not being the techie that i'd like to be, and knowing that some of you here are, i ask:

should i take the free windows 10 upgrade, or stick with windows 8.1? i reserved one, but i dodn't think i have to take it if i don't want it....or do i?

thanks for the help......i hope

will i have to re-do everything on my computer, passwords, bookmarks, downloads, etc?

Normally, I would follow the "nothing is really free" principle and avoid accepting something from Microsoft that they're claiming is really good for you. But in this case, with Windows 8 being such a dog, I'd make an exception. While I haven't seen any corroboration with regard to this, it is ostensibly true that all of your personalized features will remain intact. And the vast majority of 3rd party software that you may have installed will continue to work as before, with their respective manufacturers having developed upgrades where necessary.

P.S. As usual, whenever doing a major software installation/upgrade, make sure you have a full backup of your user files!!

I believe there is an option that will allow you to get an ISO image for an installation disk, so you can download it now and you won't have to install it right away. What I haven't seen clearly explained is whether it remains free if you don't actually do the installation before the year is up.

I've read that there are bugs in it. I'd wait a few months and let them, hopefully, get the bugs taken care of.

Related question: should I upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, or stick with 7? After reading a ton of complaints, I never opted for the mess (in most people's opinion) that was Windows 8/8.1.

Since Windows 10 is Microsoft's attempt at reversing all the crap that they introduced in Windows 8, why not just stick with Windows 7? You clearly made the right choice when you opted out of Windows 8, so unless Windows 7 is giving you some kind of problem, there's no reason to change IMO.

Upgraded two computers to Windows 10 last week. One was Windows 8.1, the other Windows 7. In both cases it went flawlessly, and kept all my programs, settings, even my desktop icons, intact. I did have to update my video drivers, but that was the only thing.

Normally I tell people to wait a while on upgrades, but this one went so well on my test (the 8.1) that I went ahead and updated my main PC as well.

I got my upgrade this morning. I didn't have a lot of time to spend with it (I'm at work now) and I am not up on tech stuff , but all went well and everything seems to be intact . I'm actually somewhat excited to check it out thoroughly when I get home.

Not to steal this thread, of the folks who have it installed whats new in Windows 10 and is it performing better than 7 or 8?

Geez, I am still having problems with PST files this week. Once I get past this I can load Windows 10.

Rick A.

Coming from Windows 8, the new is back to the old, as the awful full screen "metro" interface is gone. Everything is more organized, easier to find. There is a built in "assistant" called Cortana to search the web, your PC, open apps, send emails, just pretty much one stop to get to all your stuff. It's nice. Speed wise I would say it's slightly faster to boot up and get things ready to go, but about the same once it's all running.

Coming from Windows 7, it's about the same speed, with a spiffier, more functional, but still familiar interface, as well as the above new things.

I'm about ready all I have to do is push the agree button.
I will go the Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool first tho, just to make sure I have a full copy of 10 installed on a USB, if anything went wrong with the install and I have to roll it back.

You can roll back from the online install too. The only thing the iso is good for is to do a clean install. To do that, you first have to do the upgrade, to get a valid installation key. THEN, you can take that key and install fresh. Time consuming, but the only way to do it.

Yeah, I just want to cover all my bases, having the clean copy makes me breath better,
I had a laptop that did a normal instal "update" one night and whatever went wrong I had no way of rolling it back and it really screwed up my machine.
I live and learn, since then, I always like to have a physical copy ready for a clean instal if something happens.

Weird part is the USB instal asked for a 6GIG drive maybe because I asked for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

Guess I am going with the ISO for now.

I have heard that they changed the policy, & that if one upgrades to Win 10 within a year after release (the clock has started) you get to keep it for life.

My hesitancy is I intentionally got 32 but Win 7 so my legacy programs would operate (they do); though my processor is 64 bit. I don't know for certain, but a strong guess is the Win 10 upgrade would be 64 bit; I also don't know in general if Legacy programs (& I mean LEGACY) would run at all

I also intentionally bought CHEAP refurbished Win 7 boxes (Dual Core 3.0 ghz, 3 mb ram, ultra mini, built in sound & video); I'm a bit concerned about how slow Win 10 might run on it.

Wait......... did Hector just say there is a 32 bit version of Win 10? I would be very curious to learn how it does with Win 98 apps.

You meant 3 gigs, I hope?

He's running Windows 1.0 and DOS 6.22.

yep you have an option 32bit or 64bit or both for the usb clean instal or ISO so I imagine the regular "update" instal looks at the system and instals the appropriate bit system. I picked both cause I have a couple of laptops running 32bit. Tho they are on the older side so I have the same concerns you have. If everything is cool with my desktop I will consider the laptops later.

System Requirements for windows 10

Latest OS:
Make sure you are running the latest version of either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
Don’t know which version you are running? Check here to find out.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ing-system

Need to download the latest version? Click here for Windows 7 SP1

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ice-pack-1

or Windows 8.1 Update.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... indows-8-1

Processor:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

RAM:
1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Hard disk space:
16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS

Graphics card:
DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Display:
800x600

Please let us know how your upgrade works out for you. I have a few really old programs I'd like to stay with.

will do.