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Should I upgrade from Windows 7 now? What are you using?


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On 6/15/2019 at 8:04 PM, Joad said:

I read somewhere that windows 12 should be out in december, took a sreen cap of this..

 

W-12.jpg

By the looks of it that quote comes from windowsreport.com. It was an Aprils Fool's joke as you can see in the editor's note at the bottom of the article:

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April Fool’s Day. As you probably noticed, this article is an April Fool’s Day prank. We hope you enjoyed the joke. We also noticed that some of you got upset after reading this article. Keep in mind that it’s only a joke and should be taken as such.

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49 minutes ago, Canopus said:

By the looks of it that quote comes from windowsreport.com. It was an Aprils Fool's joke as you can see in the editor's note at the bottom of the article:

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April Fool’s Day. As you probably noticed, this article is an April Fool’s Day prank. We hope you enjoyed the joke. We also noticed that some of you got upset after reading this article. Keep in mind that it’s only a joke and should be taken as such.

My "Walmart to release it's own daw" prank was better. Caught a few fish w/ that one. 

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On 6/15/2019 at 11:04 AM, Joad said:

I read somewhere that windows 12 should be out in december, took a sreen cap of this..

 

W-12.jpg

 

8 hours ago, Canopus said:

By the looks of it that quote comes from windowsreport.com. It was an Aprils Fool's joke as you can see in the editor's note at the bottom of the article:

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April Fool’s Day. As you probably noticed, this article is an April Fool’s Day prank. We hope you enjoyed the joke. We also noticed that some of you got upset after reading this article. Keep in mind that it’s only a joke and should be taken as such.

 

Thanks for posting the clarification.  I saw it earlier and meant to say the same but then life took over and... yeah. 😉

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Hey guys, my primary PC still running Windows 7, so I'm planning below...

  • Clone only boot drive.  (C - Windows 7 / D - Sample libraries etc. / E - Projects)
  • Replace C drive to a cloned drive.
  • Upgrade to Windows 10.  (Should I make sure Windows license links to my Microsoft account?)
  • Clean install Windows 10.

Is this a good procedure?

Edited by HIBI
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2 hours ago, HIBI said:

Hey guys, my primary PC still running Windows 7, so I'm planning below...

  • Clone only boot drive.  (C: Windows 7 / 😧 Sample libraries etc. / E: Projects)
  • Replace C drive to a cloned drive.
  • Upgrade to Windows 10.  (Should I make sure Windows license links to my Microsoft account?)
  • Clean install Windows 10.

Is this a good procedure?

I'm not sure that makes sense as you're saying "upgrade to win10" and then "clean install win10." 

Here's what I'm most likely gonna do per tips here:

1. Buy a new ssd and clone my current win7 ssd to it. 

2. On the cloned win7 ssd, follow instructions at mdiemer's link up there to do an in-place reinstall of win7 over the current win7 installation to give me a clean slate of win7 without deleting my existing programs. 

3. From there use the free upgrade option to upgrade to win10. 

I figure I've nothing to lose there; if all goes to s*** then I can just fall back on the original system drive I cloned and just break down and buy win10 for a clean install on the new ssd. I'd like to do a clean install of win10 like abacab says, but that'd mean I'd have to buy win10, which if all else failed I could still ultimately do. 

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26 minutes ago, Christian Jones said:

I'm not sure that makes sense as you're saying "upgrade to win10" and then "clean install win10." 

"Upgrade to Windows 10" means installing Windows 10 as an upgrade to a drive where Windows 7 is installed. (As result, the debris of Windows 7 is there.) And I heard that it is necessary to install as upgrade once for the free upgrade to succeed. (Not clean install.)
Am I missunderstanding?

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8 hours ago, HIBI said:

"Upgrade to Windows 10" means installing Windows 10 as an upgrade to a drive where Windows 7 is installed. (As result, the debris of Windows 7 is there.) And I heard that it is necessary to install as upgrade once for the free upgrade to succeed. (Not clean install.)
Am I missunderstanding?

I did an upgrade in place from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro to claim my free Win 10 license.

Then I wiped my drive immediately after and clean installed Windows 10 Pro with the MS Media Creation Tool on USB flash.  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The Win 10 license was still assigned to my PC, as a "digital license", no product key required.

Activate Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activate

 

Edited by abacab
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3 hours ago, abacab said:

I did an upgrade in place from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro to claim my free Win 10 license.

Then I wiped my drive immediately after and clean installed Windows 10 Pro with the MS Media Creation Tool on USB flash.  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The Win 10 license was still assigned to my PC, as a "digital license", no product key required.

Activate Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activate

 

Ah I get it; do the in-place upgrade to win10 in order to acquire it for free and get it associated with your machine, then wipe the drive and do a clean win10 install.

 

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30 minutes ago, Christian Jones said:

Ah I get it; do the in-place upgrade to win10 in order to acquire it for free and get it associated with your machine, then wipe the drive and do a clean win10 install.

 

Exactly!  :D

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

Just make sure that Win 10 is activated after the initial in place upgrade. I have heard that occasionally the activation servers can have a delay...

 

 

Edited by abacab
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Right on. 

Well last thing I'd ask then regarding reinstalling all your programs after a clean windows install.. any tips/tricks to gather a list of every little program that needs to be reinstalled and get it done quick(er)? Or is it just the same old do my best to make a complete list of everything and spend days clicking through wizards? Is there no backup tool that'd be safe to use that can image just you're programs? *sigh* 😞

How does bapu get through this? 

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I'm not aware of any shortcuts. All executables will need to installed and authorized, as needed. I remember that it took me a while with several DAWs and hundreds of plugins installed. If you already keep your content such as projects, audio, templates, and sample libraries on secondary drives, you should be ahead of the game. Then it will just be a matter of pointing your freshly installed stuff to those content paths.

If you have a retail Windows license you should even be able to eventually move your Win 10  to a new machine or motherboard without re-installing, by cloning or moving the hard drive. Worst case is you may just have to buy another license if using OEM. But if you take care of Windows 10, you should not have to re-install it again.

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Just an update in case anyone else is still on Windows 7 and considering the free Windows 10 upgrade option. 

Despite a couple of snags I was able to successfully upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 Pro using the free upgrade option at the following link:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

At first I was gonna do the free upgrade and once associated with my machine I was gonna wipe the drive and do a clean Windows 10 install, and I can still do that at any time. 

But for now I decided to do an image backup of my Windows 7 drive followed by an in-place reinstallation of Windows 7 over the existing installation so as to give me a clean slate with that OS (been running it a few years), followed by the free Windows 10 upgrade. 

The couple of snags ultimately had to do w/ a usb stick I had plugged into the front and an external hd plugged into the back (which I forgot was there and which caused the second installation error) that the Windows 10 installation didn't like because apparently they would have messed with the drive assignment - but the error message doesn't specify that and instead says 'Your computer has hardware that isn't ready for Windows 10,' but clicking on the provided help link takes you to a better explanation. So if you do this free upgrade make sure to unplug all your external storage devices first. 

After that the upgrade went smoothly and I'm now upgraded to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 Pro for free. I still need to look around and see what to tweak but it's looking good. This free upgrade option technically "ended" a year or two ago and could officially end at any time, so anyone thinking about it may want to do this sooner than later.. since support for Windows 7 will end for good on 01/20, this "back door" just might close with it. Thanks to everyone in this thread for the tips.

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13 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

Just saying, the Windows 7 Pro I upgraded from was a retail disk (didn't come w/ a PC), but at the moment I'm not 100% sure if this particular Windows 10 installation would carry over to a new drive/mobo via cloning w/o me having to purchase a retail copy. Does anyone know? 

Click Start then type: CMD

Right click CMD

Click Run as administrator

At the command prompt type: slmgr.vbs /dlv

Hit Enter

This will indicate the channel, retail or OEM.

Found here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-can-you-tell-if-windows-10-is-oem-or-retail/b8f9eed4-8e41-4552-ba7f-d4f3b08fd1f9

If you upgrade from a retail version, it carries the rights of a retail version.

If you upgrade from a OEM version, it carries the rights of a OEM version.

Full version (Retail):

- Includes transfer rights to another computer.

- Doesn't require a previous qualifying version of Windows.

- Expensive

Upgrade version (Retail):

- Includes transfer rights to another computer.

- require a previous qualifying version of Windows.

- Expensive, but cheaper than full version

OEM :

OEM versions of Windows are identical to Full License Retail versions except for the following:

- OEM versions do not offer any free Microsoft direct support from Microsoft support personnel

- OEM licenses are tied to the very first computer you install and activate it on

- OEM versions allow all hardware upgrades except for an upgrade to a different model motherboard

- OEM versions cannot be used to directly upgrade from an older Windows operating system

What happens if I change my motherboard?

As it pertains to the OEM license this will invalidate the Windows 10 upgrade license because it will no longer have a previous base qualifying license which is required for the free upgrade. You will then have to purchase a full retail Windows 10 license. If the base qualifying license (Windows 7 or Windows 8.1) was a full retail version, then yes, you can transfer it.

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2 hours ago, abacab said:

Click Start then type: CMD

Right click CMD

Click Run as administrator

At the command prompt type: slmgr.vbs /dlv

Hit Enter

This will indicate the channel, retail or OEM.

Found here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-can-you-tell-if-windows-10-is-oem-or-retail/b8f9eed4-8e41-4552-ba7f-d4f3b08fd1f9

 

 

Thanks a bunch abacab. If I may bug you (or anyone else) once more regarding this.. How do you have your win10 updates options set up? It looks like disabling updates is no longer an option but I guess you can pause them for a month or so. Is that basically how we do it now? Like before opening a session just go into updates real quick and make sure they'll be paused for the duration of the session or something? 

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2 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

Thanks a bunch abacab. If I may bug you (or anyone else) once more regarding this.. How do you have your win10 updates options set up? It looks like disabling updates is no longer an option but I guess you can pause them for a month or so. Is that basically how we do it now? Like before opening a session just go into updates real quick and make sure they'll be paused for the duration of the session or something? 

Win 10 updates come in two flavors: 1. Monthly security and quality rollups, and 2. the semi-annual feature upgrade (aka: new Windows version).

With Win 10 Pro you have a bit more control over updates. By default you will get them all when they are ready.

But there are a couple of options:

I believe most folks use the built-in feature to defer feature and quality updates. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026834/windows-10-defer-feature-updates

The following is the alternate method I use to disable automatic updates with the Group Policy Editor.

So I dug in a bit deeper and learned this trick.  I prefer to use the Windows Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). There is a policy in there that you can use to completely disable automatic updates, that is not available in the Windows advanced settings UI. Once I set this policy, I must manually check for updates before I can receive them.

It is located in the group policy editor at: " Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > All Settings > Configure Automatic Updates".

I set the policy to "Disabled". See comment highlighted in blue in the image below.

m78RDsS.png

 

Once I have set this policy to "Disabled", my Windows Update settings under Advance Options show this (*Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization):

rmPsAkC.png

To check for updates, I click the "Check for updates" button on the main Windows update screen. The only caution I can give here is the same for any Win 10 updates. You will receive all updates that are queued up for your machine. Everything will come rolling down the update chute as soon as you open the door!

But there is a free MS tool that lets you hide updates, and you need to use it to hide any updates you don't want before clicking "Check for updates".  Here is a tutorial for that in case you ever need it: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8280-hide-show-windows-updates-windows-10-a.html

Bottom line:  I will add that I support regular security updates for Windows. I usually install them monthly, but only after letting them chill for several weeks, and install them just prior to the next monthly update cycle.

For the major feature updates I try to stay one Windows version behind the current version. If you get too far behind you can no longer receive security updates.

I like the peace of mind just knowing that a Windows update will not jump up and interrupt when I am in the middle of a project. Priceless!!!

And taking images at least monthly is highly recommended. Just in case you need to roll back a busted update that your machine disagrees with.

 

Edited by abacab
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