Windows 10 upgrade, what should I do?

Thread Starter

recklessrog

Joined May 23, 2013
985
I would like some help in deciding whether to "upgrade" my P.C's to Win 10. I have a desktop and laptop that have been running on win 7 64 pro, another laptop running win 7 home 64, and a little notebook that has win starter 32. All have been very reliable for the last 6 years, and any problems have been quickly and easily resolved. I have been following the win 10 forcible upgrade thread and now have the following questions that maybe those who have gone through the process may be able to offer some advice.
1) how long is it likely that M.S will continue to support win 7.
2) Should I try the upgrade on one of the laptops, probably the the one running win 7 home 64, it has plenty of processor and ram power.
3) If I do go ahead, should I either make a full backup and system image, OR, clone the hard drive with a program like Reflect or similar, OR do both?
4) I read somewhere that if I do the upgrade, it important not to run CCleaner if I later want to revert back to win 7.
5) Does "Classic shell" work well with win 10?

As there seem to be so many conflicting opinions, I would like to here from someone who has done it and how it turned out.
thanks in advance :)
 

Dr.killjoy

Joined Apr 28, 2013
1,196
1) how long is it likely that M.S will continue to support win 7.
Not sure cause it varies but time will only tell ..
2) Should I try the upgrade on one of the laptops, probably the the one running win 7 home 64, it has plenty of processor and ram power.
You could try and see what you think..
3) If I do go ahead, should I either make a full backup and system image, OR, clone the hard drive with a program like Reflect or similar, OR do both?
The problem comes as the computer is now store at MS with the keycode to be registered with that computer..
4) I read somewhere that if I do the upgrade, it important not to run CCleaner if I later want to revert back to win 7.
I never heard that but I run CCleaner and I just am very careful of deleting things ..
5) Does "Classic shell" work well with win 10?
Never tried it but try google for better results

IMO I would upgrade all your computer to win 10 and go back to win7 if you want so that way later down the road you can upgrade again for free.. After some point MS will cut off the free upgrade and will be stuck buying the OS in order to upgrade.. Just to remember to make back up disk or Win 10..
 

prof328

Joined Apr 15, 2016
10
I assume you do know that Microsoft are changing their marketing strategy with windows 10.
Up to this point all updates have been free this is ending with win10, all updates for win10 will need to be purchased.
I am sticking with win7.
 

PatM

Joined Dec 31, 2010
86
I tried upgrading my desktop win7 to win 10 - what a disaster.
The desktop and Windows Explorer kept rebooting every 1 to 2 minutes
I tried all of the fixes listed on the internet with no luck.
I finally discovered that you can roll back to your original operating system for a period of one month.
3 hours wasted, but it was easy to roll back to win 7.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-how-to-roll-back/
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
My Win8.1 did the upgrade on it's own, with no permission from me. It had a screen that warned about many restarts during the "upgrade". I wasn't home when it started and had NO warning that it was going to happen. Sometime in July is the last of the "free" Win10, after that you pay. Never heard that all on going support was to be charged.
 

prof328

Joined Apr 15, 2016
10
Yes, they are giving windows 10 away for free, because any, and all, future updates will have to be paid for as and when they make them available.
Of course you don't have to buy the updates but this may leave you with a system with some vulnerabilities.
I don't fancy an operating system that is pay as you go, I am more than happy with windows 7 so am sticking to it.
 

prof328

Joined Apr 15, 2016
10
oops looks like I am wrong in this, sorry.
I read somewhere a while back that this was the case but now I can't find it.
It looks like win 10 updates are free.
 

tom_s

Joined Jun 27, 2014
288
and current relaease of classic shell does work with win10

do an image backup (or two) before the bloatware/bandwidth hog advertising upgrade(sic)
 

Marley

Joined Apr 4, 2016
502
Whether to upgrade? There's an old saying: "If it's not broken then don't fix it".

So if you are happy with Windows 7 and it works well, then why change? OK there is the problem that it might not be supported beyond 2017 but there still might be security upgrades.

MS does not give anything away for free. W10 will be supported by subscription or advertising and possibly, (like Android) by data mining.

There is an alternative option...
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
Whether to upgrade? There's an old saying: "If it's not broken then don't fix it".

So if you are happy with Windows 7 and it works well, then why change?
Not as easy as you think. I had NO intention of upgrading. Unless you disconnect from the net every time you quit being online it will happen, whether you want it or not. So far (since Sunday 5/22) it's been OK, every thing works and nothing lost.
 

Lestraveled

Joined May 19, 2014
1,946
I have a laptop down in my shop that I use for data sheets and PIC programming. I upgraded the laptop to Win 10 about 6 months ago. Everything transferred over. No problems. My main desktop runs Win 7 and is about 8 years old. It is an I7 with 12 gig of memory, so it has a lot of life left in it, barring replacement of fans and power supply.

Windows 7 will not be viable forever. If you buy a new computer today is will have Win 10 on it. So, it is not if you upgrade, it is when you will upgrade.
 

Thread Starter

recklessrog

Joined May 23, 2013
985
Thanks for the feedback folks :)
Well, I bit the bullet and upgraded the laptop I'm on right now, and apart from having to download a new printer driver, everything went well and appears to be ok so far. Boot time seems a little faster and programs load faster, but apart from that, it seems very similar to win 7 64 pro. One thing that I havn't yet figured out is "edge" when I click on the google icon, it tells me that it isn't my default browser and when I click make default, it opens a menu that only shows edge as being the available browser, I don't really care which browser I use as long as it works. Anyone got an opinion or experience with edge?
 

Thread Starter

recklessrog

Joined May 23, 2013
985
Day two since upgrade and I found one small issue worth knowing. Win10 uses Defender as the default security which on the face of it is security essentials by another name. During the upgrade, win 10 removes spybot (if installed) but leaves the "post win 10 spybot" re-installer in place. I ran it and then had a problem with defender being turned off.
With Win 7, I was using security essentials and Spybot together with no problems, but in win 10, if you run any other security software, it disables defender and you cannot turn it back on (in security and maintenance) unless you completely remove the other software. To uninstall spybot I used Revo uninstaller and was prompted to undo immunization and restore any quarantined items. After doing that, the spybot uninstaller says to restart, DON'T, continue with revo to search for any leftover items and delete them all or you will not get defender to start.
It took about an hour to figure this out, so beware, if you use third party security software.
I have used Security Essentials for years and so far never had a problem with it so I'm hoping Defender does the same.
Also, Microsoft now say that they will NOT be charging for updates and upgrades, but are trying to get a single platform operating system to make it easier for future development. I assume that will make it less likely to need new drivers from manufacturers and software re-writes in future.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
oops looks like I am wrong in this, sorry.
I read somewhere a while back that this was the case but now I can't find it.
It looks like win 10 updates are free.
I was about to ask for your sources on this because I could only find rumors and hypothesizing of why MS is giving away Win10 to consumers. No word from MS other than FREE. Also, plenty of shareholder info on how they are moving away from revenue expectations for Operating Systems and focusing on business users / cloud computing revenue.

I'm installing Linux if MS starts charging for upgrades but no confirmation this is true yet.

Still, MS is better than Apple and OS10. Apple bloats up and stops supporting older hardware so it becomes unusable. I'm still running a 12-year-old PC on XP and it is fine. We'll see how the fees evolve. Cheers.
 

Thread Starter

recklessrog

Joined May 23, 2013
985
I just typed "is MS going to charge for win 10 updates" into google and came across a page from a computer magazine that linked to microsoft and there it was direct from the horses mouth :)

Well its day 4 now, and all I can say is that as long as you turn off cortana and ALL the access that by default apps have to your computer, then it really is very good.
You have to go to settings, privacy, and make sure you find all the default settings, turn them off, and then check again in all the other lists in setting because they hide the same defaults under different names. There was even one that said "let apps access wd...... Which is my main and back-up hard drives!
They seem to want to know who you e.mail, phone, search, how you type, who your contacts are, the content of your e.mails, access your camera and microphone and monitor everything you do probably so they can sell the info on to advertisers. especially don't let nosey cortana "get to know you", because that B***H will send everything back to MS.
Other than doing that, it's great.
 
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Marley

Joined Apr 4, 2016
502
They seem to want to know who you e.mail, phone, search, how you type, who your contacts are, the content of your e.mails, access your camera and microphone and monitor everything you do probably so they can sell the info on to advertisers. especially don't let nosey cortana "get to know you", because that B***H will send everything back to MS.
Once MS has everyone converted to 10, (by dangling the "Free" carrot) there will be two ways it will be financed: Enterprise - subscription, Other versions - advertising.
They need to find out all about you so they can target the advertising. You have been warned!
 

Thread Starter

recklessrog

Joined May 23, 2013
985
Once MS has everyone converted to 10, (by dangling the "Free" carrot) there will be two ways it will be financed: Enterprise - subscription, Other versions - advertising.
They need to find out all about you so they can target the advertising. You have been warned!
Exactly, that's why it is so important to turn off all the snooping settings and especially cortana!!
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Well its day 4 now, and all I can say is that as long as you turn off cortana and ALL the access that by default apps have to your computer, then it really is very good.
Win10 was the easiest Windows OS upgrade to date. I installed first on a Lenovo Ultrabook running Win8.1. Upgrade went smoothly with only a couple programs being incompatible. There are still a few problems; mainly resume and reboot taking several times longer than Win8.1. But I upgraded mainly because touch with Win8.0/8.1 was brain dead.

I upgraded an HP laptop from Win7. Other than my virtual machine setup not being compatible (which is a big thing because the software I use to access my car ECU only runs in a virtual machine, so I need to swap disks if I want to use it), everything is faster with Win10.

Some early adopters had major problems. One of my Daughters professors bricked his only laptop and had to resort to taking notes by hand in class. Sadly he wasn't smart enough to make a backup of his disk. I made an image of the OS disk for my Ultra book and I cloned my Win7 to a larger drive before upgrading.
 

Ford Prefect

Joined Jun 14, 2010
245
Personally speaking, I would NOT recommend upgrading to Windows 10. The system still has some issues which need fixing and some tweaking here and there.
If you do the upgrade, you may find that certain applications may not run as expected and you may need to run the applications by running them as another Wndows version and still they may not work properly.
I upgraded my Win7 Pro 64bit system July/August 2015. I used to run many applications without any problem, then after the upgrade I had many problems. Eg. MS Flight Simulator X Gold, and Doom 3 :eek: and other applcations would not run correctly or not at all. Even after uninstalling and reinstalling using MS help and advice they would still not run properly.
I have since downgraded and everything runs as it should.
To stop the Windows 10 popup that keeps appearing you need to disable the GWX application from running in the background. You can get a GWX control panel application from here (http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/) and several other websites to stop this popup from appearing.
When MS do the fixes I may consider trying to do the upgrade but at the moment I am perfectly happy with Windows 7 Pro 64bit.
 
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