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Upgrade Windows 7 to 10 for free (still works)

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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,541 ✭✭✭duridian


    This is MS info page/guide regarding which hardware can run Windows 10, but to be honest it isn’t a great resource.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows/windows-10-specifications#system-specifications

    There’s a compatibility checker app available from MS. The link is in point #2 of this other info page.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-windows_install/windows-7-81-10-compatibility-testing-for-windows/310e06a4-b181-45ec-ae6d-ee93a1632932

    Also, just my own opinion:
    A lot of lower spec machines (Intel Celerons, Pentiums, Atoms and AMD Turions or Athlon II for example) from ~2007 to ~2012 can technically run Windows 10, but will not provide you with a very good user experience.

    Having more RAM helps, and if you have already, in the past, upgraded the system with a SSD that definitely gives a boost, but I would advise against putting money into systems like this now, as you really are fighting an uphill battle, and would be better off investing in a more modern machine.

    A lot of longer term value and much better computing experience can be got from investing that money into something more modern from the refurbished market.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,547 ✭✭✭quinnd6


    Is the Radeon HD 6670 1gb ddr3 ok for Windows 10?
    I know it is quite an old GPU.
    I've heard of Windows 10 screwing up drivers on older cards.
    I only have 4gb ram but that should be fine.
    I'm not a Windows 10 fan at all but Windows 7 which I still have is probably going to be a haven for hackers.


  • Registered Users Posts: 904 ✭✭✭styron


    quinnd6 wrote: »
    Is the Radeon HD 6670 1gb ddr3 ok for Windows 10?
    I know it is quite an old GPU.
    I've heard of Windows 10 screwing up drivers on older cards.
    I only have 4gb ram but that should be fine.
    I'm not a Windows 10 fan at all but Windows 7 which I still have is probably going to be a haven for hackers.


    It's fine - DirectX 11 (Win 10 minimum rec DX9) and the W10 drivers are here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,179 ✭✭✭✭fr336


    Am about to attempt upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on a 10 year old PC which still does the basics fairly well and suits me fine. It's always fine with installing and updating etc. Passed compatability test for W10 fine. Wish me luck...:eek:


  • Registered Users Posts: 589 ✭✭✭Monkeynut


    mrcheez wrote: »

    No risk.

    Additionally if for any reason Windows 10 is not acting properly you have a month to roll back to your Windows 7 installation which involves just clicking a button.
    In a perfect world.



    A lot of time you get.
    "we ran into a problem and won't be able to take you back to the previous version of windows".


    I have restored back to a previous version many times successfully. But a lot of the times it wont work, whether it be bad sectors, drivers registry or what not.


    Just for the ease of the user if a failure happens. Backup your user files to an external drive while your still on windows 7. At least you can attempt a wipe afterwards.
    No such thing at no risk when upgrading, downgrading with operating systems.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,179 ✭✭✭✭fr336


    Well so far so good on Windows 10 install. Have somehow passed many of the hurdles other people have run into. Am convinced I won't be able to get to the finish line though - currently at 2% of working on updates. At least it booted to w10 rather than 7 when it restarted!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,443 ✭✭✭FGR


    I've clean installed Win 10 before on my Dell XPS 15 L502x (Sandy Bridge (Core i3 2310m @ 2.1 GHZ) processor with 16GB Ram and nVidia GeForce GT525M GPU).

    Although it installed reasonably well I had to install all of the appropriate windows 8 drivers from the Dell website as the machine is not supported for Win10 by Dell nor were the stock Win10 drivers doing what they were supposed to do - things like the fans on constantly, Intel WiDi no longer working and general slowdown).

    I couldn't help but notice that it was still slower than Windows 7 and reverted back.

    Would upgrading my 7200rpm drive to a basic SSD do the job (say WD Green, not even WD Blue?) I just wonder is there a lot going on in the background of Win10 vs Win7 that's causing such slowdown. The updates downloading in the background alone must take up a lot of processing time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭kaahooters


    FGR wrote: »
    I've clean installed Win 10 before on my Dell XPS 15 L502x (Sandy Bridge (Core i3 2310m @ 2.1 GHZ) processor with 16GB Ram and nVidia GeForce GT525M GPU).

    Although it installed reasonably well I had to install all of the appropriate windows 8 drivers from the Dell website as the machine is not supported for Win10 by Dell nor were the stock Win10 drivers doing what they were supposed to do - things like the fans on constantly, Intel WiDi no longer working and general slowdown).

    I couldn't help but notice that it was still slower than Windows 7 and reverted back.

    Would upgrading my 7200rpm drive to a basic SSD do the job (say WD Green, not even WD Blue?) I just wonder is there a lot going on in the background of Win10 vs Win7 that's causing such slowdown. The updates downloading in the background alone must take up a lot of processing time.


    any ssd will speed up the laptop, its not a big job to replace it on the xps, loads of videos on how to do it online. ive one too, and it went fine.
    however, win 10 will be a bit of a pig for the first few boot ups, and around patch tuesday, due to the background insulation and driver checking.
    itll be good nuff for youtube and office.


  • Registered Users Posts: 904 ✭✭✭styron


    FGR wrote: »
    I've clean installed Win 10 before on my Dell XPS 15 L502x (Sandy Bridge (Core i3 2310m @ 2.1 GHZ) processor with 16GB Ram and nVidia GeForce GT525M GPU).

    Although it installed reasonably well I had to install all of the appropriate windows 8 drivers from the Dell website as the machine is not supported for Win10 by Dell nor were the stock Win10 drivers doing what they were supposed to do - things like the fans on constantly, Intel WiDi no longer working and general slowdown).

    I couldn't help but notice that it was still slower than Windows 7 and reverted back.

    Would upgrading my 7200rpm drive to a basic SSD do the job (say WD Green, not even WD Blue?) I just wonder is there a lot going on in the background of Win10 vs Win7 that's causing such slowdown. The updates downloading in the background alone must take up a lot of processing time.
    Performance will benefit hugely from an SSD, it maybe 8+ years old but well specced with a SATA III board and 16GB RAM too. You'll need to swap out the obsolete wireless card also - Amazon have an XPS compatible dual Intel and a top mid-range Crucial BX400 240GB all in for £45.13 delivered.


    I'd install 7 and the W7 main drivers (Order: Chipset, Management Engine, Renesas USB3,Rapid Storage, nVidia Gforce, Audio Driver, Ethernet, Cardreader, New Wireless and Bluetooth, Touchpad & Webcam)


    Use the online W10 creator tool to download the 'ISO for another machine' option - burn it to disc or USB. Run it from within W7 to upgrade and decline any updates until afterwards. Once complete you can hopefully 'clear' Device Manager by running the remaining drivers 7 - or 8 if required - in compatibility mode.



    If its working OK avoid any Intel wireless add-ons, the likes of PROSet are redundant under W10.


    Good Luck, though Kat installed the Wireless card and a SSD only last week:


    KNNnnha.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,547 ✭✭✭quinnd6


    Cienciano wrote: »
    I tried it on a laptop and it was working fine. Turned it off after using it as normal and now it won't start up!
    Freezes on startup right after the windows logo disappears.


    Hey I was looking at your post and hoping you got it sorted.
    What can happen when you install Windows 10 is after turning on your laptop is you get a black screen and you think something is wrong.
    What is happening here is Windows 10 is basically updating itself without letting you know and after about 10 minutes you'll see a Window pop up saying its updating.
    I've seen cases of that happening before.
    Windows 10 is a really bad OS for that because it keeps updating without telling the user and you don't know what the heck is going on either your pc is laggy as hell or you've a black screen and it usually means the OS is updating.
    It's part of the reason why I haven't upgraded to Windows 10.
    I've seen how bad Windows 10 can be so that's why it is hard to make that jump from 7 to 10.
    Unfortunately I think Windows 7 is a security risk now so will have to bite the bullet and jump to 10 anyway. Plus I play games sometimes on PC and Linux is just not as good for gaming unfortunately because it just isn't supported enough by developers. I hope a lot of people jump to Linux but for playing games Linux is just no good in comparison.
    Hopefully that will change but not until games developers actually properly support it.
    So we're going to be stuck with this badly developed inferior product.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,179 ✭✭✭✭fr336


    Well the install worked great even if it did take hours. My problem now is w10 itself being slow and unusable. Takes ages to load anything, and hard drive led light is on all the time even on log in screen! I am really not great with tech but managed to get to the updates screen in settings and there are still updates to be installed from this month. So keeping my fingers crossed this was one of my issues and i can iron out any other problems. I am a bit worried as this is a really old pc (10 years) and was laggy anyway on videos etc but I just want the very basic load up easy websites, email etc. If Windows didn't think the machine was up to the job, maybe it shouldn't have let me install it? anyway not moaning too much until I see what happens!


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,179 ✭✭✭✭fr336


    So Ive installed windows 10 on a windows 7 machine. At first it was so slow it was pretty unusable and the hard drive light kept going solidly all the time. Eventually I installed more recent updates and this seemed to help things hugely - the hard drive light became normal. Now it's started being slow and constantly loading again. What can I do now without knowing what it's doing? So annoying. If it's not updates what is it?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,547 ✭✭✭quinnd6


    What are the specs of your pc?
    CPU and RAM?

    What you could do is go into task manager and look at the processes and what is running.
    Your ram and hard disk are probably being hogged by something.
    Also try setting feedback and diagnostics diagnostic and usage data to basic.
    That might help.
    There's a lot of crap going on in Windows 10 that no-one needs and it just hogs the system and slows things down.
    That's why so many people have been putting off using it.

    Or else it could be more updates.
    Try the check for updates thing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,179 ✭✭✭✭fr336


    quinnd6 wrote: »
    What are the specs of your pc?
    CPU and RAM?

    What you could do is go into task manager and look at the processes and what is running.
    Your ram and hard disk are probably being hogged by something.
    Also try setting feedback and diagnostics diagnostic and usage data to basic.
    That might help.
    There's a lot of crap going on in Windows 10 that no-one needs and it just hogs the system and slows things down.
    That's why so many people have been putting off using it.

    Or else it could be more updates.
    Try the check for updates thing.


    Thanks for the reply. Well I was posting on my phone before but I'm now on Boards desktop so that's a good start! At this very moment it seems no slower than before (old computer anyway) and internet working grand. Still a bit nervous as it seems a bit up and down and I don't want to be damaging my comp. But maybe I just need patience and have forgotten how a new OS even on a new comp takes time to bed in. I've just uninstalled a load of stuff like Skype, XBox etc that I have no need for on this PC so hopefully that'll be more help. Thanks again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 911 ✭✭✭heffsarmy


    fr336 wrote: »
    I am a bit worried as this is a really old pc (10 years) and was laggy anyway on videos etc but I just want the very basic load up easy websites, email etc.

    Install a linux distro it will revive your old pc

    https://ubuntu.com/#download

    https://linuxmint.com/


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,937 ✭✭✭wingnut


    lawred2 wrote: »
    8 was garbage

    10 is a perfectly functional OS

    Every second OS is good. Its the microsoft way.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭banchang


    banchang wrote: »
    When I try to run the tool after download, I get :

    'There was a problem starting Setup. Close the tool, restart your PC, and then try running the tool again.'

    I do all that & get the same message when I try to run it.

    Tried the fixes shared online. Nothing worked.

    Got onto Microsoft W10 Support chat. Explained the problem.

    The guy uses the software to take control of my PC, & gets the installation running, & it completes successfully after he's gone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 166 ✭✭Hatshepsut


    I'm almost afraid to say this in case my laptop fails to boot tomorrow, but I followed the link and advice in the OP and it's worked a dream. The relief. Thank you SO much. I was like a big scaredy cat for the last month putting off the inevitable and thinking it would all go Pete Tong on me and I'd lose all my files and be left with a crashed laptop I couldn't use any more. I LOVED Windows 7 and hate everything about Windows 10 but I had to take the plunge today on my 2011 laptop. Now it did take ages and patience but I prevailed and it's working!!! Not at a hundred miles an hour but I don't care.
    Thank you to everyone who posted their experiences and tips, you helped me immensely. If there's anyone out there who was like me, go for it, take your time with it and it will be fine. Good luck my fellow Window 7 buddies.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,131 ✭✭✭✭gormdubhgorm


    Have win 7 on laptop and PC (at home) will never change, hate win 10 :(

    I was the same until I thought about it. And I realised that if you are doing banking etc or using credit and debit card you are leaving yourself very vulnerable as there are no longer windows updates for windows 7.

    So with extreme reluctance I upgraded to windows 10 for free




    Then I made the changes to settings recommended once I downloaded it



    I messed around with it. But I still missed the windows 7 aspect of it. Especially the windows 7 start menu in particular.

    So I was delighted when I found you could still run windows 10 but could create a 'windows 7 shell' to make the start menu look like windows 7.
    It is not a microsoft product though it is independently made - it is free!

    I just followed these instructions below -




    I did have a bit of difficulty getting the start button image to look decent.

    You have to use an image with three orbs.

    I messed around with photoshop and made two transparent background versions.

    Windows Classic orb -

    BiExfqy.png


    Windows Black orb -
    Ap53dgM.png


    I found that when you mess with the windows 7 shell settings that 85% size suited my laptop.
    Once I twigged that I was grand.
    I could be different depending to the device you are using.


    peilZkV.png


    Eventually I got taskbar to look like this picked black colour in the win 7 shell settings and black orb.
    1ANCuXc.png



    To get this look I picked storm colour from the windows 10 settings and black background.


    You can mess around with it for your own personal preferences.

    For example I did not like the look of the 'metro' skin in the win 7 shell settings so I picked 'midnight' instead.


    Tt3t0xj.png



    It gave the start menu a bit of darker background.

    nWmFXA2.png


    I hope windows 7 dinosaurs like myself find the windows shell as useful as I did.

    Guff about stuff, and stuff about guff.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,691 ✭✭✭✭Charlie19


    I have Windows 7 that I got from kick-ass 5 years ago, can I make the change to Win 8 or 10?

    I don't mind paying for but I'd like to do the change over as smoothly as possible.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,209 ✭✭✭✭Cienciano


    quinnd6 wrote: »
    Hey I was looking at your post and hoping you got it sorted.
    What can happen when you install Windows 10 is after turning on your laptop is you get a black screen and you think something is wrong.
    What is happening here is Windows 10 is basically updating itself without letting you know and after about 10 minutes you'll see a Window pop up saying its updating.
    I've seen cases of that happening before.
    Windows 10 is a really bad OS for that because it keeps updating without telling the user and you don't know what the heck is going on either your pc is laggy as hell or you've a black screen and it usually means the OS is updating.
    It's part of the reason why I haven't upgraded to Windows 10.
    I've seen how bad Windows 10 can be so that's why it is hard to make that jump from 7 to 10.
    Unfortunately I think Windows 7 is a security risk now so will have to bite the bullet and jump to 10 anyway. Plus I play games sometimes on PC and Linux is just not as good for gaming unfortunately because it just isn't supported enough by developers. I hope a lot of people jump to Linux but for playing games Linux is just no good in comparison.
    Hopefully that will change but not until games developers actually properly support it.
    So we're going to be stuck with this badly developed inferior product.
    I left mine for a day, no change!


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,464 ✭✭✭✭joujoujou
    Unregistered Users


    muffler wrote: »
    [...]

    2. Would I need to back up Windows 7 first and if so how is that done?

    [...]

    Create an image of your current system and store it on external drive. In case of failure of new system/old hardware combo or in case you just don't like it etc. - restore it from an image.

    I probably go the very same route myself. I really hate OS changes as it takes ages to get everything back up to look and work as it did on previous system. My experiences so far:

    - installing OS - 2-3 hours

    - installing drivers - 2-3 hours if you have them, 2-3 days if you haven't

    - setting up a look - 1 day

    - get all 3rd party soft up and running - 1 week or two - that includes finding alternatives for no longer working applications and trying them.

    Ideally, taking 1 week off work would sort all things out, but sadly the world's not ideal. ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,795 ✭✭✭✭Discodog


    I wasn't looking forward to changing but I used this

    https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

    It was mentioned by another poster & makes 10 look & feel like 7.

    I can't really see any difference now :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,053 ✭✭✭TimHorton


    Upgrade to Win 10 on a 64 bit 8gb of Ram Wndows 7 took less than 30 mins to complete.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,590 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    Discodog wrote: »
    I wasn't looking forward to changing but I used this

    https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

    It was mentioned by another poster & makes 10 look & feel like 7.

    I can't really see any difference now :)

    Windows 8 was unusable without this, but I've found I like the Windows 10 ui. Also my work use Windows 10 so makes sense to get familiar with it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,919 ✭✭✭long_b


    I have an old HP laptop with no hard drive.
    It's got a Windows 7 Pro sticker on it with what I think is the OEM licence key.

    What's the easiest way to get it to Win 10 ?
    Does anyone have a link to a HP OEM iso for either Windows 10 or Windows 7 ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,131 ✭✭✭✭gormdubhgorm


    I found these top 20 windows 10 tips and tricks -

    To be honest I doubt I would use many of them. A lot of them seem good if you were do a presentation and trying to explain things to people online.

    Guff about stuff, and stuff about guff.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,131 ✭✭✭✭gormdubhgorm


    long_b wrote: »
    I have an old HP laptop with no hard drive.
    It's got a Windows 7 Pro sticker on it with what I think is the OEM licence key.

    What's the easiest way to get it to Win 10 ?
    Does anyone have a link to a HP OEM iso for either Windows 10 or Windows 7 ?

    Guff about stuff, and stuff about guff.



  • Registered Users Posts: 287 ✭✭matzen


    Does this still work? I get to step 5 in the guide but can't find how to activate win 10 so still stuck on win 7


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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,590 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    matzen wrote: »
    Does this still work? I get to step 5 in the guide but can't find how to activate win 10 so still stuck on win 7

    The activation is automatic... step 5 is just to display the activated OS to you.

    It's not really a step.


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