My Windows 10 experience

So I recently bought a new laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 and would like to update it to 10. Haven't really installed anything to it except for a few initial settings on first boot, so I'm caught between doing a normal upgrade or a clean install.

Is it worth it doing a clean install? Considering the fact that I haven't done anything major to it just yet, do you guys still recommend a clean install?

Oh, and how do you guys backup your drivers? Since this laptop came pre-installed with its drivers, it's proving to be a bit of a head scratcher for me. I've read some scary stuff about windows borking driver restores.
 
No, not really worth doing a clean install to be honest. You would have to do a clean install of 8.1 and then upgrade to 10. You can't do a clean install of 10 until you have upgraded from 8.1 to 10. So, your 8.1 license key is not a valid 10 license key until the installation has been upgraded the manual way. The only way to do that is through Windows Update.

Regarding drivers, that I don't know. I've never heard of backing up drivers before. I don't think it would be a problem to be honest. Its only with old hardware that I would be wary.
 
Based on my not so good experience with an upgrade from Win 7 to win 10, A clean re-install after the upgrade is a must. You cannot do a clean install before the upgrade as stated. The only driver issue I have and still do have is with HP printer drivers. the so -called universal driver on WIN 10 do not work. I am still not able to get win 10 to print to HP printers connected on my local LAN.
 
I wouldn't do clean install before Oct. 2 maintenance release.
 
No, I don't think it will unless you explicitly delete the partition yourself in the partition manager.
 
Does one still have to reserve a free upgrade if you're doing it via Windows Update? I'm thinking of skipping that since it's going to be a bit of a wait and just use the Windows Media Creation Tool, do the the upgrade via that method
 
Mo0s said:
So I recently bought a new laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 and would like to update it to 10. Haven't really installed anything to it except for a few initial settings on first boot, so I'm caught between doing a normal upgrade or a clean install.

Is it worth it doing a clean install? Considering the fact that I haven't done anything major to it just yet, do you guys still recommend a clean install?

Oh, and how do you guys backup your drivers? Since this laptop came pre-installed with its drivers, it's proving to be a bit of a head scratcher for me. I've read some scary stuff about windows borking driver restores.
Click to expand...

I have done a few upgrades. From this experience I would advise that you do a clean install only when upgrading from windows 7 , not neccessary from windows 8, especially with a system with little or no modification..

The longer you had the machine, the more changes you have made, the more likely that a clean install is worth the additional steps...

Oh and some of my drivers also did not work. The wifi was one of them. I had a usb wifi dongle which installed fine under win10 and windows update sorted out my other driver issues once I was able to get online. Either make sure you have an ethernet cable for this scenario, or a usb wifi dongle....
 
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Mo0s said:
So I recently bought a new laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 and would like to update it to 10. Haven't really installed anything to it except for a few initial settings on first boot, so I'm caught between doing a normal upgrade or a clean install.

Is it worth it doing a clean install? Considering the fact that I haven't done anything major to it just yet, do you guys still recommend a clean install?

Oh, and how do you guys backup your drivers? Since this laptop came pre-installed with its drivers, it's proving to be a bit of a head scratcher for me. I've read some scary stuff about windows borking driver restores.
Click to expand...

Ancalagon said:
No, not really worth doing a clean install to be honest. You would have to do a clean install of 8.1 and then upgrade to 10. You can't do a clean install of 10 until you have upgraded from 8.1 to 10. So, your 8.1 license key is not a valid 10 license key until the installation has been upgraded the manual way. The only way to do that is through Windows Update.

Regarding drivers, that I don't know. I've never heard of backing up drivers before. I don't think it would be a problem to be honest. Its only with old hardware that I would be wary.
Click to expand...

How to upgrade from W7/8.1 without to go through the upgrade process itself with ease

1. Validate your w7 SP1 (W8.1) online, best using IE.

2. Generate a genuine ticket of your installation by:

2.1 Copy gatherosstate.exe from your downloaded Windows 10 10240 ISO to your installation which should be upgraded.

2.2 Run it on your activated and validated Windows. It'll output GenuineTicket.xml. Save this on a USB thumb drive or something.

2.3 Then do a fresh install with your suitable w10 ISO, skip to enter key at setup procedure.

2.4 Once it's installed make sure your internet connection is DISABLED/do not enable the internet connection! Reboot w10.

2.5. Copy GenuineTicket.xml to C:\programdata\microsoft\windows\clipsvc\genuineticket\ of your w10 installation and reboot again.

2.6. Connect online, it should activate.
Click to expand...
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...-through-the-upgrade-process-itself-with-ease
 
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I had a very brief windows 10 experience. I installed windows 10 insider preview about a month before it launched. It was a better experience than when i tried windows 8 and i was considering buying it instead of going back to ubuntu

A few days into August my internet went down on my pc only, i ran the troubleshooter thinking a reset of the etherner adapter would fix it instead the adapter disappeared from device manager. I rebooted the computer but was met with a crash loop and every repair option i tried failed including pc reset/refresh. The insider preview for the build at that time had closed and clean install was not available.

So i went back home to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
 
This is what bugs me the most, "things" just dissappear and then NOTHING works to get them back........

And the "official help" from MS is nothing short of pathetic.
 
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daniellgr said:
This is what bugs me the most, "things" just dissappear and then NOTHING works to get them back........

And the "official help" from MS is nothing short of pathetic.
Click to expand...

backstreetboy said:
Never had that happen to me except if you're talking about the start menu? (I don't use it- I use Cortana-)
Click to expand...

His/her MS Edge disappeared, when it shouldn't be uninstallable...
 
So I'm having trouble doing the upgrade via the media creation tool. I downloaded the Windows 10 Home 64-Bit (I'm on 8.1 64-bit) ISO and when the process starts it asks me for a product key before the upgrade starts. Weird, so I did some googling to try and find my 8.1 product key hoping that would work (the key is not on my laptop and Windows was pre-installed). Entered the key and no joy.
 
Mo0s said:
So I'm having trouble doing the upgrade via the media creation tool. I downloaded the Windows 10 Home 64-Bit (I'm on 8.1 64-bit) ISO and when the process starts it asks me for a product key before the upgrade starts. Weird, so I did some googling to try and find my 8.1 product key hoping that would work (the key is not on my laptop and Windows was pre-installed). Entered the key and no joy.
Click to expand...
Study this link and see why and when a product key is required http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-explains-activation-process-in-windows-10/
Mo0s hope this is the answer to your problems :)
View attachment 301070
 
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For those on Win 10, what's the verdict so far? Seems mixed... Any of you running Alt.Binz and uTorrent on Win 10? Do they work fine?
 
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