Should I accept the Windows 10 free upgrade offer?

[Craig234]

I use Windows 7 Ultimate and it's fine. I skipped 8.

I can either just keep using it indefinitely, or upgrade to 10.

Based on the general opinions from those who know the difference, the tradeoffs, should I click to upgrade to 10?

Use is gaming and general home use/internet.

 

[sbpromania]

There's no reason for not upgrading to Windows 10.

But don't forget that the upgrade will not be performed right now, Windows 10 is going to be released on 29th of July.

 

[Auric]

With a year to decide, there's no hurry.

Can 10 be reverted or downgraded?

 

[ArisVer]

The upgrade as you already know is free. But I think you will go from Ultimate to Professional.
Give it some more time until the RTM version comes out and there will be more opinions.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would reserve it anyway which gives you the option to upgrade plus you can dl the media along with the valid key. If you don't then you will miss out and have to pay later when you want to upgrade. This way you can have everything that you need in reserve and perform the upgrade whenever you feel comfortable with it which is what I'm doing with all three of my machines.

 

[Mem]

I use Windows 7 Ultimate and it's fine. I skipped 8.

I can either just keep using it indefinitely, or upgrade to 10.

Based on the general opinions from those who know the difference, the tradeoffs, should I click to upgrade to 10?

Use is gaming and general home use/internet.

Win7 will eventually go same way as Windows XP ,ie about 4.5 years left to EOL so you will be upgrading sooner or later ,so might as well do it now and get it for free,plenty of benefits ie new features,DX12 for gaming,improved security.

Being you have 7 ultimate you'll get free upgrade to Win10 Pro version.

You can bet Win10 will be the main focus for gaming/drivers etc once it is out.

 

[Subyman]

Will upgrading to 10 "eat" my 8 key making it no longer useable to activate if I want to downgrade back to 8?

 

[TeknoBug]

It shouldn't eat the windows 8 key. No windows upgrade in the past has done that.

 

[Ketchup]

Will upgrading to 10 "eat" my 8 key making it no longer useable to activate if I want to downgrade back to 8?

This question has been asked for months, and I get the impression that the answer is no, but I am still not 100%.

I am upgrading the laptop first. It is going to be my guinea pig. If I can go back to 7, I will leave 10 on it (even if that means I have to do a fresh install). I will do what is needed to get a key for the desktop, but plan to keep it on 7 for a while longer.

 

[Mushkins]

Will upgrading to 10 "eat" my 8 key making it no longer useable to activate if I want to downgrade back to 8?

I don't have the link offhand, but they've said that the answer is "No, it does not invalidate your old key. You can revert if you choose."

The only thing you *cant* do is upgrade to 10, then reinstall that 8 key on another PC while still using 10 on the first PC. The keys are legally considered a pair and are both tied to that single machine.

 

[Dahak]

Will upgrading to 10 "eat" my 8 key making it no longer useable to activate if I want to downgrade back to 8?

No it will not "eat" the key. It will still work if you wish to revert back.

Now probably a followup question to that is, can you move the key from the machine that was upgraded to 10 from 7/8.1 and most likely its No as per the licensing terms Win 7/8.1
Unless you purchased Retail/FPP which allows you to move it

This was in a partner webcast so cannot link it directly

Quoted the wrong person and ninja'ed by Mushkins

 

[mikeymikec]

One thing I wonder about is how many botched installations will occur with this upgrade. For example, the WinXP SP3 update had problems on a lot of OEM machines because OEMs do stupid things like have tonnes of unnecessary drivers installed (and set to start automatically), and in that case they had both the AMD and Intel CPU power management drivers installed, and (IIRC, not sure) the SP3 installer made an assumption that if a particular driver is installed, the system must have that hardware in. The result was an instant BSOD which thankfully was quickly fixable via the XP recovery console (though this wasn't really a user-friendly solution).

Then there's the possibility of weird OEM hardware with no updated drivers. I hope that MS run a lot of sanity checking routines before the installation starts to try and ensure that the "upgrade" ends up being a mixed blessing or an absolute disaster for some people.

IMO MS would have been much more sensible to not do this upgrade in the style of Win8 -> Win81, but announce this upgrading system for all further Windows version updates to apply to Win10.x. It seems obvious why they did it (they want to get as many of their users on the "new" bandwagon ASAP), but it could seriously backfire.

 

[escrow4]

No. RTM 2 weeks away from general release is poor. And there have been nothing but constant changes and patches to try and get 10 ready for that July release. I'm not upgrading. And there is still no mention of an .iso you can clean install. Nope. 8.1 is good for 3 more years until mainstream expiry and it only dies in 2023. Wait and see.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I reserved the upgrade. Why not? It isn't costing me anything. I've also made a system image of my current 7 install, so if I do the upgrade and really have issues all I have to do is reimage my PC and *poof* I'm back to exactly what I had previously.

YES, you can clean reinstall after you'd done the initial in-place upgrade. You have to do the direct upgrade first however. That has been said over and over.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Hopefully the install process for the "upgrade" will let you wipe and do a clean install anyway during the actual install process (i.e ask if you want to keep your data/settings etc). I'm thinking the upgrade will just want to see Windows 8.1 and then you can do whatever you like during the install. I am not a fan of in place upgrades.

 

[postmortemIA]

One thing I wonder about is how many botched installations will occur with this upgrade..

In millions range. Think of all Win 8 tablets that have 16/32GB of storage. With windows and recovery partition there's probably 10Gb left before any apps or user files.

 

[pmv]

There's no reason for not upgrading to Windows 10.

Well, the one thing that makes me unsure is the upgrade process itself.

Its funny, in the old days, say going from windows 95 to 98SE, it wasn't a big deal at all, as there wasn't much on there anyway - games I'd long since finished, a bit of work stuff, easily backed up. Can't remember, but maybe it was a 20GB drive? Also the upgrade cycle on hardware seems to be getting longer and longer for me.

Now I shudder at the amount of stuff I'd have to reinstall and the terabytes of data I'd not want to lose. All my music, the eleventy-zillion never-played Steam-sale-purchased games that I might have to redownload or that might not work properly on a new OS (I will play them one day, I'm sure of it)...

Its pretty much the same problem with moving home - I remember when I could do it with just a rucksack...then a friend's car...then a hired small van...now I come out in a cold sweat at the idea of it.

 

[Dahak]

Hopefully the install process for the "upgrade" will let you wipe and do a clean install anyway during the actual install process (i.e ask if you want to keep your data/settings etc). I'm thinking the upgrade will just want to see Windows 8.1 and then you can do whatever you like during the install. I am not a fan of in place upgrades.

We probably won't know until the actual final release, but the way it worked for the preview editions,and the way its been discussed, is that it is an in-place upgrade, then you can do the Reset option from within windows to get to a clean install.

 

[ControlD]

We probably won't know until the actual final release, but the way it worked for the preview editions,and the way its been discussed, is that it is an in-place upgrade, then you can do the Reset option from within windows to get to a clean install.

I just installed the preview edition on my tablet last weekend, and before the upgrade installed I was asked if I wanted to (a) retain my program files and data or (b) wipe the system and install as a new computer. So, at least with the latest builds, it seems that a fresh install is an option.

 

[Dahak]

I just installed the preview edition on my tablet last weekend, and before the upgrade installed I was asked if I wanted to (a) retain my program files and data or (b) wipe the system and install as a new computer. So, at least with the latest builds, it seems that a fresh install is an option.

Good to know, as it seems that was not an option even in everything thats been discussed.
I wish I had more time to play with 10 but could not. guess I can wait 2 weeks

 

[postmortemIA]

To use free upgrade option, you will have to upgrade inplace at least once... That was communicated

 

[FrankRamiro]

To use free upgrade option, you will have to upgrade inplace at least once... That was communicated

That's what i'll do, first upgrade to get the win 10 free upgrade legitimated then i'll do a clean install with an Win 10 Iso,i hope i don't have to put any Key #,and it will auto activate.

 

[Sabrewings]

Now I shudder at the amount of stuff I'd have to reinstall and the terabytes of data I'd not want to lose. All my music, the eleventy-zillion never-played Steam-sale-purchased games that I might have to redownload or that might not work properly on a new OS (I will play them one day, I'm sure of it)...

Move your data to another volume of some sort (including the Steam folder). Copy it back after a fresh install. With the Steam folder back in place, as you go to add Steam games, it will check for a local copy in its folder even if it isn't installed to Windows. If it finds the files, it performs a hash check, and if it's good to the current version it simply adds the installation to Windows. No re-downloading required. I've done this several times. The only thing is you do have to manually go through your library and install the games, it won't just search it's folder and add them for you.

 

[Aikouka]

I went to register for the upgrade on my desktop a week or two ago, but I can't. Confusingly, I couldn't figure out why as the option was available when I first got the upgrade prompt. I eventually found the option to check your PC, and the culprit? I recently installed a 980 Ti, which Microsoft doesn't allow yet. It's not the worst thing I guess since SiliconDust's DVR beta releases don't support protected recording yet. Since Windows 10 lacks Windows Media Center, it would be an issue for me.

My only other issue? I have a lot of computers, and I'd really like to avoid a 3GB download on each machine. However, that doesn't seem possible. Unless there's a way for me to install it on one machine and then use that Windows 10 install to create an update medium? In the end, I want to use Windows 10 as a good point to "refresh" my system with a fresh install.

 

[stockwiz]

You have a year to decide. I'm undecided how I feel about it yet. I feel it's a bit unfinished and unpolished and as people are so focused on aesthetics I think it will hurt sales this 2D thing they seem to be into. The best part of the RTM build is actually the desktop wallpaper they chose... because it looks 3D.


http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d/8625a149-e52d-4c3c-aa14-b4bc74bf92ad?auth=1

On the other hand it runs considerably faster on old hardware (Q6600 system that's my sister's) than her windows 7 installation did.. I recognize there's been nice under the hood changes since windows 7 and can see windows 7's limitations after trying to use it again versus running my windows 8.1 which looks pretty much identical to windows 7 anyways. I like my windows 8.1 the way it is and have both set up to dual boot on my main system for now as I go back and forth.