Windiows10 installation.

[Iowa]

I have Windows 8.1 and plan to install Windows10 soon.

Is this, in any sense, a complicated process or does it download automatically once started?

[trium]

i have also w8.1 but i wont upgrade to w10

 

it seems very easy to upgrade, i have found this:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-upgrade

[nukecad]

It wasn't complicated at all when I did it from 8.1 to 10, I did it when 10 was frist released to market last year, and I have had no problems then or since.

 

I didn't to a full reinstall, just upgraded from 8.1 and told it to keep all my existing data.

 

Mine was a new machine though, only six months old.

 

Just clicked for the upgrade and away it went, if I remember there were a couple of restarts but that was all.

I seem to rember it taking about 2 hours over my (admittedly very slow, rural area, about 2.4 Mbps) wifi connection.

If you have an ethernet cable. or faster wifi, it should be much quicker.

 

If you have 8.1 you probably already have a Microsoft account which makes it easier as things just migrate across.

 

Take the usual precautions-

Backup all your data before upgrading.

Make a win 8.1 recovery drive on a USB stick, just in case you want to go back.

(Make a note of your win 8.1 product key. Although I believe the new upgrade process (to Win10 1511) keeps the same key, the earlier one gave you a new key for Win 10).

If you are more techy then maybe make a full mirror of your current system (just in case, etc.)

 

Like any OS upgrade once installed it takes a bit of setting up to just how you want it, you will find plenty of advice online.

[Willy2]

There could be one problem: your system drivers that work in Win 8 won't work on your Win 10 system. That's one major reason I won't migrate from Win 7 to Win 10.

[hazelnut]

Windows 10 in general seems pretty good with drivers.

[Iowa]

Windows 10 in general seems pretty good with drivers.

I am still, probably unnecessarily, wary!

All I need to save are my bookmarks/favourites and a few websites I go to, regularly, on my desktop.

These few tasks will then be performed automatically by the Windows 10 installation?

Is that correct?

[Andavari]

I'd recommend you make a known good backup and store it off the hard disk(s) onto sometime external such as; a USB thumb drive, USB hard disk, CD, DVD, etc., that way if something goes wrong you'll have a backup of your important stuff. You should be making such backups regularly anyways as a precaution.

[nukecad]

Iowa,

 

It will depend if you are doing it as an upgrade from 8.1 and keeping you existing software and data, or if you are doing a full wipe of the system and an complete new install of Win10 from an ISO.

 

Obviously a full wipe and reinstall will loose everythig already on your system and you have to start from scratch.

 

Doing the upgrade from 8.1 via the Windows Updates keeps it all.

 

I use Firefox and all my bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. were still there after the upgrade.

 

(But of course make backups just in case).

 

Willy2 does raise a concern about drivers, but I believe this is a hangover from the first version of Win 10 that was released to market.

In particular NVIDIA graphics drivers on custom systems with 2 drivers and/or dual screens (gaming machines) were hit by Microsoft installing generic NVIDIA drivers during the upgrade.

 

This caused a big fuss at the time but has now been sorted out.

 

PS. Once you have upgraded to 10 you can turn off driver updates from MS so they wont mess with your drivers at all; but then you have to check and keep them up to date yourself. Swings and Roundabouts.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/stop-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10

[mta]

There could be one problem: your system drivers that work in Win 8 won't work on your Win 10 system. That's one major reason I won't migrate from Win 7 to Win 10.

I've installed Win10 on numerous PC's (at a guess, around 50) and I've only had two laptops that Win10 had a driver issue with - their touchpads.

Both were ELAN touchpads and simply resolved by uninstalling the ELAN software and letting Windows handle the driver itself.

[nukecad]

Odd, my touchpad is an ELAN and it works fine. (not that I use it much, I prefer to plug a mouse in).

 

Although I do seem to remember that after the initial upgrade to 10 the settings had changed to 'no delay' and I had to go and put them back again.

Kept catching it with the ball of my thumb when typing and the cursor would jump out of the current window.

I just set the delay back to Medium and have not had a problem with it since.