The Steel Guitar Forum

I had a chance to work with the upgraded Win 10 system this morning. I didn't run into any problems, trying the installed programs to see if they run. So far I'm not a fan of the Edge browser.

Roland is slowly supporting devices in Win 10 (making them plug and play) so given a short time that will not be a problem.

I also upgraded a touch screen laptop from 8.1 to Win10 this morning and it too seems to be OK.

I have no doubts that some (many?) will run into problems, especially those with older hardware systems. Many of those systems should not upgrade as performance may be marginal.

The nag returned. I clicked "check your upgrade status" and I have had this box mulling things over for 3 hours.

Any guesses as to what's happening? I closed the window and selected "get Windows 10". Same hung window.

Charlie M. mentioned a dual boot system. I probably don't have the room on my laptop's hard drive for both, so is it possible to boot from an external drive via USB?

Jon Light wrote:The nag returned. I clicked "check your upgrade status" and I have had this box mulling things over for 3 hours.

Any guesses as to what's happening? I closed the window and selected "get Windows 10". Same hung window.

I had and fixed the same problem. Rather than going into a long technical explanation, I will simply direct you to the blog article I posted, entitled: "I found a solution to the blank Get Windows 10 screen"

Jon Light wrote:The nag returned. I clicked "check your upgrade status" and I have had this box mulling things over for 3 hours...I closed the window and selected "get Windows 10". Same hung window.

You could try by-passing the nag icon and just doing it the way it's described here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... _wol_win10

On the question of a dual boot system.

If I was to put in a larger hard drive in my laptop (currently a 320GB drive, with a little under 100 GB free), can I copy the current drive contents to a new drive and have it run just like it was the current drive? Every file should copy over including the registry and other necessary files, right? That would give me the room to have both versions (Win 7 & Win 10) on one drive.

Another question is, I have a 160GB drive from a dead Dell laptop I have in an external USB case that I can dedicate to a Win 10 installation if possible. I also have a 750GB Western Digital external drive that has a whole lot of empty space.

I'm hoping the 160GB external drive will work. It would be for the OS only.

Richard Sinkler wrote:I probably don't have the room on my laptop's hard drive for both, so is it possible to boot from an external drive via USB?

I've been checking MS sites and find this for upgrading another machine, so it looks like you can download to a thumb drive etc.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... _wol_win10

However, I know nothing about it beyond then, whether it takes that drive to boot it every time.

Meanwhile, I see that I have a month to like 10 or not and can revert to Win 8, so maybe a dual boot isn't needed.

If you "upgrade" Win 7 or Win 8.1 to Win 10, the existing Product Key for the Win 7 or Win 8.1 becomes the Product Key for Win 10. Thus you can't have your old Win 7 or 8.1 and the new Win 10 both.

If you do a clean install Win 10 from a download to a DVD or USB Flash Drive and install from that you have to have a valid Product Key to install it. You can use your valid Win 7 or Win 8.1 Product Key to do the clean install but that replaces the Win 7 or Win 8.1, not an "addition".

I have a dual boot system, Win 7 and Win 10, on separate drives, but I had Win 7/Win 8.1 dual boot and upgraded the 8.1 to 10.

re: my situation, thanks guys.

Wiz--that would have been unlikely since I never use IE and doubt I've done any custom configuring of it in 5 years. But I did do the settings reset anyway. No change.

Dave--I will try that next, when I have a a little time.

Jack Stoner wrote:If you "upgrade" Win 7 or Win 8.1 to Win 10, the existing Product Key for the Win 7 or Win 8.1 becomes the Product Key for Win 10. Thus you can't have your old Win 7 or 8.1 and the new Win 10 both.

If you do a clean install Win 10 from a download to a DVD or USB Flash Drive and install from that you have to have a valid Product Key to install it. You can use your valid Win 7 or Win 8.1 Product Key to do the clean install but that replaces the Win 7 or Win 8.1, not an "addition".

I have a dual boot system, Win 7 and Win 10, on separate drives, but I had Win 7/Win 8.1 dual boot and upgraded the 8.1 to 10.

Which means I have to purchase Win 10 for a clean install? That I won't do.

I don't think it'd make much difference to us, Richard.
It's going to look a lot the same, with a new browser that we probably don't need,
and a look to make those that would like a Mac interface happier.

If it weren't free, I wouldn't do it, but still I'll wonder, why free...? Oh well.
To insure a future share in a market they dominate? Oh well....

Richard Sinkler wrote:On the question of a dual boot system.

If I was to put in a larger hard drive in my laptop (currently a 320GB drive, with a little under 100 GB free), can I copy the current drive contents to a new drive and have it run just like it was the current drive? Every file should copy over including the registry and other necessary files, right? That would give me the room to have both versions (Win 7 & Win 10) on one drive.

SNIP.

You cannot "copy" a boot drive and have it function as it does now. You have to use special software to "clone" the existing boot drive onto a new blank disk (hard drive or SSD), or create and save an "image file" to a partition, network location, cloud storage, or external drive with enough space to hold it. That image can be imported back into Windows if the O.S. recognizes the format of the image.

Under Windows 7, one can launch a saved Win 7 image from within Windows, or from a subsection of an F8 recovery bootup. This overwrites and reinstalls everything, in the event of some disaster (e.g., a malware takeover, failed/failing hard drive, theft of the box, unsuccessful or undesireable upgrade, etc). Details about doing all this are found on Bleeping Computer

Thank you Wiz. That answers my remaining questions about the use of the recovery drive.

I really need to make a repair disk for my desktop. I had to have it re-boot this morning, and when it did, it comes up to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. Reminds me of the old DOS days.

So I kept turning it on and off (it never got to firing up windows). Sometimes it would come up with the page where it asks if you want to boot windows normally or do a repair. A repair just locked up and didn't do anything. Starting in Windows didn't do anything but take me back to the black screen. So I opened the case to make sure the SATA cables to the drive were tight (they were). Then I hit the on button, and Windows came right up. And sometimes on boot-up I get a message that it can't find drive 0 (or it may say 1 - the system drive), But I press F1 and it comes right up. The drive is not very old (less than a year) and I wonder if this is a Win 7 quirk. Any ideas?

I have the Windows _nag_ icon on this desktop now. I really wonder if it checked to see if this computer could handle Win 10. I would really like to see what Win 10 is like. I hate Win 7. I think it is the worst version of Windows ever released. And I go back all the way to Windows 3.0.

I realize the first part of this post is about boot problems, but it leads to my questions about Win 10. But you are welcome to cut that part out and start a different topic.

Success. I have completed the installation. A couple of minor mishaps during the course of it but ... done. Thanks, Dave, for helping me get this going.

Being a creature of habit, any change is a bad thing. I will refrain from complaining about changes. In time, I will either adapt, learn, or resist the new ways of doing things. Until then, my confusions and discomforts are the cost of not leaving well enough alone. I'll learn how to drive this. Maybe I will be glad I upgraded.

Jon Light wrote:Success. I have completed the installation. Thanks, Dave, for helping me get this going.

Great. Glad to hear of your success, Jon.

You guys have bested me. My "inner geek" prevailed today, and I actually did download and install Win10. But I ended up with lots of USB issues, and also ran into other problems trying to eliminate Microsoft Security Essentials in favor of Windows Defender. I was amazed I couldn't just "uninstall" it using the normal route. I tried some Microsoft-recommended registry-editing, and wound up in a boot-loop situation, and gave up.

I decided to deploy the Macrium drive image I made of my Win7 prior to my failed Win10 attempt, and I'm back in the game on Win7 as I type this. Thank God for Macrium.

Maybe, in time....I'll try Win10 again. But not for a while...I don't need the aggravation right now.

Richard Sinkler wrote:
Which means I have to purchase Win 10 for a clean install? That I won't do.

No, I don't think you have to buy Win 10 to do a clean install.

I think you have to do this:

Have a legit and activated Win 7 SP1, 8, or 8.1 on your current PC.

Use the "free upgrade" to do an upgrade install to Win 10, typically through Windows Update. Activate that using the Product Key for your legit and activated Win 7.

After that is done, you can then download a Win 10 ISO and burn it to a DVD or put it on a USB stick and do the clean install.

But the first use of the free upgrade must be done "over the top" of an existing activated Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. After that, you can do the clean install.

Or you can bypass the free upgrade entirely and buy Windows 10 ($120 on up) from a retailer and do the clean install without first having another OS on the drive.

I am very very low on the Power User spectrum.
Unless or until I find some really useful enhancements brought to me by Windows 10, I will regard this as an unfortunate waste of my time & effort. I can see what I have lost and so far I cannot see a single thing that I have gained (I assume there are some elegant features. I assume that they are intended to attract people, unlike me, who are very active across numerous platforms).

Where the hell is my "Show Desktop" ? I have to minimize individual windows one by one to get at the shortcuts on my desktop? Can this really be?

I had a semi-troubled restoration from a full image a couple of weeks ago after my failed printer installation fiasco. I don't feel like going there again. Otherwise I, too, would revert to Windows 7 which worked just fine for me.

Instead I'll just get used to this.

The Windows 10 forum is a good source for good/bad of Win 10. Those that have upgraded or considering upgrade should look over that forum. Its been in existence since Microsoft announced the new version would be Windows 10 and not Windows 9.

www.tenforums.com

Thanks, Jack.

It turns out that for some reason, my "Show Desktop" is off-screen, next to the clock but not visible. Works with a hover or a click. Ok. I'm good.

Its the same way on my screen.

The only thing, so far, that I don't like is Edge browser. If I could get it configured the way I want it, it may be OK. Until then I'm using Firefox.

I was able to get my Roland recording equipment installed using a hack that was posted on the Cakewalk Forum. (Change the OS in the .inf file to "10"). So, I'm good to go with Win 10.

Wiz Feinberg wrote:"all you computer are belong to us!"

Not so fast. It looks like I'm among the first to disaffect.
It could be that 10 makes my documents and drawings harder to get to, adding unnecessary steps that dis-enhance the experience.
Or it could be that, as one computer writer put it in his instructions to can it, Cortana just gives me the creeps.

Here's the simplest method (click) Rollback from Windows 10 in case there are any other defectors.

You knew they wouldn't make it easy or match the directions; in 10, you'll have to be as clever as Cortana and look for settings....
... but once done, things were much like I left them--they didn't take all my base because they didn't have it--like Zero Wing, it was only a threat.

Just make sure you have your original Microsoft password or they'll make good on the threat! Didn't see that coming, so thanks for the warning.
------------
Progress report: the computer wanted to reload Win 10 this morning, so I had to learn how to hack into the registry to eliminate it.
Hacking into my own computer... this Microsoft. I find it a little insidious, but then I have seen the future....
It took a little doing, but following these instructions, I think it was accomplished; I'll see tomorrow morning when it updates again.
What is the “Get Windows 10″ Tray Item and How Do You Remove It?

The icon is still trying to get me to allow the update which I have not. How do I uninstall KB30355834 to stop the icon from showing up?

Harold Dye wrote:The icon is still trying to get me to allow the update which I have not. How do I uninstall KB3035583 to stop the icon from showing up?

You uninstall Microsoft Updates via Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall A Program > View Installed Updates. Find this KB item in the list and click to highlight the Uninstall button and click on it to uninstall the update.

Reboot the computer before doing anything else. This update changed a lot of files that need to be changed when the operating system is not in use.

Wiz I did what you said and the KB3035583 was uninstalled and then it asked me to restart the computer which I did. It took a few minutes to reconfigure but it is now complete. Is that a sufficient reboot? Are they likely to try to reinstall it on the computer? The icon is gone. About a week ago I thought about being put on the list. I hit the button to allow it but it asked for info I did not want to give so I X'ed out of the page. I hope I did not make a mistake by going that far since I decided I did not want the program.