# Windows 10 upgrade advice



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

If you don't want to wait for Microsoft to decide when your Windows 10 upgrade will be downloaded & installed, you can start it manually using this link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

There is a choice for which tool to download; either the 32-bit or 64-bit tool. Select the appropriate version for your current operating system. If you aren't sure which you have then right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties. Look in the System category under "System type:" for which one you have.










After the tool is downloaded you should run it as administrator (right click on the icon and select "Run as Administrator). You will have a choice to either upgrade the current machine or download media to install in another machine. You will only select download media if you have other machines to upgrade. If so it will prompt you for media for a flash drive or an iso file. Select iso file of you want to burn it to a DVD.

It will also ask you for specific information about which version of Windows 10 you need. Use this table as a version guide.










Important Note: To upgrade from Windows 7 you must have Service Pack 1 installed. Likewise, to upgrade from Windows 8.1 you must also have Service Pack 1 installed. Windows 8.0 will not directly upgrade to Windows 10, so you must upgrade to Windows 8.1 SP1 first, which is a free upgrade.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

You beat me to posting it. LOL I found that last night and downloaded it, as I plan on clean installing it on my laptop.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> You beat me to posting it. LOL I found that last night and downloaded it, as I plan on clean installing it on my laptop.


I've decided to take a chance on it. I'm installing it on a secondary laptop first though.

I've standardized on renovating one model of laptop so a single upgrade DVD will help me a lot.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

I installed it yesterday morning. It is working great. It has solved what I did not like about 8 and my VPN to our other offices is working better.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

I installed Windows 10 on a secondary machine. It seems to be an acceptable product. As for boot times, I'm able to boot the Windows 10 & 7 machines side-by-side. Boot times are 20 seconds on both machines.

I installed Windows 10 from DVD media. It took exactly 1 hour. I did the update option, so I probably could have saved 15 minutes or so by not doing updates. Windows 10 seems extremely slow to scan the machine for required updates.

It seemed to pick up all of the hardware drivers automatically and all licensed apps are still activated.

I think it's a solid enough OS to try on my primary workstation. I don't see any major roadblocks to productivity like I saw with Windows 8.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Thanks Nevada. I'm going to install it on my 8.1 Asus notebook first. I don't use that for anything really necessary. Once I've tested the program for a few weeks, and if all goes well, then I'll download it to the Win 7 desktop which has my whole life plus the business files on it. 

By flash drive, do you mean a thumb drive? The notebook doesn't have a DVD drive.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

I installed Windows 10 about 3 months ago as an 'Insider build.' Frankly, it's been the most stable Windows build I've had, and that's before it was released. (I did have one BSOD, but I was kind of asking for that one. LOL)

The ONLY issue I really had was that the touchpad was kind of wonky for a while, but Windows auto-updated the driver for it about a week or so after install, and after that it's been great. I've had no major issues at all.

IMHO, if one is updating from....

- Windows 7 - I'd hold off a few months, frankly, as Windows 7 is pretty rock solid.
- Windows 8/8.1 - I'd update to 10 as fast as possible. LOL I thought Windows 8.1 was pretty darn solid once all the updates/service packs were done, but Windows 8 was to 7 as Vista was to XP - a royal pain.

Windows 10 is what should have been released instead of Windows 8/8.1. It's sped up my computer in general, has been more reliable than Windows 8/8.1, etc.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> The ONLY issue I really had was that the touchpad was kind of wonky for a while, but Windows auto-updated the driver for it about a week or so after install, and after that it's been great. I've had no major issues at all.


I just finished upgrading my primary workstation to Windows 10. Yes, there were some driver issues. Most were reinstalled automatically with the first Windows update, but I also had to do a few manually.

My Expresscard device that provides USB 3.0 slots isn't playing nice with Windows 10. It may be that there won't be a driver for it. I don't really need USB 3.0 for anything so I can live with it, but evidently there are going to be devices where drivers are going to be a problem for Windows 10.

**Edited To Add**
I got the Expresscard device to work.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Nevada said:


> I just finished upgrading my primary workstation to Windows 10. Yes, there were some driver issues. Most were reinstalled automatically with the first Windows update, but I also had to do a few manually.
> 
> My Expresscard device that provides USB 3.0 slots isn't playing nice with Windows 10. It may be that there won't be a driver for it. I don't really need USB 3.0 for anything so I can live with it, but evidently there are going to be devices where drivers are going to be a problem for Windows 10.
> 
> ...


Well, yeah, that's been my experience, except that I've had to reinstall nothing manually; all I had to do was literally wait, and a driver update was published to my computer.

I'm not saying it's all roses, but I AM saying that I'm pretty darn impressed so far with how the 10 rollout has gone.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> Well, yeah, that's been my experience, except that I've had to reinstall nothing manually; all I had to do was literally wait, and a driver update was published to my computer.
> 
> I'm not saying it's all roses, but I AM saying that I'm pretty darn impressed so far with how the 10 rollout has gone.


It's not uniform. The two laptops I've upgraded are the same brand & model, so pretty much identical. The first one picked-up almost all drivers, but my primary workstation required a number of drivers to be reinstalled. The interesting thing is that the Windows 7 drivers all worked fine on reinstall, but the upgrade operation couldn't retain the drivers. I even had to reinstall the printer driver for my HP Laserjet.

Firefox seems to have a glitch. Every time I start Firefox it tries to restore the previous session, as if the program had terminated unexpectedly. Like this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22059150/restore.jpg

It's not that big of a deal. I suspect that Firefox will take care that with a new version release soon.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Windows 10 is handling remote desktop connections and VPN much better for me. I am in 3 different systems right now and streaming a long youtube video at the same time. No lagging at all.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Nevada said:


> It's not uniform. The two laptops I've upgraded are the same brand & model, so pretty much identical. The first one picked-up almost all drivers, but my primary workstation required a number of drivers to be reinstalled. The interesting thing is that the Windows 7 drivers all worked fine on reinstall, but the upgrade operation couldn't retain the drivers. I even had to reinstall the printer driver for my HP Laserjet.
> 
> Firefox seems to have a glitch. Every time I start Firefox it tries to restore the previous session, as if the program had terminated unexpectedly. Like this:
> 
> ...


Well, of course it's not uniform; it never is. But as compared to the Windows Vista/8 rollout? It's FAR better.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

6-1/2 hours later....... Win 10 is finally installed on my notebook. Yikes! It's a good thing I could hang around the house all afternoon. 

So far it looks like everything is working OK. Except it changed the default picture program to its own. Need to figure out how to change it back to PhotoPlus. 

Question -- I made a recovery thumb drive (no DVD drive on this computer) right after I purchased the computer. That will put everything back to Win 8 if I ever have a complete meltdown. Since I don't want to go through the 3 hours to update to Win 8.1 and then 6 hours to Win 10, is there a way I can make a new recovery thumb drive that would restore the computer to Win 10 instead of Win 8? If so, would some kind person tell me where to start? 

Also, since this upgrade was done directly, is there a way I can make a copy of Win 10 in case I need it in the future? Thanks.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Belfrybat said:


> Also, since this upgrade was done directly, is there a way I can make a copy of Win 10 in case I need it in the future? Thanks.


You'll need to download it again. The first post in this thread tells you how to do that.

But this free licensing offer is only good for a year. Even if you download the upgrade and burn it to a DVD it may not register after a year. To activate it after next summer you'll either need to buy a license or use a pirated copy.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

So even though I downloaded Win 10 in the allotted time frame, if the computer has a complete meltdown after the year is up, I'll have to buy a copy of Win 10? That doesn't seem fair. Guess if that happens, I'll have to go back to Win 8. 

However, it does look like I'm going to be able to keep my hair -- I downloaded Classic Shell. In the Win 10 native form, there's no search box when I click on the windows icon. The search on the bottom task bar searches the internet, not the computer--dumb move if you ask me. I have so many files it's easier for me to use the search box rather than browse for the file. Thankfully Classic Shell brought the search box back. 

I do like the "quiet reading mode" in Edge. I get so tired of videos starting by themselves, it's a pleasure to hit the little open book thingy and have just text come up.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

So if my computer has a complete meltdown after a year has passed, I'll have to buy a copy of Win 10 in order to restore it? That doesn't seem right if I've installed it. Ah well, it is Microsoft after all. 

Looks like I'm going to be able to keep my hair -- I downloaded Classic Shell. In the Win 10 native form, there's no search box when I click on the windows icon. The search on the bottom task bar searches the internet, not the computer--dumb move if you ask me. I have so many files it's easier for me to use the search box rather than browse. Thankfully Classic Shell brought the search box back. 

I do like the "quite reading mode" in Edge. I get so tired of videos starting by themselves, it's a pleasure to hit the little open book thingy and have just text come up.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Belfrybat said:


> So even though I downloaded Win 10 in the allotted time frame, if the computer has a complete meltdown after the year is up, I'll have to buy a copy of Win 10? That doesn't seem fair. Guess if that happens, I'll have to go back to Win 8.


From what I've been hearing, if you're loading it on a computer you've never loaded it on before, then yes, you'll need a license. But if the computer you've loaded it on now has a meltdown and you need to reload Windows 10, then no, you won't need a new license - it has already updated your license to Windows 10 and 'knows' that computer.

I do have to say that I'm one heck of a lot more impressed with Edge than I thought I'd be. I mean, there are some small niggling things I could point out, but they're just that - small, and for the first full version post-beta, I'm pretty impressed by it. I have yet to find a misrendered site, and I stress the heck out of my browsers. LOL


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Kung said:


> From what I've been hearing, if you're loading it on a computer you've never loaded it on before, then yes, you'll need a license. But if the computer you've loaded it on now has a meltdown and you need to reload Windows 10, then no, you won't need a new license - it has already updated your license to Windows 10 and 'knows' that computer.


It will be interesting to see how that works out for people. I'm not really concerned one way or the other. Other than the occasional new computer I've bought, I've never deliberately purchased Windows.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

And really when you come right to it, This Version of Windows 10 really is not really a completed version.

There will be a Update coming in the Fall, whoich will add a few things and make Windows 10 a full version.

This Update version will be called Threshold 2

As THAT is really what Windows 10 name is THRESHOLD. So you that are downloading now you are downloading Threshold version 1

Version Threshold 2 comes out this fall will make (Windows 10) complete.
I heard this on "The Tech Guy", yesterday on the radio. 
Leo Laporte used to be on the old TV channel--- Tech TV. LOL 

http://techguylabs.com


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

arabian knight said:


> And really when you come right to it, This Version of Windows 10 really is not really a completed version.


Contemporary Windows versions have always been a work in progress. Regardless of what they call it, what's available today is the official release of Windows 10.

I've installed it twice on laptops with SSD, and once with a hard drive. Expect it to take an hour with SSD and almost twice that long with a hard drive. The upgrade will go much more smoothly if you tell it to check for updates at the beginning if the install.

There are some things I don't like about Windows 10. I can see where they've tried to simplify the Settings interface, instead of a the more detailed Control panel that we're accustomed to, but I prefer to having more control. I suppose I'll get used to it.

Sometimes the desktop wallpaper gets covered up by a plain blue (maybe purple) covering. The laptop still works fine when the wallpaper is covered, but I'm not sure what causes it to appear or how to get rid of it -- short of restarting. A number of people are asking about it in the support forums but Microsoft's official position is that it isn't happening. They'll post a cure when the figure it out.

I'm getting used to it...


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Nevada said:


> Sometimes the desktop wallpaper gets covered up by a plain blue (maybe purple) covering. The laptop still works fine when the wallpaper is covered, but I'm not sure what causes it to appear or how to get rid of it -- short of restarting. A number of people are asking about it in the support forums but Microsoft's official position is that it isn't happening. They'll post a cure when the figure it out.


I have a theory about why the blue desktop keeps covering up the wallpaper. Its appearance isn't totally random, and seems to be associated with performing functions with Administrator privileges. Since the default administrator desktop is blue, the changed desk appearance might be an indicator that you're operating as Administrator, not the normal unprivileged user that you're logged in as.

That's fine, if that's what it's for, but it would be nice to have a simple way to revert back to the normal wallpaper. There probably is a simple way to do it, but I don't know what it is.

**Edited To Add**

It can be cleared by logging off and back in. Hold the Windows key and tap the "L" key to logoff, and then click Sign In.


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## rzrubek (May 13, 2004)

Be sure to "upgrade " first before doing a clean install. Otherwise it will not take your old product key.


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