Having a laptop of 2009 vintage, I wondered if the old machine would even be compatible to the new OS. Microsoft's preliminary assessment suggested all would be well and I was ready to proceed. Before proceeding with the task at hand, I pondered the rationale for Microsoft's so generous gift of providing the latest OS for free. Very good question. My conclusion? Microsoft is much behind the curve in the quest to harvest ALL data in existence. Offering a free upgrade allows the embedding of the tools necessary for such ventures.
Major upgrades rarely proceed flawlessly and the WIN10 upgrade was no exception. First attempt at upgrade launched from the desktop icon provided by Microsoft (did I mention this upgrade icon was downloaded in a WIN7 update unbeknownst to me?) failed as the upgrade screen sat inert for hours without any indication of progress. Scratch Attempt #1. Second attempt relied on a link provided by Microsoft Support. Launched Attempt #2 and it progressed to 99% and then remained at that state overnight. Next morning, the screen still showed 99% complete. Scratch Attempt #2. I hard booted the laptop and tried again.
On the third attempt, I unplugged the external HD and the Garmin. After reaching the 99% completed screen and lingering at that state for two more hours, my confidence was low. However, after several hours, processing kicked off and the installation began. Finally, Windows 10 came up on my screen. Success!
My thoughts on Microsoft's generosity? An anniversary update of WIN10 is due August 2. One rumored feature of the upgrade is that Cortana and some of the data harvest programs will be more difficult (if not impossible) to disable. To get user commitment, WIN10 is offered for free until July 29 only days before the anniversary upgrade. Of course, this is all speculation on my part.
Those are two days I will never get back...
That sounds very much like my experience with updating to W10 some months ago. I am still trying to find useful things in W10 as it seems to be squirreled away more carefully than W7.
ReplyDeleteThere has been some discussion in our household about giving Ubuntu a try... ;)
Greg
Greg! Still very early stages in transition for me. I was happy with WIN7. With luck WIN10 won't be a step backwards.
DeleteI've gone through the same odyssey as Greg to the point that, if there are wondrous things to discover in W10, I've yet to find them. Can't wait for this anniversary upgrade thing :O(
ReplyDeleteGary, I am a bit hesitant about the Anniversary update too. Since I had issues with auto updates with my installation of WIN7, maybe my laptop will be "passed over?"
DeleteI also did it this week. Turned off all the privacy related "options" at the installation. But what is going on with this "Edge" thing? Surely that can't be an improvement.
ReplyDeleteAnd the installation decided to delete a number of programs that it said were not "compatible" with Windows 10 - says who. After a reinstall of the programs they work fine.
Richard, as you, I turned off all of the privacy and tracking options as well as Cortana. Edge got turned off too and replaced by Chrome.
DeleteHappy to hear you lost none of your applications!
More importantly Jonathan, I hope it has not interfered with your data analytics capability. I would lament that :)
ReplyDeleteOnly one program failed to work after the upgrade. That program was one of Microsoft's own: MS Access. That is the product I use to track the painting log. I will have to read the Access DB with LibreOffice and import the tables into Base. None of the data are lost but I will have to rebuild the queries. Nothing major and I have until the end of the year to get it functioning again. Plenty of time, right?
DeleteOh, and no need for lamentations.
DeleteThat's interesting about Access. Mine worked fine - Access 2007-2020 it says in the title bar (v 14.07xxxx)
DeleteMine was a much older version. Access 2000, I believe. Access would launch but I got a "system file not found error. Please insert MS Office installation disk." I was running under SR-1 and could not find my disk!
DeleteThe upgrade affected my PC's performance so badly, I had to pay some 12 year old geek £70 to take it off!!!
ReplyDeleteI hear you, brother! I managed to disable enough of the background junk so that performance is good.
DeleteI upgraded a desk top and a laptop with Windows 8.1 on them ? almost a year ago, no problems at all, but of course they were pretty new machines and Win 8 is a lot closer to Windows 10. On the other hand several previous attempts at upgrading MS operating systems lead to prompt de-instalation!
ReplyDeleteYou were lucky with the WIN8.1, indeed! New machines are less trouble. My machine had seven years of accumulated mischief stored on it with a number of quirks. Hopefully, a new OS will resolve many of those issues.
DeleteMy old laptop, simply refused to load W10, then my daughter spilt some gunk over the keyboard and the spacebar stopped working, So a new laptop soon arrived. Personally I hate W10, how is this any better, I can't find bugger all!!
ReplyDeleteRay! Too soon for me to declare either for or against WIN10 but I don't HATE it (yet). Good to see you back!
DeleteAm I alone in actually liking it? I installed it about a year ago; took a long while, but that was because I had a shit-ton of data on the machine. I did have a period where calculator didn't work as well. Otherwise it's all worked very smoothly.
ReplyDeleteWhile the installation was bothersome, the OS has been working smoothly for me too. It seems to shutdown its own, though.
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