I Really dont have an interest right now for Win10. I am very happy staying with what i know works well (Win7) BUT, for me its time to start pondering the use of the free upgrade opportunity.I will be heading back to work soon and during the working season there is not much opportunity to mess with OS installations. so the time for me is NOW if i am to take advantage of the free upgrade offer. they have screwed me enough over the years so if they offer free software im going to take it, even if it is shit. doesnt mean i have to use it
SO, is there any way to upgrade to a Win10 OEM licence without actually installing Win10 software? All my systems are Win7. Wifey's laptop has win8.1 and i created a rescue disk before i installed Win7home, 2 win7 pros, and 2 other win7home systems, And 2 un-used win7pro licenses ALL systems are OEM.
in another year this trainwreck maybe so awesome i have to have it and you know i will kick myself in the ass 7 times over for not taking advantage of the free offer rather than handing out more hard earned dough for 7 licenses. i have not really kept up with the upgrade options since i last got banned from the insider forums.
Last Edit: Mar 30, 2016 2:46:45 GMT -6 by dozerguy
Post by Bayer A.User on Mar 30, 2016 8:17:49 GMT -6
My 2cents.
I have the latest commercial release 10586.164 Home up and running,fully activated via "digital entitlement". What does that mean ? It means i clean installed 10 on a machine that i used in the insider program for over a year and NEVER typed in a key. Digital Entitlement = Motherboard is registered with MSFT after having a dozen valid activated TechPreview builds, including the 10240Pro rtm. So why only the Home version? Because the machine had win8 Home prem OEM upgraded to 8.1 and the key carried over.
I was curious about a "full featured" fully supported and activated 10 install. Does it work day in,day out ? Yes. Is it better than 7 or 8.1 ? NO Cortana works (geolocation MUST be enabled) but you can tell her you live in Calamazoo. She will give you the Calamazoo weather forecast. She will respond to my voice only half the time so that limits her already limited usefulness. She will tell you corny jokes and sing you goofy songs. She will put lame reminders on my desktop to "take out the trash" or "pick up the dog shit" . etc. Long story,short. Cortana is a novelty that wears off after a week.
My honest opinion, No need to hurry or worry about missing out on the freebie offer. If you want to give it a go- choose a modern machine that had an activated 10TP or insider install previously and 98% sure you'll eventually get the Digital entitlement(registered mobo) Clean install on a NEW hard drive on that machine. The talking heads will tell you changing the drive will screw up your activation. Nope, its all about the registered mobo.
Other than curiosity, there is no reason to jump on the 10 bandwagon now. Seriously, If it's true what they say(LOL) that 10 will only get better(moreLOL) then purchasing a new 10 machine on blackfriday 2016 may be the best advice I can give you .
Post by Locutus deBorg on Mar 30, 2016 9:15:25 GMT -6
I wouldn't bother don't burn a functional installation if you don't have to
all new pre-built system will be shipping tentanic already pre-installed with limited selection for downgrade rights
yes we will eventually be forced to suck the tentanic or switch to another OS due to Intel and MS Collusion to block driver development for previous versions of windows on current Intel hardware
so wait until you need new hardware maybe sometime in 2020 - 2023 and even then consider different options such as build your own and install a nix I will never buy a pre-built again not since winders ape shipped
one of my main concerns with tentanic is the way they're rolling it forever and doing it with forced updates install a program today on current tentanic wait for it, here comes an in place upgrade changing a bunch of stuff including the version numbers etc. oh shift, now the program is borked, doesn't open or start etc.
this has been a problem with some updates in the past but back then you could decline those bad updates and carry on
now with forced updates in tentanic programmers will be running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to fix whatever the updates borked get it fixed just in time for another round of the same
I find the lack of configuration options disturbing !
I felt a great disturbance in the force.. as if millions of win 7 systems suddenly cried out in terror.
Thing is - and you guys know that I have seriously tweaked Win 10 to be much better - it is STILL not worth the price even if it's free. The older systems are still better! If you just choose to use it now, you lose functionality!
But clearly this thread is about planning for the future, so bravo to you, dozerguy, for thinking ahead.
Unfortunately I REALLY don't think Win 10 is going to be worth using any time soon.
Bottom line: I do understand the concept of not missing out on the possibility of a free upgrade. But bear in mind that doing what it takes could end up costing you more time and trouble than it's worth.
An anecdote:
I went through the same thought process when Win 8 came out.
I ended up just avoiding the "nearly free" $30 upgrade and stayed on Windows 7. In hindsight it was a reasonable decision. I skipped Win 8.0 entirely, then Win 8.1 came out and I decided they'd improved it just enough (and I'd discovered just enough tweaks) to make it worth having. So I paid the couple of hundred dollars for a full license, free and clear, complete with disc.
Would I have saved money if I'd bought the $30 upgrade? Maybe so, but I did go a year+ without having to worry about my Win 7 license being messed up. The world did not end because the software really DID become valuable, and I paid retail for it. Not at all. Now I still use that Win 7 license on a system I didn't have back then, and I have Win 8.1 doing very nicely on my main workstation. Everything worked out for the best.
For what it's worth, back during the initial preview I put a clean Win 10 preview version on my small server system, which is currently running that Win 7 license I mentioned. I put Win 10 on an alternate disk drive, then I upgraded to build 10240 on it when it was released. I did it so that I'd have the option of having a free copy if I were ever to choose to use it, and STILL have not used up my Win 7 license.
Bottom line: I'd avoid doing anything that would use up your existing Win 7 license.
-Noel
P.S., Is your computer a monster? If not, Win 10 is well known to be slower and take more resources. Even if Win 10 were just as good as Win 7 you might hate it on your existing machine because it will run worse. No one - NO ONE - is praising how quick and light Apps are!
In dec of 2014(dammit time flys) was when i pretty much upgraded my machines from XP to win7. it was a considerable cost when you take into account that i not only upgraded once but twice on some machines. win7 home to win7 pro.Last year was an expensive year for computing for me!
two machines were bought with win7home (wifeys acer laptop and my GT780dxr gaming laptop)one with 8.1 (wifeys GE70 apache)which immediately had win7 installed. all the rest were XP machines that had drives formatted and win7home indtalled(Antec1, antec2 GT70). Antec1 and GT780 have since been upgraded to win7pro. The gt70(built in 2009) was used in the 10 tech preview,never really had any issues running 10 and no longer has 10 installed.I do believe Antec2 had win10preview for a while, but the MB fried so i conglomerated the parts from antec1 to antec2, then rebuilt antec1 to be more modern.
As is the case, i am happy with win7 untill they stop support, but what then? Ubutnu windows?http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/30/11331014/microsoft-windows-linux-ubuntu-bash.i dont think so. MSFT doesnt have my best interest at heart anymore. I just want to make sure my future is set and i dont want to give MSFT anymore money than i have to since they could care less what i think. so what ya'all are tellin me is that there are really no other optionsother than to burn licenses ........WTF
Last Edit: Mar 31, 2016 2:29:11 GMT -6 by dozerguy
Post by Bayer A.User on Mar 31, 2016 7:56:47 GMT -6
One thing for sure, You'll never hear me repeating what someone else "said". Any advice i give ,rest assured, i did it myself.
Dozer, if you want to try the latest commercial release of 10 and find out yourself pro's/con's-hardware compatibility then by all means go for it. Remember ! You can skip entering the key and run the UNactivated install. I've done it several times on 3 different machines. All you need to do is install offline and stay offline while you create/customize your setup,admin logon- standard user logon. When you are satisfied (take your time) then go online and you'll be scolded that "You need to activate" IGNORE THAT. The above will require install media be made beforehand.
I have my original 10240pro iso DVD's that i made from my esd last August. I also have numerous iso install DVD's from the media creation tool since then. All of these installs had fully functional WU and would upgrade to the latest versions when they became available. None of these installs cost me a dime or a sacrificial 7-8.1 key. Of course you'll have to live without Candycrush
Take the latest 10 around the block and kick the tires. Then i think you'll come to the same conclusion i did. It aint' worth the aggravation .
it wasnt worth the aggreevation when i stopped testing it at 10525. im damn well sure it hasnt improved and i realize its junk, but whats a person to do in 5 years when the good stuff stops being relavent and theres nothing else to fall back on? I have been around for quite a while and i have watched you Pc intelligent people hash this shit out. reason i still come to this forum, there is always usefull information that you guys have posted that my blue-collar brain can wrap around
None of us know what's next. That's the honest truth. More and more it looks like Microsoft is on the way to becoming irrelevant.
I'm confident that I have the geek chops to make Linux work if it comes to that, though I've NEVER respected Unix and its derivatives. It's been an undisciplined mess since I first encountered it in the 1970s, where "good enough" eclipsed "excellent" and exceptions outpaced rules.
Maybe it's better now as Linux, but I seriously doubt it. Sure, there are good parts (I use the Gnu toolkit on Windows to get Unix-like command line power), but I've worked with Unix aficionados on and off my whole career and almost to a man they've all been, well, weird. I almost hate to write this for fear of offending people, but I simply won't candy coat the truth. My experience - as anyone's - is of course limited.
That Windows NT was derived from the last great operating system made by Digital Equipment Corporation (VMS) was the sole reason it has been so successful. It was a system so solidly designed at it's core that even Microsoft's hacking and chipping away at the architecture STILL couldn't kill it off. But alas Microsoft has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to that architecture since around the time of Vista to advance the state of the art.
I think the best answer you'll get from anyone who really knows what they're doing today is "we have to wait and see".
whats a person to do in 5 years when the good stuff stops being relavent
That's actually a good question in itself. At the time of Windows 8's first release I bought insanely powerful hardware so I could push the time of making that next decision out as far as possible. Even today it's world class. Even so, I would be surprised if it will remain relevant for 5 more years.
It's running a Win 8.1 setup that, suitably tweaked, is IMO the best Windows OS I've ever used. Microsoft support will go out a bit longer on this one than on Win 7.
My point? It is the time to consider maximizing the time of "wait and see".
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Post by Bayer A.User on Mar 31, 2016 14:28:56 GMT -6
Ever had a free carwash from local highschoolers ? 10 is like that.
Now, i will play the devil's advocate. What if after July29, MSFT faces the reality of monetizing 10. What if they've been holding out on us ? The insider crash test dummies gave them a fortune in telemetry. Not to mention scrapping valid 7 & 8.1 systems. So what happens next ? I doubt MSFT gave Uncle Sam a discount on the hardened version, so is it possible that we might get a crack at that one for around $199 ?
it just dawned on me If MSFT plans to discontinue the free offer for win10 at the end of july. What happens to those computers that GWX infects after that date? MSFT gonna steal payment info to pay for their un-wanted install of win10? they just going to kill off your pc untill payment info is provided? I be guessing that they have NO intentions of stopping the free offer.
It's easy to forget that when Microsoft launched Windows XP it was actually trying to change its OS business model to move away from shrink-wrapped software and convert customers to software subscribers. That's why it abandoned the naming convention of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000, and instead chose Windows XP.
The XP stood for "experience" and was part of Microsoft's .NET Web services strategy at the time. The master plan was to get users and businesses to pay a yearly subscription fee for the Windows experience -- XP would essentially be the on-going product name but would include all software upgrades and updates, as long as you paid for your subscription. Of course, it would disable Windows on your PC if you didn't pay. That's why product activation was coupled with Windows XP.
Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP simultaneously in 2001 and both included product activation and the plan to eventually migrate to subscription products. However, by the end of 2001 Microsoft had already abandoned the subscription concept with Office, and quickly returned to the shrink-wrapped business model and the old product development model with both products.
The idea of doing incremental releases and upgrades of its software -- rather than a major shrink-wrapped release every 3-5 years -- was a good concept. Microsoft just couldn't figure out how to make the business model work, but instead of figuring out how to get it right, it took the easy route and went back to an old model that was simply not very well suited to the economic and technical realities of today's IT world.
I find the lack of configuration options disturbing !
I felt a great disturbance in the force.. as if millions of win 7 systems suddenly cried out in terror.
<Rick> Good video. It's almost hard to believe that at one time Windows 98 was the resource hog, but even then, it still ran circles around what Windows 10 can do on today's modern hardware and look a heck of alot better doing it.
May 25, 2021 22:55:12 GMT -6
<Rick> As stated elsewhere, So much for the launch of Windows 11, "The Great Crash." Myself, I had a hard time getting into the site listed above, when I did get in, the video was partly done and then it crashed. There has been many other reports of crashing.
Jun 24, 2021 9:52:33 GMT -6
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<Rick> I see Microsoft has been very quick to pull down reports of site crashing regarding the Launch of Windows 11 on the Microsoft Insiders forum.
Jun 24, 2021 9:57:31 GMT -6
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<Rick> The rebroadcast is working okay.
Jun 24, 2021 11:00:25 GMT -6
<Rick> With reports of people being able to install the dev-edition of Windows 11 on machines not meeting spec, I thought I would give it a what-the-heck try. Lucky me, I'm caught in the downloading, doesn't meet spec, clearing, re-downloading loop on my machine!
Jul 2, 2021 7:08:46 GMT -6
<Rick> I've recently purchased a license for ArcaOS from www.arcanoae.com/ to play with. First impressions, it's still OS/2, but it now has a Linux twist to it.
Jul 2, 2021 7:32:53 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> laptop shit out and am stuck buying a new one. os win11 as fucked as win10 was?
Oct 2, 2021 12:56:10 GMT -6
<Rick> Let's see ..., my impression of Windows 11 is that it is a spruced up version of Windows 10 requiring a 64-bit processor plus a piece of security hardware that is less than 4 years old in order for it to run.
Oct 4, 2021 18:25:49 GMT -6
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<Rick> On the plus side, Microsoft is supposed to be supporting Windows 10 for some time to come for those of us still using systems with I7 or older processors.
Oct 4, 2021 18:44:35 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> i tried installing win10 om the 'shitout' pc this morning usung media creation. EPIC FAIL! went into an endless bootloop. win7 reinstalled just fine
Oct 21, 2021 11:23:38 GMT -6
<dozrguy> STILL so much bullshit and so little time for the kiddie ideas from the hill. My new laptop (MSI GE 11-UH461) would be an awesome "10" machine but because of Winblows I can only give it a "2"......wasted $3500
Oct 27, 2021 9:36:47 GMT -6
<Rick> Hello. Just checking in.
Mar 17, 2022 10:46:54 GMT -6
<isidroco> Each new w10 update adds >100000 useless files to \Windows\Servicing\LCU\Package_for_RollupFix... folders. Even in a SSD takes time to delete that stuff. In each version they manage to worsen stuff.
Mar 27, 2022 16:14:51 GMT -6
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<dozerguy> still traffic here?
Oct 9, 2022 17:32:44 GMT -6
<Rick> No, there does not seem to be very much traffic these days. I still check in from time to time.
Oct 9, 2022 20:08:58 GMT -6