Opinion - Win 10 Upgrade

[PaulRussell]

I have GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition M/B, Intel I5-4690K,8G Corsair Vengence (2-4GB) 1866 DDR3.

I need to reinstall Windows 7 and eventually want to go to Windows 10.
Two ways to do it:
Option 1: Reinstall Windows 7 -> Reinstall all my programs -> Install Windows 10
Option 2: Reinstall Windows 7 -> Install Windows 10 -> Reinstall all my programs

Which one is the least prone to problems?

[absic]

I have used both methods on various PCs and have been surprised how well they all work.

If you go the option 1 route then you  won't really notice too many differences in the way Windows starts up (apart from the new windows 10 login screen). Just remember, after the upgrade you will lose some of your drive space due to the Windows 7 backup that is kept. Once you are sure that you will stay with Windows 10, this backup file can be deleted by using the disk cleanup tools and it has no adverse affect on the system.

If you use option 2 then you may find some rather annoying changes to the way Window 10 starts, especially the new login system. This can be got rid of, if you want to, by tweaking things after the install. Also, some of the Windows programs, that you may like to use in Windows 7, such as Photo Viewer, have been upgraded and become the default program when you do a clean install. Getting the older program versions to run can require a registry tweak, but this is really more of a personal thing and you may prefer to use the new versions of the apps over the old ones.

On my own GA-Z97X-UD5 I went for option 2 as I prefer a clean OS over an upgraded version.

[dmdilks]

On my own GA-Z97X-UD5 I went for option 2 as I prefer a clean OS over an upgraded version.

As I tell people on another forum. If you do the upgrade and I would do that first. That way you can see if you really like windows 10. I myself don't like it. To many things Microsoft has taken my rights away from me. But that is just me.

Once you have done a upgrade. Save the things you want to keep and than do a clean install. When it ask you to put in the key click skip till you are on the desktop. Once you are on the desktop just check to see if it is activated. It will be all activated. 

[shadowsports]

Hey Guys,
Only 1 of 4 machines in the house are upgraded to 10.  Do have to say the upgrade experience was seamless (for me), but I've helped quite a few others who had problems.  You have to upgrade in order to get W10 free...  So the preferred method for me is upgrade, ensure activation, then format, perform clean install of 10, <create full disk image back up>, Reinstall my programs, make another back up, then weekly back ups.

Can definitely confirm what dmdilks states as far as activation goes.  Gone are the days of entering a product key, once activated, future installs on the same hardware will activate automatically.  Pretty cool of MS, but, and yes there's a but.   Besides losing some features (won't go into them) the breech of privacy is pretty steep with 10.  Sadly cortana isn't enabled, Mail doesn't get to read my messages and the calendar feature doesn't get access to my contacts.  We all use windows differently.  I used ghacks guide to disable most of the telemetry gathering updates in 10 which are also being pushed out to 7 and 8.1.  I'm not paranoid, just conscious of privacy.  You pretty much give up the farm accepting the EULA, but I'm not going to fall over and hand it to them.  Ultimately, you lose some anonymity when you move to 10, and its a decent OS, but I'm not ready to give up 7 or 8.1 just yet. 

Absic's observations are also spot on.  Here's 10 and with it comes...  and you get...  and well, we've decided that this is going to be the default program for....  However, again, I think MS did a pretty good job with 10. Certainly better than Vista or 8 when we all saw the Metro interface for the first time.  Am I going to jump ship and adopt it on all my devices, no.  This is one example where your free entrée comes with some not so good sides.  Definitely worth trying though.   

[Slimreaper]

The breach of privacy so to speak people talk about is getting old. It's a moot point as you can disable the things that offend you so much. Seriously. Don't like P2P update downloads? Disable it. Don't like sending info to Microsoft? Disable it. etc etc DISABLE IT.

[dmdilks]

The breach of privacy so to speak people talk about is getting old.

How do you disable them in windows 7? Once you tell me how, I'll tell you a little story.

[dmdilks]

The breach of privacy so to speak people talk about is getting old.

How do you disable them in windows 7? Once you tell me how, I'll tell you a little story.

I'll answer it seeing nobody knows the answer. Microsoft has start to put in updates that do the same thing that ten is doing. Most people don't know it too. No it isn't getting old it is just starting.

Most of this information doesn't really endanger your privacy, and Microsoft already has customer experience and troubleshooting tracking built into Windows 7 and 8. Of course, it generally asks before sending information to Microsoft,
unlike the new updates.

Still, one of the new updates does tell Microsoft what kind of programs are triggering the User Account Controls (that message that a program needs administrator permission to install, run or change settings). That can give Microsoft an idea of what kind of programs you run.

The updates in question are KB3068708, KB3022345, KB3075249 and KB3080149. To see if they are installed, go to Control Panel>>System and Security. Then under "Windows Update," click the "View installed updates" link.

So if you say it is getting old it isn't.

[autotech]

It takes over 14 different places to turn off all the privacy issues in windows 10.  So unless you know all the different places the one you miss will be the one that burns you.

I like to use my computer and not worry about the little things that I take for granted like privacy.

[PHubb]

I agree with all who have posted here about privacy concerns and big corporations, not to mention the NSA and GCHQ, sucking up everyone's data. I'm old enough to remember a world where individual privacy was an actual thing, not some
mystical memory of a long past era. That said, yes - Windows 10 is by far the most intrusive MS OS to date, so be careful if you care about your privacy and data. That said: MS does include BitLocker encryption which isn't that hard to set up. MS also claims they haven't built any back doors into it or given the encryption keys to governments or other corporations. But basically, you have to trust them on this.

One way to get a head start on protecting yourself is when Windows is first set up on a PC. Do NOT log in with a MS account (the default). Choose instead to set up a local account on the PC. Then you have to choose the almost hidden 'custom' settings instead of the Express/defaults (which unfortunately most uninformed people will choose). The custom settings choice will take you to a long list of shockingly intrusive items to turn off if you don't want MS collecting your [meta] data, habits, and looking at what you're doing. One of the most intrusive, in my opinion, is the built in location/finder service which sends, not only your IP address, but physical address via GPS (as you move about with a portable device) to MS servers. Frankly, I'm not down with any of it and turned off all telemetry on my single Windows 10 system. All my other systems are still running Windows 7 which I find to be very reliable, mature, and stable.

One significant advance starting with Windows 8 and really getting seamless with Windows 10 is the always thorny problems with drivers on Windows systems. Windows 10 installed (out of the box) current, updated drivers for all of my disparate hardware seamlessly. This cut down a typical OS install time by hours - they really seem to have gotten this aspect of installing an OS right. I also like the built in (continued from Windows virus/malware security features, the updated command prompt, updated calculator, calendar, and other updated utilities. Windows 10 Home can run 2 physical CPUs and also addresses up to 128 GBs of RAM, as opposed to a paultry 16 GBs for Windows 7 Home Premium.

[shadowsports]

I agree with all who have posted here about privacy concerns...

Well said