Upgrading to Windows 10

Stick Linux on then, you might be pleasantly surprised (there again … )

I kind-of tolerate Windows in my set-up, which is mostly Linux but it’s easier to keep my wife’s and son’s machines running Windows (7, for now) and I keep a Windows machine (10, because I was foolish enough to buy a Z390 based board which will not run W7 if you want functioning USB drivers) for my own, occasional use - mainly Photoshop.

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So, one more of the household machines has “fallen” to Windows 10.

W7 has started nagging that support ends in Jan 2020 so even though Windows 7 is preferable in some respects (IMO) I think the writing is now on the wall. Interestingly the current estimate is still over 25% of Windows PC’s running 7 (and probably still a few million on XP).

I needed to put a new disk in No 1 son’s PC as he has “run out of space” - i.e filled half a terabyte with games he’s played twice but storage is not exactly expensive and his was the only machine without an SSD so he’ll gain a bit of performance.

Some observations:

  • It is still free - download the media creation tool from Microsoft and you can set-up a bootable USB stick to upgrade or reinstall Windows. Not sure if every Win 7 PC can be upgraded but it was happy enough with the retail W7 licence on my son’s PC.

  • You might need a 2nd PC though, on the PC I was trying to upgrade, the media creation tool would not run, not even the Internet knew the error code so in the end I ran it on another PC to initialise a USB drive. It will happily run on a Windows 10 PC to generate a bootable drive.

  • Sadly cheap Windows 7 anytime upgrades seem to no longer be available so that closes off the cheap route to W10 pro if you are upgrading. I did find a couple of copies but not far off an OEM copy of Windows 10. Losing RDP server is a bit of an irritation but there is a workaround available.

  • Make sure you have all your product keys before the upgrade, in the end I didn’t have to re-enter any and the copy of Windows 10 seems to have activated itself OK; certainly don’t start a fresh install without product keys. AIUI W10 will accept a “matching”, valid, W7 product key to install.

  • W10 is a bit of a nanny - No 1 son was very miffed to find out that once he had logged into his Microsoft account he had to “ask my permission” to use such “adult” programs as Firefox and Chrome. Oops :smiling_imp:

He seems happy enough, though, as he can install more junkgames and everything loads up much quicker from the SSD.

Heterogeneous hardware/OS setup at home, mostly various flavours of Linux, an RPI, and a literally pared back to the minimum Win7 install at the moment, which only ever gets switched on when I can’t get some obscure win program to run in Wine (drivers, configuration exe’s for plugin hardware and the like). Work is a mix of macOS and Linux machines, a dualboot Chrombeook with ElementaryOS running from a USB key and a single decently specced Win10 machine dedicated to apps that are required for interacting with a number of administrations using a proprietary smartcard system. The home Win7 machine tried to upgrade to Win10 and failed, couldn’t be bothered to force the issue given that I almost never turn it on. My kids grew up on (force-fed) Linux until they got into gaming, and then a Win machine became an unfortunate necessity.

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I found 2FA very easy to set up - Google Authenticator - and I even managed to put it onto a second device (mirroring the first).

Had a laptop with Win7 professional. Took it online and the next time it did not work any longer. Now it is a fast good working Linux laptop!

Windows 10 and you are no longer master of your own data!

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