I've got the Win 10 upgrade "queued" on a couple of other Win 7 and Win 8 machines and a Win 8.1 tablet - I'll install the updates progressively, and report back here if the experience is any different on any of the other machines.
The Windows 7 laptop is the oldest of the lot (about 5 years old, 2 core CPU with 2 GB RAM), but the update advisor says it is up to the job, so it will be interesting to see how it manages it.
The Win 8.1 tablet is a budget 8" Toshiba Encore (quad-core, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB stoarge) which was designed for Windows 8 http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/products...specifications . I may have to clear a bit of storage space to squeeze in the update, but I will be interested to see how the Win 10 interface works on a true tablet device.
I updated the old Windows 7 laptop and the Windows 8.1 tablet to Windows 10 over the weekend. All three updates so far have been completely painless - all data retained, all apps working, all connected hardware working, Norton 360 security working, and so on. All three machines are running at least as quickly as they did before (and I think they actually boot faster than they did before, especially the oldest Windows 7 laptop).
The Toshiba Encore tablet offers Windows 10 Tablet mode, which seems to be a good working UI for small-screen devices - it's certainly a huge improvement over Windows 8.1's "split personality", where it kept jumping between the traditional desktop UI and the "Modern" tile UI. (You can easily switch back and forth between the Desktop UI and Tablet UI if you want to.)
Having played with Windows 10 for a few days on three different devices, I'm very happy with the new experience. Windows 7 users won't find it difficult to find their way around (Windows 10 looks rather different, but it works much like the traditional Windows 7 UI), and Windows 8 haters will be over the Moon. (Well, I had to get an astronomy reference in there somewhere!)
PS: It's probably already been posted here somewhere, but if you are waiting impatiently for your update to land, there is a way to jump the queue - just head over to the Microsoft "Download Windows 10" page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 and download the appropriate Download Tool for your computer (32-bit or 64-bit) - this has to match the current version of Windows 7 or 8.1 that you are running now. Launch the Download Tool, and you should be running Windows 10 within an hour or two (depending on your internet speed, computer performance, etc).
My telescope.... no so much. That can stay 7, as you say, no advantage. Though I would be keen to know if they fixed the bug I'm experiencing with RDP and Windows 7 causing massive guiding problems, I'm just not prepared to change the entire OS to try
On the three machines that I updated, I was left with the option to revert back to the old OS, provided you have enough disk space to keep a backup copy of the previous OS. Once you delete those old OS files, the update is irrevocable.
Well i got my toy craptop out for the blue moon. (ASUS X401U)
W10 has given me the ability to do something i could not under W7.
They have done something with the interaction to the hardware....
Using a Canon 7D with a mere 70-200mm L series lens, connected via USB
and running EOSMoVRec....
i captured some nice HD footage at 30fps. (best i could manage on w7 was 7 fps.)
i processed the resulting avi with PIPP and registax for wavelets,
and got the attached picture.
To process in reasonable time i would normally have had to move the files to a PC with more grunt.....but now all the aforementioned apps just seem to work faster.
i suspect its because the lappie has a decent APU - i upgraded the 10yo PC as well, with no apparent increase in performance, except for boot times.
I'm having second thoughts about upgrading to Win 10. Yesterday the upgrade failed 5x so I'm still on Win 7. Then a friend sent me this: https://i.imgur.com/iHge6RJ.jpg
hmmmm might just stay with 8.1 - took a while to get used to, but i'm used to it now.
On the three machines that I updated, I was left with the option to revert back to the old OS, provided you have enough disk space to keep a backup copy of the previous OS. Once you delete those old OS files, the update is irrevocable.
Let me rephrase: I'm not prepared to upgrade the whole OS to try .... 3 days before Astrofest. I'm tapering. The one rule is don't mess with something which works right before a star party.
I had this discussion with my room mate yesterday who was firmly against the idea of all the data collection in windows. Immediately after we were talking about how bad this is I remarked on how cold it is, he turned around and said "Siri what's the temperature in Brisbane"
And then he didn't understand why I facepalmed.
If you have no intention of using Cortana or handwriting recognition or maps, then I highly recommend going through that article and turning everything off.
he turned around and said "Siri what's the temperature in Brisbane"
And then he didn't understand why I facepalmed.
I want all of the convenience of a mobile OS that can provide me with timely, location-aware, relevant, predictive information, based on my interests and contacts etc, but it should be able to do all of this without needing a live internet connection, and without me allowing the OS to access any of my personal information.
I checked my Windows Update ..... and there it was....ready to install... all 2.7GB of it.
I have the Win10Pro Version .... so I have installed it ... took about 30mins to do the upgrade from Win7 64bit Ultimate.
I customized my install to suit myself.... turned off all ' suss ' data sending Apps and location sending....
I still use Firefox and many of my own Media Programmes.
I checked ' Device Manager ' ... everything is good...all drivers accounted for.... no ' unknown devices ' showing.
It ' appears ' to be quite fast ... boot up time is quicker, although I'm running an i7 Processor at 4Ghz / 16Gb DDR3 Ram.... that certainly helps.
I had no issues at all .... detected my Internet connection / Wireless Printer / WD Cloud Storage connected at Modem Router.
So far I'm happy... found my way around it after ' playing ' with it for an hr or so.
It's all good here.....
Col...
Last edited by FlashDrive; 05-08-2015 at 09:46 PM.
Has anyone been able to download it yet?
And I wonder if it can be burned to disc, or has to be re-downloaded if you need to instal it again.
Trev
As per my earlier post:
If you are waiting impatiently for your update to land, there is a way to jump the queue - just head over to the Microsoft "Download Windows 10" page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...d/windows10ISO and download the appropriate Download Tool for your computer (32-bit or 64-bit) - this has to match the current version of Windows 7 or 8.1 that you are running now. This gives you the option to install or reinstall Windows 10, or you can use the tools on this page to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD.
Launch the Download Tool, and you should be running Windows 10 within an hour or two (depending on your internet speed, computer performance, etc).
As per my earlier post:
"...
Launch the Download Tool, and you should be running Windows 10 within an hour or two (depending on your internet speed, computer performance, etc).
Another testament to the laziness of Windows developers.
There have been quite a few issues with early deployments in business desktop environments which a pretty vanilla installations.
Being an ex software developer (C, C++, Object Pascal and also old style machine code) I am constantly disgusted by how Microsoft has such sloppy programming for the sake of a "glitzy" GUI.
Every single release of Windows still has a number of the same basic flaws that other OS developers overcame decades ago.
Why do I want to upgrade? I don't. I just get use to a windows version and a new one comes along. I find this very tedious getting the drivers and programmes working as I like them too, then having to do it again just so I can have a new wiz bang desktop ad some cr** I really don't want or need. No I'll stay with what I have and wait until MS no longer upgrade my version. Thank you My kids call me a GOF Grumpy Old Fa**.
Some heads up, if your machine has downloaded the install files in the background, you can make an ISO before going ahead and for use on other machines. I intend making an image of my HDD's before upgrading to ease the pain should I need to revert back to W7 or W8.
Basically the W10 upgrade is saved in a hidden folder C:\$Windows.~BT/Sources.
(If you haven;t already you'll need to enable hidden folder view in explorer. Tools/Folder Options/View/Show hidden files, folders, drives)
Find the file Install.esd (should be around 2.5Gb)
Copy that file to a new folder and download ESD-Decrypter from the Microsoft site and unzip to the same folder where you put the Install.esd file.
Right click on the Decrypt command file and select Run as Administrator, you will then get a prompt for ISO creation.
Procedure detailed here. and the Decrypt/ISO creation here
I downloaded as an ISO and used the provided DVD burner to write it to disk and verified the integrity of the burned files.
I then ran the instal program from the disk and after 2 hours it had gotten as far as 44% installed and then sat there for another 3 hours until the DVD and HDD had gone to sleep. Re-booted and it just stayed on the new windows logo and went no further.
Because you can't re-instal Win 7 on a Win 10 machine I had to reformat and re-instal Win 7 and software.
Thx Microsoft.
The laptop took 15hours to do a direct upgrade from the net. At least it worked.
My kids call me a GOF Grumpy Old Fa**.
