OT: Windows 10 Upgrade Process Steps

I have finally decided to do the Windows 10 free upgrade. They say the offer will expire in a week or two so here goes.

I want to make the process as painless as possible so I would like to know just how it proceeds. My data is on a separate hard drive and I have already backed it up to another, separate hard drive so that is not a problem. I do have a lot of programs that I use, but I can load them again so no problem there.

What I want to know is more about the actual steps I, emphasis on that word, I, must take during this upgrade process. I would like to start the process and then go to bed for the night. And it is done when I wake up in the morning. But these things are often interrupted by questions that must be answered before the process can proceed. So, can anybody who has done this upgrade tell me just how the process works. Is there a point where I can leave the computer and come back and it is done? Where is that point? What must be answered before that?

This is the kind of thing that no computer geek would ever dream of telling us. I mean, why shouldn't you sit by the computer like a dummy as it decides what it is going to do and when? After all, you are not one of us and your time is worthless.

I do not think you have to babysit the transfer.
I hear of folks getting an upgrade automatically, without requesting it.
For example a lady I know left the computer on over the weekend, Monday morn a brand new windows 10 ready to roll!

Do a full mirror image backup if you want a path back to your previous operating system. I have heard, on the internet, that if your current programs don't work with Win10 then it deletes them. If you revert back to your old operating system you no longer have what wouldn't work with Win10. Something to keep in mind.

I took the plunge last month and let it upgrade my 8.1 laptop. IIRC it did it unattended while I walked away. I did have to restart the machine about 4 times afterward to get it to settle down and run at proper speed, but there was not the dreaded yes/no questions that I expected to pop up just frequently enough to need long term boring attention like most MS stuff is noted to have.
So far it seems slightly less cantankerous than 8.1.

I'm pretty much computer illiterate.I downloaded windows 10 with no problems.
mike

I updated last year I'm pretty sure and it was painless. I didn't have any issues with speed and whatnot, however I'm using a 2 in 1, so the drivers may be more suited for the mobile versions of Windows. I don't know if Win 10 has a start menu because I already had Classic Shell on my computer, but I highly recommend installing Classic Shell if you want a start menu.

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When you guys say old programs are talking about 32bit programs installed on a 64bit operating systems? And after the upgrade now you can't run the 32bit stuff any more? No way to install at all after the upgrade?

What? No start menu?

Brent

I don't think there was so much difference between 8.1 and 10 where programs shouldn't run. If you upgraded from XP, that's a no brainer why programs won't run. Installing 32 bit software on a 64 bit system won't cause any issues either.

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I'd recommend that you uninstall any junk programs that you don't intend to continue to use. Many times users may have stuff show up in Control Panel, Add/Remove programs that they have forgotten they ever had. Remove it so the new OS doesn't bring forward unnecessary crap.

Also remove devices plugged in to your USB ports for the duration of the upgrade as these can cause the installation to hang up part way through. The new OS can find those devices better after it is all settled down anyways.

If you already have downloaded the 3 or 4 gigbytes of installation files, you're nearly done. Actual install might take an hour. You can watch it go while you watch the news or something.

10 DOES have a start menu. Nice one, too.

Jay Fleming said:

I don't think there was so much difference between 8.1 and 10 where programs shouldn't run. If you upgraded from XP, that's a no brainer why programs won't run. Installing 32 bit software on a 64 bit system won't cause any issues either.

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No not XP. I'm running 32bit stuff on windows 8 but people saying be careful old programs might not run on 10 I was thinking maybe 10 didn't run 32bit any more?

Brent

Not sure, I didn't have any software that wasn't 64 bit already. I just know generally speaking, 32 bit software will run on a 64 bit system. Win10 still has compatibility mode that started with at least XP. Since you will be upgrading from Win8, you can create a virtual machine running Win8 but so think VMs were only available on the professional level versions.

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I didn't have any problems going to 10 on my win 7 AMD desk machine but I restored the win 7 because 10 is an overstuffed, intrusive pig.

A nice "feature" of 10 is that your laptop will not fully shut down without extra help.

Well, here I go. I am going to start the process while I go to the gym for some exercise. Hope I don't come back to a disaster.

Step
(1) dispose of windows based operation system or computer.
(2) buy a Mac...

Or convert to a Linux or XP

Relax ... it will do what it needs to do and you "shouldn't" have any real issues on start except perhaps older programs not being compatible.

John

I'm a software developer but not really much of a computer geek in that I don't keep up with the latest OS tricks and features & whatnot. I did the upgrade on my laptop a few months ago and it went smoothly without needing to be babysat. However, Win 10 is very twitchy about WiFi. It constantly disconnects from my WiFi and the only reason I can find is signal strength. If I'm right next to the access point it's fine, but across the house it frequently disconnects. Windows 7 had no problem. I think it just has a higher threshold for cutting out. There are many threads online about WiFi issues with Win10, but mostly from people who complain it flat out stopped working after they upgraded.

I've done the Win 10 upgrade two ways. In both cases, I created an iso image of the boot disk on a 2nd hard drive (use Microsoft Backup, or better yet, a program like Acronis to do this) as a backup. This involves the setting up the program to create the image, then telling it to "go", and then the program reboots you computer using the backup program and not windows. This means all the files that windows opens on your boot disk stay closed. This is the optimal state to get a good clean image. Also, make sure you create a windows 7 rescue disk (or ensure you have the Acronis disk) so that you can reinstall your old system if things go AFU.

Once you have a backup, you can proceed in two ways. You can just run the update. It may gag, in which case you have to download the Windows 10 media creation tool. Run the tool and it upgrades your computer. Get the Windows 7 license key from your COA sticker on your machine - it will ask for that. You have to tell it to install in place (and not do a clean install) or else it will erase your current disk and install a clean version of windows 10. Easy Peasy. If you currently run a 32 bit version of Windows 7, you get the 32 bit version of win 10. And 64 bit Win 7 gets you 64 bit windows 10. Windows 10 upgrade updates all your drivers. All your files and programs should still be there, right where you left them. Should be pretty easy. Some programs will require upgrades, and I'm sure that there are some programs that just wont run (maybe time to upgrade from that 1992 version of Corel Draw).

The other way to upgrade is to create a clean install, wiping out your files. So back up your files as files on an external hard drive first. Anything you want to keep. Make sure you ahve your Office license key written down if you want to be able to reinstall it. Then use media creation tool to create a clean win 10 image. THIS WIPES OUT EVERYTHING ON YOUR CURRENT DRIVE. So deinstall stuff like Adobe products (by deinstalling them, you have the option of reinstalling them again on the new O/S). The reason to do things this way is if your current drive have been in use for a while and is garbaged up and you want to have a clean, reliable, efficient computer setup. I did this on my main work computer. Worked great. Of course, you have to reinstall just about everything. And you forget stuff, so a week later you will realize that you didn't install the network printer. For me, it was worth it. I installed the OS, Office, a bunch of other programs I use, and copied all my files from the directory I had saved (Frankly, I make both an ISO disk image AND a folder with all my files - you can't choose individual files and folders to copy from the ISO).

Windows 10 has some quirks, but I like it ok. My brother sells software, accounting systems, and systems engineering in Boston. High-end firm, Doug knows his stuff. He advised me to go ahead. Win 10 has lower overhead and a lot of user interface improvements over Win 8.1. Most programs are compatible, or have compatible versions.

Beyond the quirks, the downside? Win 10 reports a lot of crap back to the Microsoft mother ship. Also, Win 10 "helps" you with suggestions, which I find annoying. Go online, and find a video or two that tells you how to turn much (but not all) of that off. In Win 10, they've made the free games you are used to ad-ware. So if you want to play Spider Solitaire without having to log into your microsoft account, you have to put up with ads, or pay a per-month fee for premium games. Or.... find the Windows 8.1 games install file (ends in .msi) and install that. Works fine. Or so I hear.

I've done two clean installs, and one install-in-place. All worked. BTW, some older hardware (graphics drivers, for example) don't have Win 10 drivers. The normal install gags on this, but you can use the Win 10 media creation tool to to the in-place install (FOR HEAVENS SAKES, THOUGH, MAKE SURE YOU CHOSE THE OPTION TO NOT DO A CLEAN INSTALL!!!!). Except for the games issue, I've been pleased with Win 10.

As an aside, I'm selling two Lenovo T61p (at one time the flagship of the Thinkpad line, still very much the IBM design quality) with Win 7 on eBay. Both work great with windows 7 (one is pro, one is ultimate), both have max memory, both have higher-end graphics for their time. Should be upgradeable to Win 10, if you like. PM me if you've an interest.

lwalker said:

I'm a software developer but not really much of a computer geek in that I don't keep up with the latest OS tricks and features & whatnot. I did the upgrade on my laptop a few months ago and it went smoothly without needing to be babysat. However, Win 10 is very twitchy about WiFi. It constantly disconnects from my WiFi and the only reason I can find is signal strength. If I'm right next to the access point it's fine, but across the house it frequently disconnects. Windows 7 had no problem. I think it just has a higher threshold for cutting out. There are many threads online about WiFi issues with Win10, but mostly from people who complain it flat out stopped working after they upgraded.

Click to expand...

I've heard the same thing. I had no problems with the clean install, and don't use my other machine enough to notice this. There are several threads discussing how to fix this. One is to use device manager to delete the network adaptor device. Run the program to find the driver. Apparently, some folks have luck with the reinstalled driver and have reliable wi-fi. Like I said, in two clean installs I've had no problem.

Kimfab, when you say Win 10 is bloated, is your concern memory use, inefficient O/S processes, too much communication to Microsoft, or too much "help" in the form of intrusive suggestions? I've addressed most of the latter two issues by going through and turning crap off in the system management icon. Including Cortana. RIP. My brother suggests that stripped down like this, Win 10 is actually more efficient in terms of memory, O/S processes and stuff.

What was your experience?

Driver updates didn't work for me. the network drivers installed by the upgrade were the latest available. Most of the other problem causes, e.g., bits of an old VPN installation sticking around, didn't apply to my case.

I suspect there were multiple problems and I solved some of them since it was definitely much worse in the first few weeks after the upgrade. e.g., it looks like my WiFi was being put into sleep or low-power mode after a few minutes, but that seems to have stopped after I made some changes.

At this point I'm probably just going to get a router with a better signal or relocate the router since the only remaining problem is definitely correlated to signal strength and I can't find a configuration setting for the dropout threshold. It's come down to the level of "minor irritation" rather than "serious problem" now.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with Windows 10. It stays out of my way and lets me get work done. I have other Win10 machines at work that have never given any trouble at all, so randomness of which computers have problems is really puzzling.