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

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

And still my Surface Pro 2 won't update, however much I want it to

How much disk do you have on it? If you have 32 GB or less, you may need to connect a USB hard drive (not flash drive) and copy the Windows 10 files to it.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

How much disk do you have on it? If you have 32 GB or less, you may need to connect a USB hard drive (not flash drive) and copy the Windows 10 files to it.

About 100Gb or so free... But the installer won't download anything, I broke it that well. No idea how to install it, if the installer doesn't even work...

[Paegan2246]

I took the leap and upgraded my laptop (Sony Vaio) running Windows 7. I like the look of Windows 10 but I immediately had problems with my Apple products (iPod touch, iPod classic) that I use to download 800Gb of audio files. Windows 10 did not recognize any of them and I couldn't sync. I can fix fairly basic problems, but this one has me flummoxed. I don't know anyone who could help me fix the problem and the fixes I tried from investigating on the Internet didn't work. Or else I'm just too computer stupid to figure them out. I deleted Windows 10 and went back to Windows 7. One thing I didn't notice (in the fine print) is you have 30 days to swap back to a previous version, then Windows 10 dumps the files to run your old version. I, as usually happens, didn't try to go back until the 30 days had elapsed. Good thing I back up my entire computer to an external hard drive. Still, it was a big PITA to get my Vaio back to normal.

[kennyc]

I had more problems with the VAIO laptop I had than with any other computer in me entire 30+ year career

[Paegan2246]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I had more problems with the VAIO laptop I had than with any other computer in me entire 30+ year career

Sorry to hear that. My Vaio is 4 years old and I've never had a bit of problem with it.

[Purple Lady]

Skylake support on Windows 7 and 8.1 given a one-year extension.

The window for compatibility, reliability, and security fixes has been extended by a year to July 17, 2018. The limitations on security fixes have also been removed; now all security fixes will be made available—until January 14, 2020 for Windows 7 and January 10, 2023 for Windows 8.1.

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...ear-extension/

[kennyc]

Has it really been a year?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/30539...-features.html

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Skylake support on Windows 7 and 8.1 given a one-year extension.



http://arstechnica.com/information-t...ear-extension/

I still wonder what's up with this Skylake support crap. Windows 7 and 8.1 already run on Skylake if you have the correct drivers. My laptop, bought in January, even came with Windows 7 Professional as default OS.

Why would it stop running? If security fixes are created, I assume that it is not necessary to create fixes especially for Skylake, and I also hope Microsoft will not intentionally break Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake.

For me the point is moot because I already run Windows 10 on both my old and new computer, but I can see why people don't want to upgrade until 2020.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I still wonder what's up with this Skylake support crap. Windows 7 and 8.1 already run on Skylake if you have the correct drivers. My laptop, bought in January, even came with Windows 7 Professional as default OS.

Why would it stop running? If security fixes are created, I assume that it is not necessary to create fixes especially for Skylake, and I also hope Microsoft will not intentionally break Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake.

For me the point is moot because I already run Windows 10 on both my old and new computer, but I can see why people don't want to upgrade until 2020.

Probably just to get people on Win 10. I just saw that the new Toshiba Portege Z30-C-125 for business can still come with Win 7.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I still wonder what's up with this Skylake support crap. Windows 7 and 8.1 already run on Skylake if you have the correct drivers. My laptop, bought in January, even came with Windows 7 Professional as default OS.

Why would it stop running? If security fixes are created, I assume that it is not necessary to create fixes especially for Skylake, and I also hope Microsoft will not intentionally break Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake.

For me the point is moot because I already run Windows 10 on both my old and new computer, but I can see why people don't want to upgrade until 2020.

Some possible explanations here

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...to-windows-10/

[Katsunami]

I still think it's useless. MS is effectively cutting Windows 7 support with around 3 years, and with 6 years for Windows 8.1, if you run them on a new system.

My DELL Precision, which is hugely expensive, is not in the list, and it was only released three months ago and CAME WITH WINDOWS 7 Professional by default. I can imagine people choosing this workstation-class laptop precisely because of this, expecting that they can use it until 2020, which is four years; about the normal time to write off a workstation in most companies.

Now Microsoft turns around and cheerfully tells you that all your plans go out the window, because they decided to drop support about three years early, and want you to move to an (effectively) rolling release operating system. In a few months, with the anniversary updates, there will be some significant changes again. How the frack can a company plan things if the operating system they're running changes every time you turn around?

One day I'll take a month off from work, convert everything to Linux (and sell the stuff with which it doesn't work) and use Windows as a gaming platform.

[Freeshadow]

The day you do this feel free to pm me with problems if you stumble upon something that I already had to solve I'll happily help you out with. For the beginning feel free to send me a list with your peripherals and specs of your machines I once used to know by heart where to look up whether things work under Linux.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

The day you do this feel free to pm me with problems if you stumble upon something that I already had to solve I'll happily help you out with. For the beginning feel free to send me a list with your peripherals and specs of your machines I once used to know by heart where to look up whether things work under Linux.

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think it's necessary

My 2008, 8 year old desktop (with a CPU-, graphics and SSD-upgrade from 2011) is fully supported. My equally old Laptop (DELL E6500) is also fully supported, but requires jacking around to support the keyboard shortcuts such as brightness and sound. Somewhere in X, keymappings have to be set. And bluetooth requires some weird stuff to be done as well. This might have been changed in the last few years though.

My new laptop, Dell Precision 7510, is also supported, but nVidia Optimus requires tinkering with Bumblebee and/or Primus, and I've read about some weird stuff with regards to sleeping, auto-shutdown and waking up.

It's always these sort of niggles that finally drive me back to Windows, where everything is just supported by the manufacturers; either out of the box, or by installing a driver. The other thing I don't like is the Linux upgrade chain: upgrade one library to get a new program supported, and you could be looking at an upgrade of half your programs, or maybe your entire operating system. The last thing which kept me from a full time switch is gaming; I don't play a lot of games (an RPG, once in a while), and while I know that most of my games work in Wine, it always requires tinkering.

I tinker and work out problems entire days long at work when programming under Windows, Linux and for the web, and to be honest, when I get home, I'm just done tinkering. I'm getting too old for that. If I want to play a game, I want to do this:

- Go to GOG.com
- Buy/Download the latest version (fully patched up and all)
- Install it
- PLAY

I don't want to do this:
- Go to GOG.com
- Buy/Download the latest version
- Try with Wine
- Find out it doesn't work
- Install PlayOnLinux
- Install a different version of Wine, using its own prefix
- Install the game
- Find out it doesn't work
- Install WineTricks
- Find a howto to see which Tricks are needed....

If I switch to Linux, it's going for day to day stuff only, such as browsing, mailing, and organizing ebooks and music. Gaming and 'special' (non-mainstream) stuff will stay on Windows, or it costs way too much time to get running.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think it's necessary

My 2008, 8 year old desktop (with a CPU-, graphics and SSD-upgrade from 2011) is fully supported. My equally old Laptop (DELL E6500) is also fully supported, but requires jacking around to support the keyboard shortcuts such as brightness and sound. Somewhere in X, keymappings have to be set. And bluetooth requires some weird stuff to be done as well. This might have been changed in the last few years though.

My new laptop, Dell Precision 7510, is also supported, but nVidia Optimus requires tinkering with Bumblebee and/or Primus, and I've read about some weird stuff with regards to sleeping, auto-shutdown and waking up.

It's always these sort of niggles that finally drive me back to Windows, where everything is just supported by the manufacturers; either out of the box, or by installing a driver. The other thing I don't like is the Linux upgrade chain: upgrade one library to get a new program supported, and you could be looking at an upgrade of half your programs, or maybe your entire operating system. The last thing which kept me from a full time switch is gaming; I don't play a lot of games (an RPG, once in a while), and while I know that most of my games work in Wine, it always requires tinkering.

I tinker and work out problems entire days long at work when programming under Windows, Linux and for the web, and to be honest, when I get home, I'm just done tinkering. I'm getting too old for that. If I want to play a game, I want to do this:

- Go to GOG.com
- Buy/Download the latest version (fully patched up and all)
- Install it
- PLAY

I don't want to do this:
- Go to GOG.com
- Buy/Download the latest version
- Try with Wine
- Find out it doesn't work
- Install PlayOnLinux
- Install a different version of Wine, using its own prefix
- Install the game
- Find out it doesn't work
- Install WineTricks
- Find a howto to see which Tricks are needed....

If I switch to Linux, it's going for day to day stuff only, such as browsing, mailing, and organizing ebooks and music. Gaming and 'special' (non-mainstream) stuff will stay on Windows, or it costs way too much time to get running.

Might I suggest trying a virtual machine or a Windows OS?

[Freeshadow]

Yes there are times when one's no longer willing to tinker. I understand that fully. Speaking about laptops from hell: I once had an Asus where only half of the "special keys" could be caught as X events. The rest generated nonstandard ACPI events. Fun is something else.