Pre Windows 10 Upgrade Checklist

I did the cleanup and backups but I left my AV and existing 8.1 drivers in place. I had no problems to speak of. The list is very good though and will probably minimize issues for some people.

One thing mentioned in the TenForums tutorial but not on that list is that you may want to switch off Secure Boot. For devices with device encryption (and I guess Bitlocker) switching off Secure Boot means you need to decrypt them first.

I would also add that some devices need a BIOS update. For instance some Dells with Windows 7 needed a BIOS update for Windows 8 and I guess need the same thing to run Windows 10.

Also a few screenshots of Device Manager are helpful to go with the drivers they mention, to double-check which devices Windows 10 puts back drivers for, and which ones it keeps quiet about (it may not even appear in Device Manager until you manually install a driver).

Also, empty the Recycle Bin before you start - when I upgraded from Windows XP to 8, I left a partition with data on, which had a Recycle Bin with a large file that belonged to a user that no longer existed so it wasn't visible.

DavidY said:

I would also add that some devices need a BIOS update. For instance some Dells with Windows 7 needed a BIOS update for Windows 8 and I guess need the same thing to run Windows 10.

I've done 3 Dell Notebooks [1 Win7 and 2 Win8.1], a Win8.1 Tablet plus 1 Dell Desktop Win7 and not needed an update of the BIOS.

Berton said:

I've done 3 Dell Notebooks [1 Win7 and 2 Win8.1], a Win8.1 Tablet plus 1 Dell Desktop Win7 and not needed an update of the BIOS.

Are any of them on the list of models in this article?
https://www.dell.com/support/article...9/SLN116332/EN

List of Affected Systems
The following systems are affected by this issue:
Inspiron N5050
Inspiron N4050
Inspiron N5110
Inspiron N311z
Vostro 1550
Vostro 1450
Vostro 3550
Vostro 3350
Vostro 131