Windows OS

[adc7236]

Has anyone upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 and regretted it? I am still running 7 Pro, but considering the free upgrade. Any thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

[Saunders]

As a quasi IT-professional and PC gamer... I wasn't a fan of 8 (or 8.1). Windows 10 is sooo much better. We've upgraded every windows machine at my small company (15 PC's total) and all 3 in my house are on 10.

 

Do it.

[AR Husker Fan]

Agree with saunders, BUT...I've now seen two upgrades go sideways. Before upgrading, BACK UP! In the first one that went bad, there was some issue with the graphics driver and ALL text was garbled to the point that it was impossible to navigate. On the second, all user data was "lost" - meaning, it really wasn't, but it was in the Windows.old folder and it's not easy to help a non-technical person to locate it, take ownership of it, and move it to the correct location. Also, on that second one, some installed applications weren't appearing on the Start Menu - and, again, trying to walk someone through how to recreate them is tough.

 

Other than those, all upgrades I've seen have gone well. But you never know...

[Branno]

I’ve been running Windows 10 in my Windows VM since it came out, it’s a nice upgrade. I was previously running 8 though (I had no complaints, the new start menu wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be).

[Saunders]

Agree with saunders, BUT...I've now seen two upgrades go sideways. Before upgrading, BACK UP! In the first one that went bad, there was some issue with the graphics driver and ALL text was garbled to the point that it was impossible to navigate. On the second, all user data was "lost" - meaning, it really wasn't, but it was in the Windows.old folder and it's not easy to help a non-technical person to locate it, take ownership of it, and move it to the correct location. Also, on that second one, some installed applications weren't appearing on the Start Menu - and, again, trying to walk someone through how to recreate them is tough.

 

Other than those, all upgrades I've seen have gone well. But you never know...

Yeah, agreed. I'm always a fan of doing a clean install too. The updated the installer, so you can use your Windows 7/8/8.1 key to do a fresh install, or, you can do the upgrade, then wipe and re-install. If it's been a couple years since you installed, it might be a good idea to do it fresh. For personal stuff, since USB storage is so cheap, we always keep backups at the house, and since my wife and I use dropbox for almost everything, we pretty much only have to back up the user folder, and we're good to go.

[adc7236]

I appreciate all the input. I have separate drive on my home network for backups and I keep all family oriented can't lose photos and videos on a remote server similar to drop box. It is nice to know that fresh install is an option. I am always reluctant to "upgrade" to the next best thing as I get comfortable with what I know, and I have never gotten over the horrific experience I had with Vista.

[Saunders]

I appreciate all the input. I have separate drive on my home network for backups and I keep all family oriented can't lose photos and videos on a remote server similar to drop box. It is nice to know that fresh install is an option. I am always reluctant to "upgrade" to the next best thing as I get comfortable with what I know, and I have never gotten over the horrific experience I had with Vista.

The trick with windows... is to go every other version! But for real, 10 is really good.

[VectorVictor]

I've updated five machines to Windows 10--a gaming rig, two laptops, an in-progress HTPC, and a Stream 7 tablet, and they all went smooth as silk with very few hiccups.

 

In fact, it's honestly the easiest update that I can remember, and I've been doing this since the '95 days...

[Army_Allen]

I've had nothing but issues with my audio since upgrading to W10. Half the time it doesn't recognize I have a speaker or headphones in and then if I keep trying sometimes it will crash my system.