Win 7 to Win 10 Newbie Questions

Hi All. I’m new here, but have received a lot of help over in the Windows SevenForums side of things. I’m also totally new to Win 10 other than hearing a ton of horror stories about it. So, with the end-of-life for Win 7 coming soon, I have to pull my head out of the sand and learn some on Win 10.

Bad rumor #1 is where to buy Win 10? I hear the market is full of fake product keys and a lot of folks get ripped off. Googling I can see this as true as I see prices for Win 10 Pro going from $199 down to $36.

So can I assume places like Newegg are safe? Do you still get a disk? Or put differently, how does Win 10 install? (Yes, I’m that un-savvy.)

Besides hearing bad stories I had a good friend’s computer turn into a brick during an automatic update; he had to nuc-n-pave even after seeking help to ‘fix’ it. So I want to go with Win 10 Pro, not Home. Primary reason is to be able to delay Windows Updates from automatic. I hear that is a very good thing in case an update has issues; MS should have time to fix them instead of causing problems.

Any good reason to not go with Pro (I’m running Win 7 Pro now, if that matters)?

I also hear that you can’t just activate Windows like in the past; you have to set up a special Microsoft Account? That doesn’t sound right to me; hopefully it’s just a bad rumor…

Besides doing a backup, are there any ‘wise’ things to do before upgrading?


Thanks!
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TDKMate said:

Hi All. I’m new here, but have received a lot of help over in the Windows SevenForums side of things. I’m also totally new to Win 10 other than hearing a ton of horror stories about it. So, with the end-of-life for Win 7 coming soon, I have to pull my head out of the sand and learn some on Win 10.

Welcome to TenForums. I took the free upgrade from 7 to 10 in August 2015. It took me about a week to feel at home in it....

Bad rumor #1 is where to buy Win 10? I hear the market is full of fake product keys and a lot of folks get ripped off. Googling I can see this as true as I see prices for Win 10 Pro going from $199 down to $36.

Good news #1 is that you don't have to buy Windows 10. You can still upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10 and it will activate automatically. Download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and make the install usb. From within Windows 7, run the Setup on the root of the usb to begin the upgrade.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 | Tutorials

Upgrade to Windows 10 | Tutorials

I also hear that you can’t just activate Windows like in the past; you have to set up a special Microsoft Account? That doesn’t sound right to me; hopefully it’s just a bad rumor…

...just a bad rumor. I don't have a MS account. All my machines use local accounts (just like I did in W7).

Besides doing a backup, are there any ‘wise’ things to do before upgrading?

I always make a Macrium image of my system before any major upgrade. That's the best form of 'backup' because you can restore the machine to exactly how it was when you made the image, should the upgrade go badly wrong.

3rd-party AVs can sometimes cause problems. Best to uninstall them before the upgrade (but make the system image first). If they are paid-for, note down the licence keys. These days Defender is as good as most others, so you probably won't need them after the upgrade. I don't use anything else.


Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect | Tutorials

@TDKMate,

You've heard a bunch of false things...

Follow @Bree's advice.

Thanks for all the tips and info! I took some quick peeks at some of it, but will be going thru it all. It's a lot to go thru (for me, anyway) so I'll bite off chucks at a time, LOL.