Should I Upgrade

I have a custom built server like pc that has tons of unique hardware, top of the line ati radeon graphics card 2 years ago, pci card to add 2 extra sata ports to the 8 on the motherboard, 8 internal hard drives, two SSD, one fast one for windows 7 and one from program files, then some for backups and large video libraries. some are spanned together. I have a hauppage tuner card, 2250 model I think, its the one with dual tuners and its internal. I know windows media center will be gone im pretty much off of it, but I like the hauppage software to be able to record from old vhs tapes etc. it also has two added usb3 cards for more usb3 ports, just so much hardware I cant even think about it all, everything works perfectly in windows 7 and I have had to disable automatic updates and remove the gwx important kb update to prevent it from trying and failing to download.

Im pretty much on plex for media serving now and im pretty sure its windows 10 compatible, but I know my Norton ghost 15, very important is not. im pretty much leaning to leaving auto updates off and leaving this pc on windows 7, MSE virus protection still updates with windows update disabled, and I know after an operating system gets old the patches start to overwhelm the system. this pc is mainly a server, and occasionally used to play games and steam, sometimes its used for torrents, I balance my bank account with the last version of Microsoft money before they killed it, it does work on windows 8.1 I know because my surface pro 3 will run it.

I just upgraded the surface to 10 manually with the installer tool since the auto update kept failing on it also, im pleased with the experience on the surface, but I think I will loose access to needed devices on my server machine and wont see any real performance increase besides bootup time, but this is moot since the system runs 24/7.

what are everyones thoughts. I have the surface tablet that I reserved the free upgrade and downloaded it, I assume this means I can now reinstall it at any time by restoring to factory 8.1 and upgrading to 10 if worst case scenario happens. I also have a family pack windows 7 home for 3 systems, all the same license key, and one upgrade to win 7 ultimate. I would like to atleast make sure I can upgrade these in the future to windows 10 but have no other systems to install them on besides the master server and I don't want to touch it. anyway to have my license keys added to the approved windows 10 list without actually upgrading a machine with the key on it? I don't want to have to pay a fortune later down the road if I completely redo the server (something I am not ready to do now)

also is there a way to install windows 10 dual boot without corrupting windows 7 main system? I am very familiar with dual boot and reserving extra space on a drive to accommodate it, I assume I would have to dual boot with one of my windows 7 home keys and then upgrade it to 10, but I am afraid I may corrupt everything on my windows 7 partition. I guess my last ditch resort would be to disconnect all 8 drives and hang an extra in and go through the update on it, and see if it works for all my hardware, I assume this will make no changes in my motherboard bios that would prevent me from going back, and maybe this way my windows 10 key is reserved at least for my home license upgraded to ultimate so I can get windows 10 pro. I really wish now I would have kept my dummy machine instead of selling it for 200 bucks, it was a decent dell.

anyways any comments appreciated:)

better now?

Ztruker said:

How about editing your post and breaking it up into paragraphs? It's impossible to read the way it is now.

Yes this is what I am thinking, however I wish I could turn on windows update again without it trying to download windows 10 continuously and failing, it does this even when the gwx update is hidden and not installed, I get a bunch of failed windows 10 messages in the install log. I may have clicked reserve on the gwx icon when it first popped up I cant remember, maybe this locked me in and I can get the upgrade in the future, but the windows 10 upgrade attempt, or at least the attempt to download the 4gb installer and then prompt you if you want to install happens behind the scene and I cannot hide it or disable it

Ztruker said:

Much better, thanks.

Yikes! I would not upgrade that computer unless there was no alternative. If you ever have to, disconnect everything except the one SSD, mouse, keyboard and display.

May not work. MS record a hardware key for future activation checks, so when you add back seven drives etc it will drastically change that hash value. Plex is fine with win10 btw.

yeah I guess this system will stay on windows 7 forever, I built a monster of a system for home media serving and occasional gaming, however I use my xbox 360 and wiiu for games 99 percent of the times, basically I log into this server to download movies, add them to plex and balance my checking account. I plan on this pc being in service for probably another 10 years, I have no plans to upgrade the Xboxes and no plans to replace rokus with anything else. probably best to leave updates off on win 7, I know perfectly good systems we have had a work get to be crawling slow after the years of windows updates. maybe this is an unofficial side effect policy from Microsoft, devote best teams to current system, give coding upgrades and security fixes to the newbie groups or those who aren't held to the same standard.

I know I will be able to find parts for this system down the road because ebay always helps you out if older hardware isn't available, and this system is cooled to the max and should go on for a long time, and Norton ghost will allow me to recover any drive or drive array in the system, os can be recovered by itself, any other drive can be recovered live while windows is running.

I only use windows media center for tuning local air channels on xbox in living room and bedroom, I cut the cord on cable/sat tv, direct tv was charging me 150 dollars a month after all my credits went away, and for what? the walking dead, I just subscribed to sling tv for that.

my only concern is that maybe a huge loophole into windows 7 is discovered before it becomes a system hackers no longer target and I will miss the patch due to having updates off

also it appears Microsoft is no longer supporting WMC for windows 7, it still works but will not download any tv station guides anymore

also is there a way to install windows 10 dual boot without corrupting windows 7 main system?

Basically -- no. While you can download a Win10 ISO file and do a clean install from that, it does not provide a way to activate Win10 by entering your Win7 key. So basically, you end up with an unactivated copy.

I was thinking of dual booting windows 7, I have 3 store bought licenses, then upgrading one to 10, im sure it would end in disaster so I am not doing a thing since everything works properly

AshTray900 said:

also it appears Microsoft is no longer supporting WMC for windows 7, it still works but will not download any tv station guides anymore