Karin's Adventures

When I saw this deal on Microsoft’s website a few months ago, I thought it was a steal. Just $99 buys me a tablet with Windows 10 on it that I can leave in the office, and use for my personal online activities during lunch break.

Initial set-up wasn’t too bad. I added a 64GB microSD card and installed all extra programs (except my virus protection) on it, to make sure Windows has enough space for itself. For a while that seemed to work, even though the frequent updates, that you can’t do much against, made it hard to find times when I could actually use the tablet for the intended purpose.

But then the “creators update” version 1709 of Windows 10 came along, and that was the end of useful life for my little cheap tablet. While the finished installation might have fitted onto what was left of my 32GB SSD, Windows 10 needs a lot more space during updates – and it will not use the SD-card for that??

I learned my lesson. Went out to eBay and found a refurbished Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140, with 128GB SSD in it. Windows 10 Pro came pre-installed. $209 doesn’t break the bank either, and it has room to grow, even with Windows 10 on it.

So, in case you’re thinking about getting yourself a Windows tablet, make sure it has at least 64GB (or better 128GB) of harddrive space, and 4GB or more of RAM.