I'm in the middle of fixing my computer so I can upgrade to 8.1 then 10. (I had moved my Users directory off of my SSD onto my HDD, which apparently prevents these kinds of upgrades)
I was hoping someone was going to talk about this. I am currently using W7 because I like it. I have to help my neighbor with her computer which is W8 and I hate it!. I have read 10 is like a merging of the two. Looking forward to what all you techies have to say about it. W10 upgrade icon is looking me in the eye on my desktop as we speak. I am soooo hesitant.
@mfladd ehhh. someone said it takes the best from windows 7 and windows 8 and combines them. i think that's mostly true, but in look and feel, it feels like windows 7 (with start menu and no windows 8 splash screen). you do get much better performance and boot times(it cheats to get better boot times via- a hybration-like shutdown)
personally i think its worth the upgrade since its free a faster than windows 7. but as with all major updates, its always wise to wait a bit so they iron out the bugs like this one
@PurplePawprints yup for the next 364 days you can upgrade from windows 7 or 8 for free. in the coming days or weeks, a update to windows 10 will show up in your taskbar or windows update. you click on it, update and it saves your old OS on your hard drive if you want to go back for some reason
@communist Does it save all the other stuff, too? I mean, does it work like an upgrade or a fresh install? Right now, I've got one computer running 8 and four running 7. I'm not going to the hassle of moving files and all that if it's a fresh install, but if it leaves everything other than the OS as is, it might be worth doing after the initial bugs are worked out. Looks like I'm going to have to do some research.
@communist on a side note while my computer that I ordered with 7 shows the upgrade. My kids computer which originally came with Vista (UGH) and I used an upgrade 7 pack for does not show it. I think I read that XP, Vista (UGH again), and 7 upgrades are not eligible.
@PurplePawprints Yes, it's an upgrade through the Windows update interface if you're going from Windows 7 or 8.1. Anything older, like XP or Vista, and you have to do a fresh install. I've had it on my laptop for the last few months and it's upgraded everything flawlessly.
That said, I'm going to wait to upgrade on my main computer for the time being until they get the remaining bugs ironed out. I do mostly gaming on this machine, and I'd hate to lose access to a game I want to play.
@mfladd It's worth upgrading just due to their policy of ending support on older OS's. 7 will likely not be supported much longer, which is why they are offering the free upgrade now. However, I agree waiting a few months is a good idea.
@rand3y the only difference here is that for the next 364 days, you can upgrade from windows 7 or 8 for free. After next year, its going to cost money to upgrade
@RedOak end of life mess ha! I work retail, all our Registers and Selfscans (all NCR Machines) are still running XP. they only installed Service pack 3 around the time MS ended XP Support.
@earlyre I'll bet those terminals are on a private network, not exposed to the Internet. If not, it's just a matter of time before they get compromised.
Of course the more folks who get off XP, the less tasty it is to attack due to less payoff for the effort.
@RedOak oh, yeah, on the store's network, which is connected to the corporate network over the interwebs.
I'm a cashier, not the resident IT guru, not do i have IT experience, so i'm not sure of the exact setup.. but i do know all our store phones switched to a VOIP setup a few years back, and each call is apparently routed through a server @ the Corporate server farm in MI.
Okay - rolled it back. That process was actually really easy. And, everything appears to be right as I left it minus some user history on IE (which I use only sparingly, anyway). I'll probably clean install Win 7 Ultimate again sometime, but I'm not fretting it now.
Maybe it is just me . . . I dunno. It took me a long ass time to switch from XP to 7 . . . I suppose I need to go buy copies of 7 Ultimate now, to keep in reserve for future use.
@thismyusername From the look of it, almost everything in the Start menu was MS branded channels - and all carry impression ads for them that can't be nuked from what I read. Plus it looked like a Windows phone fucked a tablet and out popped something needing an exorcism. Blech.
I was a loyal windows user for 2 decades, until 8. I hate windows 8 so much, I got a 2 year old laptop that came with windows 7, and at my most recent job I took the plunge and switched to mac. OSX was ok, but I got frustrated with technical issues (I'm a developer/hacker, I demand a lot out of my terminal) and recently switched to Ubuntu. Now I have various driver issues and 1/3rd the battery life - so, I guess I hate everything. At least I'm strong with the dark side of the force.
Unfortunately, I play enough games that I know I will eventually switch to 10 at home. Will have to drag me kicking and screaming, though.
@MrGlass I am a IT guy who works in a environment of Windows, Linux, and Mac. I hate everything at this point. The windows side of the house is easier to manage.
@MrGlass(I'm a developer/hacker, I demand a lot out of my terminal)
By terminal, do you mean command line, or did you mean the computer as a whole? I found the OS X command line to be quite powerful, as it's a full BSD interface. It was practically identical to a linux command line, which is lightyears ahead of anything you can do without learning the strangeness of powershell on windows..
I've only been using it today and am happy with it. To me, it's a clear improvement to Windows 8 (and quicker than 8.1), but I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to fresh releases.
I've been using it on my daily driver since the tech previews and it's pretty stable at this point. My wife's lappy upgraded yesterday morning before she woke up and she only noticed because I forgot to change the default browser back to Chrome. So far, her biggest complaint is that the new "Automatically pick an accent color based on your background" feature turned her taskbar orange because my son likes to wear orange shirts in all the pictures she takes. Her second biggest complaint was that there are too many pretty accent colors to choose from when you turn off the automatic feature.
Those waiting for SP1, Microsoft is moving to a faster release service model and we probably won't see a monolithic Service Pack anymore. Just incremental updates trickling down regularly.
Myeahhh, I have a PC that I "upgraded" from Vista to Win 8, so it'll get 10 as soon as possible. If I'm going to lose DVD playback with the Win10 upgrade, my laptop will remain Win 7 forever, though.
To add another opinion to the bunch here, the only people who shouldn't upgrade are the Windows Media Center users- it's gone in Windows 10, and you'll need to find something else. If you're one of the people who uses Windows Media Center to watch Live TV or record TV, especially with a cablecard, don't upgrade anytime soon- SiliconDust is supposed to have a new DVR package that will do this, but it's not scheduled for release for some time.
@dashcloud I switched off my he Homerun prime to TiVo. I miss the ability to do whatever the hell I want with the files but it is so much more convenient and the power bill went down about $5 or so/month (I had my gaming machine do double duty). Now the gaming machine is actually unplugged as I haven't had time to game in a while...
@dashcloud my only windows machine still runs XP and I don't think the 5yo hardware could handle the increased bloat from 10 even if they allowed me to upgrade free. But most importantly it still runs fine on XP despite the MS FUD and is more stable than the W7 machines at work. If it ain't broken...
@RedOak at some point you may want to install win 10 then remove it so that your product key gets flagged for Windows 10 for free. You can then install win 10 in 2020 or something when win 7 support goes sunset.
@dashcloud I wonder if Hauppauge is going to have any solution? Microsoft just changed their guide and now some of my series recordings don't work but others do. Microsoft has the uncanny ability to take something good and fuck it up.
@sohmageek Good tip. I've already done a clean reinstall of Windows 7 on that HTPC so I know the COA/product key is good as a starting point. So worse case I could take it back to original.
Do we have some confidence that Microsoft is updating Windows 7 keys as Windows 10-legal for future reloads? Wouldn't it suck if I upgraded to 10 to flag the product key... and then when I backed it down to 7 as part of the activation process, they stripped the Windows 10 flag? That would be just like Microsoft to jam us like that!
@dashcloud Depending on your HD HomeRun model, Silicon Dust released an official add-on for Kodi.. Maybe you could install that for all your live TV needs? My model is too old, so it wasn't supported.. I've got a much more complex setup involving a NextPVR backend, and Kodi front end.. but it works for me.
I have an asus transformer book, it's got a atom chip an 1g ram and 32g "hd".
It's not too bad, i'm kinda fond of it, love the quick boot, battery life, form factor. Its runs better than i thought it would, using portable apps and liberkey off a 64g microsd card.
Usually 2-3g free space on main drive is biggest issue. But mostly it runs ok as is on 8.1.
So how much main drive space would i need for a w10 install?
I also have a few winbook tablets running 8 with similar configs lying around. V little free space on drive as shipped, 1g ram.
They all beg for w10 upgrade. Is that a good idea or a terrible one?
i am all full of hate for winders right now. first off "would you like to schedule our upgrade to windows 10" means as soon as you click that shit it will upgrade, which is some bullshit. i specifically unchecked use edge, yet edge was pinned to my task bar, as were several other microsuck bs programs i did not want. the frequently used program were not showing what i frequently use, but bullshit like ms paint, and sign up for skype. ugh. i just spent 30 minutes unpinning all of the stuff i had already unpinned from my start menu again and all of the new bs too. and, while i wasn't a fan of the windos 8 full screen start menu, this smaller version of the same thing is ridiculous. those active panels are pointless when thy are so small. this might be becuas ei have a ridiculous resolution and windows screwed with m resolution settings, so now i am playing with resetting that properly as well. all in all i am not pleased. i think i should be considered a hostile windows user. i hate their os. i'm seriously pondering wiping this shit and installing linux.
If you have an old Windows Netbook that came with Windows 7 Starter edition, this might be the time to dust it off and give it a second chance. I believe it will upgrade to the full Windows 10 version. However, if it is still stuck with 1GB of ram, don't bother.
So if they're offering the free upgrade to 10, and you're doing a fresh system install, why not just purchase an older OS (7 or 8) and then install 10 (if desired) as the free upgrade?
I'm having issues with my PC right now as my XP disk isn't bootable and my win7 disk is apparently an "upgrade" version, so I can't validate it as a fresh install. Very frustrated with this right now.
@norrisjc I was about to buy Windows 7 Pro for just that reason and then came to a scary conclusion.
The free upgrade is being offered until July 2016. So you can install your Windows 7 and then you will get the upgrade option and then it will download and then upgrade. But what happens after July 2016 if you want to do a fresh reinstall? I do fresh installs occasionally to keep the system fresh and clean of orphan files after installing and uninstalling many programs.
Will you be able to upgrade after July 2016 if you already did it once with that COA code? Will the system let you upgrade again or will you then have to buy Windows 10 at that time?
Each time you wish to reinstall, you will have to install Windows 7, install service pack 1, wait for Microsoft to offer the Windows 10 upgrade, download it, and then perform the conversion. That is a lot of work. It's not that bad if you plan on doing this only the initial time and then never again but for people like me that frequently formats the hard drive and reinstalls, it could be very inconvenient.
@cengland0 exactly. Win7 was running fine for me until my SSD died and I've had nothing but problems trying to get it going again with this copy. I'm happy with Win7 otherwise, so I wouldn't be disappointed with being stuck with it after buying it. We'll have to see what happens with the upgrade to 10, but if you're able to download the upgrade and burn it to a disc, I don't see why you couldn't reuse that disc in the future, unless they just disable your code.
As an aside, if you buy Win7 now, won't it come with SP1 included? I know the XP disc I have has SP1 and SP2 included.
@cengland0 From what I understand Microsoft is saving your computer in their system. When you reload 10 you don't enter a key and it will activate itself the next time it is online. This is what the blogs say anyway. So as long as you do the upgrade in the year, you have a 10 key for THAT computer for life. Cant say much if you are moving that key to another computer later.
@norrisjc They may save your computer in the system but when you say, "when you reload 10..." how do you reload 10? If I format my hard drive, I don't have a windows 10 DVD that they provided me during the upgrade so I'll have to install my previous OS. Then after the year is up, it's not going to offer me the 10 upgrade again. At least that's what I'm thinking.
As long as you never format your HD and reinstall, you should be able to continue using Windows 10 until Microsoft says it's reached end of life.
@norrisjc I Tried buying Windows 7 directly from Microsoft. I was unable to find it on their site for sale. So I was forced to find it elsewhere. So many OEM options out there on eBay but those technically need to be sold with a system so people are doing weird things to get around that problem. Only a few full Windows 7 Pro's for sale on eBay and they are going for well over $200 which is more than the cost of just buying Windows 10 Pro.
The ones that come with SP1 already installed, had some feedback stating it was a copy of a disk and not an original (which is fine for me as long as the COA is real and unusued).
As far as I know, when you accept the upgrade, it will download it automatically and then let you know when it is ready to upgrade. It does not give you the option to create a Windows 10 bootable installation disk and it doesn't give you a valid Windows 10 key that you can type in the next time you go to install it. So you would need both in a year from now -- a DVD to reinstall 10, and a COA key so you can activate it and you get neither.
@cengland0 I'm not sure you have to go through all of that. It did say in one of the technical preview spots of installing fresh you will be prompted for your win 7/8/8.1 product key.
@cengland0 are you in the technical preview? If so log in get the program that i'll get the name of in a few mins. It will give you 2 options. 1 upgrade Windows now 2 download iso for upgrade on a different pc :)
@cengland0 why are you buying Windows 7 pro? Unless it's a full retail key or cheaper than own Windows 8/8.1 pro OEM you're better off getting 8/8.1 pro OEM and using downgrade rights if you want Windows 7. If you want fully legal by the Eula it has to be Windows 8 as it is the only one out of the Bunch that has a personal use exception. But everyone knows Windows 7 is used that way and is very hard to track down that you didn't sell the pc you kept it. BTW downgrade rights is only on OEM versions. I believe it's pro or home but if have to check. I know 100% pro has it.
@cengland0 If you install the upgrade, it's burned into the machine- apparently just like Windows 8/8.1. From the official FAQ: Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?
Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need to contact customer support to help with activation. You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.
@dashcloud Thanks for that info. I've seen a couple guides on how the download and install process works and none of them mentioned about the ability to create your own installation media and it not asking you for a key in the future. That is very interesting.
Of course I didn't try it myself yet. I was given the option to upgrade my laptop from 8.1 to 10 but I canceled out of it because I'm scared some of the unique software I have on it will not work. I need to test it on a non-production machine first before I attempt an upgrade on that one.
I used it for several months at the beginning of the year out of necessity on a rebuild with no OS disk to load (refused to put Win 8 on a desktop).
This is 100% my opinion. Take it however you want. Windows 8 works okay - on a tablet. Trying to use it on a desktop is a disaster. Getting a large enterprise user to upgrade was not going to happen. Microsoft got enough feedback on that and made Windows 10.
It has some very interesting features that I can see being very useful in some enterprise/business systems and very knowledgeable home users. The multiple desktop was kinda fascinating but useless to me as a single home user, even though I'm knowledgeable and a gamer.
It really is a desktop OS again that is versatile enough to use on a small screen. It will allow MS to sunset Windows 7 in a much shorter time than they would have otherwise been able to do. (Think XP).
They also finally dump IE. (can I cheer yet). The new browser was not there by the time I got a new system, but I've heard it is an improvement.
My department IT guy likes it. He hated Windows 8 enough to consider a Mac. And he doesn't like Apple products.
It was interesting to be an alpha tester, something I'd have never had the courage to do if it wasn't a 'no other option' sort of thing.
I will be putting it on my desktop probably within a month or so. On my Windows tablet, maybe not so much (Surface pro, so runs Win8.1) I'll reserve judgment there till I've played with the 'final' product a bit.
@Cerridwyn Honestly I've wanted a mac for quite a few years... My wife and new son got me one for christmas... I don't think I'll go back as a primary device to anything but macs now. Just the flow is great. However, Windows wise, Windows 10 is much better than 8/8.1 on nontouch devices. I'm about to try it on a touch device. I still like 7, but dislike all the updates you have to do to get it current on a fresh install right now.
@Cerridwyn I think I read that you can change from the "start menu" to the entire screen on Windows 10 to make it look like 8/8.1 if you want. I haven't tried it though. I did upgrade my surface pro 3, but I haven't used it much since the upgrade so I don't have an opinion yet.
I think I'll wait a month or so. That Wi-Fi Sense is spooky, even knowing that I can opt out by changing my network name so it ends in _optout. None of my neighbors' network names have changed yet.
@OldCatLady yep...I'm gonna wait a minimum of two weeks, see what the verdict is. Too many new OS's have latent bugs that show up only after significant use. And with Microsoft forcing updates, you won't know what the status of your PC really is...
@eeterrific But we TRUST microsatan, and 10 has been in beta for a long time, and beta testers find everything. Surely the option to select which updates you want will be restored, if we have faith.
@OldCatLady I will say I had to switch to a different phone for a few days till I could get my iPhone unlocked for use on T-Mobile. HOWEVER Wi-fi Sense was single handedly the BEST feature of the Windows phone. I didn't have to type a whole lot of wifi passwords, it would just join public ones if you've enabled the feature. It was the most promiscuious my phone had ever been.
My husband installed today. I'll give it a few days before upgrading mine. I do like some of the features I use in 8 have migrated over to 10, but have been cleaned up a bit. I'll be happy to have the start menu back, but the splash screen worked well on my touchscreen... when I used it (rarely.) The smaller version in the 10 start menu seems like cramming a small windows phone screen somewhere that makes no sense.
@Thumperchick Well... At work I've been trying to get it installed... Finally found a laptop that isn't used and installed it... Also found out the reason the laptop wasn't being used... The battery had died and no longer takes a charge...
I just got it installed on my laptop and will continue to use it. Currently doing a clean install to make sure it's fresh. I like it in my first impressions and I think it will be a good upgrade for Windows 7 users, but I will update after I use it for a while.
Still don't understand the Win 8/8.1 hate train? I've been using it for the duration since I rebuilt my PC and haven't had problems. Maybe I've just been using my desktop more sparingly than others and really don't rely on it much anymore. For all those comments about Win 8/8.1 being slow, is it because you don't have an SSD for your OS install? (or not a good SSD?) That alone makes all the difference.
For me, I'm going to wait on Win10 for a while until I see updates come out. I installed the Win10 Technical Preview on an old laptop and was surprised the old Lappy 486 could run it (until you try anything using too much RAM) so that must speak to it being slimmed down. I don't really like the congested Start Menu of Win10 and am happy with the Start Screen, but I seem to be in the minority in that (again, have become more basic PC user).
@404Error The Start Screen is a bit silly on a non-touchscreen machine, and more importantly, it's really weird and disconcerting being flung between the two (rather different) halves. If you only had to deal with one or the other, people would've been much happier with it- there's good stuff there, it's just covered by the stuff people are confronted with immediately.
Just installed. No major differences, improved UI components. Nothing in my way and seems to perform as well, if not better than, Windows 8.1. New start menu rocks. Happy I took the leap thus far.
My only concern is Cortana. And by that I mean I want to use it but last time I converted from a local to an online/cloud account, my PC would not go to sleep. It took me a while to figure that out, too. I'll try again at some point, but not right now.
Installed it today, no problems, everything works great. This was surprising too since my PC started life as an XP Dell, was struck by lightning and was turned on in a new case, with a new power supply, motherboard, ram, CPU, etc. I kept the old Dell installed OS which complained that I upgraded too many things and thought it was a pirated copy, but after re-activating it worked ok. Got a good deal on 7 from some student promotion and upgraded then for around $20 I think. Now upgraded to 10 manually, since it was not my turn in line. None of these installs were clean, all were upgrades, so I was very surprised it went so smoothly today... Mainly I upgraded due to the impending lack of support for 7. Happy so far.
Loads faster, but Chrome is sloooooow. I hope Google tweaks it soon to work better.
Of course, it allows Microsoft to spy on us more efficiently. Check privacy settings. I kinda like having Cortana, even though it is spying, too. So does Amazon's Echo, so - whatever.
The update to Windows 10, the report said, “automatically made [a man's] porn collection into a slideshow and used it as a screensaver. And to make matters worse, the malfunction was discovered by his wife, who was greeted by the explicit images first thing in the morning.”
@rockblossom Article said he'd saved the photos to the "My Pictures" folder. That seems like a really dumb place to keep pictures you want to keep secret.
I've been using 10 for a couple of weeks now. I really like it. I hated 8 when I had it on my old slate, and was running 7 on both my laptops. One machine is upgraded to 10 and the other is still on 7, and I actually prefer the 10. Guess I should upgrade the other machine too. ;)
I was hoping someone was going to talk about this. I am currently using W7 because I like it. I have to help my neighbor with her computer which is W8 and I hate it!. I have read 10 is like a merging of the two. Looking forward to what all you techies have to say about it. W10 upgrade icon is looking me in the eye on my desktop as we speak. I am soooo hesitant.
@mfladd you should never be the first to upgrade,, you have an entire year to upgrade for free so i would wait a few months .
@communist But is it better than 7? I hate 8.
@mfladd ehhh. someone said it takes the best from windows 7 and windows 8 and combines them. i think that's mostly true, but in look and feel, it feels like windows 7 (with start menu and no windows 8 splash screen). you do get much better performance and boot times(it cheats to get better boot times via- a hybration-like shutdown)
personally i think its worth the upgrade since its free a faster than windows 7. but as with all major updates, its always wise to wait a bit so they iron out the bugs like this one
@communist We can upgrade for free? I might be willing to do that. I loved 8 at first, but now it's just slow and clunky.
@communist Thank you. But as you suggested I am still going to wait.
@PurplePawprints yup for the next 364 days you can upgrade from windows 7 or 8 for free. in the coming days or weeks, a update to windows 10 will show up in your taskbar
or windows update. you click on it, update and it saves your old OS on your hard drive if you want to go back for some reason
@communist Does it save all the other stuff, too? I mean, does it work like an upgrade or a fresh install? Right now, I've got one computer running 8 and four running 7. I'm not going to the hassle of moving files and all that if it's a fresh install, but if it leaves everything other than the OS as is, it might be worth doing after the initial bugs are worked out. Looks like I'm going to have to do some research.
@communist on a side note while my computer that I ordered with 7 shows the upgrade. My kids computer which originally came with Vista (UGH) and I used an upgrade 7 pack for does not show it. I think I read that XP, Vista (UGH again), and 7 upgrades are not eligible.
@PurplePawprints Yes, it's an upgrade through the Windows update interface if you're going from Windows 7 or 8.1. Anything older, like XP or Vista, and you have to do a fresh install. I've had it on my laptop for the last few months and it's upgraded everything flawlessly.
That said, I'm going to wait to upgrade on my main computer for the time being until they get the remaining bugs ironed out. I do mostly gaming on this machine, and I'd hate to lose access to a game I want to play.
If you decide you want to make the jump, you can skip the download queue by downloading the media creation tool here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
@mfladd Ugh. I was wondering about Vista. It's still on my desktop...bleh. I don't mind 8.1 on my Surface. It just takes some getting used to.
@Knightp Thanks for the info and the endorsement! Hopefully my luck with it will be as good.
@mfladd windows 7 is eligible for upgrade(service pack 1 needs to be installed though) you can upgrade manually via ISO file(burned to a dvd or flash drive) here http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
@communist You're the best!!!
@mfladd
@mfladd It's worth upgrading just due to their policy of ending support on older OS's. 7 will likely not be supported much longer, which is why they are offering the free upgrade now. However, I agree waiting a few months is a good idea.
@mehdaf @mfladd Windows 7 is supported until 2020.
been running it for 4 months (they had a public alpha)
its good
its fast
START MENU IS BACK
I'm stoked to get out of windows 8. Though, I do have one of the few devices that it makes sense on. (Touchscreen laptop - it's grown on me.)
If its not letting you then move the user directory back. I might have to do that if that is the case.
Been running Linux for years so I have no plans to use it, but the general rule for Windows is to wait until at least the first service pack.
@rand3y the only difference here is that for the next 364 days, you can upgrade from windows 7 or 8 for free. After next year, its going to cost money to upgrade
@rand3y That would explain why you're talking about something from history. Service packs will no longer be.
@communist It will be interesting to see - if after a year, the adoption rate is not high enough - whether they extend that free period.
It seems they want to avoid the Windows XP end of life mess at any cost. As with XP, Windows 7 just plain works and is pretty well liked.
@RedOak end of life mess ha! I work retail, all our Registers and Selfscans (all NCR Machines) are still running XP. they only installed Service pack 3 around the time MS ended XP Support.
@earlyre I'll bet those terminals are on a private network, not exposed to the Internet. If not, it's just a matter of time before they get compromised.
Of course the more folks who get off XP, the less tasty it is to attack due to less payoff for the effort.
@RedOak oh, yeah, on the store's network, which is connected to the corporate network over the interwebs.
I'm a cashier, not the resident IT guru, not do i have IT experience, so i'm not sure of the exact setup.. but i do know all our store phones switched to a VOIP setup a few years back, and each call is apparently routed through a server @ the Corporate server farm in MI.
I went ahead and did the free upgrade this afternoon from 7 Ultimate (64bit) to 10 Pro on my laptop.
This shit seriously licks the donut. I'll be rebuilding all fucking day tomorrow.
Oh, and Cortana can go fuck herself with a red hot poker.
This isn't an OS as much as it is a skin from what I can see - and one big advertisement for all things Microsoft.
Blah, I say. BLAH.
Okay - rolled it back. That process was actually really easy. And, everything appears to be right as I left it minus some user history on IE (which I use only sparingly, anyway). I'll probably clean install Win 7 Ultimate again sometime, but I'm not fretting it now.
Maybe it is just me . . . I dunno. It took me a long ass time to switch from XP to 7 . . . I suppose I need to go buy copies of 7 Ultimate now, to keep in reserve for future use.
Srsly dat 10 sheit wuz scariews.
@Pavlov but but you can get rid of the advertisements in solitaire for only $10 a year. :)
@thismyusername From the look of it, almost everything in the Start menu was MS branded channels - and all carry impression ads for them that can't be nuked from what I read. Plus it looked like a Windows phone fucked a tablet and out popped something needing an exorcism. Blech.
@Pavlov or use downgrade rights as ultimate isn't really sold anymore :(
@thismyusername
@communist omg omg omg this link lead me to discover that Chip's Challenge was re-released on Steam in May. Playing it now.
I was a loyal windows user for 2 decades, until 8. I hate windows 8 so much, I got a 2 year old laptop that came with windows 7, and at my most recent job I took the plunge and switched to mac. OSX was ok, but I got frustrated with technical issues (I'm a developer/hacker, I demand a lot out of my terminal) and recently switched to Ubuntu. Now I have various driver issues and 1/3rd the battery life - so, I guess I hate everything. At least I'm strong with the dark side of the force.
Unfortunately, I play enough games that I know I will eventually switch to 10 at home. Will have to drag me kicking and screaming, though.
@MrGlass "...Ubuntu. Now I have various driver issues and 1/3rd the battery life - so, I guess I hate everything."
The Linux candor is refreshing. And rare.
@MrGlass I am a IT guy who works in a environment of Windows, Linux, and Mac. I hate everything at this point. The windows side of the house is easier to manage.
@MrGlass (I'm a developer/hacker, I demand a lot out of my terminal)
By terminal, do you mean command line, or did you mean the computer as a whole? I found the OS X command line to be quite powerful, as it's a full BSD interface. It was practically identical to a linux command line, which is lightyears ahead of anything you can do without learning the strangeness of powershell on windows..
I've only been using it today and am happy with it. To me, it's a clear improvement to Windows 8 (and quicker than 8.1), but I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to fresh releases.
I've been using it on my daily driver since the tech previews and it's pretty stable at this point. My wife's lappy upgraded yesterday morning before she woke up and she only noticed because I forgot to change the default browser back to Chrome. So far, her biggest complaint is that the new "Automatically pick an accent color based on your background" feature turned her taskbar orange because my son likes to wear orange shirts in all the pictures she takes. Her second biggest complaint was that there are too many pretty accent colors to choose from when you turn off the automatic feature.
Those waiting for SP1, Microsoft is moving to a faster release service model and we probably won't see a monolithic Service Pack anymore. Just incremental updates trickling down regularly.
Myeahhh, I have a PC that I "upgraded" from Vista to Win 8, so it'll get 10 as soon as possible. If I'm going to lose DVD playback with the Win10 upgrade, my laptop will remain Win 7 forever, though.
@PocketBrain Go download VLC and don't look back. That should cover any video file you play (Well except Blurays cause they are evil)
To add another opinion to the bunch here, the only people who shouldn't upgrade are the Windows Media Center users- it's gone in Windows 10, and you'll need to find something else. If you're one of the people who uses Windows Media Center to watch Live TV or record TV, especially with a cablecard, don't upgrade anytime soon- SiliconDust is supposed to have a new DVR package that will do this, but it's not scheduled for release for some time.
@dashcloud I switched off my he Homerun prime to TiVo. I miss the ability to do whatever the hell I want with the files but it is so much more convenient and the power bill went down about $5 or so/month (I had my gaming machine do double duty). Now the gaming machine is actually unplugged as I haven't had time to game in a while...
@dashcloud my only windows machine still runs XP and I don't think the 5yo hardware could handle the increased bloat from 10 even if they allowed me to upgrade free. But most importantly it still runs fine on XP despite the MS FUD and is more stable than the W7 machines at work. If it ain't broken...
@dashcloud Yep. That's a bummer. The HTPC we have hooked up to the main TV will remain Windows 7. WMC just plain works.
And once we've upgraded our various other PCs/Laptops we'll lose the ability to play that HTPC recorded content over the network on them. Bummer.
@RedOak at some point you may want to install win 10 then remove it so that your product key gets flagged for Windows 10 for free. You can then install win 10 in 2020 or something when win 7 support goes sunset.
@dashcloud I wonder if Hauppauge is going to have any solution? Microsoft just changed their guide and now some of my series recordings don't work but others do. Microsoft has the uncanny ability to take something good and fuck it up.
@sohmageek Good tip. I've already done a clean reinstall of Windows 7 on that HTPC so I know the COA/product key is good as a starting point. So worse case I could take it back to original.
Do we have some confidence that Microsoft is updating Windows 7 keys as Windows 10-legal for future reloads? Wouldn't it suck if I upgraded to 10 to flag the product key... and then when I backed it down to 7 as part of the activation process, they stripped the Windows 10 flag? That would be just like Microsoft to jam us like that!
@Kyser_Soze they certainly have a solid track record of F'ing up every other Windows upgrade don't they!
@dashcloud Depending on your HD HomeRun model, Silicon Dust released an official add-on for Kodi.. Maybe you could install that for all your live TV needs? My model is too old, so it wasn't supported.. I've got a much more complex setup involving a NextPVR backend, and Kodi front end.. but it works for me.
I have an asus transformer book, it's got a atom chip an 1g ram and 32g "hd".
It's not too bad, i'm kinda fond of it, love the quick boot, battery life, form factor. Its runs better than i thought it would, using portable apps and liberkey off a 64g microsd card.
Usually 2-3g free space on main drive is biggest issue. But mostly it runs ok as is on 8.1.
So how much main drive space would i need for a w10 install?
I also have a few winbook tablets running 8 with similar configs lying around. V little free space on drive as shipped, 1g ram.
They all beg for w10 upgrade. Is that a good idea or a terrible one?
@f00l It is a good idea, but you will need more HD space free. I assume W10 needs 16 GB.
i am all full of hate for winders right now. first off "would you like to schedule our upgrade to windows 10" means as soon as you click that shit it will upgrade, which is some bullshit. i specifically unchecked use edge, yet edge was pinned to my task bar, as were several other microsuck bs programs i did not want. the frequently used program were not showing what i frequently use, but bullshit like ms paint, and sign up for skype. ugh. i just spent 30 minutes unpinning all of the stuff i had already unpinned from my start menu again and all of the new bs too. and, while i wasn't a fan of the windos 8 full screen start menu, this smaller version of the same thing is ridiculous. those active panels are pointless when thy are so small. this might be becuas ei have a ridiculous resolution and windows screwed with m resolution settings, so now i am playing with resetting that properly as well. all in all i am not pleased. i think i should be considered a hostile windows user. i hate their os. i'm seriously pondering wiping this shit and installing linux.
If you have an old Windows Netbook that came with Windows 7 Starter edition, this might be the time to dust it off and give it a second chance. I believe it will upgrade to the full Windows 10 version. However, if it is still stuck with 1GB of ram, don't bother.
@RedOak I have an old one with Windows do that was upgraded to 7 with a ssd and 2 GB of ram. Guess what. Windows doesn't like the cpu lol.
@sohmageek Windows 10 doesn't like the CPU?
What netbook? I think ours is a pretty solidly built Toshiba 505(?).
So if they're offering the free upgrade to 10, and you're doing a fresh system install, why not just purchase an older OS (7 or 8) and then install 10 (if desired) as the free upgrade?
I'm having issues with my PC right now as my XP disk isn't bootable and my win7 disk is apparently an "upgrade" version, so I can't validate it as a fresh install. Very frustrated with this right now.
@norrisjc I was about to buy Windows 7 Pro for just that reason and then came to a scary conclusion.
The free upgrade is being offered until July 2016. So you can install your Windows 7 and then you will get the upgrade option and then it will download and then upgrade. But what happens after July 2016 if you want to do a fresh reinstall? I do fresh installs occasionally to keep the system fresh and clean of orphan files after installing and uninstalling many programs.
Will you be able to upgrade after July 2016 if you already did it once with that COA code? Will the system let you upgrade again or will you then have to buy Windows 10 at that time?
Each time you wish to reinstall, you will have to install Windows 7, install service pack 1, wait for Microsoft to offer the Windows 10 upgrade, download it, and then perform the conversion. That is a lot of work. It's not that bad if you plan on doing this only the initial time and then never again but for people like me that frequently formats the hard drive and reinstalls, it could be very inconvenient.
@cengland0 exactly. Win7 was running fine for me until my SSD died and I've had nothing but problems trying to get it going again with this copy. I'm happy with Win7 otherwise, so I wouldn't be disappointed with being stuck with it after buying it. We'll have to see what happens with the upgrade to 10, but if you're able to download the upgrade and burn it to a disc, I don't see why you couldn't reuse that disc in the future, unless they just disable your code.
As an aside, if you buy Win7 now, won't it come with SP1 included? I know the XP disc I have has SP1 and SP2 included.
@cengland0 From what I understand Microsoft is saving your computer in their system. When you reload 10 you don't enter a key and it will activate itself the next time it is online. This is what the blogs say anyway. So as long as you do the upgrade in the year, you have a 10 key for THAT computer for life. Cant say much if you are moving that key to another computer later.
@norrisjc They may save your computer in the system but when you say, "when you reload 10..." how do you reload 10? If I format my hard drive, I don't have a windows 10 DVD that they provided me during the upgrade so I'll have to install my previous OS. Then after the year is up, it's not going to offer me the 10 upgrade again. At least that's what I'm thinking.
As long as you never format your HD and reinstall, you should be able to continue using Windows 10 until Microsoft says it's reached end of life.
@norrisjc I Tried buying Windows 7 directly from Microsoft. I was unable to find it on their site for sale. So I was forced to find it elsewhere. So many OEM options out there on eBay but those technically need to be sold with a system so people are doing weird things to get around that problem. Only a few full Windows 7 Pro's for sale on eBay and they are going for well over $200 which is more than the cost of just buying Windows 10 Pro.
The ones that come with SP1 already installed, had some feedback stating it was a copy of a disk and not an original (which is fine for me as long as the COA is real and unusued).
As far as I know, when you accept the upgrade, it will download it automatically and then let you know when it is ready to upgrade. It does not give you the option to create a Windows 10 bootable installation disk and it doesn't give you a valid Windows 10 key that you can type in the next time you go to install it. So you would need both in a year from now -- a DVD to reinstall 10, and a COA key so you can activate it and you get neither.
@cengland0 I'm not sure you have to go through all of that. It did say in one of the technical preview spots of installing fresh you will be prompted for your win 7/8/8.1 product key.
@cengland0 are you in the technical preview? If so log in get the program that i'll get the name of in a few mins. It will give you 2 options. 1 upgrade Windows now 2 download iso for upgrade on a different pc :)
@cengland0 why are you buying Windows 7 pro? Unless it's a full retail key or cheaper than own Windows 8/8.1 pro OEM you're better off getting 8/8.1 pro OEM and using downgrade rights if you want Windows 7. If you want fully legal by the Eula it has to be Windows 8 as it is the only one out of the Bunch that has a personal use exception. But everyone knows Windows 7 is used that way and is very hard to track down that you didn't sell the pc you kept it. BTW downgrade rights is only on OEM versions. I believe it's pro or home but if have to check. I know 100% pro has it.
@cengland0 If you install the upgrade, it's burned into the machine- apparently just like Windows 8/8.1.
From the official FAQ:
Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?
Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware, you may need to contact customer support to help with activation. You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.
@dashcloud Thanks for that info. I've seen a couple guides on how the download and install process works and none of them mentioned about the ability to create your own installation media and it not asking you for a key in the future. That is very interesting.
Of course I didn't try it myself yet. I was given the option to upgrade my laptop from 8.1 to 10 but I canceled out of it because I'm scared some of the unique software I have on it will not work. I need to test it on a non-production machine first before I attempt an upgrade on that one.
@cengland0 Download the free windows 10 ISO here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Thanks for the great thread, @TaRDy. I'm learning so much.
@KDemo None of us is as dumb as all of us!
I used it for several months at the beginning of the year out of necessity on a rebuild with no OS disk to load (refused to put Win 8 on a desktop).
This is 100% my opinion. Take it however you want. Windows 8 works okay - on a tablet. Trying to use it on a desktop is a disaster. Getting a large enterprise user to upgrade was not going to happen. Microsoft got enough feedback on that and made Windows 10.
It has some very interesting features that I can see being very useful in some enterprise/business systems and very knowledgeable home users. The multiple desktop was kinda fascinating but useless to me as a single home user, even though I'm knowledgeable and a gamer.
It really is a desktop OS again that is versatile enough to use on a small screen. It will allow MS to sunset Windows 7 in a much shorter time than they would have otherwise been able to do. (Think XP).
They also finally dump IE. (can I cheer yet). The new browser was not there by the time I got a new system, but I've heard it is an improvement.
My department IT guy likes it. He hated Windows 8 enough to consider a Mac. And he doesn't like Apple products.
It was interesting to be an alpha tester, something I'd have never had the courage to do if it wasn't a 'no other option' sort of thing.
I will be putting it on my desktop probably within a month or so. On my Windows tablet, maybe not so much (Surface pro, so runs Win8.1) I'll reserve judgment there till I've played with the 'final' product a bit.
@Cerridwyn Honestly I've wanted a mac for quite a few years... My wife and new son got me one for christmas... I don't think I'll go back as a primary device to anything but macs now. Just the flow is great.
However, Windows wise, Windows 10 is much better than 8/8.1 on nontouch devices. I'm about to try it on a touch device. I still like 7, but dislike all the updates you have to do to get it current on a fresh install right now.
@Cerridwyn I think I read that you can change from the "start menu" to the entire screen on Windows 10 to make it look like 8/8.1 if you want. I haven't tried it though. I did upgrade my surface pro 3, but I haven't used it much since the upgrade so I don't have an opinion yet.
I think I'll wait a month or so. That Wi-Fi Sense is spooky, even knowing that I can opt out by changing my network name so it ends in _optout. None of my neighbors' network names have changed yet.
@OldCatLady Here's the best article on Wi-Fi Sense I've found: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/wi-fi-sense-in-windows-10-yes-it-shares-your-passkeys-no-you-shouldnt-be-scared/
@OldCatLady yep...I'm gonna wait a minimum of two weeks, see what the verdict is. Too many new OS's have latent bugs that show up only after significant use. And with Microsoft forcing updates, you won't know what the status of your PC really is...
@eeterrific But we TRUST microsatan, and 10 has been in beta for a long time, and beta testers find everything. Surely the option to select which updates you want will be restored, if we have faith.
@dashcloud That is excellent, and I'm going to learn from @Pavlov's experience and not do it. Now.
@OldCatLady I will say I had to switch to a different phone for a few days till I could get my iPhone unlocked for use on T-Mobile. HOWEVER Wi-fi Sense was single handedly the BEST feature of the Windows phone. I didn't have to type a whole lot of wifi passwords, it would just join public ones if you've enabled the feature. It was the most promiscuious my phone had ever been.
@sohmageek Well, that gives a whole new meaning to phone sex.
My husband installed today. I'll give it a few days before upgrading mine. I do like some of the features I use in 8 have migrated over to 10, but have been cleaned up a bit.
I'll be happy to have the start menu back, but the splash screen worked well on my touchscreen... when I used it (rarely.) The smaller version in the 10 start menu seems like cramming a small windows phone screen somewhere that makes no sense.
@Thumperchick Well... At work I've been trying to get it installed... Finally found a laptop that isn't used and installed it... Also found out the reason the laptop wasn't being used... The battery had died and no longer takes a charge...
I just got it installed on my laptop and will continue to use it. Currently doing a clean install to make sure it's fresh. I like it in my first impressions and I think it will be a good upgrade for Windows 7 users, but I will update after I use it for a while.
Still don't understand the Win 8/8.1 hate train? I've been using it for the duration since I rebuilt my PC and haven't had problems. Maybe I've just been using my desktop more sparingly than others and really don't rely on it much anymore. For all those comments about Win 8/8.1 being slow, is it because you don't have an SSD for your OS install? (or not a good SSD?) That alone makes all the difference.
For me, I'm going to wait on Win10 for a while until I see updates come out. I installed the Win10 Technical Preview on an old laptop and was surprised the old Lappy 486 could run it (until you try anything using too much RAM) so that must speak to it being slimmed down. I don't really like the congested Start Menu of Win10 and am happy with the Start Screen, but I seem to be in the minority in that (again, have become more basic PC user).
@404Error The Start Screen is a bit silly on a non-touchscreen machine, and more importantly, it's really weird and disconcerting being flung between the two (rather different) halves. If you only had to deal with one or the other, people would've been much happier with it- there's good stuff there, it's just covered by the stuff people are confronted with immediately.
Windows tablet users- if you've got a 10 inch or smaller tablet, you get free Office Mobile apps on Windows 10: https://blogs.office.com/2015/07/29/office-mobile-apps-for-windows-10-are-here/
If you're upgrading from a version of Windows with Media Center, you can get a free DVD player app on upgrading to Windows 10. (@pocketbrain)
If you've got any other questions, I'll try to get you answers to them.
@dashcloud If you use the media center as a DVR, do they offer a replacement for that? :D
@thismyusername no. :(
Just installed. No major differences, improved UI components. Nothing in my way and seems to perform as well, if not better than, Windows 8.1. New start menu rocks. Happy I took the leap thus far.
My only concern is Cortana. And by that I mean I want to use it but last time I converted from a local to an online/cloud account, my PC would not go to sleep. It took me a while to figure that out, too. I'll try again at some point, but not right now.
Installed it today, no problems, everything works great. This was surprising too since my PC started life as an XP Dell, was struck by lightning and was turned on in a new case, with a new power supply, motherboard, ram, CPU, etc. I kept the old Dell installed OS which complained that I upgraded too many things and thought it was a pirated copy, but after re-activating it worked ok. Got a good deal on 7 from some student promotion and upgraded then for around $20 I think. Now upgraded to 10 manually, since it was not my turn in line. None of these installs were clean, all were upgrades, so I was very surprised it went so smoothly today... Mainly I upgraded due to the impending lack of support for 7. Happy so far.
@mehdaf windows 7 is supported until January 14, 2020
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
Loads faster, but Chrome is sloooooow. I hope Google tweaks it soon to work better.
Of course, it allows Microsoft to spy on us more efficiently. Check privacy settings. I kinda like having Cortana, even though it is spying, too. So does Amazon's Echo, so - whatever.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/windows-10-spies-on-emails-images-credit-cards-more/
Loved this part:
The update to Windows 10, the report said, “automatically made [a man's] porn collection into a slideshow and used it as a screensaver. And to make matters worse, the malfunction was discovered by his wife, who was greeted by the explicit images first thing in the morning.”
@rockblossom Article said he'd saved the photos to the "My Pictures" folder. That seems like a really dumb place to keep pictures you want to keep secret.
I've been using 10 for a couple of weeks now. I really like it. I hated 8 when I had it on my old slate, and was running 7 on both my laptops. One machine is upgraded to 10 and the other is still on 7, and I actually prefer the 10. Guess I should upgrade the other machine too. ;)