Windows 10 Free Upgrade for first year if you have Windows 7/8 Owned

[Darren Dirt]

Personally, my one and only computer, a mid-level laptop, I initially disabled a bunch of Windows 8 stuff and so now for more than a year even with dozens of tabs of Chrome AND Firefox, still been running quite smoothly for weeks at a time before I reboot to apply the latest Windows Updates ... so no need for me to GWX.

Anyway, Windows 10 is working very well now, far better than Windows 8 was. So far I have only run into problems with Adobe software but other than that no complaints.

IMPORTANT THING
-Disable Cortana
-Disable AS MUCH telemetry as you can

You can't fully disable Microsoft telemetry or ad injection which is a problem and/or causes stability issues if you try some of the hackier solutions out there. Know this before going off Windows 7

Also this feature is coming to Windows 7 and 8

I wonder if there is an easy to find list on the web somewhere, listing all of the KB# I need to add to my list of "stealth GWX.EXE installer" updates that I currently have. So I can just take away the very ABILITY of Windows to silently re-enable Cortana and that advanced telemetry, after I disable it. You know, the way that GWX.EXE keeps getting re-enabled after you kill it. (Because of the handful of "updates" that add it after you have removed it -- but do very little else.)

[Mr. Analog]

The problem so far is that Microsoft has baked in a lot of features like ad-push and Cortana so getting cute with the registry / renaming exe's / blocking apps works until an MS Update rolls out and expects things to be more or less where they should and then pukes all over itself, so, it's kind of risky trying to fully cripple those features (not impossible tho, just risky)

Windows 10 would have been a perfect 5 out of 7 had it not been for Cortana / ad-push in the start menu

Most of the time I don't bother anymore anyway, I got so used to using "Win+R" in Windows H8 that most apps I run are either pinned and in front of me or one run box away

[Darren Dirt]

The problem so far is that Microsoft has baked in a lot of features like ad-push and Cortana


Windows 10 would have been a perfect 5 out of 7 had it not been for Cortana / ad-push in the start menu

What is this exactly?

Different than Cortana (MS's attempt at Siri right?) but what is "ad-push"?

[Darren Dirt]

Most of the time I don't bother anymore anyway, I got so used to using "Win+R" in Windows H8 that most apps I run are either pinned and in front of me or one run box away

That is EXACTLY how my current W8.1 is set up -- I have about a dozen pinned apps plus 2 folders on my desktop containing about a dozen more shortcuts to certain little widget tools etc. otherwise a clean desktop, and a TON of WIN+R+[shortname] memorized that I do all the time. That covers 95% of what I ever do on my Lappy.

[Thorin]

Hmm, I'm very keyboard-focused.  I use WinHotKey to make system-wide hotkeys to start the programs I use most often.  Like Shift+Win+C starts Chrome.  I looked at AutoHotKey, but it's more complex than I need (very powerful if you do need it, though).  The downside is sitting down at a computer that doesn't have it set up, I have to remember how to do things the old way.

[Lazybones]

Windows key, start typing the name of the app hit enter.  Super frequent apps I keep pined to the tray.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[Mr. Analog]

The problem so far is that Microsoft has baked in a lot of features like ad-push and Cortana


Windows 10 would have been a perfect 5 out of 7 had it not been for Cortana / ad-push in the start menu

What is this exactly?

Different than Cortana (MS's attempt at Siri right?) but what is "ad-push"?

Cortana is what you think it is, by default it is your "search engine" for files ans stuff on the web. If you have a mic hooked up you can even have it listen to you. The thing is when I'm searching for files on my hard drive I don't want results from the web showing up... in fact the only time I want to search the web is when I go to the web to search for things. Anyway it's easy enough to disable Cortana on the surface HOWEVER the process is always running unless you cripple it. If you're not using it virtually no resources are used but it's annoying that you can't get rid of it for good (also windows search reverts back to Win 7-ish when you disable Cortana). I only know one person who actually enjoys Cortana and he's a bit of a MS junkie

AS FOR THE START MENU, remember "tiles" in Windows 8? They still kind of exist in the start menu. I kind of like tiles on a touch device (like my XPS 13) but on a PC? Forget about it and by default they contain ads (though you can add / remove tiles) see screenshot for a taste

Finally, out of the box there are ads displayed on the lock screen, I reckon most of us don't ever see the lock screen but if you want to disable this you need to go to your personalization settings and disable the "Windows spotlight" feature

Anyway, that's the only real cruft I had to fiddle with... for now

[Darren Dirt]

 http://www.theweek.co.uk/73982/microsoft-pays-10000-for-unwanted-windows-10-update

^ business woman sues MS and wins! For forced auto-update (GWX.EXE FTL!)

... Windows 10 became a "recommended download" last October, meaning those with automatic updates enabled found themselves unwittingly downloading it.
Microsoft has also been strongly criticised for its use of pop-up boxes ? in one, users thought they were selecting to reject the OS but instead began the download, while another offered two options, both of them to upgrade.

WOW holy @%&# I had no idea those assholes @%&#ed it up that bad. @%&#in' crazy @%&#.

[Mr. Analog]

Yup they dialed back how pushy they were about it big time

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

[Thorin]

So...  Windows 10 has been out for over a year, I assume that most of the bugs are ironed out now, so I'm willing to upgrade.  I wonder if the free upgrade is still available?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12435/windows-10-upgrade-faq

The free upgrade offer to Windows 10 will end on July 29, 2016

Well damn, better get that done this month then!

Anyone here not on Windows 10 yet that is planning to upgrade?  I have to do a couple of desktops and a tablet (although it might have already auto-updated).  Hopefully upgrading doesn't wipe out all my users.

I'm upgrading one computer tonight, and the other one tomorrow night.  Hopefully everything I've set up (users, extra installed apps, ports, etc) remain working.

[Mr. Analog]

The rollback isn't all that painful so even if things bork you should be okay.

I would make a Windows 7 recovery disc (if you don't have one already)

[Thorin]

Well, Windows 8, I didn't have Windows 7 on these computers.  The install took a while (old hardware), and then I had to go through each user for their first-time set up (six users on the computer).  Also, making the task bar the same colour as the background is @%&#ing stupid, so I changed it for each user to have a highlight colour, use that highlight colour for the task bar, and have the task bar not be transparent.  And I set Chrome as the default browser for each user, as it was before.  That's nice that you renamed your browser, Microsoft, but I still don't want to use it.

Hopefully things go well on the other machine tonight.  That's where I have Plex, uTorrent, Minecraft Server, IIS, Sql Server, etc installed.  Hopefully all those stay running.

[Melbosa]

I wish you good luck.  If you run into any problems let me know as I've been doing almost 100 computers in the last 3 weeks and have seen a variety of issues.

[Mr. Analog]

FYI Windows 10 anniversary update is coming up on August 3rd. This is going to have a lot of changes to UI / tablet features (FML)

It figures! It's just before Fraga

[Thorin]

Well, updating to Win10 went pretty smoothly.  The computer started binging with every notification, had to turn that off toot-sweet, and the Snap Assist bothers me, so I turned that off.  But Plex and uTorrent and TheRenamer and Minecraft Server and IIS and Sql Server all still work.