Question Terrified to upgrade from 7 to 10. Need advice.

[Matt_Stevens]

Like many I did not want to upgrade during the free 10 period. I loved 7 Pro and didn't want to change a thing. It worked for me. I have three PC's with it.

Now I find the end is near and it costs $115. So I'd have to shell out over 345 clams. That is NOT going to happen. I'm not rich. How to deal with this?

I need advice on what to do, especially in upgrading without ruining my setups. With one PC it is a huge tower with 6 hard drives and more complex programs than one can imagine and I really am terrified of destroying what I have. Obviously doing an upgrade will result in a slower system. One is supposed to start fresh for best results. How should I go about this?

I know this is a newbie like question, but the net is overflowing with contradictory faq's and opinions on this so I am hoping someone here can humor me worth some clarity.

Thank you.

 

[WilliamM2]

Doing an upgrade will not slow down your system. If anything, it will get rid of the bloat of an old Windows 7 install. EVERY pc I have upgraded to Windows 10 is faster than it was before. And the free upgrade still works for free.

As far as worrying about ruining your setups and software, make an image first, before upgrading. Images should be made on a regular basis anyways. Never know when/if a drive will fail.

 

[balloonshark]

You should have a clean install option when upgrading. Also, it's good idea to unplug all non-OS drives before installing or upgrading a new OS.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Doing an upgrade will not slow down your system. If anything, it will get rid of the bloat of an old Windows 7 install. EVERY pc I have upgraded to Windows 10 is faster than it was before. And the free upgrade still works for free.

I have an image of my original install from way back.

Faster without a clean install? That I have not heard before. My Windows 7 does not load perfectly. I sometimes have a frozen system upon startup and have to pull the plug so there is something in there that is not quite right. Thinking about this makes my head hurt. I wish I had a computer geek buddy nearby. I am getting to old for this stuff. But appreciate the help.

 

[WilliamM2]

Faster without a clean install? That I have not heard before. My Windows 7 does not load perfectly. I sometimes have a frozen system upon startup and have to pull the plug so there is something in there that is not quite right. Thinking about this makes my head hurt. I wish I had a computer geek buddy nearby. I am getting to old for this stuff. But appreciate the help.

I didn't say it was faster than a clean install, I said it was faster than the old Windows 7 installations it replaced. It also saves you the hassle of re-installing all your old software.

I used to always do clean installs, but now that Windows 10 updates to a new version twice a year, it's a bit of a pain. I originally built my current PC in 2016. There have been 7 new versions of 10 since. No way I'm doing two clean installs a year. And it still performs as well as the day I first booted it up.

Windows 10 upgrades a bit differently than old versions. It will replace your current os, and keep the old one in a seperate folder called windows.old.

 

[mindless1]

?? There is no end near. You really don't need "support" of Win7 from MS. Your systems will be the same as they are now. Upgrade when you have a real reason to, not when chicken little cries that the sky is falling, because it isn't.

Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate reasons that may require a newer OS such as newer DX support, a new hardware build that doesn't have Win7 drivers (though the opposite can also be said, many manufacturers of hardware you may already own, will not develop drivers for newer OS and good luck expecting a "built in" Windows driver to provide a good feature set if present at all), or continuity (efficiency in use) between having both a work and home, or laptop and desktop, running the same OS version.

What MS is doing just isn't one of those reasons.

An old OS installation isn't necessarily any slower, unless you are only comparing to a new one BEFORE you then proceed to install all the things you want it to run. Any supposed "bloat" on an old OS can simply be disabled or uninstalled, the same as you can do on Win10 once you decide you have too much running.

Does your essential software have a licensing setup that allows it to only be installed on one PC at a time? If not, or if you can work around that, what I prefer to do when switching to a newer OS is doing a new hardware build so my everyday use system remains fully intact, UNTIL the new build is just the way I want it. That way I can stay productive and put only spare time into the new build instead of a rush to get it done, then once the new build is as good as it'll get (I almost wrote "perfect", lol it's windows), switch to it as the main use system.

 

[JackMDS]

One can find a 120 or 250 SSDs on ebay for less than $40.

Clean Install Win 10 on one of these. Put aside the Win 7 and start to use Win 10. Configure it slowly to interact with the rest of your System, and keep the Win 7 treasured for "Eternity".

 

[Matt_Stevens]

JackMDS, cute.

I suppose what I should do is try and update the least critical of my three PC's, which is not all that complicated. See how that goes and move on from there.

 

[JEDIYoda]

JackMDS, cute.

I suppose what I should do is try and update the least critical of my three PC's, which is not all that complicated. See how that goes and move on from there.

Yeah!! Now you have a plan of attack!!!!

 

[badbanana]

Like many I did not want to upgrade during the free 10 period. I loved 7 Pro and didn't want to change a thing. It worked for me. I have three PC's with it.

Now I find the end is near and it costs $115. So I'd have to shell out over 345 clams. That is NOT going to happen. I'm not rich. How to deal with this?

I need advice on what to do, especially in upgrading without ruining my setups. With one PC it is a huge tower with 6 hard drives and more complex programs than one can imagine and I really am terrified of destroying what I have. Obviously doing an upgrade will result in a slower system. One is supposed to start fresh for best results. How should I go about this?

I know this is a newbie like question, but the net is overflowing with contradictory faq's and opinions on this so I am hoping someone here can humor me worth some clarity.

Thank you.

why do you feel the need to upgrade?

are your application not working with Windows 7? are there problems that an upgrade will fix?

if not, then stick with Windows 7 and invest time (and maybe a few bucks) to secure them. just coz EOL doesn't mean your Windows 7 will stop working, it just means it'll stop receiving updates(which borks a system most of the time) from Microsoft.

 

[Kaido]

First, backup your Windows 7 install using Macrium Reflect: (free edition)

Macrium Reflect Free Trials

Macrium Reflect - Incredibly powerful software that allows you to create and schedule effective backups

www.macrium.com

You can create recovery media on a USB stick, aka make a custom bootable USB stick for your computer using that software. If your USB stick is large enough, you can also back up the entire disk image to it as well. Alternatively, you can use an external USB hard drive to make it bootable & store the image clone.

Second, disconnect all drives except for the Windows boot drive. If you don't want to do this, then also make a backup of each of your data drives (just in case).

Third, run an in-place Windows 10 upgrade using the Windows 10 upgrade tool:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/6/4/96409c48-4ad8-4660-8482-0ca61f05d58b/Windows10Upgrade9252.exe

This can take up to two hours, depending on the speed of your system & the speed of your Internet connection. If things go haywire, then you can always just use your disk image to revert back to Windows 7. And if you don't like Windows 10, then at least you will have your online digital license registered for your computer hardware, so you can go back to it in the future if you choose!

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you're happy with 7 there is no reason to upgrade. It won't magically become less secure the minute the deadline hits. If anything, it's never been secure, no windows OS is really secure. As long as it's not facing the internet directly and you follow basic security guide lines like not executing code you don't trust, you'll be fine.

Windows 10 is kind of terrible compared to 7. I would not willingly upgrade to it if I don't have a need to. (ex: a game or program that refuses to run on 7).

 

[Shamrock]

You want terrified, try upgrading from Windows to Linux. That is what I am contemplating. But yes, I DO have a spare PC.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Honestly the learning curve from Windows 7 to 10 is probably just as big as from windows to Linux. The 8/10 platform is a completely different beast than past versions of Windows.

The harder part of Linux though is coming to terms with the fact that you need to replace some of your windows programs with alternatives and sometimes the alternatives arn't that great. Yeah you can run stuff in a VM but if you're running half your stuff in a VM then there is no point in switching to Linux since you are basically using Windows half the time anyway.

I'm still having issues finding a decent CAD program, all the ones I've tried are super unintuitive. You can't do basic things like drag/drop chunks of lines, or type dimensions on the fly while drafting etc. They are more cubersome and tedius to use. Even windows 98 era Autocad beats them all.

 

[bbhaag]

Honestly the learning curve from Windows 7 to 10 is probably just as big as from windows to Linux. The 8/10 platform is a completely different beast than past versions of Windows.

The harder part of Linux though is coming to terms with the fact that you need to replace some of your windows programs with alternatives and sometimes the alternatives arn't that great. Yeah you can run stuff in a VM but if you're running half your stuff in a VM then there is no point in switching to Linux since you are basically using Windows half the time anyway.

I'm still having issues finding a decent CAD program, all the ones I've tried are super unintuitive. You can't do basic things like drag/drop chunks of lines, or type dimensions on the fly while drafting etc. They are more cubersome and tedius to use. Even windows 98 era Autocad beats them all.

No it is not. Not even close. You guys can wax poetic all you want about how awful Windows10 is but don't compare it to learning Linux. It's not even in the same ballpark.
If you're having trouble finding a decent program to replace the one you used on Windows7 don't blame the OS blame the writers of the program. They are the ones responsible for making it work on a new OS.

 

[KMFJD]

Honestly the learning curve from Windows 7 to 10 is probably just as big as from windows to Linux. The 8/10 platform is a completely different beast than past versions of Windows.

The harder part of Linux though is coming to terms with the fact that you need to replace some of your windows programs with alternatives and sometimes the alternatives arn't that great. Yeah you can run stuff in a VM but if you're running half your stuff in a VM then there is no point in switching to Linux since you are basically using Windows half the time anyway.

I'm still having issues finding a decent CAD program, all the ones I've tried are super unintuitive. You can't do basic things like drag/drop chunks of lines, or type dimensions on the fly while drafting etc. They are more cubersome and tedius to use. Even windows 98 era Autocad beats them all.

You're making a joke right?

 

[Muadib]

No it is not. Not even close. You guys can wax poetic all you want about how awful Windows10 is but don't compare it to learning Linux. It's not even in the same ballpark.
If you're having trouble finding a decent program to replace the one you used on Windows7 don't blame the OS blame the writers of the program. They are the ones responsible for making it work on a new OS.

I agree. Red, what have you been smoking?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Maybe it's me but I find Linux easier, speaking from a desktop perspective. Depends on the GUI though, we don't talk about Gnome. But KDE etc is much easier to use. Any time I find myself on a windows 8 or 10 machine (especially 8) I can never find anything. Everything is just more hidden and convoluted and the GUI is too plain and blocky. "is that something I can click on?" I don't know until I click on it. I just hate the design and I find it's user unfriendly.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I have had nearly zero problems with windows 10
Only compatibility problem was from a freeware/emulated version of a super old game I used to play with friends (Talenguard) super old = original version is from the 80s
Other than that zero problems, fast startup easy to navigate and just works.

Side note I use onboard sound and I know some very old versions of direct x aren’t supported.

 

[jhansman]

I'm another who has had zero problems with Win10 , including security. But then, I've been using Windows since Ver. 2.0 that came in the box as "extra" software with my MS Mouse, in 1989. Win7 was a very good OS, but 10 is, IMO, even better in most regards. If you keep an image of your Win7 install, you can always go back to it. 10 is the only version I've yet installed on a new build that left Device Manager clean as a whistle; any driver updates I subsequently installed were strictly optional.

 

[Steltek]

Like many I did not want to upgrade during the free 10 period. I loved 7 Pro and didn't want to change a thing. It worked for me. I have three PC's with it.

Now I find the end is near and it costs $115. So I'd have to shell out over 345 clams. That is NOT going to happen. I'm not rich. How to deal with this?

I need advice on what to do, especially in upgrading without ruining my setups. With one PC it is a huge tower with 6 hard drives and more complex programs than one can imagine and I really am terrified of destroying what I have. Obviously doing an upgrade will result in a slower system. One is supposed to start fresh for best results. How should I go about this?

I know this is a newbie like question, but the net is overflowing with contradictory faq's and opinions on this so I am hoping someone here can humor me worth some clarity.

Thank you.

Most folks who try it report that the "free upgrade" process that ended in 2016 actually still works just fine today for free upgrades. Microsoft doesn't advertise it (probably because of their big OEM contracts, who want you to buy a new computer instead of upgrading an old one), but they haven't taken down the media tool used to upgrade Windows either. I just upgraded my 9 year old Dell E4310 laptop from Win7 Pro to Win10 Pro within the last 2 weeks and it is now happily running Win10 Pro 1909 without a hitch.

I'd certainly try it before paying Microsoft for a copy of Windows. It is bad enough that they will use it to datamine your arse, to pay for them to do it is the ultimate insult in my book.