Making The Jump To Windows 10

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The crew at HotHardware has put together a guide to migrating to Windows 10. Definitely worth a look if you haven't made the jump yet.

The upgrade cycle begins, with Microsoft’s latest operating system--the highly anticipated Windows 10--rolling out over Windows Update for free, for users of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. For those that are ready to take the plunge over the weekend, there are some things to note. While this guide is by no means exhaustive, there are some useful reminders here as well as some potential pitfalls that may rear their ugly head during the upgrade process.
 
Made the jump on my Surface Pro 3....works great. Granted, I better not have issues with a Microsoft manufactured piece of hardware.
 
I moved my asus t100 tablet to W10, seems good to me. Small install size, after clearing prev OS and install files, only 10gig used (with chrome+plugins and codecs installed)
 
What's surprising to me is that the upgrade has an undo button. We've been told over and over that the existence of Windows.old is not a rewind function, but MS actually made it one this time (time-limited to one month post-install or if you manually delete the files yourself).
 
It was pretty painless. I went from Windows 7 to Windows 10 no problem.
 
This is going to sound stupid....

Has anyone with multiple monitors figured out how to force an app to open on a specific monitor? The only problem I am having is with Edge. It always opens on the left monitor, but I would prefer it to be on the center monitor.
 
This is going to sound stupid....

Has anyone with multiple monitors figured out how to force an app to open on a specific monitor? The only problem I am having is with Edge. It always opens on the left monitor, but I would prefer it to be on the center monitor.

do all your apps open on the left monitor?
Is your center screen set as primary?
Do apps open again on the screen where they were closed?
 
Other than sleep and standby issues with doing an in-place upgrade (a fault of the very outdated drivers that Intel has listed for my motherboard), everything is working fine minus a small bug or three. Doing a clean install and installing the latest drivers for everything fixes the standby issues. So far it's acceptable. Nowhere near the *wow* factor as there was with Vista/7 but for free, I can't complain.
 
I am currently installing it on my laptop to test it out.
watching the videos of 10, it looks like it has a lot of neat features that I like, but I really like the way 7 looks with Aero.
Be nice to have a Windows 7 skin for 10.
 
do all your apps open on the left monitor?
Is your center screen set as primary?
Do apps open again on the screen where they were closed?

Some open on the left monitor, namely the start menu and the Edge browser. Apps that I had before the upgrade open on the monitor they used to open on.

I use Nvidia surround, so it's all detected as one big monitor.

No. If I close Edge on the center monitor, it will reopen on the left monitor.

It's more annoying than a problem, but....
 
At least you guys can install it. I've been trying for two days.

Whatever I do it absolutely will not install over windows 8.1 so I can activate it.
 
Why are you running in surround vs extended desktop?
 
I haven't migrated all of my drives yet, but I did one instance of 7 and it went pretty well. I've held back on getting Chrome, so far, to give Edge an even test. Gotta say, seems smooth to me. I haven't had any real issues although it's only about 2 days old, and I haven't spent too much time with it.
 
Why are you running in surround vs extended desktop?

No idea, that's what it defaulted to. It's now in extended, but does the same thing.

At this point...getting tired of messing with it. After much searching on the net....this isn't fixable at this time. I don't have to use Edge, it's interesting, but since it won't pop up where I want it to (Chrome, IE, etc. does) I'll just stop using it until MS does something to fix the issue.

The start menu.....that might be a deal breaker for me. Not a fan of clicking on the start button and having the menu show up on the far left screen. Not sure why MS won't allow it to show up on the same screen the taskbar is.
 
why is everyone in such a rush to 'upgrade' for?...patience is a lost art these days...I'm planning on waiting a few weeks or months and then buying an OEM copy of Windows 10...seems like you're trading in a lot of your privacy for this 'free' upgrade
 
why is everyone in such a rush to 'upgrade' for?...patience is a lost art these days...I'm planning on waiting a few weeks or months and then buying an OEM copy of Windows 10...seems like you're trading in a lot of your privacy for this 'free' upgrade

the EULA is the same for the free and purchased versions of 10, only difference is we lose our privacy for free while you pay for it, lol
 
the EULA is the same for the free and purchased versions of 10, only difference is we lose our privacy for free while you pay for it, lol

I meant that you're trading in your privacy with Windows 10, compared to previous Windows versions, regardless of whether you upgraded for free or pay for it
 
I meant that you're trading in your privacy with Windows 10, compared to previous Windows versions, regardless of whether you upgraded for free or pay for it

As someone old enough to remember the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial very vividly and many of the arguments against Microsoft back then, it's interesting to note that those restrictions and regulations expired in 2012. This is beginning to look a lot like Microsoft circa 1997.
 
I meant that you're trading in your privacy with Windows 10, compared to previous Windows versions, regardless of whether you upgraded for free or pay for it

I've never read the EULA's of the older version, but the excerpt I read the other day from Win 10 does seem kind of excessive, they have the ability/right to access all the files on your machine as well as your mail if you use their email service.
 
I am currently installing it on my laptop to test it out.
watching the videos of 10, it looks like it has a lot of neat features that I like, but I really like the way 7 looks with Aero.
Be nice to have a Windows 7 skin for 10.

They still haven't brought Aero back? What a bunch of assclowns. Aero looks too good to give up. Maybe there's a mod.
 
The last page of that article is completely wrong. There's no need to extract your key. For some reason people are really having a hard time wrapping their minds around not needing a key to clean install once you've upgraded.
 
Your Windows 10 UPGRADE "key" or unique installation ID is stored in the cloud.
from the Microsoft:
Understanding Product Activation in Windows 10:

In previous Windows releases, when you installed an upgrade version of Windows, if you wanted to reinstall the upgrade version, you had to first reinstall the qualifying version from which you upgraded, reactivate it, then upgrade again and reactivate again.

With Windows 10, this is no longer the case. Once you have upgraded to Windows 10 and activate, you can simply create a bootable copy on DVD or USB and reinstall just Windows 10 without the need to reinstall the qualifying version and it will reactivate automatically.

Quote:

"Windows 10 handles keys differently. When you upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update from Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, the process registers your computers hardware, and qualifying OS with a Microsoft Product Activation Server. The device is then considered a Windows 10 device.

Subsequently anytime you re-install (or clean install) the installation checks with those servers, finds the unique installation ID and produces the validation"
 
I run IT for a small business and am upgrading a couple of Win7 machines to Win10...

I've read somewhere that upgraded retail copies of Win7/8/8.1 will retain the license transferability when you upgrade to Windows 10.

So example, I have Computer A running Windows 7. I upgrade Computer A to Windows 10.

In the future (lets say, after the 1 year free upgrade period), when Computer A dies and I can no longer find enough spare parts to repair the machine, I buy a new computer 'Computer B' and decide to reuse the license. Computer A is discarded and the license is freed up.

I can no longer install Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10 due to the 1 year upgrade period lapsing. MS Activation servers do not recognized Computer B and I therefore cannot install Windows on this. What happens now? I'll need to call MS for each and every case that this happens?
 
I run IT for a small business and am upgrading a couple of Win7 machines to Win10...

I've read somewhere that upgraded retail copies of Win7/8/8.1 will retain the license transferability when you upgrade to Windows 10.

So example, I have Computer A running Windows 7. I upgrade Computer A to Windows 10.

In the future (lets say, after the 1 year free upgrade period), when Computer A dies and I can no longer find enough spare parts to repair the machine, I buy a new computer 'Computer B' and decide to reuse the license. Computer A is discarded and the license is freed up.

I can no longer install Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10 due to the 1 year upgrade period lapsing. MS Activation servers do not recognized Computer B and I therefore cannot install Windows on this. What happens now? I'll need to call MS for each and every case that this happens?

I think you could still transfer/install the original Windows 7 license onto 'Computer B,' as the original license doesn't seem to get used up in the upgrade process. You just won't be able to upgrade it to 10 for free (although I anticipate the free upgrade period may be extended indefinitely after the year is up) and you aren't really any worse off at that point than had you not installed Windows 10 at all.
 
I run IT for a small business and am upgrading a couple of Win7 machines to Win10...

I've read somewhere that upgraded retail copies of Win7/8/8.1 will retain the license transferability when you upgrade to Windows 10.

So example, I have Computer A running Windows 7. I upgrade Computer A to Windows 10.

In the future (lets say, after the 1 year free upgrade period), when Computer A dies and I can no longer find enough spare parts to repair the machine, I buy a new computer 'Computer B' and decide to reuse the license. Computer A is discarded and the license is freed up.

I can no longer install Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10 due to the 1 year upgrade period lapsing. MS Activation servers do not recognized Computer B and I therefore cannot install Windows on this. What happens now? I'll need to call MS for each and every case that this happens?
In this situation you would have to call them. But why would a small business be running retail editions of Windows 7 rather than volume licensing? When you buy a new PC in 1 year why would it not come with Windows 10 already?
 
I think you could still transfer/install the original Windows 7 license onto 'Computer B,' as the original license doesn't seem to get used up in the upgrade process. You just won't be able to upgrade it to 10 for free (although I anticipate the free upgrade period may be extended indefinitely after the year is up) and you aren't really any worse off at that point than had you not installed Windows 10 at all.

Read somewhere that the Windows 10 license derived from upgraded retail copies of Windows 7/8/8.1 are eligible for transfer. OEM copies of these versions upgraded to Windows 10 will still legally live and die with the motherboard. Will look for the link. I remember it was part of an interview with some guy from Microsoft. Gabe Aul?

Edit: Still looking for the link, but here's something else in the meantime.

When I upgrade a preinstalled (OEM) or retail version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license to Windows 10, does that license remain OEM or become a retail license?

If you upgrade from a OEM or retail version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 to the free Windows 10 upgrade this summer, the license is consumed into it. Because the free upgrade is derived from the base qualifying license, Windows 10 will carry that licensing too.

If you upgrade from a retail version, it carries the rights of a retail version.

If you upgrade from a OEM version, it carries the rights of a OEM version.

Full version (Retail):

- Includes transfer rights to another computer.

- Doesn't require a previous qualifying version of Windows.

- Expensive

In this situation you would have to call them. But why would a small business be running retail editions of Windows 7 rather than volume licensing? When you buy a new PC in 1 year why would it not come with Windows 10 already?

We're not from the USA, and MS only does volume licensing through its brick and mortar dealers, which price gouge big time. To avoid the issue of piracy (which is very rampant, but I'm choosing to stay legit) and very high costs, we've resorted into going for boxed copies. I have a cabinet full of boxes, keys and installers of old OSes and software... (Heck, I just re-installed a copy of XP and Office 97 SBE here the other day :D)

Also, new PCs here at our work come without OSs and are bought in parts, as the price is way cheaper than going for an OEM like HP, Acer or Lenovo.

On top of this... patch days will be horrible for our company 4mbps bandwidth (which costs us more than the equivalent of 100$ per month!) -- Looks like I will have to disable the Windows Update via the services.msc.
 
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I only upgraded my Dell Venu 11 Pro to Win 10 s that tablet has the perfect configuration for using windows 10
 
I've never read the EULA's of the older version, but the excerpt I read the other day from Win 10 does seem kind of excessive, they have the ability/right to access all the files on your machine as well as your mail if you use their email service.

Just a thought: If you were delivering an e-mail service, wouldn't it be kinda hard to actually serve your customers if you had no right to copy, access or store any of the e-mails? :D

Your service would be like: Incoming mail - sorry can't do a thing with it. Sending out mail - sorry don't have the right to do anything with it. The access part comes with the probable need to run an antivirus / spam filters on the mail.
 
Just a thought: If you were delivering an e-mail service, wouldn't it be kinda hard to actually serve your customers if you had no right to copy, access or store any of the e-mails? :D

Exactly! I really don't understand why so many people are upset about the EULA for Windows 10. It really isn't much different than the EULA that was included with Windows 8 and 8.1.

The part about being able to access files is directly related to the OneDrive integration. The EULAs for services similar to OneDrive (such as Dropbox) have very similar language in them.

You are basically saying it is OK for Microsoft to store and send back to you files that you choose to store in OneDrive. Without such language in the EULA, someone could use OneDrive to store some files than sue Microsoft for having copies of the files on their servers - even though they were put their by the user's request!

I have also seen people upset about the telemetry data. Microsoft has been collecting telemetry data about application crashes, blue screen reports, etc since at least Windows XP - possibly earlier. Stack traces that could be traced back to a particular 3rd party application are often shared with the developer of the application so they can fix the problem. Apple does something very similar to this in later versions of OS X and iOS.

From a developer's point of view, this is a very nice and useful service. I have seen many of those reports and Microsoft goes out of their way to ensure that no actual user data is in the reports. The reports contain little more than a stack trace showing what was running at the exact moment of a crash and a listing of currently loaded device drivers and their versions. The only thing different now is they are making this more visible to the end-user and they are giving you the option to opt-out of this. (There have always been options to opt-out but previously they were fairly well hidden.)
 
I uninstalled windows 10 last night. I'm sorry but it is totally overhyped. It is merely windows 8.2 The start menu isn't really back as there is so much damn functionality lost compared to windows 7. The most awful part though is microsofts fascistic insistance on their horrible UI. Every window is freaking retina numbing white. I cannot change the window color? It is just a step back from windows 7 all the way to 3.11. At least windows 2000 had some color and XP is a modern looking beauty compared to this awful insistance on unmodifyable ugly. Before Microsoft went stoooopid with 8 they used to let you choose your UI. Now they force a crap one on you. The media player sucks. The icons were drawn by a 3 grader using Paint. Using the built in mail app broke my installation of outlook. What a steaming pile of crap. It does not one thing better than 7 and it's ugly. A paper bag over the monitor won't make me go back.
 
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I updated 3 laptops and 1 netbook so far. All had issues with windows update install. "Fail" error which was due to corrupt download. After I used the Microsoft tool the 2 laptops and netbook updated.
a) Hp D6v (windows 7 pro)
b) Lenovo g505 ( windows 8.1)
c) acer one( windows 7 pro)
d) asus laptop I never attempted again to do update.
The upgrade from 7 to 10 seems ok. I had to disable edge, search, login screen, ms cloud .
Now they work good.
The window 8.1 upgrade is a huge improvement. Gone is charms bar!
 
OEM copies of these versions upgraded to Windows 10 will still legally live and die with the motherboard.

That is the big question.

Say I bought a Dell earlier this year that came with Windows 7.
I do the free upgrade to Windows 10.
A year from now, the mother board dies, and Dell comes out (under the 3 year warranty) and replaces the mother board.

My assumption is that Windows 10 will see this as a new computer and need to be reactivated, probably with a call to Microsoft.

Tying the license to the mother board is not a good idea.
 
Tying the license to the mother board is not a good idea.

In my experience, MS has never done anything but activate. I replaced a motherboard, HDD, and video card on computer. Installed Win 7 tried to activate - failed. Called MS and a few minutes later I was on my way. It's really only as big of a deal as you want to make it.

They are entitled to protect their product and honestly....this doesn't take anything but a few minutes of time. There are much more time consuming and PITA ways they could have done this.
 
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It's really only as big of a deal as you want to make it.

They are entitled to protect their product and honestly....this doesn't take anything but a few minutes of time. There are much more time consuming and PITA ways they could have done this.

Thank you. This sums up my thoughts exactly. I have never had a problem with activation by phone. When something did not work with the automated system, someone came on the line and asked, "Are you running this license on ONLY ONE machine?" I answered yes. He told me to hold, I was transferred back to the automated voice and my answer code for each box was generated. Simple..........
 
I've been denied an activation a couple of times in the past. It's not foolproof.
 
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