I was on a much-needed staycation last week, a chance to recharge my batteries. What I didn’t anticipate was spending half a day trying to figure out how Windows 10 got installed on my PC and why it broke everything.
I’ve been puttering around on Windows 7 for years now, dodging the Windows 8 bullet after everyone told me it was nothing but trouble. Windows 7 was comfortable. It worked. I knew where things were.
And yet, I realise upgrades are important and necessary, especially for security. I’m usually the person who upgrades as soon as possible, wanting to embrace change. But my PC is a huge part of my life — it’s where I stream and edit videos and play most of my games. PC problems are already tough to diagnose; a new operating system is another can of worms.
I had plans to stop being an old dinosaur and upgrade to Windows 10 last week. What I didn’t expect was to wake up on Thursday morning and find out Windows had taken care of that for me. Maybe I forgot to push back the upgrade schedule, maybe I accidentally scheduled it by clicking the wrong button. Whatever the case, I definitely did not intend to install Windows 10.
That’s not how this should work.
But in a way, I was relieved. Maybe I was just being lazy, you know?
“All your files are where you left them,” the screen creepily declared.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_XikO5Sp1V/
It was not seamless. Disaster struck almost immediately, as I logged into my account and was promptly told I couldn’t access any of my files. I’d only spent a few minutes with Windows 10, and already I’d been lied to.
“You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile,” read an error message.
What? I rebooted the computer, thinking it was an errant glitch. No dice. I logged out of my account, thinking it was a simple hiccup. Again, no dice.
For all I knew, Windows 10 had deleted everything on my hard drive.
A few Google searches later, however, I discovered this was a common problem for people who’d upgraded to Windows 10, willingly or not. Some of the solutions involved editing your registry, which terrified me. As I started bookmarking various options on my phone, I settled on the easiest one first: force Windows Update to download the latest set of patches for Windows 10. I couldn’t fathom what that had to do with my profile, but OK?
Fortunately, it worked, and my profile was unlocked. But still, Windows didn’t point me in that direction — a random message board thread did.
Again, that’s not how this should work.
Thinking I was now in the clear, I started poking around at the new features in Windows 10. One of them is the ability to sync across devices through your Microsoft Account. Even though I don’t own a Windows tablet or phone, I do own an Xbox One, so it made sense to get on board with this.
Thing is, Windows 10 won’t accept my password. It keeps telling me my password is wrong. It’s definitely not wrong, Windows! (My password is secured in a 1Password database.) I even reset the password once or twice, hoping it would flip a switch. This appears to be a common problem with Windows 10, and one solution I came across recommended that I re-install Windows 7, then upgrade to Windows 10 again, and see if that fixes it.
See if that fixes it?
I can get over the lack of profile syncing, but Windows 10 also won’t accept my password for the Windows Store, which means I’m shit out of luck when it comes to playing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition or Quantum Break, as Microsoft currently has no plans to release either game on Steam. (I didn’t used to blame them for that, but now that I can’t play either, maybe I do!)
Lots of people have probably upgraded to Windows 10 and had no problems. Maybe mine will get worked out after a few more Google searches and a few more patches. What irritates me the most, though, is how I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Apparently, I’m not alone, either.
The kicker? My Ethernet port stopped working this morning. Hooray!
Comments
100 responses to “My PC Upgraded To Windows 10 Without Asking, Then Immediately Broke”
I had it set to auto sign in on boot up, but then I foolishly logged into my xbone account to see what that did.
Nothing useful.
I’ve been avoiding clicking ANYTHING on the Windows 10 update thing.. it keeps popping up to remind me.. which I find to be a little bit anti-competition and a little bit spammy to be honest.. but I ignore it as best I can.. I hope it never forces me to update like it has with the author.
This.
I’d be livid if Win 10 got on my PC. Saw it in operation on my brother’s on the weekend. His frustration was apparent.
Frustration at what? In terms of UX it runs pretty much exactly the same as Windows 8.
Those of us on Win 7 don’t want Win 8 either =P
Went from 7 to 10. Did not bother me much except search bar is not longer “press windows key and type”
Everything is still the same except my shared network folder permission is resetted which I have yet to redo it but other than that, pretty happy about it.
Uh, yes it is. I just did that now.
Is it? OMFG it is!
Thanks for pointing that out. Other than that I really have no issue using W10 at all.
Search for “Classic Shell” on google. You now literally have a purely better experience than windows 7/8.
Classic shell allows you to modify the start menu with presets based on every release since 98 and you can even customise them to remove or add features. When I was doing IT support for businesses it was pretty much the first thing we installed.
Yeah, you can get rid of the circle/Cortana one too if you don’t like it there (I don’t).
Personally still not a fan of the start menu but getting used to it
@sabrescene Yeap I removed cortana already. I have no microphone plugged in anyway. Voice control will never work for my desktop.
Sorry for replying to you letrico, stupid comment depth and all that.
@sabrescene, you can change the start menu appearance back to the start screen style from Win8 if you prefer it over the smaller menu.
It’s barely any different to 7 either. Everything 7-10 has been about the same except for Metro, which is completely optional in 10.
And latest DirectX versions. Which the author saying he’s a gamer I would a thought would be a good reason..
Runs flawlessly at least for me on my 5 year old gaming rig. I had one glitch when I first upgraded and that was the windows apps were greyed out as if constantly updating. first round of updates fixed. I forced the 10 upgrade to run it asap as it worked really well in beta for myself.
check out GWX Control Panel, it’ll nuke the notifications and auto-updates etc.
… until Microsoft will disable the protection with yet another “update”. Much safer way is to disable automatic updates and that applies to all operating systems.
Everyone needs to stop being paranoid and silly. Not one if my family or friends is on 7/8 anymore. 10 us faster, powerful and easy yo use.
Ive got it installed on all 4 of my pcs and its fantastic. Everyone needs to get over it – it blows 7 out of the water.
Except that Win 10 still doesn’t work with my control surface, or many of my apps that rely on CUDA, and it doesn’t work with the main piece of software that we use in our business.
It might be working fine for you, it doesn’t mean it is working great for everyone. And the almost ‘forced’ update thing is obscene. Really, how do they get away with that.
For those that don’t want to upgrade and don’t want to be surprised by an automatic upgrade try gwx control panel (http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/). I’ve been using it for quite a while now and have found it to be pretty solid.
Upgrade mine and the wife’s PC to windows 10 without issue and we’re both able to use it fine.
Same, since upgrading I’ve had *zero* issues. I often wonder how many issues people are having are actually end user issues as opposed to genuine windows issues…
Conversely, I’m pretty damned tech-savvy and on the 3 computers I’ve upgraded it’s taken significant work to get any of them running properly. I’ve had everything from USB ports being disabled to constant blue-screens.
Indeed, I know a lot of people who have had genuine issues such as sound dropping out, usb ports not functioning and one who couldn’t even get monitor recognition of all things… that was bloody weird.
I’ve just had zero issues. I guess I’m lucky in that sense.
But on the same issue, I’ve known a lot of people so far, who claim issues as windows 10 issues when it’s things such as older programs that haven’t been upgraded, forgetting to flick switches (oh wifi switches you’re a bane of existence…) and the ole mute button lol.
I spent a full day trying to debug some voice-recording code at work without realising that I’d accidentally hit the mute button on the headset. I felt so very stupid.
I’m not calling you a liar or anything but it seems strange to me that you’d have so many issues yet I’ve had none on any of the PCs I’ve done. I’ve had a few issues with updates screwing up later down the track but my Windows 10 upgrade has gone smoothly every single time.
Was your previous version of Windows up to date? The only common thread I can seem to find is that people who are really reluctant to install the upgrade seem to have the most problems. Maybe there are more bugs on the 7 to 10 upgrade than the 8.1 to 10 upgrade causing people who resisted Windows 8 to encounter more problems when going to Windows 10, but again I’ve had no zero problems with 7 to 10.
Were the computers you were using upgraded from XP to Vista to 7 to 8 to 8.1 to 10 or something weird like that? Come to think of it my main PC did that upgrade path (minus Vista). Are you using particularly old hardware? I’m really curious as to what causes such a huge difference between experiences.
[Edit: It’s also worth noting I’m not particularly good with this stuff. I know what I’m doing as far as installing an OS goes but it’s not like if something goes wrong I’ll fix it without thinking about it.]
I think if you’re upgrading now you’re probably mostly fine. The biggest issues I ran into happened within the first couple of months of its release.
I don’t know what caused the USB issues on my Win 8.1 PC. I ended up re-formatting back to Windows 8, and only recently did an upgrade back to 10. It’s all working now, so either they fixed the issue or the re-format did.
The other 2 were laptops going up from Windows 7 and the automatic upgrade didn’t take care of incompatible drivers. Stabilising the PCs involved going through and deleting vendor software/drivers, occasionally manually because there was no way to uninstall.
MS aren’t really responsible for 3rd party software but it’s a big issue when you’re essentially forcing your upgrade on the world, including less tech-savvy users (in my case my parents).
My parent’s laptop is running a 32-bit OS because that’s what its Win7 OEM installation. I don’t recommend running Win10 32-bit. It’s mostly OK, but doesn’t seem to be quite as solid.
See, I upgraded a week or so ago, thinking that there had been enough time for the biggest bugs to have been solved, and the first thing that happened to me was that Win 10 lost half my files. Specific folders just emptied without a trace. Folders stayed there, the contents went off into the wild blue yonder. Search of Google showed it was (another) a common issue.
Then it lost the whole 3Tb HDD. Wasnt my boot drive, it shouldnt have been doing a single thing to the drive, but there have been issues from the first day I upgraded.
After some steps, the HDD reappeared and everything was where it should have been, but it disappeared again last night, so it certainly wasnt a one off. Came back this morning, no harm done, but for me Win 10 is still definitely in beta.
If it works for you, great. But for me, I’ve had more issues in the past 2 weeks than I’ve had in the past 10 years.
That’s interesting. I’ve had to re-install a few applications that I would have sworn were already installed before the upgrade, but their files just weren’t anywhere to be found.
I just assumed that I was mistaken. Who knows. It’s all good for me now. I hope you’ve got backups.
I had most of it backed up, or at least the stuff most problematic to replace, but there was still a chunk I hadnt.
I didnt expect Win 10 to be going near a HDD that wasnt the primary device, and still dont, so have no idea why it happened. But it did, and has happened to plenty. As its just randomly lost the drive AGAIN, I’m saying its Windows having the issue, as I havent changed anything since.
Losing the files and still seeing the drive was more worrying, because I thought there may have been some default sweep that blanket deleted stuff. Properties was showing the folders as empty as well, making me more worried. There were a few things I had used only the day before as well, so they were definitely there.
All in all, it seems a Windows and probably a registry thing in regards the HDD contents and thats stuff that shouldnt be happening if they are pushing it so heavily. Especially when they have been for 9 months or more.
I don’t know, I’ve been running Windows 10 since the first developer preview, and the only issues I had were with my Razer Synapse as the Razer Software would sometimes work and sometimes not. An update was pushed by Razer before Windows 10 was officially released that fixed that
That’s an interesting question to find out actually. The ratio of issues of upgrading 7 to 10 as opposed to 8 to 10. Though the kernels are similair, there would be differences that could cause the issues to arise quite easily.
What motherboard make and model are on the systems you’ve had problems with? USB is stable even on generic drivers.
This was a couple of months after Win10’s original release. It all seems to be fixed now. Since the initial upgrade attempt I’ve re-formatted and also upgraded my mobo firmware, so there are plenty of reasons it could be fixed.
Being unable to use keyboard or mouse, even in safe mode, was a bit of an issue at the time, though. The only thing I could do was boot from an older Windows 8 CD and re-format.
Ive had more issues combined trying to get xp and 7 installed and running right on pcs than ive had with 10 – period. What hardware are they using? Did you use the win10 upgrade tool to tell you what hardware wont work or has issues?
Windows 10 has been the best OS experience ive had installing and fault wise. Its been great.
Not to get too far side tracked but I’m an end user. As Windows 8 went on I saw the performance get worse with each update and Microsoft basically did a knee jerk response without actually listening to and thinking about what the consumers were saying.
In Windows 10 they finally started to solve some problems but have created others. Though I will concede they are more against my ideology than technicality.
First, privacy. Like others I have chased down the Orwellian settings, turned them off and then applied reg hacks to turn off the telemetry service. Seriously, MS has no business knowing how I sort my music and work files and knowing said details does not help with the debugging process so they should come to their senses and remove that service altogether.
Second, Windows updates. Like a few, I turn the Windows Update service off because my Windows 10 machine is my work machine. Thus I need to control the window of time updates are downloaded and installed.
While it is true that keeping Windows up to date keeps security exploits out the current implementation of making the updates mandatory without question basically treats the consumer as a test bed and not a consumer.
Microsoft needs to learn that if users are stupid enough to not update they should be made to face the consequences of their actions and not nanny them.
In fact, this is why some users are finding themselves with Windows 10. GWX was recently snuck in with via a KB update that re-enabled the fetching of the Windows 10 upgrade.
The ‘P’ in PC stands for ‘Personal’ but it is clear Microsoft have forgotten that.
But I digress. Ignoring the issues I have above, Windows 10 is finally the continuation that should have been in Windows 8 but with the stability in 7/8 that was lost with the headless-chook updating in the past.
8 actually got better and better with each update.
It started out touch optimised but not so great for mouse and keyboard users.
8.1 made it a bit better but Update1 (why can’t they just call it a service pack) really made it great. As easy to use as 7 if not more.
10 does mandatory updates. Then it either waits till you choose to restart or says “I’ve scheduled a restart for 2am”. If you are still working then, updates are the least of your issues.
You can always hit “restart now” when you are going for a loo break or lunch though.
The problem with this is if you have (for my example) a ‘download’ box that NEEDS to stay up.
Restarts cause significant impact as it requires interaction from me to get apps re-running etc.
The kicker is; Even if you select the option “Notify me but donot install updates” (or words to that effect) it will still push and install priority updates.
I was in the middle of copying some large files off last night, only to be booted off by a reset mid copy.
So do you reckon it’s alright to go for it? I’ve been kinda sceptical and hanging back to wait and see, wondering whether to just put 7 onto the new machine I need to make or just go 10 or dual-boot or what. And then put it off for a little longer because it seems like too much bother to think about 😛
From memory, mainstream support for Windows 7 has long expired so it would be wise to move on.
If I had to pick, I say go Windows 10. Basically has the core of 8 (which was very sound until the subsequent updates trashed it) but with a desktop oriented start menu instead of sticking the Start Screen on desktops without any consideration on the mismatch of touch oriented UI with a keyboard and mouse.
If you do go to Windows 10 though, my best advice is have another machine on hand so that you can install Windows 10 without a network connection and then using the second machine (which has a Internet connection) to look at where all the privacy settings so you can make the PC personal again and not like a Nineteen Eighty-Four telescreen as well as finding a app that turns the telemetry service off so Microsoft can’t snoop on your file placement.
It’s heavy but with Windows 7 now on extended support (which is the final years of its product life) you will have to move on if you want to keep a smooth running machine with the latest security patches.
The only remaining alternative is to use an open source OS like PC-BSD, Debian or Manjaro; all of which have a bit of a learning curve, won’t be compatible with any applications you have and have their own set of problems as well.
And for the Linux diehards out there, Shuttleworth has dunked any worth Ubuntu once had so it’s not worth mentioning anymore.
I was famously using a win98 machine daily right up until they finally pulled the plug on MSN properly back at the end of… 2013 I think? So I’m fine with not being up to date 😛
Pretty much the only reason I’d want to be up to date is that I’m now big on Rift stuff, so I’ll need to be up to date on that. Although the only real things that win10 seems to offer at the moment is DX12 support (which doesn’t seem to be all that important just yet) and Minecraft VR (native). Everything else seems to be fine on win7.
Have you got a good link on all the privacy settings stuff that needs fixing?
Just search the Gizmodo site for a start; this was covered here before.
I personally don’t have any links myself as I’ve used Windows for so long these sort of settings have become an Easter Egg hunt to me. The only search I’ve done was on how to turn the telemetry off.
The only other search I’ve done is to get the DNS name of the servers so I can block them using a local installation of Unbound but I’m getting into the super anal territory now.
You may not need to go as far as I do but as some of my work is under strict NDA and privacy requirements, this is something I have to do.
Edit: Just did some digging. This should start you off.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/12/windows-10-privacy-settings-what-you-need-to-know/
There is one last thing I forgot to mention. Microsoft’s new ‘trend’ is to try and force people to use their live accounts as logins on Windows 10 machines.
If you go down the fresh install route, make sure you create a what is called a Local User account. Windows will complain that you won’t be able to access services like the Windows store but it at least puts control to you personally and not your Windows Live account (or whatever the hell those idiots are calling what was once Microsoft Passport).
Yup, had full intention of going down that path. I hate having to make an online account for every little thing, if it’s mandatory for something I have little intention of using then in all likelihood I’ll just forego the thing in question entirely. Guest checkout is the best 😛
I’d looked up some of the privacy settings stuff before, but was never sure if they’re necessarily covering all of it or not, figured it’d be a good idea to check with someone who seems to know what they’re doing.
I scared!
Upgraded three of my own PC’s to Windows 10 (two desktops, one tablet). No issues with any of them. Noticeable speed improvements and overall very happy.
Fear-mongering articles like this are great!
Indeed. I knew that my piece titled “My three utterly mundane, uneventful and pedestrian Windows 10 installations” just wasn’t sexy enough…
Yep! I’ve upgraded at least 5 to 10 pcs (all my family members have no idea what they are doing) and every pc has improved performance and everything in general runs better! Could not be happier. Also easier formatting options helps me big time.
Software quality isn’t determined by the 99% of times the software gets it right, but by the 1% of times the software gets it wrong.
It’s great that the upgrade worked for you, but the people for whom it may not work need to be aware that the upgrade is not always as smooth as MS would like you to think.
Personally I bought a new PC last year, so I’m just leaving Win7 on my old box as a compatibility platform. The attempts at a stealth upgrade are getting pretty annoying. Certainly the lack of a “GO AWAY, I AM NOT INTERESTED” option is irritating.
As it is, I have several programs that work fine under Win7 that break under Win10, so I plan to keep at least one Win7 box around.
I think the point of the article was to point out how heavy handed Microsoft is in forcing this update on people.
This basically happened to me, too, but from WIndows 8.1.
I believe that if you click the “Schedule for later” button in the Windows 10 prompt it automatically does the update, which I did not expect. I expected it to prompt me again after the specified time.
Basically there’s no way to dismiss the “You should upgrade” screen without triggering an automatic upgrade.
After upgrading all my USB ports would be disabled whenever Windows booted, and the PC started constantly blue-screening. Ultimately it took a full re-format and re-install of Windows 8 to get everything running again. All because I clicked “Schedule for later”. Screw you, Microsoft.
Yeah but saying “schedule for later” you’re telling it do it later, not “go away, I’ll do it later myself”
Yup. I did not expect that. In hindsight, I guess it’s not that unclear, but those dialogues are almost always “prompt me again in x time”, not “go ahead and do it”.
prompt me again in x time is postpone option. not schedule later….
Really? When I get that “upgrade now/upgrade later” screen I just hit the X on the top right of the window and it goes away.
There are a couple of different screens. The one you’re talking about can be dismissed but after a while there’s another one that doesn’t have a close (or even minimise) button and just presents “Upgrade now/Schedule for later” as options.
You can dismiss it by clicking on the little ‘x’ in the top corner. I’m used to this thanks to all my time dismissing creative and persistent porn site pop-ups.
I can’t find a screenshot of it at the moment, and I’ve already done the upgrade, but there is at least one variant of the “You should upgrade” dialogue that opens without a close or even minimise button. You can kill the process, but Windows 8 will bring the screen back up again.
Today I sat down at my Windows 10 PC, and my Microsoft Kinect auto logged me in. Everything worked well, with a streamline email client and calendar built in. Pretty happy with Windows 10.
What I’m not happy with is my other computer with chronic memory leaks thanks to Lenovo deciding a two year old $3000 laptop isn’t worth updating drivers for. Wont be buying Lenovo again.
What drivers aren’t working?
Even though it’s a lenovo laptop, all of the components inside are made by various hardware companies. You don’t have to install drivers through the lenovo software, get them directly from the hardware provider.
Better still, get rid of windows and install linux, and welcome yourself to a world where you know exactly what software is actually running on your computer.
Widi, does not work at all. Win8 drivers say software version doesn’t match, win10 drivers say hardware not found. Worked flawlessly in 8.
Realtek audio drivers, totally broken, if realtek manager is running, the entire thing memory leaks uncontrollably, mouse stutters, and it comes to a crawl. This is an i7 with 8gb RAM and SSD.
Realtek audio drivers again, about 2/5 maximum volume compared to windows 8, I just leave it on mute permanently now, it’s inaudible anyway.
Seriously, my wifes 5 year old Dell i5 runs flawlessly next to this Lenovo POS.
Linux? Nah, zero interest. Isn’t going to run the programs I need and use, and I have no interest in screwing around with third party alternatives or running things in virtual box windows.
No worries. That’s pretty annoying about the drivers. I love my lenovo laptops [even new ones], but I’m horrified at the state at which Lenovo ships windows. Their bloatware is simply awful.
If I may ask, what programs do you use which are keeping you locked to Windows?
It’s not a baited question, just generally curious about the usage of windows-only computer users.
Most of the adobe suite, a few autodesk programs (fusion, inventor), PTC Creo Parametric. Plus I couldn’t even stand the “configurability” of android, while I use power programs, I want my daily things to “just work” like phone apps, so am pretty happy with the appification (is that a word? should be) of Windows. I’ll take the Outlook Mail app anyday over the bloated outlook mail program, or any other overly complex mail program. With most things hosted in the cloud these days I just want it to work the same way across devices.
Hell I’d probably consider mac tbh except in my view a power laptop should have a touch screen and stylus, plus half my programs aren’t mac so I’d be running virtual windows with a performance hit again, or dual booting and just using windows anyway.
Microsofts own instructions for over two decades recommend checking your system, making sure your software and drivers are compatible/available, running backups, doing maintenace routines and clearing out temporary files from a system before upgrading…. its Windows 10 lets forget all that and force this onto your machine even if its compatible or not. Thats dangerous… especially since Microsoft isnt given you confirmation boxes on upgrades and is likely to claim no responsibilty for breaking anything
It runs a hardware check before prompting to upgrade and advises you if it’s likely to fail. I’ve encountered the warning twice on virtual machines.
I have not upraded my home PC to 10 yet but I’ve definitely done the hardware check. It’s somewhere in one of the upgrade screens. The only issue was daemon tools would no longer work which isn’t an issue since Win10 natively mounts ISO files.
I upgraded my work comp from Windows 7 and it resulted in problems: so bad I had to downgrade and I won’t try again. I’m also not going to upgrade my home laptop either.
The work computer is a pretty new, very reliable machine. It works fast and smoothly at all times. With Windows 10 it would take AGES to boot- like over 10 minutes. And then it stopped booting altogether and would just randomly reboot halfway through the booting process over and over. if I ever got it fully logged in and up and running it would be slow as arse.
I had to boot up in safemode and downgrade. Since then it’s been back to flawless in Windows 7.
Really, if your machine works great, why bother anyway? Sure, upgrade from Windows 8, that’s a very smooth and easy process and makes your comp way better, but 7 is already good enough in its own right.
Have you tried a clean install instead of an upgrade? It sounds like your issue was with the upgrade process, not with Windows 10 itself.
Of course it was the upgrade process- Upgrading from Win 7 specifically. Upgrades from 8 however are perfectly fine.
But I do not have the option of a clean install on my work machine, Can’t afford to lose time and productivity going through that process and getting everything reinstalled and working right again.
With my home comp it’s pretty much the same. I will get Windows 10 on my next new comp- and then maybe upgrade he old one afterwards.
My first and immediate thought about being locked out of my files is I’d pump a flavour of *nix onto a USB stick, boot off it and move everything to a common location and rebuild by moving it around manually.
I was thankful in that my Win10 upgrade was planned as a fresh install with no carry over. This worked for me and my wife’s PC. My mother-in-law however just did and let it do the carry over and it’s been a nightmare for her. No amount of problems with her computer because it was un-managed.
About your ethernet port, check your MoBo drivers, windows 10 broke mine and I didn’t have access to the internet (except from a USB wireless adapter) for two weeks before trying to update the drivers. Win 10 also screwed up my audio, but after downloading some additional drivers that shouldn’t have been related the problem seemingly fixed itself.
I bought a new pc a few years ago and from day 1 something was wrong it was almost unuseably unstable i tired tests, checking if it was over heating, swapping out various parts no dice so when windows first landed i upgraded my win 7 to 10 and miraculously it stabilised my whole rig i have not had any issues since but if it had of worked i wouldn’t of upgraded i just figured i had nothing to lose
I have upgraded 4 computers to Windows 10 (2 desktops and 2 laptops) and all 4 installations went flawlessly, the only issue i had was with my desktop, it broke a custom resolution i used but a Nvidia driver update fixed it.
I’m jealous of you guys that are getting these upgrade prompts. I’m not even getting the option to upgrade.
Just Google windows 10 and go to the windows website. It will ask you if you want to update. Easy done
Don’t do it!
I did an upgrade to Win10 from Win7 on an old laptop of mine. It went rather smoothly. I decided to do the proper thing and reinstall Win10 so there won’t be any old remnants of Win7 left behind. Big mistake – I couldn’t reinstall the software which controls the laptop specific function key. Now the only way I can control the volume is to use the slider in the task bar. 🙁
yeah i had no issues with upgrading my desktop from 7 to 10, havent upgraded my laptop though, not if i will upgrade it to be honest
Ugh, sincerely hope this doesn’t happen at work. I actually like Win 10 but the whole reason we haven’t upgraded is because of some conflict with the Canon printers we use. To put it mildly having all the machines not be able to communicate with the printer would be a major issue.
The only issue I’ve had is that the upgrade to Windows 10 has borked my external hard drive. I thought it might have been a bad driver but a bit of googling has told me that if you upgrade while an external hard drive is connected, it can cause issues.
Been using 10 and it’s great, but obviously it shouldn’t be upgrading without permission, especially when many people bought Win7 licenses to… use Win7.
If you don’t want to automatically upgrade to Windows 10, don’t turn on automatic updates and always check your optional updates. Microsoft is getting more and more subversive in pushing people to upgrade and certain versions of Windows 7 and 8 will have the upgrade checked on by default in the optional updates section of the Windows Updater. It’s as bad as Flash always having the “Install McAfee” option checked when you download it and Java having the “Install Ask toolbar” option checked in the installer.
To play devil’s advocate, computers on the internet that aren’t up to date pose a threat not only to themselves (data/identity theft, fraud) but to other internet users as well (botnet zombies, DDOS attack vectors). Microsoft wants to get everyone on the same platform so they can end support for earlier versions sooner rather than later. That seems to be who they’re primarily targeting with both the upgrade nag and less ignorable Windows Update design.
To me at least, those intentions are in a whole different league to commercial deals like the Flash/McAfee one, or malware like Ask Toolbar.
Latest insider preview of Win 10 has some weird issues on my lenovo helix, It will not boot up just gets stuck at a lenovo screen, I have to press f11 and then boot into windows 10 from that. Weird but not a big hassle.
Other than that everything has been flawless and i have upgraded a few PC’s and laptops since it’s release.
Windows 10 looks like it’s useful for a tablets but garbage on desktop machines.
Do you have an example of why you think it would be garbage on desktops? My personal experience is it excels as a desktop OS but I’m curious about your perspective.
Clean install. It makes it feel like you have a new PC again while avoiding all the problems with upgrades.
Got an HP laptop (probably 4 years old). Upgraded it and downgraded within a week.
Issues:
CPU fan was always spinning like a nutter. Never downtime. Graphics drivers didn’t exist. So I had to install even older ones, which where removed on each restart, which means same issue over and over.
Upgraded to windows 10 a while, no regrets. I literally haven’t had an issue.
Obviously i don’t like some of the default settings that track a little too much of what you do on your pc, but they’re easily disabled.
Other than that, for a home computer that you use for gaming, web browsing, music, etc. it seems fine. For me anyway :p
Wait, your computer will have a slow death. Windows 10 forced update killed the computers of everyone I know. How can there not be a class action lawsuit.!!!!
My PC also decided to automatically upgrade to Windows 10 as well. The reason I was putting of was the 3 GB download as I am on a 25GB a month plan and it just wasn’t worth it, however, at some point it seems to have decied to just automatically download and then install itself.
I upgraded my Windows 8 machines to Windows 10 just to be rid of Windows 8.
But my Windows 7 PC I want to keep as it is for now, it did try and schedule the update without my permission but I managed to stop it.
This is one of the reasons I have moved away from MS accounts and started to go Apple. Poor support and changing things without asking. My MS account would not let me in at all when Telstra migrated all their email accounts to Outlook. Lost all my WP apps, cloud documents, Xbox gaming inc points, the LOT. The support from Microsoft was truely woeful. They would not provide phone support as outlook email was free, regardless that the apps and Xbox gold account cost real money. 6 months of logging a fault on a forum and they could not fix it.
1. Telstra are useless (they cannot even figure out how to tell NBNCO which line to make active on the fibre box then get send that info to their technicians.), it sounds like they did not handle the migration properly and did not forward your email correctly.
2. When dealing with MS ask for tier two support and babble some techno-jargon at the helldesk monkey on the phone. This will get you through to someone who actually knows stuff, not just reading from a checklist. Don’t use an xbox help number and don’t bother with any MS forums. (there are outlook issues that are still a problem 8 years after being identified)
3.
You are aware that apple is even worse for both of these right?
Had my iPhone for about 18 months and so far so good. I went away from Apple years back when working in retail they refused to return a day old iPod mini for a customer. Their suggestion was to write it off rather than return it for being faulty.
That’s where you hit them with trade practices act and tell them to stuff it. 🙂
I did that to Microsoft when they tried to tell us the 360 didn’t have a red-ring issue.
Apple have been known to remove apps from users phones, they frquently change the T&C’s on devs and unlicense their products and their customer support was previously told to lie to customers about having a virus and tell them it was a known bug to be patched in the next update (which took quite a while).
tech writer who can not install windows properly….. what a derp
I upgraded to 10.
Several issues,
1. on clean install it said it couldn’t find drivers for some of my hardware and could I please browse on a disc to where the drivers were. Didn’t bother telling me what the drivers were for at all and half the time wouldn’t allow it to proceed, even methodically going through all the drivers.
So I upgraded from win8.1.
After a forced update I now have longer boot times than 8.1, forced updates that break shit (I am on enterprise and use this system for dev work, REALLY bad idea to force this MS, particularly on enterprise)
Occasionally windows (not bios or any other OS, but just windows 10) will ‘miss’ a hard drive.
We had the auto upgrade happen on a dev machine at work, it runs ok, cept when windows decides it needs to install an update and turns SQL Server off. Still has long boot times. (was on win7 so it’s a little quicker but not by much)
Otherwise it runs ok, still a LOT better than vista, that pile of rubbish ME or OSX.
Anecdotal of course, but my 7 to 10 deliberate update has been pretty smooth. Anybody that leaves the windows updates on recommended gets exactly what they asked for. Recommended updates.
It’s ignorant to assume that no else has had, or is having, problems upgrading just because you didn’t.
Running win7 and ubuntu 12.04 dualboot. Ever since steam came out for linux I’ve hardly booted up windows. Sure, only 350 of my 700 games work on it, but i figure its a good excuse to play games I’d otherwise overlook.
Anyway, I tried to boot up win7 after about 6 months of not doing so and the thing barely loaded, then hung on trying to get updates. Now it won’t even boot up. I had the opposite situation last year, I hadn’t booted up ubuntu for over a yr due to an mmo addiction, and first shot ubuntu went in, and 20 mins later had caught up on a yr of updates. For work, reliability and safe web browsing, nothing beats it. No way in hell am i going to win10, especially seeing how ms take such strong armed measures to force it on people.
I just knew this would devolve into people claiming their own experiences are the norm and find random assumptions to descredit any challenging perspective. “It must be a user error”, “I haven’t had an issue”, neither have it but that has nothing to do with anyone else. Do you people ever consider you might be an exception? Do you ever consider how reasonable it is to blame “user errors” on scenarios you have little perspective of?
I never upgrade. Clean installed Win 10 on about 8 machines so far with absolutely no issues. I always feel like upgrading is like rolling some dice and hoping they all land on 3. Possible but not worth the risk.
Upgraded work laptop from Win8.1 to Win10
Prefer Win 10 to Win8.1 but the upgrade path was painful as none of the upgrade tools worked, had to download and use USB but even then it took some poking around to get to work.
My experience of Win 10 is OK but does have issues:
Cortana just doesn’t work (tells me system is wrong language (Australian English) but no option to change as drop down box is greyed out – spent quite some time trying to resolve but with no luck – any hints appreciated.
Ethernet and WiFi connections seems flaky it seems to drop them out and I get lots of DNS errors when browsing or timeouts. I’ve tried turning off let Windows manage power in the adaptor settings but doesn’t seem to help.
Quick Access in the Win Explorer hangs fairly often but OK if I just go to the location in my PC.
Don’t like the Edge browser- not sure why but just don’t (that’s not a fault just an observation)
The microsoft account sign-in thing is confusing especially if you’re in an business environment.
Overall better then Win8 but not as good as Win7
Click bait, this belongs on a blog not on Kotaku. Its sensationalism at worst, and un-noteworthy at best. If this was a PC tech website it still wouldnt pass muster as there is little to no analysis of what went wrong, a solution to the issue or any supporting links to possible solutions (unless you mean a link to a link). The only link provided is to another site that is actually reporting on the issue with details about bugged upgrades, MS staff quotes, links to how to resolve the issue and the mystery around MS policy on forced updates etc.
funny how MS’s solution to everything they don’t know or want to tell you is “reinstall”… happened to me about 4 times with various problems since the upgrade–and each time, i eventually found a solution that did not include uninstall/reinstall…