Upgrading Windows 8.1 Tablets to Windows 10 Discussion

[jacktesterson]

I posted this in the Windows Software section but nobody is responding.

Has anyone upgraded a Windows 8.1 Tablet to Windows 10 yet? Any regrets?

Is it "officially" supported by the manufacturer of the tablet?

Mine is prompting me to upgrade. My Tablet is a smudge different than most in that it has 4GB of Ram and is running Windows 8.1 Pro X64 rather than a 32 bit version of 8.1 most of these tablets come with. (mine is marketed more as a portable desktop replacement for business use)

What about the recovery? Right now when I reset the device it puts a Day 1 copy of Windows 8.1 on it. What will happen after I upgrade to Win 10?

It seems there is very little info on the web on this subject.

For reference I have a HP ElitePad 1000 G2 (Intel Atom Z3795 2.4GHz | 128 GB | 4GB DDR3)

 

[sm625]

I hate my tablet too much to suffer through the upgrade process. I have thought about smashing it several times. Windows is just that bad...

 

[ControlD]

I upgraded my Dell VP8 to Windows 10 about a month ago with the tech preview.

Windows 10 is truly terrible on that device. As I mentioned in the OT thread, it barely even feels like a beta product on touch devices. Battery life is so bad it is almost funny. I get something like 6 hours of standby time and much less if I actually use the tablet for anything. The tablet is completely unable to enter connected standby mode so it is always running at normal power.

Some graphical elements get stuck on the screen making large areas unusable. My icon groups only display the hashed registry entry names. Every third boot or so my touch screen fails to work. I think there are some other annoyances but I have pretty much given up for now.

To be fair I am only on the last preview build before the actual release, so MS had a couple of weeks to clean things up. I have not figured out how to force an upgrade to the release version yet and I am unable to go back to 8.1.

My advice would be to make sure you have a good image of your 8.1 install if you decide to give Windows 10 a try. I thought I had such an image but alas I didn't, so that's on me.

 

[Oyeve]

I recently updated my Dell Venue Pro 11 7000 to Win10 and its working great. Tablet has an I5 with 8GB ram and 512GB SSD. More of a laptop than a tablet. I have no idea why these things arent all that popular. Anyway, win10 update went without a hitch. Updated from win8.1 pro 64bit. No issues at all.

 

[quikah]

I upgraded my Surface 3, it has 4GB and Win x64 (though it is Home version) like yours. Originally had a problem with the mic, but an update fixed that. Only issues I have encountered is that it will occasionally not lock when going to sleep (might be a big deal if you use it for work). The touch interface has regressed a bit IMO, but you get used to it. Otherwise it is working fine.

I have no idea about the recovery, I would guess it is still Windows 8.

 

[ControlD]

From what I have gathered in trying to go through recovery on my tablet, you will only have the option to go back to Windows 8.1 for 30 days, and that is a special option in the recovery menu. The other selections are to refresh the Windows 10 installation or wipe the device and install Windows 10 as a fresh install. This leads me to believe that after 30 days recovery will be back to a fresh Windows 10 install.

 

[jacktesterson]

I recently updated my Dell Venue Pro 11 7000 to Win10 and its working great. Tablet has an I5 with 8GB ram and 512GB SSD. More of a laptop than a tablet. I have no idea why these things arent all that popular. Anyway, win10 update went without a hitch. Updated from win8.1 pro 64bit. No issues at all.

Good to know.

It's odd how there is so little info on this topic.

I use this tablet more than anything I own so I'm kinda torn if I want to try it out haha. (and I can't afford another one right now so I don't want to beta test basically)

 

[Hugh Jass]

Just got the notification from MS and upgraded my HP Stream 7 and I am very happy.

Went smooth and haven't run into any deal breakers so far.

 

[jacktesterson]

Cool.

I haven't tried windows 10 at all yet. I will upgrade my HTPC or Notebook first and see what I think.

Does Windows 10 on a tablet do anything better than 8.1 for anyone who has upgraded?

 

[Oyeve]

Cool.

I haven't tried windows 10 at all yet. I will upgrade my HTPC or Notebook first and see what I think.

Does Windows 10 on a tablet do anything better than 8.1 for anyone who has upgraded?

It does everything better than 8.1. I can't even begin to list them all. I hated 8 and 8.1 but I really didnt have a choice on the Venue. Win10 has been a blessing on this tablet. I would imaging its just much better than 8. I also updated my laptop, its a 15" asus touchscreen laptop, I forget the model, 500CA maybe, and its just a pleasure using it now. My main PC didnt really benefit with win10 as it had win7 and is connected to my TV. Actually, I may roll back to win7 on that.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I noticed with W10 on my Stream 7 there is now a toggle button where I can choose whether to keep the WiFi on after the tablet goes to sleep or to cut it off when it sleeps as it ALWAYS did in W8.1 with no option to prevent it from doing so.

 

[Strk]

I put it on my Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 and I like it for the most part. The only thing I haven't been able to figure out how to do is a quick swipe to check the time. On Windows 8 I could do a quick swipe if I was on a Powerpoint presentation to check the time, but I have to switch to the multitask screen or escape from the presentation with Windows 10. As for recovery, it is in the settings so you can just switch back to 8.1 for a month.

The tablet mode is a little buggy though, but you can switch that on or off if you want.

 

[McWatt]

Beware. I updated my Surface Pro 1 and spent awhile fixing the bugs (a microphone issue, a serious CPU burning issue fixed by turning off Windows tips in the notifications settings), then quickly realized that the loss of touchscreen UI functionality isn't worth the benefits in other areas. The Edge browser represents a microcosm of the problems facing the entire OS: it's much faster than IE in 8.1 on the same machine, but the interface is much worse. In 8.1 I could swipe left and right for forward and back, but this is gone in 10. That could be fixed if TouchMe Gesture Studio were working, but it doesn't yet work in 10. In 8.1 I could swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get cards showing the contents of each browsing tab and whether or not it was private, then easily tap the ~1"x2" card to select a tab. Edge doesn't yet have a privacy mode, and more significantly tab selection is identical to any desktop browser in that I need to tap a 1/4"x2" tab at the top of the screen and the only indicator of the tab's contents is its descriptive text. In 8.1 the address bar appeared contextually, primarily when I swiped up from the bottom of the screen. In 10 the Edge address bar is always on the screen, always eating valuable screen space, and sometimes tapped by accident when I'm trying to hit the little tab targets near the edge of the screen where touch location is less accurate anyway. Edge has a lot of advantages over the tablet mode IE, but the interface is a huge step back.

My complaints are exclusive to tablet scenarios. In desktop mode with a mouse and keyboard, a slightly-tweaked Windows 10 looks like a significant UI upgrade over 8.1, and for those without a fear of new things, over 7 as well.

Also, beware the downgrade-to-8.1 option. When I used it I was left with a severely broken 8.1 install and only two reasonable options. I could restore my 8.1 install and reinstall a dozen third party programs or I could move back to 10. I went back to 10. Hopefully TouchMe is back soon to allow custom gestures that will make up for 50-75% of the UI problems.

 

[lupi]

I was going to ask if anyone did the hp stream 7, thinking of using that as my first win 10 test.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I noticed with W10 on my Stream 7 there is now a toggle button where I can choose whether to keep the WiFi on after the tablet goes to sleep or to cut it off when it sleeps as it ALWAYS did in W8.1 with no option to prevent it from doing so.

Just tried using it...and it doesn't work. Wifi on the tablet still cuts out when the screen cuts off.

 

[JustMe21]

t generally runs okay on Bay Trail tablets with 2 GB RAM. It does take up more space than 8.1, however.

The thing to help speed it up and improve the battery life is to go to the Privacy setting and turn off all the non essential stuff, especially Background Apps.

Also, do a search for Wifi, then go to Manage Wifi Settings and turn Wifi sense off, so it doesn't automatically share your Wifi key with your contacts.

 

[jacktesterson]

Just set mine to upgrade overnight.

Woke up this morning to see my Elitepad prompting me to login with Win 10 installed.

I really like it on my desktop (after a week of using) so why not. I'll report back more this weekend once I get home from work and can try it on a tablet.

 

[jacktesterson]

Install went great. Running Win 10 on the Elitepad. Overall I feel like it's an upgrade over Win 8.1 even on a tablet.

 

[weibo]

Install went great. Running Win 10 on the Elitepad. Overall I feel like it's an upgrade over Win 8.1 even on a tablet.

Care to step we---from the curious crowd---thru the essential (and any gotcha) steps to w10 nirvana?

Any help is always appreciated

 

[podspi]

Blast from the past!

Everybody should be on W10 by now. The Win 7, 8 product keys still work to activate Windows 10 (checked about a month ago) - so it is pretty much a no-brainer at this point. Despite all of the complaining about problems caused by Windows updates, for the majority of users accepting the updates will still yield the best results. Unless you have a special case, Windows 10 works fantastically.

 

[Muse]

Good to know.

It's odd how there is so little info on this topic.

I use this tablet more than anything I own so I'm kinda torn if I want to try it out haha. (and I can't afford another one right now so I don't want to beta test basically)

Maybe you can work it out so you can go back to 8.1 if the 10 upgrade doesn't appeal to you for whatever reason(s)? Backup/restore software.

My tablets came with Windows 10. Cheapies ($118, the 2nd cheaper, a refurb). Bought the 2nd when I broke the screen on the first. Then fixed the first's screen, so I have two. Guess they run 10 OK:

RCA Cambio 10" Windows Tablet with Detachable Keyboard W101 V2

I don't use them much, just for traveling, but they're OK for that. Stuck with Windows because I have custom software and data (I programmed) that requires Windows.