End of Windows 7 Support
Only half a speed-brake
Having installed W10 over W7 (licencing issues) on some old HW that was leaving the house with a charitable waybill, much to my surprise I realized the whole setup would run faster than before. Not a vox populi opinion, but W10 works for me well above the previous editions. Few personal observations towards what's been shared already
- some old HW (standalone graphic card) may not be supported by W10, that's a bummer.
- not long ago Intel needed to modify the microcode of their processors for de-bugging with a marked slow-down of some instructions
- on old boxes the power source usually becomes the first real trouble
- recent Firefox browser editions are respectable tools
- pricey "total" so-called AV-solutions will not give you the chosen ride for money (80 quid, geez?!) but quite likely choke up the machine instead, scaremongering has become a widespread sales tactics
For the kits that are well matured and W7, I apply
- SSD 500 GB
- RAM extension to 8 GB (12 better), from eBay is fine
- clean install of W10, firefox and Office 365 home (5 users with 5 installs each + 1 GB cloud storage + Skype-to-landline credit = about 40.00/y)
- use the MS account, activate Onedrive to backup the Desktop folder as well as consume the Documents folder.
Home use sorted out.
- some old HW (standalone graphic card) may not be supported by W10, that's a bummer.
- not long ago Intel needed to modify the microcode of their processors for de-bugging with a marked slow-down of some instructions
- on old boxes the power source usually becomes the first real trouble
- recent Firefox browser editions are respectable tools
- pricey "total" so-called AV-solutions will not give you the chosen ride for money (80 quid, geez?!) but quite likely choke up the machine instead, scaremongering has become a widespread sales tactics
For the kits that are well matured and W7, I apply
- SSD 500 GB
- RAM extension to 8 GB (12 better), from eBay is fine
- clean install of W10, firefox and Office 365 home (5 users with 5 installs each + 1 GB cloud storage + Skype-to-landline credit = about 40.00/y)
- use the MS account, activate Onedrive to backup the Desktop folder as well as consume the Documents folder.
Home use sorted out.
A cheap solution would be to buy a reconditioned tower with Windows 10 installed (circa £150 from Amazon). However, a problem I have is old data. Some of the stuff I want to transfer safely to Windows 10 is over 25 years old. Old data is fragile stuff and every time I’ve changed operating systems some files have become unreadable. It gets harder to read old files even if you can keep track of them.
So, for me, the safest thing is to stick with one tower with data backed up onto several internal hard drives. I tried external drives but gave up after two of them suffered mechanical failure.
My attempt to upgrade has created another data problem as the computer shop decided, without my consent, to make a back up of my hard drive. I’ve asked them to delete it but, so far, they haven’t confirmed that they have done so.You place an awful lot of trust in computer repair shops and I’ve no reason to believe this shop is untrustworthy. However, if they won’t get on and delete it where do I stand? Complaint to the Information Commissioner?
So, for me, the safest thing is to stick with one tower with data backed up onto several internal hard drives. I tried external drives but gave up after two of them suffered mechanical failure.
My attempt to upgrade has created another data problem as the computer shop decided, without my consent, to make a back up of my hard drive. I’ve asked them to delete it but, so far, they haven’t confirmed that they have done so.You place an awful lot of trust in computer repair shops and I’ve no reason to believe this shop is untrustworthy. However, if they won’t get on and delete it where do I stand? Complaint to the Information Commissioner?
Only half a speed-brake
Get MS account and activate OneDrive on the old setup.
Move data to the mirrored folder (wait for them to sync to cloud)
Remove the old primary drive.
Install SSD + W10, activate the same MS account
Watch data download back.
Connect the old drive to a secondary channel (non-boot)
Something goes wrong? Re-plug the old HDD into the primary boot channel (or change their roles in BIOS) with the old OS still on it - voila, as if nothing ever happened. Disk upgrade + OS upgrade make a lot of sense if combined.
Move data to the mirrored folder (wait for them to sync to cloud)
Remove the old primary drive.
Install SSD + W10, activate the same MS account
Watch data download back.
Connect the old drive to a secondary channel (non-boot)
Something goes wrong? Re-plug the old HDD into the primary boot channel (or change their roles in BIOS) with the old OS still on it - voila, as if nothing ever happened. Disk upgrade + OS upgrade make a lot of sense if combined.
Agree with FD above, except I would not put the old drive back as a secondary drive ( why have it spinning away all the time?)
Just put it away in a box and connect it back in if needed in the future
Just put it away in a box and connect it back in if needed in the future
Only half a speed-brake
For others, they get a video how to launch BIOS and change the boot sequence. If re-activated OneDrive sync will update the new documents created with the SSD already running in reverse to the original HDD. Also good when in immediate need to connect an ancient peripheral that is only supported under W7. It's a trick to mitigate the "I told you W10 was a wrong idea". Don't like it? Press F12 at power-up and then one arrow down before hitting the enter key. Back in the old shoes under 3 minutes.
