New
#11
Is it practical and safe to stick with Windows 7?
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New #12
I just read you can still upgrade from 7 to 10 for free just by downloading the media creation tool. The article stated lots of people are doing this. So buy a SSD put 7 on it then upgrade to 10. Once you have digital licence on 10 you can do a clean re-install of it on the same new drive and not have traces of 7 left behind. Once you have it you can buy a drive bay for PC, swap drives and boot which ever you want. This way you could indoctrinate yourself to win 10 and it's new features.
Just a thought....
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New #13
Find your Windows 7 product key on the sticker on the back of your desktop computer, or the bottom of your laptop. Take a picture. then do a Clean install of Windows 10, if it asks for a product key, type in your Windows 7 key. It will activate a clean install of Windows 10
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New #14
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New #15
The best advice I can give you is to persist with the update to W10. Reasons:
1. Some of your hardware will become unsupported, and should they fail (break), you may not find a replacement.
2. Since the OS is now unsupported (for home users), criminal elements will most certainly increase their efforts expsoe weaknesses in W7 (that will not be patched) - unfortunately a good antivirus is not necessarily a defense against this happening.
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New #16
Indeed the move to W10 is free. I did my best to read up on the W7 to W10 process over the past couple of months. Advice I read on a couple of reputable websites suggested to upgrade first, using Windows Media Creation Tool, and only after that, carry out a clean install. This two-stage method (i.e. upgrade then clean install) was suggested because of problems many folk apparently had in retaining (and retrieving) their product key when they went direct from W7 to a clean W10 install.
So I'm at the half way point - upgraded successfully (more or less) yet still to do the clean install. I hope I can put some of the lessons learned doing the upgrade to good use when I do the W10 clean install and that it will be a little less frustrating and time consuming. So, whilst I'm unconvinced W10 is an improvement over W7 (for an average user such as myself), I have my reasons for continuing with the W10 'experience'.
As far as keeping W7 on a HDD/SSD, I may have burnt my boats. At some point during the upgrade, I got a message telling me that I will no longer be able to retain W7 (or words to that affect). I think this was because I needed to upgrade/install W10 three or four times before it worked properly. No worries as I have W7 on a disc anyway.
I'm in two minds whether to 'upgrade' my friends machine. I'll put the potential pro's and con's to him and let him decide. My personal opinion, knowing what I now know about W10 and my friends situation, is that it's not worth him bothering with W10. I have to say, I see W10 as a bit of a Frankenstein product - an uncomfortable mishmash of W7 and W8/8.1 where the joins are clearly visible. All the differences I've noticed thus far - admittedly, I've only used W10 for a few days - have favoured W7. For disabled folks or those with sight problems etc, then maybe W10 would be a winner.
Thanks to all who have helped.
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New #17
I honestly don't understand why people have issues with 10. I used Win7 for years and have been using Win10 since 2019. Other than the taskbar being SLIGHTLY different, the Start Menu being somewhat different (although still containing pretty much the exact same stuff....'All Programs' list, shutdown commands, etc etc), and File Explorer ribbon/options up top being in a different organization but all still there as in Win7, and the settings panel being different than the old Control Panel [which is still there anyway]), everything else functions pretty much exactly the same as Win7.
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New #18
Thats interesting - I haven't heard that before. I updated from W7 to W10 a few months ago, and have no problems at all with regards to retrieving a product key.
Perhaps you should check that too before embarking on a potentially unnecessary step? The W7 COA would be the one that would allow you to clean install W10 at some point in the future, if required.
See : ShowKeyPlus
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New #20
Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, as long as the free upgrade still works, the product key will never be required. No third party programs are needed to get the key, no COA key is needed, the key will never again be asked.
When you upgrade, Windows 10 will be automatically activated with a digital license. This activation license is stored on Microsoft's activation servers, and as long as you do not make critical changes to your hardware, meaning your hardware ID does not change, all future clean installs of the same edition of Windows 10 will be automatically activated without entering a product key.
Notice that hard disk is excluded from hardware ID determining if your machine is entitled for a digital license. In other words, you can upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, get digital license, then throw the hard disk away and replace it with a new SSD, clean install Windows 10 without entering the product key, and it will be automatically activated.
More in this post: Why I can't change my hard disk drive letter from I: to D: ?
For me, clean installing Windows 10 on SSD takes 5 to 10 minutes, on HDD 20 to 30 minutes (depending on hardware). That's it. No additional tweaking required, no third party snake-oil optimizers, tweakers, cleaners and such needed.
Might be difference in educating systems, Finland has good schools...
That book would be really short:
The shortest Windows book ever!When Windows 10 has been installed, leave it as it is. Microsoft is not spying on you, there's no need to use any third party tools to stop services and dumb down Windows.
Actively following the forums in multiple countries and languages, one fact that becomes clear is that the number of issues users have in Windows 10 correlates with the number of third party tools and policy / registry hacks they have used to “dumb down” it.
Leave Windows alone, let it take care of itself.
Kari
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