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Transcript
Your Windows 10 experiences survey results
Hi everyone! I’m Leo Notenboom for askleo.com.
Earlier this week, in my Ask Leo! Newsletter, I asked readers to fill out a survey which asked them about how the Windows 10 upgrade and use experience was for them. Did they upgrade? How did it go and did they like what they ended up with?
I got 2,786 responses for which I am incredibly grateful. Thank you for participating in that. Thank you for letting me know how Windows 10 has been working for you.
As you’ll see in a minute, I think we got some really valuable, really important and somewhat surprising results out of the experiment, out of the survey. Now, of course, I have to throw out the caveat that this isn’t some kind of scientific survey. This is more of an opinion poll but I think you’ll find that the results are so dramatic that it’s very, very interesting and I think we have some really, really strong takeaways from what people are experiencing.
Upgrade versus full install
So, the first question I asked was basically did you do the upgrade or did you do a full reinstall? In other words, did you do an install from scratch of Windows 10?
Not surprisingly, about 90% of the folks that responded are doing the upgrade. Makes total sense because it’s the upgrade path that Microsoft is offering for free.
If you’ve got Windows 7 with SP1 or if you’re running Windows 8.1, the upgrade to Windows 10 is completely free but it is an upgrade. To do a clean install of Windows 10 implies either that you’ve purchased a copy or that you’ve actually jumped through a couple of “not obvious” hoops to make that clean install happen.
But, like I said, not surprisingly, 90% of the folks who’ve responded were doing the upgrade path.
Did it work?
The second question, very simple, “Did it work? Or were there technical problems that prevented the upgrade or the install from working for you?” This is our first surprise.
87% of the people that responded, Windows 10’s install or upgrade just worked. That’s a higher number than I was expecting, to be honest but it’s very promising and it’s very good. 87% success rate. Now, for the 13% of the folks for which it did fail, again for some technical reason, this isn’t a matter of taste or opinion here yet, this is actually the thing did or did not because something literally did not work.
Of the 13% for whom it failed, one in five actually had to recover by re-installing their system from scratch to the earlier version of Windows. That’s unfortunate. The fact that it is 4 out of 5 people were able to revert to their previous install, wonderful.
But 1 in 5 is still too many and I say that because that implies to me that the 1 in 5’s did not prepare with a full image backup prior to doing the Windows 10 install. Had they had a full image backup to restore to, I believe that more of them would have been able to simply go back to the version of Windows that they had prior to the Windows 10 install failure that they experienced.
But like I said, 13% of the folks who responded, they were unable to install Windows 10 for some technical reason.
Do you like it?
Now, of those people for whom it worked, in other words, they’re left with a machine running Windows 10 successfully, did they like it? 84% said yes, the did in fact like Windows 10 once it was running and installed successfully on their machine.
Nine percent, around nine percent, decided to go back. They didn’t like what they had, they ended up reverting back to whatever version of Windows that they had prior to the Windows 10 upgrade. The difference, you’ll notice that this doesn’t add up to 100%, the folks that remained, those are the folks who upgraded to Windows 10 successfully, played with it, decided they didn’t like Windows 10 but don’t feel that they have an option or opportunity to roll back to what they had before.
Now, there are many possible reasons for that happening but I have to once again believe that one of the reasons is that they did not prepare for the possibility of needing to roll back by taking an image backup before they started. So, 84% of the people who install Windows 10, like Windows 10. They’re happy with it and they’re moving forward.
How old a machine?
One of the assumptions or inferences that I made a couple of weeks ago in one of my videos was that I thought there was a correlation between machine age and your success rate at installing or upgrading to Windows 10. So one of the questions I included on my survey was simply this, “How old is your machine?” with a couple of options.
For the people for whom the install worked, 70% of the machines were between 1 and 4 years old and in fact, 18% of the machines were 5 years old or older. That kind of surprised me too and in a good way. I was thinking that perhaps that there was a stronger correlation with machine age and the failure rate. And apparently that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case.
The big take aways...
So, my big takeaways from this survey:
One, Windows 10 upgrade and install works for the vast majority of people. That’s great. In fact, it works for more people than I would have expected. As I think I’ve said before, people come to Ask Leo! with problems so I hear about problems with Windows 10. If things are just working, I don’t hear about it unless I ask in a survey. So this is really, really good news to me. The fact that it’s way more of a success rate than I would have guessed.
Second takeaway is that there is still a 13% technical failure rate so another way to say that is there a slightly greater than 1 in 10 chance that a Windows 10 upgrade or a Windows 10 install won’t work. Again, it’s a smaller amount than I was expecting but it is still a larger amount, a higher number than I think is really acceptable.
My third big takeaway: The majority of people who successfully installed Windows 10, like it. They’re happy with it and they are ready to move on. Ultimately, I see that as being really, really good news since Microsoft has banked their future on Windows 10. In a way, that means our future is sort of in that as well. So Windows 10 is being accepted and installed successfully by many more people than I think that we’ve been led to believe. I think that we’ve been hearing from. And again, I really think that is good, good news.
Ye olde bottom line
The bottom line for me really hasn’t changed. My advice hasn’t really yet changed. I suggest, I recommend being cautious. There still is no urgency to upgrade to Windows 10. When the free offer expires, we’ll talk again but for now, there’s no rush.
That being said, I honestly believe that your chances for success are higher than I would have told you a week or so ago. I still can’t stress enough the importance of taking an image backup of the machine you are about to upgrade before you upgrade. It’s your safety net. It will protect you from just about anything that could possible go wrong.
So if you’re going to go down the Windows 10 path, fine. Just please take an image backup first before you even make the attempt. Chances are, it will work. In fact, if it’s anything like we just heard from my survey responses, you’ve got a 90% chance that the Windows 10 installation or upgrade process you might go through will in fact work.
But there’s a 1 in 10 chance that it won’t and that’s why you want the image backup. That’s why you want to protect yourself before you even make the attempt.
So as always, here’s a link to this article out on askleo.com. Visit me there; leave your comments. Let me know what you think. I would really love to hear your thoughts on what this survey seems to have uncovered and where you think things are going to be going.
Until next week, I’m Leo Notenboom for askleo.com. As always, be safe, have fun and don’t forget to back up. Take care.
I couldn’t revert because something blew in my computer, I got error sign saying something in the contents of “driver failure” and “incompatibility.” My PC was 6 years old, but I really do like Windows 10 as I got an early Xmas present.
I couldn’t agree more about the need for making an image before upgrading. You can only roll back via Windows for a month, if you have an image you can do it any time. Plus I had a roll back fail, and the image was a life saver. In that case, I had to write the recovery CD on that machine, it wouldn’t accept a boot disk from another machine. Fortunately the rolled back system worked well enough for me to write the disk, but it had me worried for a bit.
Interesting survey results Leo. My own situation is echoed by your results. I upgraded my 7 year old machine from 8.1 to 10 then did a clean install. Both processes completed without any trouble whatsoever. Moreover, my ole machine has been running 10 quite nicely.
With respect to my personal opinion of 10: on 8.1 I ran Classic Shell. With Windows 10, I no longer use that program because I actually like the revamped Start Menu and its live tiles. The only problem I’ve been experiencing is an inconsistent Ethernet connection – then again my PC is 7 yrs old.
I upgraded to Windows 10 on a 6 years old machine, on a 5 years old machine (a friend) and on a 4 years old machine (daughter). I was surprided with the good results. Only my own 6 years old machine had sometime a blue screen and I decided to do a clean install. After that the machine is stable.
What I like is that you can personalize Windows 10 the way you prefer. Because I like simple without anything unnessary I changed Windows 10 so that it looks like an Windows 7-machine. But than a bit nicer and more up to date. Bonus: Windows 10 feels faster than windows 7 (booting, starting programs)
You cannot personalise it the way I want because it hasn’t got the amount customisation options that are versions prior Windows 8.
I am on WIndows 7 and I shall be staying on Windows 7 for the foreseeable future.
Not to try to convince you to upgrade (I generally don’t recommend it), but if you already have 8 or 10, you can use ClassicShell to get your customizations options back.
https://askleo.com/classic_shell_regain_your_start_menu_in_windows_8_and_much_more/
I wish it worked better (10) but there are too many people still ranging between frustrated and angry (maybe some trolls) who are still trying to get through the recent updating/replacement sounded more like it and while I try to help with the knowledge I have gained over 24 years of building up my own PCs it just seems to never end.
1. Telling people with little knowledge of how to use the REGISTRY, people who are used to downloading apps and may have little if any experience of how Windows was dealt with 30 years ago causes a bit of suspicion and confusion with them.
2. The Answers site isn’t being utilized well Re: search and the same questions are asked numerous times, with not much success.
3. There IS a bit of xenophobia about, as to why Microsoft let India take over and do they understand at all?
4. The updates are possibly about as bad as the original upgrade for those who were having problems to begin with, and they are reluctant to do anything ‘drastic’.
5. To many people, computers are like cars, or toasters for that matter. They are supposed to just work. On one hand this is a sign that things have actually gotten BETTER and there are less of the really dramatic things that ‘vintage’ users went through in the past. On the other hand it does lead to grumbling for others.
I have used the same word processor for 30 years (WordPerfect) and I don’t send documents over email anyway…I have little money to go beyond WP 11 that has worked for 14 years and it HALFWAY worked in 10 but was in bad shape, along with other things I needed to keep, and I found Edge to be terrible compared to whatever version of Firefox came with my old version of Linux, not to mention a lot of the newer features like Mail were not working for many and changing browsers to other than IE was also a big problem. No reason to upgrade for a new browser that left you using IE again and that too is a common complaint on the Microsoft Answers site.
There truly was no need to rush the release. Apple would not be gaining a lot of new users, a lot of Microsoft Windows users just don’t get Apple anyway. Let them do what they like, the Apple fans, it’s politics to many of us this so-called Apple vs. Microsoft ‘War’ thing and meaningless. What some of us objected to was that some people feel that they HAD to do this, and also that we all have to watch our Windows Updates and check them out before installing…this month’s optional update to the Update Agent is a prime example, as is having to constantly hide the same hotfix over and over, or get lucky and find that website with the download that simply kills GWX and it’s minion (it works too).
The real irony here is that Nadella and his team seem so anxious to get 10 out that they are running all over their own customers and giving themselves more bad rep than they had with Ballmer.
In my opinion it was a collossal mess. The people they wanted to switch from XP to 7 or 8 found 7 to be a better version of the XP they loved and 8 a problem child. You won’t get them onboard so easily, they are spooked and many express regret for having upgraded when they post to Answers as well.
So what does 110 million people now use Windows 10 (as they advertise) actually mean?
And how does a sample of less than 3,000 stack up to that?
I think it mainly states that Ask Leo! readers, and only respondents, favored 10 but it can’t be correlated to a larger representation unfortunately.
And the Microsoft team failed miserably in their PR campaign. A lot of people apparently believed it was just download and go, it wasn’t. peripheral makers took a hands-off approach and those that did have drivers found that the Microsoft version were sometimes inferior to the current ones and their own updating routines were being conflicted with by Microsoft constantly reinstalling the wrong ones…it eook a lot of time and unhappy users, especially gamers than COUNT on their video and related equipment to enjoy what they love.
Gamers do not mess around.
I’ll leave it at that. It wasn’t worth the hassle and 7 is still supported in some versions, all of them receive updating and malware scanner data from the major players. It was not worth it and I’m still reloading one of my newest machines.
At first, I found the 13% failure rate shocking. But on the other hand, having asked over 150 of my students about their upgrade experiences, half upgraded, and none of them experienced any problems, I think that 13% is possibly inflated due to the fact that people with problems still tend to respond more than people who had a positive experience.
As I said, it’s not intended to be scientific, and could certainly suffer from some amount of self-selection bias. But even if off by a factor of two or three we’re still talking a 1-in-20 failure rate. That’s still too high. I’d want it to be 1 in 100 or less.
You closed the survey before I had a chance to comment, however, I have updated to Windows 10 and had no trouble doing it.
But, I have had trouble using it, especially with my printer, Canon MX882 PIxma. Had to go to Canon to download/install new drivers.
If the results of your survey can be interpreted as a global figure the 13% failure rate is a huge number.
I’m guessing the results are still a bit skewed. Readers who had a failure are probably more motivated to respond to the survey than those who did not. But I agree that the failure rate still seems pretty high.
Even if off by a factor of three or 10, it’s still too high.
I think I’m the 1 Windows 10 Loser-ino Leo referred to regarding the rollback. My upgrade from Windows 7 Home Edition went perfectly, but I hated hated HATED Windows 10. Too much graphic stuff, bells-and-whistles I’d never use. I took the survey because I didn’t back-up before the upgrade, had the rollback FAIL, and spent as much as I’d spend on a cheap new laptop to get Windows 7 back. I am just stunned that so many people like Windows 10.
You might consider installing Classic Shell to see if that doesn’t make the experience a little better for you.
I’m a bit confused by Hilary’s comment that because she didn’t do an image backup and had the roll-back fail, she had to buy a new laptop to get Windows 7 back. And I’d like to know why she couldn’t just reset her existing computer ‘back to factory settings’ which I presume was Windows 7?
You’re right… she could have reformatted the computer. If not with factory settings, then simply buy a copy of Windows 7. Some people actually throw away computers when they have malware! Here’s Leo’s response to that: https://askleo.com/my-computer-is-infected-with-malware-should-i-just-throw-it-out/
I have an old Acer netbook that was getting slower and slower with Win7 starter. Now and then I would use various tools to clean/optimize and perk it up a bit but due to only using it for travel I just didn’t want to spend much time on it. There isn’t much loaded on it so last week I decided that I was going to either redo it or since 10 was available I would go crazy. I went crazy and it runs much much better now. The upgrade went without a hitch and it is purring along like it was brand new.
After hearing the results I’m REALLY disappointed. I had an image backup but it didn’t help me at all when the install simply froze and refused to do anything. It cost me a computer. I chalked it up to my own stupidity in upgrading from Win 7 – an OS I was very, very happy running – to a system I had no idea would work or not. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t touch Ten with …. You know the rest.
I really wonder what went wrong with the image you had on hand. That info might assist others who might avoid a problem.
My image files are totally separate from Win 7 and I CAN boot from SD card to access it so restoring an image would normally work fine.
Plus I do keep more than one image on hand in case one is defective.
1) you need bootable rescue media and you need to test that it works before needing it.
2) you must set for each backup the verification option to have a backup you can rely on.
Think of image backups like insurance. Would you drive, have a home, condo, or appartment without insurance?
I don’t understand how the image backup didn’t help you. It’s just software – installing Windows 10 won’t break any hardware – so restoring to an image backup should have saved everything for you.
Leo, I make a system image immediately after installing or re-installing my OS. But I store them on a drive other than my C: drive. And although I usually manage to run them in the end, doing so is not as easy as one would hope! First of all, you have to find the option to run them, which again is not as simple as it sounds! Then you have to hope that Windows will see your system image, which it doesn’t always – especially if you store it on a drive other than C: drive!
And because finding the option to run a system image successfully is sometimes so difficult, I have occasionally given up trying to run one and have had to ‘reset my computer to factory settings’ and start all over again, which is extremely frustrating given the number of updates and the Windows 8.1 upgrade which have to all be installed again!
It sounds like what you have isn’t really an image… one doesn’t “run” an image. You boot from a rescue or emergency disk and “restore” it to take the place of the current disk by overwriting it.
This highlights the one (and only one) frustrating thing I find in your general advice, Leo. For those of you who can create image backups and then test them on machines, learn the software’s quirks, confirm you truly made an actual image, prove you can restore from it, that’s all well and good. Most of the rest of us just have one machine, no real way to verify an image backup works, and the only time we ever see the “restore” parts of the software are when we can’t get our machine to boot and need to restore, only to find out there was something we didn’t do right in making the images all along. I’m an experienced user, yet my experience with Acronis True Image was less than stellar. I ended up with permanent Master Boot Record errors on startup, just trying to use the software, and I had zero confidence that the software was making anything I could restore from. I abandoned it after my last clean OS installation. I just back up my data files and reinstall all my software after a clean OS installation. Successfully done that a dozen or more times. Success rates so far with a full disk image? 0%
This is why I also have articles (and books) on making backups, testing backups, restoring backups and just generally everything that’s so important to make sure it all works.
Hi Leo:
I did your survey. I am running W 10 on a back up machine. This machine will become my primary machine when I start to up date my W 7 machine. I am staling do that as I have a lot of programs on it that will be need to move to the back up machine. I have little time on my hands to do that. Some of the programs are pretty old and the vendor never redid the program to run on the Windows after Windows 7. I was wondering if I could use the cable that came with Windows 7 (I think although I know I bought one also) to move data/files from XP to 7 to move my Windows 7 files/data to W 10? That would help a lot as then I would only have to install the base programs. To give you and Idea I am running ACT! version 6. It has over 4,000 contacts (I bet half of them are dead or moved to another company) However, I still need many of those files and Word letters and quotes I did via a Act6 connection. I was able to run MYOB (early version) on W 10 as I had moved it from Windows 7 (on the back up machine) to W 8 and then 8.1 and finally W 10. AS a side note I am also using a Lumina 830 Smartphone running its version of W 10 (life is a bit easier now because of the integration with W7 and W10). Thanks for the survey results.
Hi Leo
Interesting result – Microsoft will be pleased. You are right to emphasise the need for backup. However I don’t think the 13% failure rate should be placed entirely at the Microsoft door. We all make mistakes in process from time to time so my guess is that a proportion – possibly a substantial proportion – may be down to user error. Of course one can argue that user error ought to be foreseen and programmed out but then folks complain that they can’t choose!!
My upgrade was on an older machine, originally XP but upgraded previously to Windows 7. I was a bit surprised by your continued caution about moving to Windows 10 particularly because my experience on my machine is that it works noticeably better than Windows 7 did. Give it a go I say. Some folks are probably still happy with Windows 95 and good luck to them.
I’ve thought about that possibility of user error, but as a programmer, one essential criteria of any system I worked on was to make it as ‘Idiot proof’ as possible. I’m sure Microsoft goes to great lengths to Idiot proof their systems. I chalk most of the problems up to incompatible third party software, mostly in the form of incompatible device drivers. Every OS upgrade has its incompatibility problems. I think this is exacerbated in Windows 10, because Microsoft is pushing it so hard on people who wouldn’t otherwise upgrade, but they are being made to feel it’s a requirement to upgrade. As I need to understand Windows 10 for my work, I upgraded one machine. On my other two, I get an offer to upgrade every time I boot up that I’m almost tempted to upgrade just to shut up the nagging.
I have one older Dell that Dell has said isn’t compatible, but Microsoft is assuring me it’s compatible. So I’d conclude that the big problem is Microsoft’s pushiness and delusional optimism that Windows 10 is for everybody.
Ok, I have upgraded 8 systems so far and two had some problems. The last one I started Monday afternoon and finally got done at noon today. My verified backup saved two or three times on this one upgrade.
I’m an ex-programmer/analyst and no matter how good a job you do in “idiotproofing”, users alway find other flaws. I always keep my drivers up to date and know this has been a big issue most users ignore. Unplugging unnecessary USB devices like printers and unneeded storage devices eliminates other problems. And most of all, checking for updated 10 class drivers and added updates after the upgrade is very much needed.
Mark,
Don’t you know every time they make something idiot proof, that someone will come up with an improved idiot?
@Mark Jacobs. I would have thought that as a programmer, you would have heard of uninstalling and then hiding certain Windows Updates to prevent the Windows 10 upgrade offer from ever popping up again?
To prevent the download, we need to uninstall several Windows updates, and prevent them from being reinstalled.
If you are running Windows 7, the updates are:
•KB2952664 •KB3021917 •KB3035583
In Windows 8.1, those updates are:
•KB2976978 •KB3035583
Hopefully, most people know how to uninstall an update. But for the benefit of those who don’t, you need to go to Control Panel>Windows Update. Click View Update History in the left hand column and when it opens, click Installed Updates. Once there, you can use the search box to find the relevant KB numbers (see above).
Then next time you check for Windows Updates, view the optional ones; find the relevant KB numbers; right click and select HIDE. Now they should never get downloaded or installed again :-)
Or run the “GWX Control Panel” from the Ultimate Outsider. It’s very popular so rather than including the link here, just Google it!
In short, the GWX Control Panel turns off the nags, stops the Win10 downloads, optionally deletes what already has been downloaded and even optionally will monitor the flags to make sure Microsoft doesn’t reset them without your knowledge.
Recommended!
I did exactly that. Researched it, ran it, and liked it enough to post an article about it: Block Windows 10 With GWX Control Panel (and on top of that I donated to the author as well).
I have planned to wait until May or June to do a fresh install. Will the windows 10 that I get at that time include all of the changes that have taken place since it was first released or must I than install all of the updates?
Sometime in June is the next major schedled update to 10 and new ISO images for clean installs should be available for download then with everything at that point.
Hopefully, MS will have improved it by then :-) So I will keep my eye out for that and maybe give it another try …..
I would expect it to be up-to-date as of that time, but only time will tell.
Dell publishes a list of computers they have specifically tested for compatibility with Win 10. Neither of my upgrades are on that list. I experienced driver in-compatibility with both. On the XPS 8300 desktop (about 4 years old), the Canon AIO printer, (10 years old) the print function worked but I could no longer scan documents into my computer. My new printer works great – problem solved!
The problem with the Latitude E5410 was more troublesome. The built in monitor stopped working when windows updated to a new (2012) Intel driver for the display adapter. The fault was difficult and time consuming to sort out. Safe boot provided control of the machine and a driver roll back for the display adapter ultimately solved the problem. However, Windows updated continued to download and update the newer Intel driver. I had to hide new Intel driver for the display adapter from Windows update so that it would not down load, install and kill the built-in display function. Automatic driver updates are a mixed blessing. Sometimes the new features are incompatible with generic hardware. It is very beneficial that MS provided a tool to hide troublesome updates.
Not sure how you were able to ” hide ” that update in Win 10. The home version does not let you do that at all, and the Pro version only lets you ” defer ” updates for a period of time.
I also have a Dell that missed the Dell “cutoff”(L502x XPS). Serious problems after initial upgrade. I obtained some key older drivers(4) directly from Dell, set them to operate in compatibility mode(Windows 8), installed, and have a fully functional Windows 10 platform. Driver updates are turned off and they seem not to have been updated since their installation. Been through several cumulative updates and the latest system upgrade(from the original upgrade) and they seem to be intact. So for me turning off driver updates seems to be working.Everything is now working better than before the upgrade so I’m pretty happy at this point, but probably more work than an average computer user would want to do.
I have lots of computers and always test new OS versions as to what is the oldest hardware it works on. I have a Dell GX620 and upgraded without issue and double its on their list. I have two laptop of theirs yet to schedule. I have seen such statements with some of my systems and ignore them. With a verifed image backup, if it really doesn’t work, I use the rescue media I made and restore the backup to what it was.
As to your Cannon printer, I have some very old printers still working on 10. Something you might try is to go into the old control panel, devices and printers, and delete that printer. Reboot, and go back into the same area and add the printer and don’t use the obolete cd you may have, through it away. You should get a screne of current printer manufactures and models, but yours may not be there. Click the button labelled Windows Update. This takes a few minutes to download into your machine legacy drivers. Find Cannon on the left and you model on the right and if your lucky go ahead and install. This may provide you full functionality. Its at least worth a shot.
At first I was afraid of trying Windows 10 out. With so many people trying to fool you into giving personal information., I don’t know who to trust these days. Now I see you need Windows 10 to run your computer with todays modern technology. Now I am trying to catch up with todays works if I can.
Actually, even if you are Gung Ho, you don’t. It’s just like bigger tailfins and more chrome in the 50s…this year’s model.
This what happened to me with Win 10. I did the backup. Upgraded to Win10. Twenty days later I returned back to Win7. I still lost all the data for the 20 days. Lucky for me, I also back up my most important data to another drive and was able to return to normal. Please note….I DID THE IMAGE BACKUP.
It’s generally best practice to take an image backup of the Win 10 system before reverting. Then you’re sure not to lose any new or updated data.
In taking the survey, I thought that the “available” answers from which to choose made me say that the install via upgrade was successful. Windows 10 did not run smoothly until some Microsoft updates were also loaded. After those were done, Windows 10 ran. Because Windows 10 did run, I answered the survey as if it was a successful install.
To be truly successful in USAGE, Windows 10 should have permit of facilitated the operation of other programs running on the Windows platform. Windows 10 failed this important aspect. Bitdefender took weeks to be restored by their customer service. Likewise my Sony 7 photo program. I did not think that I could revert to my Windows 7 because my backup was on Seagate external drive that I cannot access via Seagate Dashboard nor with the Memeo Backup Premium. It has been 5 months since the upgrade. I have read your article “Four ways to go back to Windows 7 from Windows 10” and after reading the comments, I am doubt that it is worth the additional hassle and endless hours of unproductive pc time. I am sooo tired of these changes.
The survey questions did not ask if all previously running programs continued to run after he upgrade to Windows 10. They did not. Frankly, had I known of this outcome, I would not have chosen to leave Windows 7 for 10. Thanks Leo for a place to vent my frustration.
George,
You mention Bitdefender support taking weeks to restore your installation. I have had similar woeful service from Bitdefender Customer Support when I had problems downloading and installing their 2016 version. Their response times to my three requests were 4 days, 7 days, 6 days, and it has been 5 days since my last request with no response so far. They were very quick to take my money. But I have now asked for a refund. I wonder if they will answer at all.
If you read this Leo, a comment would be appreciated, since I purchased 2015 BD on your recommendation.
It seems that you might have mistaken an advertisement for some kind of recommendation. Ask Leo! actually has only limited control over the advertisements that are displayed. It’s important to realize that for any website, not just Ask Leo!, an advertisement should never be interpreted as any kind of endorsement.
You can find more details here: http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_difference_between_an_ad_and_your_recommendation.html
I’m afraid I’ve never recommended BD. I’ve typically heard good things about them, but I’ve never formally recommended them.
One of the new ‘enhancements’ with Windows 10 is the Fast Start feature. I found that I had to disable this feature in order to apply certain changes to my computer. I’d appreciate your thoughts on the Fast Start feature and maybe provide people a step by step process to disable it if needed. Thank you, Leo.
Fast Start is much like choosing the fast boot in your computer’s setup…it just bypasses the stuff your computer does before it loads Windows, I THINK?
If you need to change startup options you should have your finger on ESC or the function key for setup the moment you hit the power button, more or less…likewise F8 if you need the safe mode.
How life-changing is it really to save two minutes tops? I don’t get it, it’s pleasing maybe but not necessary.
I’m a PC tech and have worked on scores of Windows 10 upgrades. Like you, Leo, I have been pleasantly surprised on how many have done the upgrade themselves and the result was just fine. Have always been leery of updating to a new Windows on top of an existing (older) Windows as the success/fail has a LOT to do how “clean” the existing Windows is. But in MOST cases, the Win 10 upgrade has worked fine.
I’ve found three situations that tend to cause problems with a Win 10 upgrade:
1. The existing Windows had infections, malware, problems with their security system, etc. Some people think that Win 10 will somehow clear up their problems, but the reality is that if the old Windows had problems, Windows 10 will too.
2. The manufacturer-provided software doesn’t always support Windows 10. For example, we’ve had more than a few printers (and audio software) fail under Windows 10. Going to the manufacturer’s web site and downloading/installing new drivers generally fixed the problem — but not always. This has improved significantly in the last couple of months as the manufacturers are getting on board.
3. Finally, some people upgraded to Windows 10 and just don’t like it. The most common reason: they didn’t read up on what Win 10 was like and weren’t prepared for the changes.
On December 6 I upgraded a machine that is almost 9 years old. Had to update or reinstall about four programs, including NVIDIA driver. Everything is faster than with Windows 7. Latest NVIDIA update (12-1-15) is fine with Windows 10.
PS All previously installed programs are working fine after the upgrade. Some better than before. Right before the upgrade: I used Ninite to check for updates on all of these programs. I I also used Windows Update to check for updates to Windows 7 and the other Windows and Microsoft program. I checked my printer software for updates. I used CCleaner and Auslogics to clean up and defragment the hard drive. (I only have one.) No use asking for trouble. I made and saved an image of the system. Finally, I waited until the fall upgrade was made available to me by Microsoft and used it. Hope this helps.
Noticed that some people are having trouble with previously installed programs. All of mine are working fine after the upgrade, some better than before. Here’s what I did before the upgrade, in case it will help some others: I ran Ninite and Windows Update to check for updates to these programs. Also double checked the printer software for updates. Ran CCleaner and Auslogice to clean up and defragment the hard drive. (I already run virus and malware protection, so no worries here.) I also used the Fall 2015 version of the Windows 10 Update Program, which is head and shoulders above the prior versions. The difference is like the difference between night and day. If you don’t have access to that program, I would strongly recommend waiting until you do.
I read something of interest here just a few days ago. I think I saw it on Windows Secrets? The latest Win 10 updates apparently wiped out some third party programs or something like that. You can check that Leo, as I’ve walked away from V10 because of that. That reminds me of the old days in the early Windows versions.
I have had a few that the upgrade removed in favor of MS software, but it told me this in the new notification area. In the sys-tray looking like a message icon on a smartphone. White, you have one or more messages, black, you have no messages.
As to what got removed, I was able to just re-install. Some work better in 10 than they did in 8.1.
Yes, I have heard reports of this Windows 10 update actually removing software that it claimed was incompatible with Windows 10. I don’t understand the logic behind uninstalling anything.
In the UK, removing software from a computer without explicit authorisation would be a crime under the Computer Misuse Act.
Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me that MS would indulge in criminality to promote the use of their own software over others.
You can do a clean install now – W10 can be downloaded from Microsoft at no cost and loaded to either a DVD or USB stick – all you need is your key code from a valid Windows 7 or 8 disk and it will activate. The biggest problem with W10 is that explorer will not display anything in the network other than your own PC this is a very major issue – especially if you have NAS drives as you cannot locate them with backup software for example or locate folders to stream music / videos – western digital and other NAS suppliers are aware of it but it is a Microsoft problem that they don’t seem able to get sorted. I’ve been using w10 since last year and this problem first occurred about 2months ago Maybe the reason it’s free is that no one would be fool enough to pay for it. Good luck to the 84% be interesting to have another survey after a few months once it’s been used a bit more!
So far i have upgraded 2 of my computers to windows 10 pro. In a week or so I will upgrade my other 2. I think that 10 will be better than 7. I am finding lots of customizations to make 10 as good as 7. I spend a lot of time on Google solving the problems that I bump into and so far everything that I have sought to accomplish except for one has been solved. I like the speed (that could be the result of doing a fresh install) and the Start Functions. The problem that I cannot seem to solve is a small partition before my active partition. Its only 100MB of a TB drive so its not a big deal, its just the principal that it is wasted space. Other than that Windows 10 gets my early approval.
Your 100MB space is due to what is called alignment. I have it on some of my systems.
W10 vs W7. Survey and replies make an interesting reading. I feel those who want to take a plunge to new and newer versions
it is a matter of choice and how one handle the problems that comes with new set -up. Some are good at trouble shooting
while others find it difficult and thus the reason for those to revert to old and well tried. It is not a question of good vs bad
but a matter of choice. Business is run on profits and and to learn the habits of population to to control their activities. This is more clear now in the world we live. Media is the best form to control populations and make them to think the way i want to. On one hand we scream about our freedom and privacey and at the same time we are ready to hand our our life personal
information without a second thought. Sorry, got bit carried away, but it is one’s own choice, W10 vs W7 or (forgot) W8.
Leo your articles and news letters make an interesting reading. Thanks for the information you give and receive from
readers and listerneras.
I didn’t get in on the original survey, so here is my two cents.
I am happy to see some mentioning whole disk image backups. I want to emphasis this as a verified image backup and you need to create a rescue media before the upgrading. The rescue media can be a simple CD verses a DVD or I recommend a USB flash drive, only 4 GB in size, maybe as little as 2 GB. In what follows is my satisfaction feedback on my most recent upgrade (now at least 8 with many more to go) that I have posted on some other groups I belong to.
( For everyone that upgrades to 10, even by buying a new machine, Microsoft has for the first time added general OS feedback and will ask you in the new notification area for feedback on you experience in getting upgraded. There is also a added feedback for the new Edge browser. This is a mechanism for not only problems or complaints you have, but also suggestions for them to consider that may improve things in the OS for everyone. I don’t know if this mechanism exists in Office 2016 or if it has been ported back to at least Office 2013. I also don’t know if it is in the Office 365, but it should exist in all three of these IMO.
What follows is my feedback on my most recent upgrade to Microsoft and hope it helps everyone.)
OK, this was the upgrade to a HP Stream 11 and I am a tech. Now that it has been accomplished, the upgrade was worth it and performs better than on 8.1.
However, I wish to point out a few things I feel are important for other with these limited budget systems.
1) You need to tell the people up front what the storage needs are verses what they have available before the upgrade starts based on their existing system. I had less than 3.5GB. I racked my brain to figure out how to get around this point and finally had to remove several programs as I had no data saved. Eliminating everything in the Downloads folder and system clean up to get to the minimum. You need to inform before updating to get and insert a external flash drive or high speed SD card of 16GB or more before beginning and have the upgrade process recognize it before starting the upgrade. The average user would have no chance to do this upgrade otherwise. They need up front guidance to get a successful upgrade.
2) Post upgrade, the need to check for update drivers with the manufactures site. I had a few problems; a) the realtek Wi-Fi drivers crashing and loss of the touchpad. I had to use a external mouse. I also checked for updates post upgrade and found there were some and the average user would not likely check this and it could be important. Leaving it to auto updating to eventually getting this job done is not acceptable.
I am an Insider with multiple test systems and have upgraded around 8 other systems of varied makers and models before tackling this upgrade. I have two others like this to yet upgrade and I don’t know when I might get to them based on my experience in getting this one upgraded. Give the average users a break and give them good up front to give them a chance to succeed.
Tim, thank you for that speil about informing average users on the plain facts about whether or not their pc will be able to handle an upgrade. I am a less-than-average user….i.e., I know almost nothing about computers and its needs–at least in comparison to you and the others I have been reading about on this W10 survey Leo put out. But what I’m getting from reading from all of the postings here is that I could lose the use of my Lexmark 1200 Series All-In-One printer if I upgrade to W10. Because I am learning challenged, it usually takes me quite some time to catch on to how something works, but I work really hard to figure things out and am usually, especially lately, a self-taught computer user/learner.
What’s got up my craw here since Dec 8th, updates were installed on my Dell 1501 Inspiron laptop. The next morning, I noticed these words on the lower right side of my desktop: “Windows 7…..Build 7601…..This copy of Windows is not genuine”. When I researched the updates to find out what they pertained to, it basically said that they were for getting my pc ready for Windows 10, and there were 9 other updates regarding Time Zone, Security Vulnerability, Docs/Fonts, Remote Code Execution Thru Media Ctr, Thru Specially Crafted App, App Vulnerabilities, Net Framework 3.5.1, and the last (11th one) pertained to MS Silverlight version update.
Upon more research on why those words are attached to my desktop, I got all kinds of answers, all dated back to 2013. Someone mentioned that I needed to validate a windows button and obtain a WGA kit; someone else said that I needed to do a diagnostic and send it to them; or it might be a blocked MSDN key; that I needed to report it to MS piracy dept………..oh boy….
My question is this: How do I make those words on my desktop go away?
I do not want to upgrade to W10. My laptop shipped in 2006 with Windows XP and I liked it alot. It was simple…I rather like simple. When I had a computer tech tell me that XP was going to stop updating, and that I should go to a different OS, he suggested Windows 7 Home Premium, so he made the transition/upgrade for me, so I know nothing about upgrading. Although, I’m pretty sure all I need to do is click on a download spot from MS support website and it would get done, but after reading all these postings, it sounds like I will need to do a system backup first or is that the same as an image backup?
Anyway, the main reason I don’t want to upgrade is cuz I live on a very low fixed income and will not be able to afford to buy a new printer if this W10 won’t acknowledge it. There’s still alot of things I’ve yet to learn about Windows 7, and as long as it is still doing updates, why should I upgrade to W10? I know Leo wants us to not be afraid of changes, but I’m just not ready yet. Any suggestions?
Leo: Any suggestion from you, as well, would be appreciated.
I uninstalled those last updates I mentioned to you above, but they got re-installed couple days later. What do I have to do to get those words, over by my clock, to go away?
I have a 6 year old machine that I built. It has a 120 GB SSD drive for the system and program installs, plus several other regular hard drives. The SSD has only about 40 GB available on it. So my plan is to replace that with a 250 HB SSD, and restore a verified Macrium image, following which I’ll go for the Win 10 upgrade.
MY main concern is that I have a very large number of programs installed, along with about 7 printers, scanners et al.
I did receive an unsolicited message from MS that all my software and hardware will be fully compatible with Win 10. Did they really check all that out? Or will I get surprises when I upgrade?
Unfortunately, from comments I’ve read from people who’ve upgraded, Microsoft doesn’t always get it right in that area. If you do decide to upgrade, it is essential to have an image backup to restore from in case of problems. I have one older machine which Dell says isn’t compatible with the upgrade. Microsoft tells me it is. Who should I believe? For the moment, I’ll go with Dell which is the safest bet. However, if I do decide to backup, I have an up-to-date backup to restore from if necessary.
I upgraded an ASUS T100TA back in July. I use it to play multimedia files and powerpoints at work. I had such a positive experience with the upgrade that I decided to upgrade my 7 year old laptop from windows 7 to windows 10. I upgraded it a week ago and it has been running great! I should mention that my laptop has a solid state hard drive and 4 gig of ram.
GET RID OF THE POPUP!!!
I cannot. I have tried without and determined that it is critical to the continued success of the site. It’s the “cost” of free.
If you had surveyed earlier (i.e., when Microsoft issued the upgrade in July), I and probably many other faithful readers wouldn’t have given it such as favorable rating. I upgraded 4 machines in July-Aug (after Windows “checked” these machines and told me everything would be fine) and 1 in October – and 3 of the five had severe issues because of lack of driver comaptibility isssues – losing touchpad and mouse capability, sound completely gone, and frequent crashes. (Try troubleshooting a panicked novice PC user over the phone about how to use the tab key to get to dialogue boxes (because she had no mouse or touchpad capability) to roll back to Win7 becaise she believed Microsoft when it told her she was ready for the upgrade.) The other 2 mostly had the frequent crashes and also kept getting hung up on RESTART. The one that didn’t get upgraded til October is the only one that I considered a seamless upgrade…which came after MS did MULTITUDES of patches and several major updates and a major refresh. My recommendation from my career of evaluation and survey research: It would be helpful in future surveys for you to have people give you the date ranges within which they adopted a new technology. In this case, the survey came 3 months after the initial roll-out and there were a lot of changes. Being able to analyze comments/responses by time from roll-out would have made the responses – especially the negative ones – more understandable as there would have been more context.
Something that would have been interesting would be the correlation between the former operating system and who liked windows 10. I strongly suspect that people who successfully upgraded from 8 or 8.1 were universally happy with 10. I suspect that most of the ones who did not like windows 10 had upgraded from 7. I have read elsewhere that 10 excludes some programs and features that were included in earlier OS versions, but have to be purchased separately with 10. It would be interesting to know if that contributed to the portion who disliked 10 once the had it. Just my 1.5 cents worth.
RE Old computers: I installed and am running Windows 10 Pro 32 Insider Preview on a Dell Optiplex 755 Core 2 Duo E6580 2.99 GHz 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon 2400 XT graphics with dual monitors. For the most part it runs great. I think it is faster than XP on the same computer.
BUT I don’t like some of the Windows 10 “features.” Microsoft does really stupid things with each new version of windows, and 10 is no exception.
Examples of stupid Windows 10 changes:
(1) When I search for files just want to search the computer. If I wanted to search the Internet I’d use a web browser. I had to change settings to do that… and, I stiIl haven’t figured out how to just search in the folder I’m viewing in Explorer. With XP I could do that easily. I could also easily search for files containing a string.
(2) I don’t need to have my “apps” on the start menu listed by A, B C headings. It’s just a waste of space.
(3) Big blocky start menu icons for programs on start menu another waste of space.
(4) ‘Most used’ in start menu doesn’t really work. Where are my recent documents like on XP or Viasta wirth classic start menu?
(5) Active tiles on start menu a waste of space. I turned them off. I don’t need to know what’s trending now when I’m trying to get work done.
(6) Drag and drop to/from start menu programs doesn’t work anymore
(7) Can’t configure Edge like other browsers such as tell it to switch to new tabs when they are opened.
(8) Simple file sharing (i.e. turn off password protected file sharing) just doesn’t work right. Following the ‘wizard’ doesn’t work properly.
(9) “Settings” and “Control Panel” are two different things. Why make us try to figure out what category a setting is in anyway. What was wrong with the simple list?
I found out that “disk usage” in task manager would hit 100% and my computer would freeze. It does this also when I use Microsoft Edge. I have the update; 10586. I have gone back to using Internet Explorer instead of Edge with not problems. I can’t pinpoint what the problem may be other than Edge.
What was missing from the analysis was a comparison of te the upgrade on Win 7 vs. win 8.1.
There does not appear to have been any comparison between upgrading when we were first given the opportunity a few months ago and now that Microsoft has introduced a major service pack (Microsoft chose not to call it one, but they should have called it SP1).
A few months ago, I tried to upgrade from win 7 Pro with SP1 and found that I had some issues with finding files and getting Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 5.7 to work. My catalogs were messed up and even my financial program no longer worked without a fix to the registry!! I therefore reverted to win 7 pro and vowed never to upgrade!
However, since Microsoft’s recent major update to windows 10, I decided to go the upgrade route and try again and it went without a hitch. I did not encounter the issues I experienced when I tried the upgrade a few months earlier without the benefit of the latest win 10 update.
Sure, there are certain things it takes getting used too — including the new Edge browser, but generally Microsoft finally got it right — especially for those who waited for the latest updates to windows 10 before upgrading.
Hey Leo,
My PC is a home build Intel Mb, i7 with 3 hard drives and a Crucial 128 Gb SSD as my C: drive. About a week after Windows 10 first came out with their upgrade, I decided to installing it for the first time. (I don’t remember if I did an imaged backup of Windows 7.) and while trying to upgrade to windows 10 it came real close to redlining my SSD. My PC failed the upgrade 15 times before it installed. I had so many problem setting it up that I went back to Windows 7, and a few days later my SSD redlined. This may have been caused by all the updates that needed to be installed for both Windows 7 & 10.
Fast forward in time… Windows 10 was about to come out with version 1511. Not realizing that I was having a backup problem with Windows 7. About 2 months earlier I decided to do an imaged backup of Windows 7 only to get a message that my image file was corrupt. (Note after going back to windows 7 I deleted a lot of what I thought was garbage in order to clean up the redlined SSD nothing worked) So I could have caused this problem, but hundreds of people had this problem after returning to their earlier versions, One day I downloaded a program called WinDirStat on the web and I used it the next day to clean up my SSD to the point where I had about 21Mb of unused space. The day after that I tried to fix the corrupted Image file only to fail again so I decided to upgrade to Windows 10. Since I couldn’t make backups on Windows 7 any more.
The reinstall of Windows 10 tool hours but completed on the first try. Having space on the SSD helped.
Being back Into Windows 10 again for the second time. I spent the next to 2 days trying to set it up. I had a lot of problems one of which was Outlook 2010 went into Safe Mode. The fix for this is to uninstall KH3114409 it worked. Other problems are, setup parameters need to have a (more info) box to explain how to, and what, each switch or box does. Then almost all of the programs in Windows 10 need to use a Microsoft Account this also changed my Log On password giving me another problem to fix or ignore. Another problem is Windows 10 comes with so many add on programs its hard to figure of you needs some of them. For instance “phone” is only needed to use a “Smart Phone” with your PC. Believe it or not you can even us an Apple product with Windows 10.
Fast forward… 7 more days. I still have not completely setup all the parameters on Windows 10. But I can now use most to the programs I used on Windows 7 and I can dual boot to either OS. Windows 10 has everything and more that I used on Windows 7 it’s just under a different location a click away. Try right clicking on the start icon which is now a window not the Orb any more you’ll be amazed. I could go to disk management and found that I have 22.28Gb unused on my SSD, That’s amazing! I like Windows 10 more every day.
Hi, The video lession is excellent. Be careful do not rush is the key word in the video lesson that is the pointer. The reuqirements parts of the lecture needs special mention. If it is new machine, it is no problem. But if it is age old machine, say , 11 year machine, then there is problem of drivers, graphic drivers that this install requires. In a 11 year old machine, xp would have installed and the drivers and graphic drivers that support the OS would have been added hardwares in both assembly and company machines.
Even for windows, one has to have 1 gb ram, insetad of old xp of 512 mb ram. Other than this there is no need to have any hardware change.
But later version demand that it should have support drivers minimum required need to be there. if suppose, one starts download without knowing the hardware requirements, would find himself in a kind of fix, of what to do further, if error crops up that he has to have a hard ware change of graphic drivers. It will not be in plain english but in coded error language.
What about those persons, who would have got the OS from computer mechanics who somehow installed his machine with OS, which may or may not be genuine , but which is in workable conditions in earlier version tries to upgrade. The problems are plenty.
If suppose, it is not genuine, then he will lose both the OS and will be in a fix.
There are so much error messages, that i come across in threads like update error codes, which installs some components halfway round, and will give tense moments to the users
I think Leo should also present a video class on the 10 to 15 percent of persons who are struck with half installation. Hope he listens…….
Yes, there’s no need to rush, but I’d say the key word is backup. An image backup can save you from almost any kind of disaster.
https://askleo.com/how-should-i-back-up-my-computer-before-an-operating-system-upgrade/
I downloaded and installed the Windows 10 upgrade onto my laptop, a Dell Latitude D360. One big problem I encountered was that Windows 10 cut off my laptop’s wi-fi, making it impossible for me to access the Internet wirelessly. I learned that this was a common problem among those who downloaded Windows 10 to their laptops. So I reverted back to Windows 7 Pro SP1. I have no plans to install Win 10 on my laptop until the wi-fi accessibility issue is resolved.
I’d like to keep Windows 7 on my old laptop but buy a new one with 10. In order to transfer all my programs and files, should I first upgrade the old one to 10, do the image backup, transfer it to the new computer, and then revert the old one to 7, or could I just backup image in 7 and transfer it to the new laptop with 10? I’m planning to stay with the same brand (HP). I read several of your articles and didn’t see this covered. Also, will there be any license transfer issues with programs like Adobe CS5?
I can’t say its a problem but it is.My new PC came with Win 10 installed.i have no complaints per se as I am still learning Win 10,the problem is like in a forum like this or just a google search about Win 10 the commentors have all downloaded Win 10 and I haven’t really came a cross someone who had it already installed on their PC.I get a lot of answers to things that don’t apply to me,Very interesting to say the least.
The problems which result from upgrading to Windows 10 shouldn’t happen with a computer with Windows 10 pre-installed, because that machine has been designed and tested to work with Windows 10. The main problems with upgrading stem from software and hardware (drivers) incompatibilities. As for problems you might encounter, many would have similar fixes to those offered for Windows 7&8 machines. And I believe the reason there haven’t been many comments from people with Win 10 pre-installed is that the problems encountered would tend more to be general Windows or program problems rather than Win 10 specific issues.
I tried to install win 10 on my puter, that I built, however it tells me that I don’t have drivers for the Nvidia card and I cant find any drivers anywhere. Is there a place I can visit to find drivers from Nvidia for old cards. I’m retired, no money for pc’s.
Quite possibly not. There may simply not be Windows 10 drivers for your video card. If you can’t get them directly from Nvidia, then they may not exist. (Oh, and that’s computer, not puter :-) ).
Hi WB,
Don’t know how old your card is but go here http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Starting at the Geforce 8 series there are Windows 10 drivers. Below that there are windows 8 drivers down through the 5 series that may or may not work. If your card is older than that then you may have to upgrade your card. Probably find what you need on eBay pretty cheap.
I installed Win 10 on my Toshiba Netbook w/7 Starter. The install went swimmingly, no problems at all. I was excited, believing I had a relative first in my MS OS experiences, namely a problem free OS installation/upgrade. Fortunately I didn’t hold my breath. I realized right away that my wireless adapter was failing to connect. I even tried to connect via cable, still nothing. I tried everything and failed to find a working solution. I had imaged the old OS, but didn’t have to use it, the roll back worked perfectly and noticed immediate Internet access via WiFi and cable. A bit of searching indicates that the problem I experienced is quite common and none of the recommended fixes worked. I hope there is some discussion in MS circles to actually resolve this well known problem.
I have experienced the ‘removal of software’ issue on one upgrade from 8.1 to 10, though the programs removed were not that important (freeware that did what 10 does anyway).
One thing a friend of mine has experienced after his upgrade to 10 – his desktop PC turns itself on (from a complete ‘power off’ shutdown, not sleep or hibernation situations) at 5am and 5pm GMT.
He has ‘solved’ this problem by turning the PC off at the socket when not in use, but this issue worries me if it happens to laptops too.
Hi LEO:
I upgraded twice. The first a total failure. Midway through the process I got a blue screen with a sad face and a weird message I don’t remember or want to remember what it said. I had to take the computer to a shop to get it fixed. Not all files could be recovered but in general it was ok. Cost me about 50 dollars and had W8.1 reinstalled.
The second time it went well. I guess my crossed fingers worked. I don´t like it very much but have stuck with it because I don’t want to get old with an ancient OS. It is somewhat more complicated in my opinion. It can be that I’m getting older and am not as patient as I used to be but it could be that MS has something against simplicity. They seem to consider minimalism as simplicity and yes, they are different words.
From you I would like, if possible, some sort of simpler explanations for us who are less savvy in computing.
Have a great New Year.
Hi Leo,
I upgraded a PC I built more than 5 years ago using a 15 Mbs internet connection. I backed up the existing Win7 OS first. It did take almost 3 hrs to download the Win10 upgrade which surprised me, but was probably due to a slower feeding source from Microsoft. Once I started the upgrade it took another 2.5 hrs & 4 or 5 reboots to bring me back to Win7 again! Giving a windows 10 update error C1900101 – 3000D . So the initial try didn’t work. I tried to upgrade again – but this time with a basic start up eliminating all unnecessary start up programs like anti-virus and spyware etc. Now on the second try I thought it would just start working from the previous downloaded Win10 upgrade download (3GB) but it didn’t – I had to start the download process all over again. So after another 4 to 5 hrs the process completed successfully to bring up Win10. So after that experience I recommend start with minimum programs running and prepare to do without a working PC for a day or two.
Regards,
Randy
I have two laptops purchased in the US with American keyboards and English language Windows and one desktop purchased in Germany with German Keyboard layout and German language interface. They all log on with the same MS account. I began to see funny things happening. I changed the theme on the desktop (Win 10), and the Theme changed on my laptop (Win 8.1). The Windows interface language on that laptop switched to German. If I change the keyboard setting on one it changes on the other. I switched the language back on my laptop easily in the Control Panel. It seem like Microsoft is really getting sloppy in their old age. When I see people complaining about the dumbing down of Windows, I agree. In their attempt to be user friendly, they’ve taken a lot of control away from the user and so often make things worse for the user. Under each successive CEO, Microsoft is alienating more and more of their user base. It seems like their attitude is, “We’re indispensable, we can get away with anything”.
The upside is that when I saw I could switch my laptop back to English, I realized I could change my desktop interface to English with a couple of clicks. Under the hood Windows is better than ever, but the analogy of the changes are more like switching to driving a British car than moving the buttons on the radio.
I installed rhe Windows 10 free upgrade on my Samsung rf511 laptop. I experienced severe system instability. Sometimes the computer wouldn’t boot properly and/or connect to the Internet. It frequently wouldn’t shut down properly, even using Ctrl, Alt, Del, which failed to get me into “Task Manager”. The only way to force shutdown was to hold the power on/off button down.
I reverted back to Windows 7 after 2 weeks, whereupon the system became stable again. With the help of PC Pitstop crew, I eventually managed to get PC Matic to work again; Windows 10 had messed with it and had prevented it from working. I also had to get Norton Internet Security removed and re-installed after reverting back to Windows 7; it too had ceased working after the re-installation. Adrian C
Just a few comments as to why I just finished going back to Win7 from Win10 today (within my 30 day recovery window). My older printer (HP OJ 7210) is no longer supported by HP so no new drives are not available. As someone earlier has stated, my scanner also no longer works, but since I use it a lot and don’t want to buy another printer, Win10 must go. My Seagate Dashboard will no longer function – I get to the screen where I hit “Back-up”, but it is unresponsive and just sits there and does nothing. I have reinstalled twice with the new upgraded software to no avail, and since that 1 TB drive is fairly new and I really want the backup function and don’t want to replace it, out goes Win10. Along with another person’s comment, I also do not like the new search – I can no longer find folders and file names easily that used to pop up immediately. Plus, if I do get several listings, I cannot see what folders they are in to figure out which is the one I want. I liked the fact during my initial install of Win10 that I could make several of my older programs the default. However, within a week, I kept getting notices that these apps were incompatible and were one-by-one reverted back to Microsoft’s preferred programs. Funny though (or maybe not so funny), I can choose to use my preferred programs individually when opening up a file to view. My laptop had the Starter Office 2010 program which is not supported – I can create a document or spreadsheet and save it, but cannot open it back up on that same computer, nor, of course,open up any of my previous files – CRAZY! I have had to move them all to another computer to open them up. So reverting back to Win7 will also save me from buying new Office software. I will say that my update to Win10 and my recovery back to Win7 went smoothly. In reading the comments above, I didn’t realize I would lose any new files I created while using Win10, so I will have to go back through today’s backup to recover anything I may have lost. I do agree that Win10 ran a bit faster, but not fast enough for me to put up with all the other crap and expense. I did make a recovery disk for Win10 just in case I change my mind in the future, but I just don’t see that happening unless/until Microsoft fixes a lot of these problems.
Windows 10 is a complete FAIL!
You say there is a 13% failure rate of the update. This is horrendous! UNACCEPTABLE!!! Only a monopoly can get away with such a failure rate. If another company had a 13% failure rate on a software upgrade it would very likely be the end of that company. Since microsoft is an evil monopoly with a greater market share than standard oil ever had, 87% of the people are sitting around saying “That wasn’t so bad”, while 13% of us are flat SCREWED with no options.
What you didn’t ask is whether windows has permanently broken your computer. My new windows 8.1 machine is PERMANENTLY BROKEN!!! I can get no effective support from microsoft or toshiba. Rolling back was a failure. If there was a risk that windows 10 was going to mess up your computer on the upgrade, a non-evil company would have told us we needed to back things up (or automatically back up) instead of telling us how seamless and easy the upgrade would be. LIARS!!! I have never been so angry about anything I have ever purchased. Toshiba sucks. Microsoft sucks. What sucks the worst is that no real value has been added by new versions of windows. It is all about throwing away BILLIONS and BILLIONS of man hours of training and experience that we have invested in old versions so that microsoft can screw us for more money!
P.S. for the information about how happy people were with windows 10 you should have indexed it by what version they upgraded FROM. Windows 8.* was an abomination – ANYTHING is better than windows 8
To me the Windows 10 “deprovement” is a great ad for Apple!
I hate the d__m thing.
The only reason that I took the “downdate” was that I had read that Microsoft was going to cut off support for 7 and 8 ahead of schedule, and I sure as heaven wasn’t about to pay for 10 later on.
The one bit of good news is that apparently there is now a “Classic Shell” version now available for Windows 10. Thank goodness for small favors!
Its funny, in pop culture there is a system for rating the attractiveness of someone on a scale of 1 to 10.
To me, on that scale, Microsoft “Windows 10” would rate a -1!
When it comes time to buy a new laptop, I will almost certainly switch to Apple!
Grace and peace.
I don’t believe Microsoft will be discontinuing support for Windows 7 and 8 ahead of schedule. That would be tantamount to a breach of contract.
This is worse than Windows ME. I will be switching to Apple when you make me upgrade if not before.
We’re not making you upgrade. We have nothing to do with Microsoft. I’m also personally frustrated with some of the idiotic things Microsoft does. (disclaimer: this is my personal opinion and does not reflect the views of Ask Leo!)
Ask Leo! is also frustrated by Microsoft’s decisions from time to time. :-)
Well, even though I said I would never install that P-o-S [Windows-10], I did, because a lot of people [& customers] asked me about it. If you “castrate” MicroSucks and leave it “in the dark” ( turn EVERTHING off/disable EVERYTHING), it is a pretty decent OS! What really helps, is that it is UNIX / Linux based…. it’s now a breeze to install printers and other devices!
What really helps, is to first download the Media Creation Tool from MicroSucks; use a 8GB USB-drive in the machine that you want to install Windows-10 on and create the tool! After having saved/backed-up all your data, boot from that USB-drive and do a “clean install” on your machine, after first making sure it is OFF-LINE…. NOT connected to the internet!
“KILL” and disable EVERYTHING…. lastly entering your Windows-7 COA-key and going online. After updating everything, I once again turn EVERYTHING off / disable EVERYTHING…. it’s important to keep MicroSucks in the dark…. THEN and ONLY THEN is it a decent OS!!! Cortana is “dead” / Edge is “gone” / running Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 11, even “my” solitare from Windows-7; none of the other Windows crap even exists anymore, EXCEPT Windows-Store (THAT can NOT be removed). It’s possible to remove/disable it all by way of command-line!!!
Basically, if MicroSucks doesn’t like it, tough shit, it’s MY machine…. and I could always switch to Linux (THE Better OS) Mint!!! There are no problems running Linux alongside Windows-10!!! When I think it’s time for it, I’ll “activate” MicroSucks, let it check for/download & install any updates, re-boot and then turn MicroSucks OFF again…. works GREAT!
Regards!
For the record, repeated use of “MicroSucks” as a disparaging alias for Microsoft almost got this comment removed. It doesn’t add value, and seriously impacts the legitimacy and usefulness of your comment.
That, and Windows is in no way based on Linux.
I upgraded from 8.1 to Windows 10 without any technical problems. I had to ask many questions over the internet to learn how to use Windows 10 as the software is not intuitive. I could not see much difference between using 10 versus 8.1. I do not believe the email has improved any over Windows 8.1, it just looks different. I use Thunderbird because it is more like the email that I used for years and I can set up a group. The designers at Microsoft are out of touch with the older users. Do the younger users like Windows 10?
Change is almost always painful. One program which mitigates the pain is ClassicShell. It tames Windows 8 & 10 & makes it behave very similarly to Windows 7.
https://askleo.com/how-should-i-back-up-my-computer-before-an-operating-system-upgrade/
Windows 10 is good, but Simply don’t like the windows 10 update model.
Windows 10 Version 1511 (build 10586) are great. But the newer version (version 1607, build 14393) make a notable changes on start menu and user interface, make it difficult to adapt. Personal feeling, The new UI (1607) is worse than the old UI (1511). In addition, user need to re-learn the User Interface after windows update and is not really good practice.