Dell Inspiron Micro Desktop €149 @ DELL Ireland

Mahogany Gaspipe

Christ there are so many acronyms and restores associated with the upgrade to Windows 10 that may just stick with Windows 8.1 until I get around to doing that Computer Science MSc!

BabySlam

I had to get a USB keyboard and mouse (argos) and a backup usb 3.0 and a HDMI to HDMI cable to link to my Samsung TV. I got it turned on, registered and downloaded windows 10. I plan to just use it as a computer/browser. I did nothing fancy to it, but I am delighted with it. Bargain of the year I think.

quarryman

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Did you get any sleep???

*chugs on big mug of coffee*

twas a long night...

Chorus_suck

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Chorus_suck

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marcbrophy

Chorus_suck wrote: »

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I posted a long winded one back at post #255 that might help you

54and56

ondafly wrote: »

Point of note - as its Windows 8.1 with Bing - you cannot RDP to the box without a few changes ! so I installed the following to enable it

https://github.com/binarymaster/rdpwrap/releases/

My brain is hurting!! What is that all about?

54and56

Chorus_suck wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Once you are granted the Win 10 update all you need do (or at least all I did) was connect a USB drive with at least 9GB free and follow the upgrade prompts. I was fluting around all day/night so my elapsed time was about 8 hours to complete the process but I'd say 7 hours of that were my own delays. I've upgraded a few machines from 8.1 to 10 and 40 minutes to an hour max is what I'd allow given the restarts and initialisation etc.

quarryman

After some frustrating installation/re-installation/updating and general progress-bar watching I found the best approach for anyone wanting to get to Win 10 quickly.

1. Download the Win8.1 With Bing ISO. It's out there on torrent, very quick to download.
2. Copy it to USB using whatever tool suits
3. Pop the USB into the Dell (best to go with one of the USB2 slots) (You may need to modify the boot options to enable Legacy Support to boot off the USB.)
4. Install Win8.1 but this time blow away the recovery partition when you get to that stage in the Windows install. This gives you plenty of space on the 32GB drive for the upgrade.
5. At the end it will ask you if you want to automatically upgrade to Win10. Awesome, no waiting for taskbar notifications etc.
6. After the upgrade, allow it to register and then find your Win10 key. Magical Jellybean is a program that will do it.
7. Copy a Windows 10 iso to your USB and do a clean install with your CD key.

The difficultly with this device is that its a low cost Win8.1 licence. The With Bing version means ordinary Win8.1 ISOs won't work and you need to contact Dell to get a replacement OS, unless you are creative (see point 1 above). The CD key is embedded in the BIOS so you won't need it when installing Win8.1.

What was doubly frustrating in all this was that I was only installing Win10 to get the CD key. I intended to install Unix on the machine anyway and keep the Win10 key for another time. I had to install 3 OSs to get one

ondafly

Chorus_suck wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Sky Go website, but also through Kodi.

Do not just delete the partition, you will need to download a tool for it. WARNING you might screw up your install.

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

My brain is hurting!! What is that all about?

RDP enabler for Windows 8.1 with Bing - if you don't use remote desktop , ignore it

Xcellor

I installed Windows 10 last night. Put media on USB disk, booted. Skipped the enter code.

Windows wouldnt activate when finished but started a chat session with microsoft after a few checks she took over computer and gave me Windows 10 key. Some drivers still need to be installed but was painless process and got about 40% of disk space free now.

adr_sullivan

do you have a link as to how to install Kodi. i have tried it and i keep getting errors with the install of the live tv pvr and istream

thanks,

ondafly wrote: »

so also received mine yesterday - had some fun with it too.

Tested the following :
-Sky Go - works perfectly
-Netflix - works perfectly
-Kodi - works perfectly including all the addons i like to use
-Steam Streaming - quickly streamed Arma 3 from my gaming machine to confirm it worked

Point of note - as its Windows 8.1 with Bing - you cannot RDP to the box without a few changes ! so I installed the following to enable it

https://github.com/binarymaster/rdpwrap/releases/

I had one slip up installed partition wizard to get rid of that stupid 8gigs of backup, but it screwed up the machine, but I was able to restore it back. I now need to find a decent solution for my Harmony remote, thinking either a FLIRC or a CEC inline adapter for the hdmi.

54and56

adr_sullivan wrote: »

do you have a link as to how to install Kodi. i have tried it and i keep getting errors with the install of the live tv pvr and istream

thanks,

Have you installed Kodi successfully and are now having issues with a couple of plugins or have you just not been able to install Kodi at all?

There is a pre-configured version of Kodi called TVMC which can be downloaded from here - http://www.tvaddons.ag/tvmc-windows. Takes about 5 minutes to DL and install and comes preconfigured with loads of add ons, not sure about the specific ones you referred to though.

maximus02

Xcellor wrote: »

I installed Windows 10 last night. Put media on USB disk, booted. Skipped the enter code.

Windows wouldnt activate when finished but started a chat session with microsoft after a few checks she took over computer and gave me Windows 10 key. Some drivers still need to be installed but was painless process and got about 40% of disk space free now.

I attempted to do a clean install of Windows 10. For some reason I don't get the option to skip the enter code. Very odd. Anyone any ideas?

marcbrophy

Are you sure?
I think the setup looks like this.



Can't really remember it all now, if I'm honest!

Sebastian Dangerfield

When I click on the original link I get brought to the product page in the Dell shop, but theres no mention of price, or an option to add to basket. Anyone else have this - maybe theyre out of stock?

maximus02

marcbrophy. Thanks for reply.

This is the screen I get:

Xcellor

maximus02 wrote: »

marcbrophy. Thanks for reply.

This is the screen I get:

Maybe you downloaded a different distribution, in the course of the install I got asked twice for the code once initially and then once on the reboot after install both gave options to skip.

Did you download the Home Edition or whatever is the equivalent?

mossym

Xcellor wrote: »

I installed Windows 10 last night. Put media on USB disk, booted. Skipped the enter code.

Windows wouldnt activate when finished but started a chat session with microsoft after a few checks she took over computer and gave me Windows 10 key. Some drivers still need to be installed but was painless process and got about 40% of disk space free now.

you did well. i did the same thing, wiped out the dell partitions as well.

got to windows 10, prompted to activate. called microsoft. told upgrade from 8.1 had to be done from 8.1, couldn't do anything now that i was on 10. gave me a link to roll back to 8.1, and told to do the update properly from there.

i;ve no 8.1 product key, so hoping the install media they gave me will pick it up from the bios.

quarryman

mossym wrote: »

you did well. i did the same thing, wiped out the dell partitions as well.

got to windows 10, prompted to activate. called microsoft. told upgrade from 8.1 had to be done from 8.1, couldn't do anything now that i was on 10. gave me a link to roll back to 8.1, and told to do the update properly from there.

i;ve no 8.1 product key, so hoping the install media they gave me will pick it up from the bios.

So my post above ^

If the install media doesn't work then you can get the ISO yourself and upgrade. You shouldn't get asked for a CD key as it is in your BIOS.

mossym

quarryman wrote: »

So my post above ^

If the install media doesn't work then you can get the ISO yourself and upgrade. You shouldn't get asked for a CD key as it is in your BIOS.

cheers

yeah i'm pretty much following your method now, by default really

going to get the product key from the bios before i install 8.1 just in case

fdevine

fdevine wrote: »

Ordered an 8Gb RAM stick from Crucial at lunchtime and it's already shipped

Ordered RAM on Tuesday from Crucial and it was delivered this morning

maximus02

Xcellor wrote: »

Maybe you downloaded a different distribution, in the course of the install I got asked twice for the code once initially and then once on the reboot after install both gave options to skip.

Did you download the Home Edition or whatever is the equivalent?

I'm getting annoyed now!!!

I have gone back to the beginning and started again. I have downloaded a 64-bit windows 10 home ISO file from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I used the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to create a bootable USB and copy the ISO file.

This made 3 folders on the USB but no setup.exe file.

How do i boot from this USB on my Dell? Do I need to change the boot sequence and if so how do I do this?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm getting annoyed now. This stuff used to be so much easier in years gone by.

Thanks in advance.

54and56

maximus02 wrote: »

I'm getting annoyed now!!!

I have gone back to the beginning and started again. I have downloaded a 64-bit windows 10 home ISO file from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I used the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to create a bootable USB and copy the ISO file.

This made 3 folders on the USB but no setup.exe file.

How do i boot from this USB on my Dell? Do I need to change the boot sequence and if so how do I do this?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm getting annoyed now. This stuff used to be so much easier in years gone by.

Thanks in advance.

From memory you have to go into the Bios and alter the boot sequence there. Check this out http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/bootorderchange.htm

Xcellor

maximus02 wrote: »

I'm getting annoyed now!!!

I have gone back to the beginning and started again. I have downloaded a 64-bit windows 10 home ISO file from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I used the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to create a bootable USB and copy the ISO file.

This made 3 folders on the USB but no setup.exe file.

How do i boot from this USB on my Dell? Do I need to change the boot sequence and if so how do I do this?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm getting annoyed now. This stuff used to be so much easier in years gone by.

Thanks in advance.

Hmm ill take a look when i get home. I didnt need to bother with a USB tool, whatever I downloaded created exactly what I needed. I believe it was some setup file that I ran and then it looked for either external hard drive, external USB, blank DVD and then proceeded to download the media and set it up...

maximus02

Thanks Xcellor, any help appreciated.

I have an ISO file. Where to from here?

gillamandango

anyone getting this, HDD light is flickering, but no cursor on screen and screen is just black/blank..been like this for 20mins so far and seems unresponsive apart from flickering HDD light beside power button

54and56

gillamandango wrote: »

anyone getting this, HDD light is flickering, but no cursor on screen and screen is just black/blank..been like this for 20mins so far and seems unresponsive apart from flickering HDD light beside power button

Yes, I got something similar. Have you tried clicking the mouse to see if that wakes it?

If that doesn't work try powering off using the hard on/off button and powering back on again. That's what I had to do a couple of times during the upgrade.

Note: I also got an amber flicking LED light once.

mossym

well F&&k me that was an ordeal and a half. but finally on windows 10, kodi installed and all looking good. 8gig of ram on it's way via parcel motel and it will be a welcome upgrade

Xcellor

maximus02 wrote: »

Thanks Xcellor, any help appreciated.

I have an ISO file. Where to from here?

Use this http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=616936

its what worked for me!