# The Windows 10 free upgrade thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 1, 2015, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329 "2015-06-01T13:02:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/122 "2015-08-02T23:27:25Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> See, the fact that Windows 10 reportedly forces you to keep updates on is part of why I’m reluctant to get involved. I have to shut updates off or one of my cores gets maxed out, and I don’t know if an upgrade will fix that. Following all the advice from Microsoft sure hasn’t.
>
> Plus, I still don’t trust them not to hose my computer like they did that one time when they decided to edit the root certificate and fucked it up. I’d love to believe their new ring system (where alpha and beta testers will see the bad updates first) will prevent that, but I really need to see it in action before I believe it.
That is disturbing…looks like they still allow you to turn off updates in Pro though (that’s the version I use). I keep automatic updates off for the same reason; Microsoft has released too many damaging updates for me to trust them completely.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/123 "2015-08-03T02:52:23Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#):
>
> That is disturbing…looks like they still allow you to turn off updates in Pro though (that’s the version I use). I keep automatic updates off for the same reason; Microsoft has released too many damaging updates for me to trust them completely.
I just upgraded my 8.1 HTPC and an 8.1 VM to Windows 10 – both Pro – and a cursory look hasn’t shown me where to turn off updates, yet. I’ll have a closer look eventually, but neither of them are mission critical.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/124 "2015-08-03T06:31:05Z")
There’s been a lot of talk about Win10 being the ‘final’ version of Windows (in the same sort of way as OSX has been the final version of Mac OS). That being the case, I could see why Microsoft would want to push out updates and try to keep the consumers at the same software level - from a support POV, it’s a lot simpler.
I imagine it’s fairly easy to break the update process if you wanted to (for example by editing the local hosts file so that requests to [update.windows.com](http://update.windows.com) go somewhere else, or nowhere)
I’ve got a lot of computers on Win7 and Win81 and the most common _bad_ experiences I’ve seen are when people want to power off and pack up a laptop and it says “applying update 1 of 30 - don’t turn off your computer!”.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/125 "2015-08-14T14:53:40Z")
Another success story. This week has been so bad I figured major system problems couldn’t make it worse, so I pushed the Red Button and we went out to dinner.
Long story short, a trouble-free upgrade. The biggest hassles came from getting the display drivers and configuration sorted out, as I run three monitors - one on the mobo Intel graphics system, two on a Nvidia 770. The whole configuration process just Did Not Like the combination, so I had to work through sideways displays and ignored monitors and manually update both drivers and reboot a couple of times, then tinker with the settings to get a less… Big Bright Shiny Windows FP kind of display. All said and done, and it even put all my desktop icons back in the same places.
I am still tinkering with font and icon sizes and fine-tuning things like app layouts, but other than these display issues - all due to a complex setup and my fussy preferences, and maybe a bit more tinkering than needed (read: a couple of reboots might have fixed the problem just as well as my intervention)… and everything is real good.
I even have my file search capabilities back - they broke in Win 7 and nothing would fix them.
I am even impressed that all the screen and wait and what’s-happening messages seem to be written in conversational English, and not that peculiar translated-from-irritable-Martians style that made it seem like English wasn’t quite Microsoft’s first language.
I’m impressed. As impressed as I was with Win 7. Very nice job, Redmond.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/126 "2015-08-14T17:43:13Z")
Upgraded last night from Win 7. Simplest and fastest OS upgrade I’ve ever done. And the computer runs and only looks a tiny bit different right now but appears to have the option of making it cripplingly unusable like 8 & 9 if I get a masochistic moment. So far, no complaints.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/127 "2015-08-14T23:06:41Z")
I’d be very surprised if you have the option of making it look like Windows 9.
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### Author:  [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/128 "2015-08-15T12:19:46Z")
Good to read the good stories here, mine will be upgrading tomorrow night. It does feel a little odd, though, with MS giving it away for free. Maybe I’ve been watching and reading about too many conspiracy stories but companies like MS don’t give away stuff for free unless it benefits them, somehow. I’m hoping that 8 and 8.1 (or is that 9?) were so riddled with security flaws that the only option to avoid massive lawsuit costs was offer a free upgrade, but I think it’s more likely MS will be able to control everyone’s mind with Windows 10 and we’ll all be reduced to automated morons, eating mass-produced unhealthy food, buying stuff we don’t need, and supporting politicians and businesses that actively work against our well-being.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/129 "2015-08-15T12:57:55Z")
Free! Woo-hoo. Free? Um, free???
The original [cartoon](http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2010/12/the-free-model.html).
The related
[quote]
([User-driven discontent | MetaFilter](http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#32560467)): “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”
The ensuing [cartoon](http://www.brucebnews.com/2011/09/you-are-not-the-customer/).
It’s amazing how many settings you have to go thru to turn off _some_ of the privacy mining stuff, and even then they are [still tracking you](http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/08/14/1756220/windows-10-still-phones-home-with-data-in-spite-of-privacy-settings).
Free? Right.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/130 "2015-08-15T14:02:05Z")
I have been told that it is the “Home” version, not “Windows 10 Professional”. True?
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/131 "2015-08-15T14:04:38Z")
[quote=“ftg, post:129, topic:721329”]
Free! Woo-hoo. Free? Um, free???
The original [cartoon](http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2010/12/the-free-model.html).
The related
> [@](#):
>
> ([User-driven discontent | MetaFilter](http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#32560467)): “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”
>
> The ensuing [cartoon](http://www.brucebnews.com/2011/09/you-are-not-the-customer/).
>
> It’s amazing how many settings you have to go thru to turn off _some_ of the privacy mining stuff, and even then they are [still tracking you](http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/08/14/1756220/windows-10-still-phones-home-with-data-in-spite-of-privacy-settings).
>
> Free? Right.
This.
Still waiting.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/132 "2015-08-15T18:46:46Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> I’m impressed. As impressed as I was with Win 7. Very nice job, Redmond.
Agreed. I’ve updated a half dozen machines now, and apart from a forgotten printer, easily re-added, I’ve had no bother. The ancient “Vista Ready” laptop has transitioned smoothly through Win 7 and now on to Win 10, and that was the one I thought might not make it. Honestly, it is much snappier. The disposable laptop that my great-nephew likes to spill things on has a new lease of life!
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/133 "2015-08-15T19:57:30Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#):
>
> Agreed. I’ve updated a half dozen machines now, and apart from a forgotten printer, easily re-added, I’ve had no bother. The ancient “Vista Ready” laptop has transitioned smoothly through Win 7 and now on to Win 10, and that was the one I thought might not make it. Honestly, it is much snappier. The disposable laptop that my great-nephew likes to spill things on has a new lease of life!
And it fixed several utilities that were giving me weird fits - probably related, somehow, to the broken file-search feature. I have a font manager that had to be opened twice to work - open, freeze, force closed, open, click away warning message, use.
It works now.
I am certainly among those most concerned about the tracking and data-reporting issues (generally speaking), but there are already so many things monitoring our online presence (including resident cookie-things and spyware) that the OS reporting to MS is not anything that would change my mind about the upgrade. I predict it will get easier to turn off and block the reporting as time, complaints and antispyware utilities catch up.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/134 "2015-08-15T20:16:49Z")
My scheduled upgrade started the download & installation a couple hours ago. I hope it will fix the issue I’ve been having with Windows Explorer: right-clicking on the tree causes the program to crash & restart.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/135 "2015-08-16T19:59:21Z")
10 worked for about an hour then froze. Had to hard restart and now it won’t boot up completely! Thanks a bunch, Microsoft!
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### Author:  [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/136 "2015-08-16T20:21:53Z")
Looks like I’ll be doing an unwilling upgrade as I’m getting hard drive failure notices. At least it’s giving me some warning. When the new hard drive gets here I was hoping to do a clean install of Win10 since I have a Win7 product key, but it looks like I have to install 7, upgrade to 10, get a license key for the upgrade, THEN I can do a clean install of 10. Convoluted.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/137 "2015-08-16T22:59:24Z")
Yes! I’m back!
No thanks to the Microsoft help desk. Woman kept wanting to remote into my computer and I kept trying to tell her that nothing works! Then she wanted to get a technician involved (to the tune of $99.99) and Comcast. So I hung up.
Was just about to take the thing up to the local Geek Squad when I got an idea. Put it back on its stand and only connected my old 2.1 sound, keyboard, mouse, and one monitor. Thought sure it was just going to freeze again but then I noticed the icon tray slowly populating. Replaced the old 2.1 with the newer 2.1 (actually 5.1 but the rear speakers have gone dead) and hooked up the second monitor/TV.
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/138 "2015-08-16T23:24:34Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> I have been told that it is the “Home” version, not “Windows 10 Professional”. True?
Apparently those higher level versions are coming later. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSm7lWn-84)
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/139 "2015-08-17T00:28:37Z")
> [@Merneith](#):
>
> The money explanation is that it’s super expensive paying to support vastly different OS versions. Microsoft also wants to avoid another XP situation where people just dink along for a decade and then get all panicked when the support options end. So MS has instituted a new policy that support for consumer products is for five years only. Enterprise products will go an extra five years but only if the company pays for it. Windows 7, for example, is six years old, and it’s support updates have already ended.
>
> Additionally, most consumers don’t buy Windows updates, anyway. Most people only switch to a new version when they buy a new machine.
>
> Getting everybody on the newest and best version of Windows makes life better for everybody and will save MS more money than they’d get from the rare consumer who buys and update package. MS can safely put the old versions out to pasture, and consumers will have the latest bugfixes and security measures, in additions to new features like Cortana.
As much as I enjoy being one of the elite 10 million beta testers for Windows products I’m going to take a pass on this. They completely hosed my phone with their “free upgrade”.
So they can byte me on this one.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/140 "2015-08-17T00:31:29Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> 10 worked for about an hour then froze. Had to hard restart and now it won’t boot up completely! Thanks a bunch, Microsoft!
I’m shocked.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-windows-10-free-upgrade-thread/721329/141 "2015-08-17T01:12:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> I have been told that it is the “Home” version, not “Windows 10 Professional”. True?
I’ve gotten three installations of Win 10 Pro; two from Windows 8.1, and one from Windows 7. Oh, I need to dig out that little Zotac box and upgrade it, too (from Windows 8.1).
If you have Windows 7/8/8.1 Pro, then you’ll get Windows 10 Pro.
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