Windows 10 upgrade - yay or nay?

[essexian]

Essexian,

If you have downloaded the full-installer ( rather than using the windows update based installer ), you will have either an ISO image (or DVD) or USB drive.

On the existing win7/8 machine, run the setup program.

Where you might get asked for a product key, DO NOT ENTER YOUR WIN 7/8 KEY.  This is not what it's asking for.   This is only for the case you have purchased a win10 license.

To use the free upgrade offer, simply click the 'skip' option.
It will discover the valid win 7/8 license, and activate itself.

Cheers for the info. In the end, I did what any good helpdesk would suggest...turned it off and turned it back on again and somehow, it seems to have loaded okay.

However, apart from fixing a problem with the brightness on my machine and setting things out differently, I can't see a lot of difference...perhaps it inside where all the code is where its different and as that makes as much sense to me as French, I don't think I will bother digging into it 

Thanks again.

[Afasoas]

So, how does one set about getting a clean install?

The machine came with Windows 8 pre installed and has a BIOS embedded key.
I have Windows 8 Professional installed, upgraded to 8.1. I have the Windows 8 Pro License key.
I have no media nor a backup partition.

I am at a point where I would ideally like to do a clean install, possibly on a new (small form factor machine) using the Windows 8 Pro key. Then I might want to do a clean install on the existing machine before selling it on...

Thoughts please?

[Feanor]

If you want to make use of the free upgrade from win7 / 8 but also do it as a clean install, you have to do it twice:
Once as an in-place upgrade to pick up the free license in the first instance;
And again as a clean install.

Download the full installer for USB or ISO from the link previously posted.
You need to download the correct version ( home / pro ) which your existing install qualifies you for.

You need to do an in-place upgrade of the qualifying OS first.
This is the only way to get your free upgrade license.
There is no way to enter a win7/8 PK as a qualifier.
It *must* be done as an in-place upgrade of an activated, running, qualifying OS.
This will auto-activate assuming it's happy with your existing license.
You will not need a product key.
This will send your machine's hardware hash to MS during the activation process.

Once the machine has been activated once in this way, you can blow it away and do a clean install.
'Skip' any product key prompts during the install.
It will then auto-activate against the hardware hash that was previously sent to MS.

[Chris S]

When I bought this Samsung Series 9 laptop, first thing I did was remove Windows 8 (for obvious reasons). Since then, I've been running lubuntu, but thought I've give Windows 10 a shot. It wouldn't play as a VM, so have installed it natively (restored previous Windows 8, then took the offered in-place upgrade; it just picked up the BIOS embedded key and ran with it).

First impressions - it's in a different league to Windows 8/8.1 in terms of usability.

I suspect the runtime on the laptop on batteries will be much less - the machine runs warm whereas it never ever broke a sweat with lubuntu, and I don't have to work it too hard for the fan to come on.

S'nice though. What Windows 8 should have been.

[tonycollinet]

Upgraded two machines now - it seems to be OK.

Main benefit (and reason for the upgrade) is Xbox one streaming. Put the xbox under the telly - play it anywhere you like if someone else is using the TV.

[essexian]

More than likely doing something wrong but I can't get the new Windows Edge to run Silverlight so no BT sports. All I get is a message saying that I should not use Chrome when trying to as they don't support Silverlight but try Windows, Opera or Firefox instead. Well it doesn't work on Opera for the same reason and Firefox takes an age to run.

I guess its time for a new machine but this one is less than 2 years old.

[Dibdib]

More than likely doing something wrong but I can't get the new Windows Edge to run Silverlight so no BT sports. All I get is a message saying that I should not use Chrome when trying to as they don't support Silverlight but try Windows, Opera or Firefox instead. Well it doesn't work on Opera for the same reason and Firefox takes an age to run.

I guess its time for a new machine but this one is less than 2 years old.

My hunch is that it isn't you, but a problem with BT Sports's browser detection which probably hasn't heard of Edge yet.

[Feanor]

Silverlight ( and other plugins ) are not supported in the edge browser.
http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-confirms-its-new-edge-browser-wont-support-its-silverlight-player

In the meantime, IE is still hiding behind the sofa in win10.
You just need to rub it's lamp to make it appear.
In the search box, type 'Internet Explorer', and is will show up.

I had to do this in order to use the Garmin Connect plug-in.
( Edge doesn't support plugins ).

[essexian]

Silverlight ( and other plugins ) are not supported in the edge browser.
http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-confirms-its-new-edge-browser-wont-support-its-silverlight-player

In the meantime, IE is still hiding behind the sofa in win10.
You just need to rub it's lamp to make it appear.
In the search box, type 'Internet Explorer', and is will show up.

I had to do this in order to use the Garmin Connect plug-in.
( Edge doesn't support plugins ).

Brilliant information. That worked lovely for me. 

Bit naff however that Edge doesn't work with Silverlight!

[Mr Larrington]

So I have an e-mail from Microsith, subject: "You’ve reserved Windows 10 – what’s next?"  In it there is a "link", viz. a long but ultimately harmless url.  Which presents a page with further links to pages such as:

• When will I get my free upgrade?
• How long does it take to install the upgrade?
• What if I have more than one Windows device – can I upgrade them all?
• What edition of Windows will I get as part of this free upgrade?
• Will my PC or tablet be compatible with Windows 10?
• More questions? Check out the FAQ

"Click" on any of these so-called "links" and you are told:

We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found.

To say that this does not fill me with confidence would be an understatement.

It's currently downloading to my laptop, where it can sit uninstalled until late September at the earliest.  I'm wary about the desktop too since I have heard there are driver issues with Nvidia graphics cards.

[rafletcher]

Seems our company (a multinational manufacturer) will be making the step to W10 enterprise edition soon. Should be fun - I get to try here before upgrading at home. 

[DaveJ]

I don't think I would touch the email.  According the The Register, virus writers are spoofing these emails.

If this happens on a big scale, I can see lots of impatient people ending up rather unhappy.

Dave

[Mr Larrington]

The e-mail I got has links to pukka Microsith pages, no attachments and looks entirely unlike the one described by El Reg, so I'm pretty sure it's kosher.

[delthebike]

Will an install from DVD hose the Linux partition of a dual boot Linux/windows machine?

[Tewdric]

I would go on the instan download page but choose the upgrade option.  You *might* be lucky

[Dibdib]

Hopefully someone who's tried it will come later with a proper answer but if previous versions of Windows installers are anything to go by, it'll probably let you pick the partition to install to but will most likely hose your bootloader.

[Mr Larrington]

It appears as though my laptop had decided to upgrade itself, in spite of being told repeatedly not to   If this, as the saying goes, Fucks Shit Up, then this time next month (when I shall be passing through Seattle) I am very much afraid that I shall have to seek out Bill Gates, and kick his lungs out.

[Mr Larrington]

Prepare for a kicking, Bill   Reasons not to install 10:

• Make the laptop run a lot hotter than 8.1
• No fine control over Windows Update, which is hidden somewhere not on the Control Panel
• Task bar looks horrible and is way too small
• Much-vaunted new Start button is a bit shit too
• Slow

Fortunately the reversion to 8.1 seems to have been relatively painless in spite of a warning that I might need to reinstall Stuffs.  It's not going anywhere near my desktop machine any time soon.

[TheLurker]

Prepare for a kicking, Bill   Reasons not to install 10:

You may also want to have a dekko at The Register, Risks or other IT news-sheet of your choosing. WinX has all sorts of undesirable features.

F'rinstance:
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/28.83.html#subj10
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/28.83.html#subj12

[Chris S]

"Oh NO! The stuff I'm doing on my PC is SO interesting to Microsoft. I bet they're spying on me RIGHT NOW!"

Oh please. Who cares? They don't!

Anything I do, that might be of any interest to others, I do offline - on systems not connected to the net.

What I'm doing next Friday? Nobody cares. (Except fboab). You all must lead MUCH more interesting lives than me.

(BTW: My online banking happens on other systems. Well - I'm not THAT daft!)

[Polar Bear]

Online banking?   I thought that you said that you were not daft ...   

[Canardly]

OOoer, Win 10 tried to install itself twice today and failed. I don't recall asking it to do so.

[Kim]

Online banking?   I thought that you said that you were not daft ...   

To be fair, daftness is relative.  Online banking compares favourably to:

a) Having to visit a branch every time you need to do something
b) Telephones   
c) Keeping all your wealth under the mattress in precious metals and/or bitcoins

[Polar Bear]

Oh, I don't know.  I personally prefer option a.   

[Mr Larrington]

I've used the "Hide Update" wossname on the desktop machine so I can't install it by accident.