Cyprus-Forum.com

[GreekIslandGirl]

Well, I've been pestered twice now to download Win10 as it's ready for me. Gee! But ....... I'm not ready, still. Barely using the Internet these days. Might go into peasant mode again, methinks, and resurface when there's something truly new rather than simply a different way of doing the same old thing!

[kurupetos]

Yesterday I upgraded my rarely used laptop from Win 8.1 to Win 10. The laptop did not receive the "Get Windows 10" notice because I had not used it for months, so I decided to burn a disk with the ISO, following the instructions at Microsoft. But for whatever reason Windows 10 refused to get activated on the laptop... even though I bought Win 7 with the laptop and then I paid to have it upgraded to Win 8!! It refused to accept the serial numbers of either Win 7 (as shown on the sticker on the back of the laptop) or Win 8!! The internet is filled with "solutions" to this issue, but after trying a couple with no success I decided to just install Ubuntu instead. Worked perfectly. All drivers were installed automatically without a hitch. From the touch pad, to USB, camera, Bluetooth, WiFi ... everything worked right away... which was a bit of a surprise to me because I had lots of driver issues the last time I installed Linux a few years ago. Ubuntu looks great and is very fast on my relatively cheap laptop. The ONLY problem is that some of the software I am using are not available for Linux ... but that is OK for my rarely used laptop... I wouldn't install things like Photoshop on it anyways.

That's a major ripoff mate. I hope you won't end up buying Win10.

BTW, I tried Ubuntu 3 years ago and it was crap. Is it really better now? How did you install it? Did you format the whole disk or with a partition?

[kurupetos]

Well, I've been pestered twice now to download Win10 as it's ready for me. Gee! But ....... I'm not ready, still. Barely using the Internet these days. Might go into peasant mode again, methinks, and resurface when there's something truly new rather than simply a different way of doing the same old thing!

You can do the upgrade within an hour or a bit longer... probably it will be better to do that in a few months when some issues have been resolved.

[Sotos]

Yesterday I upgraded my rarely used laptop from Win 8.1 to Win 10. The laptop did not receive the "Get Windows 10" notice because I had not used it for months, so I decided to burn a disk with the ISO, following the instructions at Microsoft. But for whatever reason Windows 10 refused to get activated on the laptop... even though I bought Win 7 with the laptop and then I paid to have it upgraded to Win 8!! It refused to accept the serial numbers of either Win 7 (as shown on the sticker on the back of the laptop) or Win 8!! The internet is filled with "solutions" to this issue, but after trying a couple with no success I decided to just install Ubuntu instead. Worked perfectly. All drivers were installed automatically without a hitch. From the touch pad, to USB, camera, Bluetooth, WiFi ... everything worked right away... which was a bit of a surprise to me because I had lots of driver issues the last time I installed Linux a few years ago. Ubuntu looks great and is very fast on my relatively cheap laptop. The ONLY problem is that some of the software I am using are not available for Linux ... but that is OK for my rarely used laptop... I wouldn't install things like Photoshop on it anyways.

That's a major ripoff mate. I hope you won't end up buying Win10.

BTW, I tried Ubuntu 3 years ago and it was crap. Is it really better now? How did you install it? Did you format the whole disk or with a partition?

I bought Windows just once (Win XP) plus the versions I got with the laptops and that one paid upgrade. So I guess its OK for them to rip me off once since I have been ripping them off for decades I think I could still get Win 10 activated on that laptop, I just don't want to bother with all that bullshit for something I rarely use...(although win 10 seemed to work without activation. Only personalization didn't work. But i didn't use it long enough to be sure). I installed Ubuntu as the sole operating system on the laptop using a CD I burned with their ISO file. You could also install it alongside another OS, install it from a USB drive, or not install it at all and run it as a live CD. It is fast and it has no issues on my laptop... but I wouldn't install it on my desktop because of the limitations with the software and there is really no compelling reason to change from Win7. Now I am actually thinking to try another Linux distro which is based on Ubuntu but looks a lot like OS X: https://elementary.io/

[konefsta]

Windows 10 will work nice with a high end laptop, or better ultrabook.

I had win 8.1 on a brand new ultrabook, starting and shutting down my dell was done in about 2-3 seconds.
Now with windows 10 it takes 5-6 seconds. I mean this is unacceptable (not the 5-6 seconds, but that it takes double the time).

But all in all it fits well with a laptop that is a tablet as well, and with the latest i5-i7 processors i manage to work 6-7 hours on battery. (no videos just work)

[erolz66]

Decided to try upgrading my old desktop to win 10. The bones of it are 6.5 years old but its still a pretty strong PC. Asus P6T X58 motherboard. Intel i7 920 (Nehalem) o/c to 3.6Ghz (and under volted ) 6GB tri channel DDR3 1600Mhz RAM and Corsair TX 750 PSU are all from the original purchase in Jan 09. Since then have added (several) new graphics cards ending up with an AMD 5850 and replaced the twin Velociraptor drives in raid 0 config with a Samsung SSD for the sys drive and just recently replaced the CPU cooler cause after 6.5 years in Cyprus heat and dust it was not in a good way. Anyway a pretty decent machine still. It was originally on a (bought) OEM version of Win VIsta but I subsequently bought a full retail copy of Win 7 which replaced the Vista install from when it was first bought.

So I try the Windows update 'upgrade to Win 10' option. Take an full image of the sys drive to an external HDD. Run the windows update for 'win 10' it chugs away, all looking nice, reboots still looking nice , win 10 progress screen - copies files all ok, installs drivers , all ok, get to the final part 'configuring settings', over all progress 81%. Then at 33% on configuring settings it stops. I wait. 10 mins. Nothing. 20 mins Nothing, no drive lights, nothing. So I force close down the machine and reboot - it says install failed and restores me back to Win 7. I do a bit of googling and it seems anti virus progs can be an issue. So ok, I uninstall my anti virus entirely, go to windows update and 'try again'. It starts downloading the entire win 10 update from scratch - 2.7GB of it , that was all there before the first attempt ! So ok I let it do it stuff, start the update again. Again all the way to 81% / 33% and it locks up again. I leave it a couple of hours just in case (some people had reported just give it time). So I go round again but this time I download a USB bootable version of the install that can be used to update an existing system or install from scratch. Try it from the USB stick - same result. Go back again to win 7 and this time I strip just about everything out of the install. I uninstall 95% of all the programs (and after 6.5 years there was a lot in there) leaving little but my graphics drives. I use msconfig to stop all start-up services other than essential MS ones. Stop all start-up progs not already removed from the mass uninstalls. Run CC leaner to tidy up the registry and try the update again. Same result locks up at 81%/33%. This time I leave it 24+ hours - still no joy. I also try the 'force into sleep mode' that some people had found to work - but no joy.

So ok - I have to do a clean install. I can live with that and its probably not a bad idea anyway. Except you can NOT do a clean install of Win 10 using a (legitimate valid full retail Win 7) product code. You HAVE to do an update of an existing win 7 or 8 install or pay for a new copy of Win 10. Once you have done the update THEN you can do a clean install but that is not help to me because the dam update will not work. So OK, I have to first do a clean install of Win 7 , update it to SP1 and then see if it will upgrade to win 10. So I have my full retail boxed copy of Win 7. Problem is my old machine no longer has a DVD drive in it, that is now in my new machine. I could take it out of my new machine just to put it in my old one, just to install a clean new Win 7, just to be able to try and update it to Win 10, but really my new machine is so 'cabled in' to where it lives, connected to multiple monitors (and my occulus rift) and countless other devices , just unravelling all the cabling so I can remove the DVD drive is just too much hassle. So ok - I can make a USB bootable Win 7 install drive and install from that. However only have one USB spare of the right size and that's got the Win 10 install on it. So I make a backup image of that.I go to the Microsoft site where you are supposed to be able to download an ISO image of win 7 SP1 that can be used to make such a USB install medium. Put in my legitimate full boxed win 7 serial number and Microsoft says 'sorry not a valid code' ! Now I am starting to get pissed off a bit. OK so I have the original Win 7 install DVD , so I use an ISO ripper to make my own ISO file from this original disk, on the new machine that has the DVD drive in it. I then use the Microsoft tool with this ISO file to make a bootable USB. Chugs away 10%, 20% etc etc all the way to 95% and the it stops ! Arrrgggh. So I find a third party piece of software that makes bootable USB installs from DVD disks and run that against my original win 7 DVD. Works beautifully. So now I have a bootable Win 7 install USB. So I boot the old machine from that. Install Win 7 from scratch. Put in my valid product code - that activates fine and dandy. I then update to SP1 and put on latest graphics drives. I then take an image of the win 7 install from the USB and restore back the Win 10 image I made earlier. I then run the Win 10 upgrade from the USB drive on the old machine. Finally the update works and I have what is essentially a clean install of Win 10 on my old machine, all correctly activated from my old Win 7 product code. The whole thing has taken several days but I am finally there.

So running win 10 , legit and activated on my old desktop. I have to say I tried out the preview version of Win 10 on my partners laptop that was previously running win 8 and the update on that went fine and dandy without any problems but on my old desktop it has been a bitch and I still do not know what on the Win 7 install was causing the update to fail, only that a complete reinstall of Win 7 on that machine cleared the problem. Just starting to load back various progs I use on the old machine now running win 10 and so far it is looking and feeling pretty nice, though how much of that is just a result of the 'clean install' it is kind of hard to say.

The requirement to HAVE to update from a previous version of windows before you can do a clean install of Win 10 is a major issue as far as I am concerned, for if the upgrade just does not work on your current win 7/8 version, as it did not on mine, it becomes a real pain to get Win 10 on the machine, as I discovered. Hopefully MS will address these issue as time goes, either making the upgrade more robust or giving an option where you can just clean install Win 10 using your old Win 7 or 8 product code.

[Sotos]

Except you can NOT do a clean install of Win 10 using a (legitimate valid full retail Win 7) product code. You HAVE to do an update of an existing win 7 or 8 install or pay for a new copy of Win 10.

I didn't know about this. Does MS say this anywhere themselves? I downloaded the ISO from the following page and I couldn't read anything indicating what you say. On the contrary it says "If you will be installing the operating system for the first time, you will need your Windows product key", and then in the FAQ it tells you where you can find your product key for win 7 & 8, which implies that you should be able to use those product keys to install Win 10. I think MS is over-complicating things instead of simplifying them. Some time ago there was talk that even pirated versions would be upgraded to Win 10 for free... but now it seems that their anti-piracy crap got to the point that are making it difficult for owners of legitimate Windows to upgrade! (personally I would always do a clean install of a new OS. I hate the idea of installing a new OS on top of an old one)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10

[erolz66]

I didn't know about this. Does MS say this anywhere themselves?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ol-install

Warning

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, you need to use the Upgrade this PC now option. If you haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you'll need to enter a product key or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10.

Now the above is ambiguous , in that it does not say you need to enter a windows 10 product key (can not use a win 7 or win 8 one) but that seems to be the case. Certainly would not accept my full box retail Win 7 product key at that stage. I had to upgrade first, even though I was upgrading from brand new fresh install of Win 7, because that was the only way I could get the 'upgrade' to work.

There is more info on third party sites.

http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to- ... indows-10/

If you don’t take advantage of the upgrade process first, this registration will never happen. There’s no way to enter a Windows 7 or 8.1 key into the Windows 10 installer, nor is there some sort of web form that will give you a Windows 10 key if you provide your Windows 7 or 8.1 key. Sorry — you’ll have to upgrade to Windows 10 before you can perform a clean install.

Some more info here http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft- ... indows-10/

Reading this it seems you can do a clean install of Win 10 without first upgrading. It seems what you need to do is run the win 10 iso installer from WITHIN your existing win 7 / 8 install (Not from booting the USB / ISO) and select upgrade but with the option to 'keep nothing' and then when it asks for the product key do NOT enter anything, just skip it , and allegedly this will do in effect a clean install of Win 10 and will automatically activate. However it is far from clear to me that if I had done this on my original win 7 install, that repeatedly failed to update / upgrade if it would have worked or not. If it did not I would still have had to install win 7 fresh , just to be able to upgrade to win 10. All very annoying really.

Also I have basically agreed that my full retail copy of Win 7 - that I could validly stop using on one machine and install on a different machine, now has a Win 10 license that is specific to this SINGLE machine it is installed on and can NOT be moved to a new / different machine , even if I stop using it on this one.

[Sotos]

Such things should not be ambiguous and they shouldn't create obstacles to users who have legitimate licenses. It would be easier to install a pirated version! Anyway ... I installed linux on that computer and I do not regret it. Not only it gives no such issues but it is probably more secure and with better privacy. I was amazed at the amount of info required to enable Cortana ... I opted out of all of them, but probably MS is tracking our every move anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they have the ability to remotely access any file on any Windows computer and send it to whatever government agency requested it!

[Hillbillies]

Installed it on my laptop about a week ago now, no problems and very happy with it.