Free Windows 10 Now Looks A Terrible Deal

I might have had one BSOD in Windows 7. It was so long ago I don't remember if it was XP or Windows 7.

AlanWade said:

@Cliff
Havnt had a BSOD in many years now, just lucky I guess but I do like to stay on top of driver updates etc

That's what I mean, no BSOD but still for some reason the USB controller was always problematic. With Windows 10 though, the laptop purred like my Psychedelic avatar.

alphanumeric said:

I might regret saying this, but I haven't got a blue screen of death in a very long time. Knock on wood. Makes fist, knocks on side of head twice.

With my previous triple boot setup (W7, XP, LM17) XP instantly died (BSOD) when I tried to start it after installing my new 3 TB HDD.
I can only remember one other BSOD whilst I was using XP (2004 - 2014).

Killing csrss.exe made W7 BSOD.

My 2004 build worked well with 98SE as the second OS having that and XP each as stand alones on separate drives. The next build that came right before Vista's launch however I had planned as an upgrade lacked any Legacy support for the board, video, sound cards. But it was a good thing I felt I needed to upgrade the hardwares at the time since Vista actually needed more like more ram then the ill gotten 512mb minimum which saw it get a bad rep from being understated! 2gb for the 32bit was a good place to start.

On that old XP/98SE case that still works while unfortunaely passed along to a ffriend's kids for homework they ended up first borrowing Mommy's Vista laptop and later more recently the newer 8 laptop while while Dad never set up the 7 Pro case I put together for him when it getting near XP's end of life expiration back in 2013 however. I took an the build prior to the present case and stripped out a board and supply that both went at the same time. He bought a new but slightly used 8 laptop later the second mentioned for his better and still hasn't fired up the desktop.

Now the important thing in all that is that for each newer version of Windows a new case was put together. Previously it would be the need to upgrade the system specifications to meet the somewhat above minimum requirements until the first all 7 build was replaced with the present which has seen both the 8 CP and 10's Preview and waits for 10 as the once more time second OS!

HippsieGypsie said:

Wasn't there a change from FAT32 to NTFS? I think that would be the reason, yes?

Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 95 OSR2, 98, 98SE, and ME saw FAT or "File Allocation Table" which saw support carried with XP but dropped entirely with Vista! W7 brought it back due to the need to satisfy cell phones, smart phones, IPhonies, digital cameras, camcorders, usb flash drives, etc. all using Fat on their memory cards as well as built in memory. With Vista flash drives had to constantly use Readi Boost so Vista could actually detect any of them or an external HD being a large drawback seen there. MS had to hurry and smarten up one more thing for 7!

The start off for why XP brought in NTFS or the NT File System was system security while XP was soon to be the victim of endless malwares being the longest run version of all time! Everything from XP runs with NTFS while the older version could still see a Repair Install like Vista and 7 no longer seen from 8 on however!

The recently new PC Refresh option much like using an OEM recovery disk only built into Windows now wipes everything to put an entirely new copy of Windows back on. As for backups made with XP you are going back 4 versions of Windows and have to expect problems trying to recover those at this time.

Now as for BSODs I rarely have seen any between Vista having some at times as well as 7 only having a few while 3.1, 95, and 98SE would freeze solid if an old dos game locked the system forcing a hard boot. With XP the BSODs became a way of life! You couldn't run anything new as far as hardwares or gaming with the infamous BSODs coming in somewhere! JUNK OS PERIOD! Vista while not as responsive brought in an improved crash control process as well as 7 seeing the return to the desktop on most occasions having pressed each one of these versions to crash at times!

The largest concern now will be what I have faced each time when bringing on a newer version of Windows being what drivers can be found so older hardwares will still work! W x64 is now going to be 3 versions old! Will we be seeing ready support for 10 or have to wait a year? Perhaps that's why MS said "Well we'll give them a full year free since they will likely be too busy struggling with the OEMs to get the updated drivers needed and may have to start fresh on new systems!"

I didn't pursue 8 after finding it wouldn't support BCD type dual boots with 7 with either 8 added into 7's BCD store or vice versa since it lead to seeing both OS drives loaded with error resulting seeing both versions need some type of recovery namely a Disk Check run with each version separated where 8 did a PC Refresh adding 7 in after the 8 into 7 went bad. The Secure Boot process was part of the problem since that no longer validates older versions or any other OS being set up along with the newer version's boot loader. I passed entirely on 8.1 not even looking at that one's preview but was interested in seeing how 10 was going to look after allowing MS to work out the new desktop/mobile cross platform issues.

This is one of the main reasons why 10 now would make more sense and offer the corrections and progress that was lacking in both 8 and 8.1 not simply bringing back the Start menu that should have been kept to begin with. Even when looking at 8 I had to remind people that it won't always be on the surface where things count but under the hood as well.