If you love Windows 7 and hate 8 or 8.1 then I understand your dismay at considering Windows 10. Don't let the past or even the last year of news regarding privacy issues keep you from moving forward. I have been on insiders builds and witnessed to tragedy of Windows 8 / 8.1. Frankly, I had no trouble with them for a while. Then when the dreaded BSOD's started happening, and issues with proper power control features, I just aboout had enough. Then the FREE Windows 10 came along and I had no choice, either move forward or go back to Windows 7. I am glad I took a leap of faith and moved forward. Yes I had great fear of turning over the "mandatory" updates to an entity that had no idea what my computer was being used for or what hardware it used. It was troublesome to my brain... I started with my brand new laptop. A top of the line Dell unit with a 4K touch screen built in LCD display. My first upgrade was still sitting in pending mode and I was getting the notice I could upgrade, but when I attempted the upgrade, it never succeeded. Sigh... Here I was taking the plunge on my brand new laptop and it wouldn't even upgrade> I did what I always do. Searched Google and found a few tech sites that eased me through the unworking upgrade. After some work, (Mainly me decoding the steps to force the upgrade) I wa successful. So on day one of the free Windows10 upgrade, I was up and running! Two days later I completed a marothon of laptop upgrades. I found every old and new laptop I had in the house that was on Windows 7 and forced the upgrades. An old Gateway proved to be the most difficult and my Lenovo was the easiest. I have two Toshiba's and they each fussed for a while but I got through them eventually. All 5 of these laptops range from over 7 years old to current as of 2015. All 5 are runnning daily without fail. This was the most surprising and rewarding thing that could have happened. Pitfalls! Since there is until July 29th for anyone to upgrade for free, I suggest you plan for a good part of the day to get it done. If you are lucky, then maybe just over an hour. If your laptop is older, then expect to go through severaly updates to get hardware drivers current. Sound and Video cards seem to be the most difficult thing for windows 10 to get right 100% every time. Make absolutely sure you have your Windows 7 Product Key handy. If you lost the key, use a keyfinder first and print out a hard copy. Be aware, most newer computers may store this key on your BIOS, so you WILL need to find out from you laptop manufacturer how to retrieve it. Now you have your key, what to do next? In order to upgrade and use the key, you CANNOT do a clean install. (At least at first...) You have to do the UPGRADE process FIRST. Why? Well the key you want to use must be "ACTIVATED" following the upgrade. When activation is finished and IF you want to, you can then take the steps to do a clean install. (My newest Dell has been clean installed, because as it is the newest, I wanted all the Dell bloatware removed. The other laptops I had already cleaned up manually over the years and carry much less ove the daily workload. Early methods to force the upgrade had some issues. Especially with administrative rights and other issues. Sometimes I had to run the Microsoft "Fixit" program, and a couple of other ones MS released. Well in the year passed, they have done a lot to make it easier. I just helped get 4 other laptops upgraded last month and this method worked every time. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Then click the "Upgrade Now" button, and follow the prompts! Also on this page are the download links to Windows 10 ISO files, and you can even create a USB bootable drive for later use to do a clean install. Remember, A clean install will remove all your old files so BACK UP YOUR PICTURES, DOCUMENTS, AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO KEEP. You have little time left so it's FREE now or PAY LATER! See my Tips to make Windows 10 look and feel exactly like the old Windows 7! |