Windows 10 pain: Reg man has 75 per cent upgrade failure rate

I have a Lenovo R61 that has been running Windows 10 for the last year. Why are you trying to upgrade rather than do clean install? We all know that any operating system tends to bog down after time. Why install a new O/S over all this garbage?

Windows 10 works on T61 and should on R61

Upgraded my T61's to Windows 10... Ran into hang problem at 99% with their Windows 10 upgrade assistant (even on a T420 i5 cpu with 8gb of memory.

Built the Windows 10 Pro usb stick and I'm good.

Fine for me

I've upgraded 7 machines to Windows 10 without any significant issues. My 8 year old desktop that originally ran Vista upgraded fine. Both my parents machines updated without problems as did my sister, her boyfriends and a couple friends PCs. The worst issue was bad drivers for old graphics cards. Took a bit of fiddling, but got it working in less than an hour.

Can't say what other peoples problems are, but I've had less problems with W10 than any other version of Windows I've upgraded to.

Good luck to all

Asus G73JH Not For Windows 10

I'm having similar problem with windows 10. Since it was released, I have installed W10 more than 10 times. I can only use it for two days and the system freezes up, an attempt to restart it, get is stuck at booting section, if it manages to get desktop area, after few minutes, it freezes up. I have tried all options, consulted a number of windows system specialist, none could resolve it.

I think, Microsoft need to do something about this. I have been windows fan all my life but this experience is a bit of frustration. I won't switch over because of that anyway.

Today will be my last attempt, if it does not work, then I stay put with Windows 7.

Do yourself a favour and recommend chromebooks to relatives.

Upgraded from Ubuntu 14:04LTS to 16.04LTS, both at home and work this week. At work, I can no longer use both monitors (I'm running a VM on VMWare). Apparently this is due to a kernel issue, but after hours of stackoverflowing, loading new kernels and new video drivers, nothing works.16.04 came out months ago and the hardware I'm using isn't new. Meanwhile, at home (running via virtualbox), I have a different set of problems now that I didn't have last week.

In each case, the road leads to stack overflow and a long list of try this and try that - all deeply command-line based, lots of restarts, lots of not being able to even fire up the desktop... lots of wondering why I bother. This is precisely the sort of nightmare I would rather not do for myself, let alone for a relative on the distant end of a phone line.

Yet months ago, I hosed my home machine by upgrading from Win 7 to 10, so that's hardly better either. As for macs, well I did my time with them a long time ago. No. My advice to relatives therefore is to stick to gardening or get a chromebook.

they won't be happy to see their free upgrade hopes dashed

Feel for those who actually pay for W10 once the free upgrade time ends...

The power of suggestion

Windows 7 is a fine operating system and will be supported until 2020. Windows 10 has very few new APIs and none that are currently compelling: an upgrade is quite simply not required and may in some cases be counterproductive.

But Microsoft dangled the carrot of a "free" upgrade to Windows 10 in front of everyone and although you probably thought you wouldn't do it, the idea of taking advantage of "free" lured into this experiment. The science behind this is well understood and used to drive up prices for many time sensitive events.

Well done to the marketing department of Microsoft. Mind you, I expect that there will be plenty more "limited offers".

Acronis

Had no issues here with Acronis (2014 cheapy OEM version sold by Scan).

Only one of my machines had simply-won't upgrade issues - a nasty old Intel chipset laptop with PowerVR graphics drivers that have a stuck in time binary.

Only machines I've stuck with default interface is Linx 10 tablet - it works well there. Others wither have Classic start (HTPC) or full Object Desktop by Stardock. Win10 is technically okay, just butt ugly and invasive on a desktop.

"So now three out of four of our PCs are suddenly obsolete in the Windows world"

Really? Windows 7/8/8.1 stopped working on them have they?

Boom

Can MS leave my W7 computers alone now until 2020 and stop trying to install spyware, nagware, and shitware disguised as essential security updates.

Diary note in Oct 2019 to start learning a different OS, and conveniently will probably need to get new kit by then.

Always easier, if possible, to do a fresh install

Yes, I know, sometimes a fresh install is impossible. I think MS has cut costs way too much, and these kind of disasters happen. Good for profits short-term, horrible for long-term profits and customer service.

Win 10 adding insult to injury

What I find spectacular is that these incompatibilities are not detected BEFORE the upgrade.

We have whole bloody nations being harassed that they ought to succumb to install Windows 10, but as soon as they do (by, for instance, trying to cancel it like any other Windows nuisance program) it turns out that all this nagging was the equivalent of a lemming's invitation to jump off a cliff. I bet those failed installs will still be counted by MS as installs, though, functional or not.

I also think there will be an extension to the free update period because MS still needs to hit the numbers. If there are not a critical mass of victims users, the switch to the subscription based Windows tax is not going to work. If you absolutely have to have it irrespective of the problems you'll invite I'd give it a few days - as soon as sales turn out as expected (read: nowhere near what they'll tell the press) they'll come up with another excuse to give the first hit for free, in the process also pissing off the people who DID unwisely fork out for it.

Meanwhile, I'm testing all sorts of Linux live CDs because I can :). All my hardware is quite happy with Linux. The exception is one box which is happy to start up a live CD, but a fixed install always needs manual video correction as it suffers the curse of an older nVidea cards and I'm to cheap to get a new one. I'm planning on eventually ditching that specific box, but the sodding thing keeps on working :).

It's a bait and switch trick to get consumers to buy new PC's with Windows 10 installed. Nothing more. Nothing less. There have been different versions of this trick going on forever. My Mom's PC upgraded to Windows 10 and the video and audio no longer worked. Switched her back to Windows 7. No need for the upgrade. It isn't free any more anyway, and there's no need to spend money on it.

Ive been using windows on the desktop since windows 3, but after seeing all the windows 10 bait and switch crap. And then back porting all the spyware, key stroke logging and data exfiltration into 7 and 8 by calling it a critical update, im done. So far 4 out of 7 systems/vms swapped to linux with the rest this week. I really couldnt be happier, thanks to a wine patch all my games run, all my systems are quicker, use less memory and less disk space and im only sorry i didnt do it sooner. Ive had no end of people asking me about linux as an alternative the past few months, microsoft have done more to fire up people to switch to linux is the last 12 months than anything thats happened to desktop linux for as long as i can remember.

This made me laugh.

From the Microsoft User Agreement for Windows10, section 12.b

"Canada. You may stop receiving updates on your device by turning off Internet access. If and when you re-connect to the Internet, the software will resume checking for and installing updates."

I can also stop receiving updates by replacing my computer with a couple cinder-blocks and a cardboard box with a GUI drawn on it in crayon but that's not what I want to do now is it?

Given Microsoft's track record I'd be loathe to let them update my clock settings without reviewing first whether that update would remove the calendar, the system backup program, e-mail reader and windows media center (whoops, already gone)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Windows/10/UseTerms_Retail_Windows_10_English.htm

Linux works pretty much on everything. (I'm typing these words on an old Athlon XP machine without SSE2 and only 1 GB or SDRAM!) If you want a good solid desktop my advice would be to give Ubuntu or a Ubuntu variant a go: Ubuntu Mate or Linux Mint - Mate for an old machine and Cinnamon for a more powerful one. Hand on heart you will end up with a better, more secure, and reliable computer than Windows could ever give you. Really unless you're a programmer that writes application for Windows or need to use some non-Linux Microsoft based software, e.g., Adobe Flash or Dreamweaver, Linux does everything as well and most time better than Windows, gratis. Gone are the days when you had to be a Linux expert to install the OS and/or software for the OS. As it's free and can dual-boot why not give it a go? My bet would be that after installation you'll find you end up using Linux over Windows before you realise it.

I'd definitely recommend using the upgrade program rather than Windows update

Failing that, the 'boot image to DVD/USB and install from that' option.

In the two VMs I updated (one with an architecture similar to a pentium 3 with a Core 2 Quad hanging off it (Xen's qemu-traditional), the other similar to a penryn Core 2 system (Q45 - qemu-xen), both using rombios rather than uefi) I upgraded a Windows 7 SP1 install (no patches beyond SP1) and it installed fine.

My Dad wasn't so lucky - his much more modern system (low end Core system) repeatedly blue screened, but at least it rolled back flawlessly.

There seem to be a lot of Linux fans hogging this thread. Many users out here don't really have that option in the sense that they don't even have the concept. Many here have apparently forgotten how much fun previous system upgrades have been. When it comes to bricked systems and driver problems, there have been plenty, Win10, once you get past what is left of the Metro interface, performs as well or better than Win7, and basically doesn't look or act much differently. A little effort can make it look and act even more like Win7. It certainly loads and task switches a bit faster. I am no enemy of Linux, but my business users are largely unprepared for such a shift and/or cannot find a version of their present software or even an adequate replacement program for linux...chicken and egg problems. Certainly, anyone who uses only email, browser and basic suite software can use almost any OS, if they can only get there. For the vast majority, that leaves Win7 or Win8 or Win10. Hopefully, those of us who are knowledgeable can help them with whichever is their choice rather than try to bludgeon them into our choice.

W10, nope, nope and nope

I use Acronis 2015 on W7 on a 6 year old quad core Intel box (I cant remember MB or processor and too lazy to look) installed and ran Windows 10 fine, looks awful, some programs removed, important settings moved or removed, 'start' menu is still a waste of time and i don't want Cortana because it uses Bing - rolled back to 7 after giving it a fair go (two weeks), this was before i discovered you could get rid of GWX.

Microsoft and Free Software do not fit together in any context other than Microsoft do not give anything away for free without some ulterior motive or method of totally shafting the customer.

All of the people falling for the (remember this is marketing) term 'free' in this offer are neglecting many years of being turned upside down and shaken until every last penny/cent has fallen out of their pockets.

You will pay for Windows 10, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and as the usage numbers climb more people will wonder why have they been putting this off and will be conned into an 'upgrade', its more and more likely that all the free users will have to put their hands in their pockets.

I know many people that have installed it and less than a week later uninstalled it, i cannot be the only one to have seen this happen time and again and yet i don't seem to see this reflecting in the usage figures.

I've installed Windows 10 on older hardware than that

I've installed Windows 10 on quite a few Core 2 machines, Acer notebooks that started with single core Pentiums and which eventually got upgraded with T3200 CPUs + SSDs but still use chipset graphics, various home-grown desktops with ASUS P45 boards and of course some newer stuff as well.

Clean installs generally worked much better, I'll admit freely. When it came to migrations, Windows 10 mostly failed when there was no separate boot manager partition or if that was too small. Since quite a few of these machines had started their life with Windows XP and then migrated to Windows 7, many of them just had one primary partition and Windows 10 doesn't seem to like that. Others came from a larger hard disk and had been squeezed to a smaler 128GB SSD with all partitions adjusted proportionally. But a 50MB boot manager partition isn't big enough for the upgrade, inceasing its size via Paragon typically help things along.

Acronis is a standard part of my kits so I'm pretty sure I went through some upgrades with Acronis installed and preserved. Paragon also survived, I think.

Drivers seem to work from as far back as Windows XP if you get them in 64-Bit (or install a 32-Bit Windows 10, I guess). Certainly Windows 7 drivers generally work, but may lack some features.

I've been avoiding UEFI in the past and I keep avoiding it today, which may have helped keeping things simple and Linux compatible.

Because I tend to run Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows 2008R2/2012R2, ESX and various Linux or even BSD flavors in parallel on all these systems just by popping in another SSD (used to be floppy disks ;-)

If you are thinking about leaving Windows and can't get comfortable with Linux you could try running RemixOS, basically a desktop flavored Android x86. Microsoft Office is available for that and your Office 365 licenses can be reused. Of course there is plenty of other Office suites which also run on Remix like Softmaker's, which are surprisingly good and proper quick, even on old hardware or low-cost Atoms.

But Office 2010 actually also runs under Linux if you use CodeWeavers Crossover extended WINE emulator.

Generally there are far more options than you tend to believe.

I don't understand that you people still run that DOS (Dead Operating System) based shit. for crying out loud....surely you can find a better alternative for that being MACOS, Linux or even FreeBSD. Its absolutely beyond my comprehension that business people still making themselves depend on a OS, which is so full of sh****. No wonder you got so many aggressive $W users. Been running MacOS for years and NEVER had a problem, apart from the fact that I never EVER used a virus scanner and time-machine is doing a perfect job. C'mon people!!! get wise and change your habits!!!

Mulit-boot woes

I run Win7 + Win7 multi-boot disk using Paragon as my backup and mulit-boot. Upgraded one of the Win7 to Win10 without issue (2011 bios). Tested Paragon and mulit-boot still worked. Ran the Win10 clean up, still good, left it 5 days to make sure nothing weird fails. Then Multi-boot stops working at start up.... then Win10 refuses to run Paragon Backup - not an error, Win10 says I'm not allowed to run it any more (full stop). I de-installed Paragon from Win10 (the only option that still works for that proggie), then I use Paragon Emergency boot disk to re-activate the other Win7 partition whaich also has Paragon, which then allows me to re-install the multi-boot options to the mbr.

In summary: Win10 decided it didn't like Paragon. What annoyed me was there was no prior warning, it deliberately stopped the proggie from working many days after upgrade. That is a damn worrying situation to be in, what if it wasn't a utility, what if it was something really important?

definition of insanity?

Wasn't Einstein's definition of insanity doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result? Or did the author think the Acronis app compat messages were just a joke and the upgrade would just magically work on the other machines?

Still, 3 out of 4 does make 75%, and it made a catchy headline. Just a shame he didn't try it on a 100 machines for a 99% failure rate. Doesn't quite mask the authors display of incompetence though.