Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[fjtorres]

I wonder if Sony is concerned their pre-installed bloatware(spyware?) won't work under Win10?

The whole "software corruption" thing sounds suspicious.
OS upgrades don't "corrupt" apps unless those apps are doing something they shouldn't, like replacing OS dlls or hijacking the registry. They just make non-compliant apps stop working.

Bad choice of words, Sony.

Now I'm flashing back to the CD rootkit era.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

Windows 10 is using the same drivers as windows 8 and 8.1 and for the most part windows 7. Yes there have been updates to most of the drivers over the years. And as windows 7 upgrades this versions of windows it downloads and installs updated drivers. I have been doing beta, preview testing for windows for a very long time and I have to say this is the best beginning for a new version that I have ever seen. Only windows 7 comes close but not near so.

Thanks for your contributions to this thread which I've found very helpful. I'm usually very conservative when moving to a new OS, but based on your reports and others from around the web, I'm going to upgrade my main laptop as soon as the upgrade is available. It's a fairly new Asus 2-in-1 convertible, but I feel relatively confident most of the bugs have been worked out of W10 already.

The only significant issues I've seen reported concern those with Nvidia drivers and/or a dual monitor setup. I don't have either, so I'm not concerned.

As a precaution, I will be imaging my internal SSD before I upgrade.

A few questions -- If you use Firefox, is it playing perfectly nicely with W10? Are you using Cortana yet? I'm really looking forward to working with that. If you have any Adobe graphics programs are they working fine with W10? The only thing I'm really worried about is compatibility with Photoshop CS6, which I don't want to give up under any circumstances.

I know there has been some criticism about the way W10 will force updates on users, but I have no concerns over that. If anyone really cares, Windows has released a tool which you can run to uninstall/hide certain updates:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microso...ws-10-updates/

--Pat

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I wonder if Sony is concerned their pre-installed bloatware(spyware?) won't work under Win10?

The whole "software corruption" thing sounds suspicious.
OS upgrades don't "corrupt" apps unless those apps are doing something they shouldn't, like replacing OS dlls or hijacking the registry. They just make non-compliant apps stop working.

Bad choice of words, Sony.

Now I'm flashing back to the CD rootkit era.

They are laying it on a bit thick in their support pages

"If you do not wait for our test results before proceeding with the upgrade, some of the hardware or features on your VAIO computer may no longer work as intended. In such cases your VAIO computer may experience crashes, become unresponsive or may even suffer hardware damage. Your VAIO would then require service and you risk losing all of the data that is stored on the computer.

We therefore strongly recommend that you do not upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available on July 29, but instead wait for the upgrade information and drivers that we will be providing.

Please refer to our support policy and schedule for upgrade information and driver release dates.

IMPORTANT: While there is a high chance that your specific VAIO model will be compatible with Windows 10, we cannot guarantee this until the testing phase is over."

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Yolina

They are laying it on a bit thick in their support pages

"If you do not wait for our test results before proceeding with the upgrade, some of the hardware or features on your VAIO computer may no longer work as intended. In such cases your VAIO computer may experience crashes, become unresponsive or may even suffer hardware damage. Your VAIO would then require service and you risk losing all of the data that is stored on the computer.

We therefore strongly recommend that you do not upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available on July 29, but instead wait for the upgrade information and drivers that we will be providing.

Please refer to our support policy and schedule for upgrade information and driver release dates.

IMPORTANT: While there is a high chance that your specific VAIO model will be compatible with Windows 10, we cannot guarantee this until the testing phase is over."

Right.
And MS hasn't been feeding them OEM previews the way they've providing them to every Tom, Fick, and, er, whatever...

I forget, did Sony ever find a buyer for their PC division?

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

On the ones which are not showing the upgrade icon in the system tray, do you see the "Windows 10 Upgrade Available" banner when you run "Windows Update"?

No.

When I ran the batch file, there was an option that checked wether the appropriate Updates were installed, and it reported that they were installed (but I didn't see any UI about upgrading to Win 10 in either Windows Update or the tray.)

[cvkemp]

If you were not part of the preview group you will get the update sometime after July 29th. At least that is what I have been reading. I have two systems that I did preview on and they are now on the windows 10 RTM version of win 10. But my wife's system is still on 8.1 and is waiting for the push to win 10. But not sure when that will happen.

[fjtorres]

Even the glasshouse gang, no friends of MS, grudgingly like Win10.
Consider this case of "praise by faint damnation":

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows...tag=TRE17cfd61

No, Cortana won't make you tea just yet.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by PatNY

Thanks for your contributions to this thread which I've found very helpful. I'm usually very conservative when moving to a new OS, but based on your reports and others from around the web, I'm going to upgrade my main laptop as soon as the upgrade is available. It's a fairly new Asus 2-in-1 convertible, but I feel relatively confident most of the bugs have been worked out of W10 already.

The only significant issues I've seen reported concern those with Nvidia drivers and/or a dual monitor setup. I don't have either, so I'm not concerned.

As a precaution, I will be imaging my internal SSD before I upgrade.

A few questions -- If you use Firefox, is it playing perfectly nicely with W10? Are you using Cortana yet? I'm really looking forward to working with that. If you have any Adobe graphics programs are they working fine with W10? The only thing I'm really worried about is compatibility with Photoshop CS6, which I don't want to give up under any circumstances.

I know there has been some criticism about the way W10 will force updates on users, but I have no concerns over that. If anyone really cares, Windows has released a tool which you can run to uninstall/hide certain updates:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microso...ws-10-updates/

--Pat

Thanks for this! This article talks about Nvidia drivers causing problems. There are good reasons to not want forced updates.

[WT Sharpe]

Yep. I've had problems in the past with nvidia driver updates in the past, but this solution seems more difficult than it needs to be. I don't like the idea of Windows 10 forcing updates on people. I generally keep everything up to date without prodding, but you learn to be wary of some updates more than others.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Yep. I've had problems in the past with nvidia driver updates in the past, but this solution seems more difficult than it needs to be. I don't like the idea of Windows 10 forcing updates on people. I generally keep everything up to date without prodding, but you learn to be wary of some updates more than others.

It's a good idea to do security updates and if they limited the forced updates to security fixes only I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

It's a good idea to do security updates and if they limited the forced updates to security fixes only I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Mine neither. I already have them set to download automatically. I just hope that optional updates (as the aforementioned nvidia update was) aren't forced.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by John F

We have 3 Windows 7 computers in the family (one purchased within the last two weeks), and none of them had shown the Windows 10 upgrade tray thingie. They are all up to date with Windows Update. I ran some batch file on the newest computer, and Windows 10 upgrade offer is now showing up on it.

Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

From our experience based on one old otherwise disused machine set up as a test machine in the interests of information science with an "illegitimate" copy of Windows 7 (MS having stated that such machines will be updated to "illegitimate" Win 10 if wished), it may be that such "illegitimate" copies have only recently been getting Windows 10 reservation update.

Of course, it may be that the update is being trickled out to other Windows 7 machines as well but I cannot comment on that as everything here is Windows 8.1 (legitimate).

In case not known and you are getting anxious , one can reserve Win 10 on MS's website http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/features .

[John F]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

From our experience based on one old otherwise disused machine set up as a test machine in the interests of information science with an "illegitimate" copy of Windows 7 (MS having stated that such machines will be updated to "illegitimate" Win 10 if wished), it may be that such "illegitimate" copies have only recently been getting Windows 10 reservation update.

Of course, it may be that the update is being trickled out to other Windows 7 machines as well but I cannot comment on that as everything here is Windows 8.1 (legitimate).

In case not known and you are getting anxious , one can reserve Win 10 on MS's website http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/features .

Could be, but I doubt it (in my case). My two old machines were purchased at B&M stores (Best Buy and PC Richards, an HP and a VAIO), and the recent machine was purchased online from the HP website. For the recent online purchase, HP had banners all over the website saying free upgrades to Win 10, and I called before I purchased to ensure that the specific machine I purchased (Win 7 Pro) was eligible for an upgrade.

And thinking about it a little more, I've done all Windows Updates, and doesn't one of the updates check for "genuine windows"? In System, it says "Windows is Activated", and I am getting other optional updates.

I don't care at this point as I don't plan on updating the two older machines.

[John F]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

...

In case not known and you are getting anxious , one can reserve Win 10 on MS's website http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/features .

The problem with your link is that it assumes your able to get the thingie in your tray.

Following the link, it looks like if you don't have the thingie in your tray, and you do what they say in the FAQ (make sure you have all the Updates, ...), there is no "officially supported way" to get the update?

Maybe, since I recently purchased a Win 7 machine, I could get support, but doing a quick search, it appeared to me that there was no "officially supported MS" procedure; the stuff I saw was run batch files or edit the registry (this was on the MS site) at your own risk.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by John F

The problem with your link is that it assumes your able to get the thingie in your tray.

Did you try the tip up-thread to check and see if you have the proper update installed? If you do, did you try removing it and reinstalling it alone? With a reboot afterwards. I did it on both my systems.

Also, it took me about a day before the reservation icon showed up and several days after filling in the form to get the email. Same for both; a vintage desktop upgraded to Win7 and a new win8.1 portable.

A billion upgrades in a year is a lot of upgrades each day.