensive list is available. If you run into thisproblem, you're only option is to do a “clean install,” meaning notan upgrade, of Windows 10.

Overall, Windows 10 has been received positively by the ITcommunity. However, due to all the specialized software it takes torun a successful credit union, you need to apply a little extra duediligence when considering the upgrade.