Free upgrade to Windows 10?

Dark Knight said:
It seems to do a fully compatibility test when you run the forced download HERE, mine appears okay but has failed twice, quite hopeful they will get a grip on it soon, I thought 3 successful upgrades on day one would be a first lol :D
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That is the media creator program that is erroring out when I try to get the ISO or USB stick download. But based on what you say the first time upgrade install does the compat check? I wonder if some failures are down to the hardware & drivers currently used/installed? But MS say is everything is OK under W7 then W10 will be OK ;)

Dark Knight said:
Just a quick thought @dean messenger ... is your 32 or 64 bit ?? my failures are on a 64bit machine :thinking:
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Hmm! mine to W7 Pro 64 bit

Carlo said:
that answered one of my questions!
The other being, will i need my OS product key? the only place i have this is on the sticker which i stuck on the bottom of my laptop...which has now rubbed completely off!!:eek::eek::eek:
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Somewhere I found a tool I think called Produkey that scans and lists license keys and AFAIK for an upgrade install you do not need a key................I think it generates a new key that can be used for a future fresh install ~ did I read that right?


Just need to be able to dl the darned thing :lol: and of course for peace of mind check that all installed progs are W10 OK but what about the drivers i.e. video, network etc???
 
Well, I've installed W10 as a full format installation today and most of my favourite programs has also been installed and run fine, even the Hauppauge digital Win TV software now works. The only one that did get a bit glitchy was Lightroom where it wouldn't run upon installation but a reboot kicked it into touch. Mind you, I may have to say goodbye to some of my older games (Eg, Star Trek Elite Force) as they couldn't even be installed, never mind run.
I did experience one hardware issue and that was in the form of my Bluetooth keyboard refusing to pair up with the dongle, but because the thing has always been glitchy from the start, I decided to treat myself to a new wireless keyboard from Argos and that worked fine.

So, as the ol' saying goes "When in Rome", I might as well stay with Windows 10 from here on. Bear in mind that support and updates for Windows 7 are going to cease soon but I can see why people are a bit wary of diving into a new system so soon after a general release.

I can still carry on using Explorer and Chrome, purely because of being able to run the Ad Block add-on. Well, if these pop ups and flashing adverts weren't quite so in-your-face then I wouldn't be quite so compelled to take action. Mind you, I do miss Windows Media Centre as I used that to view live TV via the Win TV dongle but because the original Hauppauge software now works, it wouldn't matter.

All in all, it's been a fairly painless experience, considering the jump from Windows 7 to what I'm on now.
 
The "Something Happened" issue is well talked about now :)

Plus various bugs cropping but the one that caught my eye was the Copy function not working.........looks like a fix to will be coming sooner rather than later. Afterall with its official release there will be a wave of angst from social media if bug fixes are delayed too long bearing in mind the semi public beta that has been going on for so many months and should have ironed out such arguably simple stuff!
 
Box Brownie said:
That is the media creator program that is erroring out when I try to get the ISO or USB stick download. But based on what you say the first time upgrade install does the compat check? I wonder if some failures are down to the hardware & drivers currently used/installed? But MS say is everything is OK under W7 then W10 will be OK ;)



Hmm! mine to W7 Pro 64 bit


...
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Correct that tool does many checks and updates prior to trying to install win10... 2 times unsuccessful

So...

I have done another full back-up over night and I have been welcomed this morning with my reserved win10 download ready to install... so third time lucky
 
Win 7 64-bit for successful upgrade here.
Win 10 is much slicker and although I will stick with Firefox ATM, (all plugins ok), Edge is certainly a vast improvement over IE.
Kaspersky isn't compatible so I've downloaded a trial of F-Secure which is working fine.
All in all it's an improvement for me.
 
I'm going back to 7, the upgrade was a disaster, next to nothing works, apps wont open, it wont activate the start button doesn't work. I hate all the bundled rubbish like one drive and edge, if i want a program or app i will add it myself.
 
I'm finding Edge absolutely brilliant, so fast in actual use and nice rendering.

But to me the killer featureof Windows 10 is the ability to scale different monitors differently, oh bliss. I can now keep the ultra high resolution display of my Surface Pro 3 at 150% scaling, whilst my 30" 2560x1600 external monitor can run at 100% i.e. native resolution. Makes life so much easier. And then it gets better, it has multiple desktops now. I used that all the time on my Mac and Linux workstations, makes it so much easier to quickly switch between full screen development and other stuff.

I haven't come across a single app that doesn't work yet; office 2013, adobe cc, 1password, java sdk, jetbrains, visual studio, ruby on rails, postgres, neo4j, sql server, VMware Workstation, printers, scanner, dockingstation, Bluetooth devices, and even my more esoteric vehicle diagnostic and programming interfaces.
 
8.1 64 bit has updated fine on my laptop....tried all the bits I normally use and they seem fully functional.

Bob
 
I think half of it is the upgrade, im not a fan of it much rather do a fresh install. I think i will wait a few months then just buy a copy, ive always found Windows to be worth the price.
 
If you are eligible for the upgrade then why buy it? If you've rolled back I would just make very certain your existing machine is running well and fully up-to-date, image it, and then get the upgrade to download it for you and do it again. There are also quite a number of guides online on how to do a clean install from it.

Out of interest what apps didn't work for you?
 
Box Brownie said:
Right as soon a I have copied off my 4GB USB stick and I am going to try that 'save' route in case it is the ISO download causing an undisclosed error? Will update soon :)

:( well this is just plain odd, the tool found the USB 4GB drive and the same "Something Happened" happened???
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IS that not because it says it needs a minimum of 6Gb usb stick (for pro anyway)
 
Well sounds like more success than failures !!

My third attempt again failed at the same download spot, so had a dig around and have hopefully found the cure...

I had 3 instances of SQL server running, I disabled them, re-started and the upgrade has now gone way past the previous failure point, the download and updates were successful and it is now installing features and drivers :)
 
Oops, they should have handled that in the upgrade process really. I guess I was lucky as I am constantly switching between SQL/Postgres/Neo4J/MySQL/SQLite I have all of them set to not auto start on my machine....
 
dejongj said:
Oops, they should have handled that in the upgrade process really. I guess I was lucky as I am constantly switching between SQL/Postgres/Neo4J/MySQL/SQLite I have all of them set to not auto start on my machine....
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That's what I thought, they should have done that, I have never even considered not having them start up, off topic but does it improve start up when they are off or is it minimal ??
 
Dark Knight said:
That's what I thought, they should have done that, I have never even considered not having them start up, off topic but does it improve start up when they are off or is it minimal ??
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I don't think it makes for a noticeable impact to be honest. Mine is on my Surface Pro 3 with i5 8GB 256SSD and it is very quick to start, actually I hardly ever restart my machine other than from a deep sleep. So if you don't have to switch between systems and have plenty of memory I would just leave them on.

Another thing I'm loving of Windows 10, again something I used a lot on OS X, is the Windows snapping improvements. Not just left/right, but also in quarters now. And combine that with multiple desktops, a development environment is really really easy to setup and run now.

One snag I'm finding in Edge, if you have a browser window open for a while, it seems like part of the content degrades and becomes blurry, yet the active content, like now where I am entering input remains sharp. Very strange.
 
Did get annoyed with the way Hotmail somehow used it as my PC password log on, I just want to go straight onto windows upon booting up. However, a quick perusal of Google solved the issue, but I should imagine it would trip up a less savvy computer user, especially if the Hotmail password is quickly forgotten.
 
I had the same with Windows 8.1, I don't think it looks nice seeing an email address. As part of the upgrade it picked up those settings without issue.
 
IM IN !!! on and setting things up, first impressions soooooooo much more slick than win7, worth the hassle imho :)

dejongj said:
I don't think it makes for a noticeable impact to be honest. Mine is on my Surface Pro 3 with i5 8GB 256SSD and it is very quick to start, actually I hardly ever restart my machine other than from a deep sleep. So if you don't have to switch between systems and have plenty of memory I would just leave them on.

Another thing I'm loving of Windows 10, again something I used a lot on OS X, is the Windows snapping improvements. Not just left/right, but also in quarters now. And combine that with multiple desktops, a development environment is really really easy to setup and run now.

One snag I'm finding in Edge, if you have a browser window open for a while, it seems like part of the content degrades and becomes blurry, yet the active content, like now where I am entering input remains sharp. Very strange.
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My PC is very slow at starting, so I might give it a try, I have been very lazy in that respect on this machine and turn it on when I get in and let it start up while I do other sh1t :whistle:

I have 2 screens so looking forward to seeing how well the snap feature works... I have been using Office 2016 for the last couple of weeks so that with this new OS is bringing a very fresh lease of life to a powerful but old computer - Happy Customer here... I know, easy to please :)
 
Byker28i said:
IS that not because it says it needs a minimum of 6Gb usb stick (for pro anyway)
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No, downloading just the 64bit you need Max 3GB...but as noted the same error happened with ISO selected.

Byker28i said:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
Handy also to find your new Windows 10 key. Make sure to write this down, so you can always find it.
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Yup, That's the one I was referring to :)
Ian D J said:
Did get annoyed with the way Hotmail somehow used it as my PC password log on, I just want to go straight onto windows upon booting up. However, a quick perusal of Google solved the issue, but I should imagine it would trip up a less savvy computer user, especially if the Hotmail password is quickly forgotten.
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I do not have a hotmail account and frankly have no need of or for one. So does it pickup currently used UAC passwords?
 
Yes it does pick up previously established local accounts and passwords, that is what I've done.
 
dejongj said:
If you are eligible for the upgrade then why buy it? If you've rolled back I would just make very certain your existing machine is running well and fully up-to-date, image it, and then get the upgrade to download it for you and do it again. There are also quite a number of guides online on how to do a clean install from it.

Out of interest what apps didn't work for you?
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Cant roll back thats broke as well, says the files required are missing.
No apps work even things like desktop setting (right click desktop trying to change resolution)
Click the start button nothing happens, click the store button it flashes open then closes straight away.

For me its still too much like windows 8/8.1, i dont want or need most of the stuff they try to ram down your throat, things like live tiles, one cloud, the weather app tile. Nothing wrong with windows 7 except they wont update the direct x.
 
Oops, I hope you've imaged your system prior to performing the upgrade. Sounds like something disrupted the configuration/settings before it was finished.

We are all different, I think being like Windows 8.1 is a good thing. I love how continuum works on my Surface Pro 3 which morphs from being a fully docked desktop computer to a laptop, to a tablet. I also think the UI is really neat, fresh and current. The universal search is the best its ever been on Windows.

Naturally you can just switch off the live tiles, one cloud, weather etc if you don't want it. I quite like it and have already been using Cortana on the desktop a fair bit.
 
Malwarebytes works fine for me :)
 
forgot to mention mine was from the download link posted earlier on MS website, so maybe the problem is that ( though i cant see how ), anyway my "reserved" version still hasnt come through and still have the little win 10 icon and nothing in the updates as yet so will wait and see when that comes through if its any better .
 
dean messenger said:
forgot to mention mine was from the download link posted earlier on MS website, so maybe the problem is that ( though i cant see how ), anyway my "reserved" version still hasnt come through and still have the little win 10 icon and nothing in the updates as yet so will wait and see when that comes through if its any better .
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I guess you've done a 'check for updates' already, otherwise it may be worth doing that. For me it didn't come through until I did that yesterday.
 
Steps I've used:

1: First things first, make sure you have everything backed up and saved. Also write down your current key for Windows 7 or 8.1.

2: Then download this little tool https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 . And use it to download an ISO for your version of Windows. Got Windows 8.1 Pro? Go with Windows 10 Pro. Got Windows 7 Home Premium? Go with Windows 10 home, etc..

3: Make a bootable USB stick with this: https://rufus.akeo.ie/ . Use GPT for partition table, and file system FAT32.

4: Then put the USB stick aside and install the Windows 10 upgrade through Windows update. The reason being that your old key won't work to activate Windows 10. But during the update process you automatically get a new key, a legitimate Windows 10 key.

5: Now once it's all installed use this tool: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html to find your new Windows 10 key. Make sure to write this down, so you can always find it.

6: Now with your new Windows 10 key you can install Windows 10 and activate it like you're used to. Boot from the USB stick, install Windows 10, install the drivers, activate and off you go.
 
I think i might just install windows 7 tonight and nothing else then do the upgrade via the tool should be the safest way. Then i can do a clean install of 10.
 
I've always done clean installs in this past. This is the first time I've tried simply upgrading and, for me, everything seems fine on two laptops and one PC. I'm just starting my fourth machine now. All are from an 8.1 x64 Pro base and I'm adding media centre in now before the upgrades in the hope that I retain native DVD playback capability.
 
Update not showing on my Win 7 machine yet, is the updates a regional thing where you wait your turn in the queue? I did fill out the reservation thingy on the taskbar
 
I haven't seen the update ready on any of my machines, despite reserving my copies weeks/months ago. I simply downloaded the installation files to a USB stick and have been updating manually on each machine.
 
Just thought I would mention I received a telephone call today form a foreign lady in what sounded like a busy office environment. The line was pretty poor but she was telling me she was ringing about "Windows" and asked me to turn on my computer. Pfffft. I'm assuming that notifications for updates,would be via your computer and not via phone call.
 
Nice convergence ;)
 
tdodd said:
I haven't seen the update ready on any of my machines, despite reserving my copies weeks/months ago. I simply downloaded the installation files to a USB stick and have been updating manually on each machine.
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Use the download link I posted earlier for the download tool.
 
Kaspersky now have an update for Win 10 compatibility - link on their forum.
 
frank said:
Update not showing on my Win 7 machine yet, is the updates a regional thing where you wait your turn in the queue? I did fill out the reservation thingy on the taskbar
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If you right click on that little icon, you should now see a "Get Windows 10" button (y)
 
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