Deadline to lock in Win10 license past July 29th.

[FlyingPenguin]

The July 29th deadline to get the fre Windows 10 upgrade is approaching. If you're still running Win7, even if you don't want Win10 right now, you might want to consider temporarily upgrading just to lock in the license for your PC. Keep in mind that Win7 is end-of-support on January 2020 - that's only 3-1/2 years. If you expect to keep using that PC past that date, you might want to have a free Win10 license in your pocket so you don't have to shell out $100 - $140 at that time.

If you upgrade before July 29th and then roll back to your previous OS, your PC will be permanently licensed for Win10 (assuming no radical hardware changes).

The safest thing to do is to image your boot drive with Acronis or some similar imaging utility, then do the Win10 upgrade, then MAKE SURE Win10 is activated: right click This PC -> Properties to display the info tab and make sure you see "Windows is Activated" at the bottom. Then roll back to your old OS either using the built-in 30 day roll back in Win10, or just restore your backed up image.

That's what I'm working on this weekend. I'm locking in a Win10 license for any PC I might conceivably want to install Win10 on in the future.

[EvilHorace]

I honestly don't know one person who's tried Win10 and likes it compared to Win7, which is MSs best OS to date in most peoples opinions. By the time support for Win7 expires, MS will have at least one more newer OS as well.

[FlyingPenguin]

Well your only choice in 3-1/2 years is Win8.1 or Win10. You COULD milk Win7 1 more year past expiration IF you avoid using IE and lock it down as a limited user, but like XP sooner or later some end of the world flaw will be discovered that MS won't patch, or else support will just end. Try finding a printer that works on XP today.

Win10 is fine as long as you don't choose to have it linked to a Microsoft account, and I like to install Classic Shell for a Win7 style Start Menu. I have it installed on my laptop and gaming PC. I do find Win10 uses a LOT less resources than previous versions. I've installed it on some budget Celeron and Pentium systems with only 2GB of RAM and it runs surprisingly well.

For my main workstation I prefer Win8.1 because there's less baked in social crap, and that's not end of support until Jan 2023. I also run a LOT of old apps that may or may not have issues with Win10 (some of them gave me fits to setup properly under Win8.1).

We could all pine for the "BEST OS" (which in my opinion was Win2K before the bloat), but technology moves on.

My only real problem with Win10 is all the social and cloud integration, but as I said if you don't link it to an MS account 99% of that is disabled anyway. Like Steve Gibson, I want my OS to JUST be a file management platform. Any apps I use I want to install and manage myself.

[Executioner]

I've already links 10 to my laptop when it first came out. On my gaming desktop, I have not done anything except to run GWX control panel, and I have updates disabled. If I wanted to link my desktop to 10, what steps would be involved? I guess I would re-run the GWX control panel and enable the get 10?

[FlyingPenguin]

You don't have to upgrade from Windows Update. You can go to Microsoft's site here and click "Upgrade Now". https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... windows10/

Or you can download the media creation tool and make a bootable flash drive or DVD installer by clicking the "Download Tool Now" button on the same page.

[EvilHorace]

Well your only choice in 3-1/2 years is Win8.1 or Win10

You really think that MS won't have another OS out by then, especially considering the lack of Win10s popularity?
I, like many, also don't like how MSs trying to cram this OS down our throats, like "upgrade now or you'll be screwed later".

[Genom]

I would doubt it. Just because people dont like the aggressive upgrade push, doesnt mean you have much choice in the long run. I see people saying that's it! I am switching to "any other OS out there" but they dont really. They have stated that Win10 is the "final" number version, and yes, it will change through updates and upgrades, but there is no market for them to put out a new product with a new name. Online systems are far along enough that it's just going to be "Windows" eventually. Same naming policy as OSX, although MS will likely ignore the .X versioning naming since thats just Apple's bullshit way of selling you a new OS every 18 months.

Also, Windows 10 has a much higher adoption rate than you think it does. It's already double that of Win8 and 8.1, and almost 50% of Win7, and it hasnt been a year.

[Executioner]

Windows 10 is approaching 20%.
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operatin ... pcustomd=0

Market Share of Windows 7 49.05%
Market Share of Windows 10 19.14%
Market Share of Windows XP 9.78%
Market Share of Windows 8.1 8.01%
Market Share of Mac OS X 10.11 4.93%
Market Share of Windows 8 2.45%
Market Share of Linux 2.02%
Market Share of Mac OS X 10.10 1.80%
Market Share of Windows Vista 1.21%

I bet quite a few of those percentages are from gamers. I still like 7, and all my rigs are running 7. Considering all my rigs are old, I'm probably going to stay with 7 for a while. I may decide to move to 8.1 since I do have a few licenses.

[Executioner]

Windows 10 last ditch effort screen?


http://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleath ... 7add2224f1

However, this time, Microsoft is making no secrets about this new, last-minute push to get people to upgrade. A support page has been created that explains how and why the message will be appearing.

Thankfully, Microsoft claims that if you’ve already selected the ‘Do not notify me again’ option, have opted out of the upgrade or rolled back having previously installed it, then your screen won’t be taken over by the pesky new notification.

[FlyingPenguin]

Also keep in mind that if you have a Dell that's no more than 4 years old, it probably has a Slic BIOS licensed for Win8.1. General rule of thumb is that if Dell has Win8 drivers available on their support site, then that PC likely will automatically validate for Win8.

I'm just not sure if, like Win10, you can use ANY Win8/8.1 installer DVD. I happen to have a Dell Win 8.1 OEM installer DVD so I've been using that to upgrade some clients to Win8 if their PC is new enough. A lot of my clients have Optiplex 3020 PCs with Win7 Pro downgrades.