Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Updating windows 8 to 10

Has anyone done it and did you have any problems ?

kwg

Most hardware running 8 won't work on 10.

If you have a very late computer w/8.1, it MIGHT work, most likely not.

Unless you are pretty handy with computers, the trouble is not really worth the effort.

MM

I did it quite a while ago and it was pretty easy. 10 works slightly differently from 8, but not enough to be a problem...

This is a 12 year old, 32bit Samsung NC10. I haven't used it much. It's kind of a long story but I just didn't need it. My tablet recently died and I want to have a small computer I can set in the chair with while watching TV.

kwg

As cheap as laptops are these days, that is the route I would go- in fact it is the route I am going to go in a few weeks....

I have a 7 or 8 year old SurfacePro that I don't use all that often, but thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

Took several attempts, but finally got it done.

I think my issue was that I hadn't updated that machine in quite a while. If I had to do it over again, I'd make sure to run all of the updates first, then do the switch.

Anyway, it works fine now.

YMMV

I hate Microsoft and Bill Gates.

Won’t work bud sorry. The 32 bit is your killer.

See the thread about Linux Mint. As long as you're installing a new OS, you might as well switch to Linux.

For a machine that old, I'd strongly suggest ZORIN CORE as your new system. It comes with all the software you'll need for home use (and much more is available, almost all free) and you'll feel right at home navigating and using it.

Twenty minutes to download it, 20 more to make a bootable USB disk, and then 20 to install. Full instructions at the website HERE.

OOps! I missed the 32-bit comment. For that machine, you can use either LINUX MINT DEBIAN, or the 32-bit version of MX

Added: One I have not personally test-driven, but gets high marks is ANTIX which is aimed at the new user, has a 32-bit option, and easy to install.

I built my current desktop in 2009, it is socket AM2+. It started out on Windows XP and has been running Windows 10 since it was released.
I doubt you'll have any hardware incompatibility issues as long as you don't try to save your personal files. If you need to save them I recommend you save them elsewhere first but you don't have to. It should be a simple, straight forward upgrade.

I tried running updates for Windows 7 and it wouldn't let me. But, I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to computers and maintaining them. I would of been happy with Windows 7 until it died.

kwg

So you are saying do a complete install something like as if it was new ?

kwg

A complete new install would be best. First, copy and move all your personal folders, passwords, bookmarks and such to an external drive. Don't use Backup; do a copy and paste.

Then install a newcomer-friendly version of Linux. See my earlier post.

Really. Trust me. You'll thank me.

I don't know if I agree with that. I've upgraded many win 7 computers to 10. Is the free upgrade still available? Been a few years since I used it.

is there one in particular you can recommend? I googled it an' there were serval. thx

We turn our Windows up to 11.

Spook, for an old 32-bit machine, see my post about five above.

For a 64-bit, if it originally came with Win-7, first look at ZORIN CORE

If it originally came with Win-10, by all means look at MINT CINNAMON

But first, go to YouTube and watch a few videos by Thor. He has over 400 vids detailing many, many kinds of Linux and what you can do with them. Focus on the look and feel, and capabilities rather than the details of "how-to". LINK

You Da Man ! Big Thx

I'll say this: of all the people who switch to Linux from either Windows or Mac, very, VERY few ever go back. They may do a bit of "distro shopping" to find the version of Linux they prefer, or which suits their needs best - but they stick with Linux.

I have personally test-driven something like 25 different versions. Some I liked a lot, some not so much, some were just too weird, and some required too much technical skill to attempt. The three that I currently have loaded permanently on machines are Zorin, MX, and Mint. The MX laptop is my "test bed" for exploring new distros, and serves as my backup machine. The Zorin laptop is my travel machine. It was originally a Windows Student machine (an attempt to cut into the Chromebook market) with very low resources (4/64 Mb) and was well under $200. I keep no personal data on it, and if it gets lost or stolen, it will be no loss. It runs like a scalded cat on Zorin.

My daily driver is this old Dell mini-tower running Mint 21.0 (which will soon to auto-upgrade to 21.1) I put a larger SSD in it recently, a simple plug-in job. I have a 1 Tb Toshiba portable drive hooked to it to keep copies of all my personal stuff and also to hold my weekly system backups.

If you don't need a "real" computer, get a Chrome Book. Cheap as chips.

True, and I used to have one. But it is an "online only" machine totally based in Google. So EVERYTHING you do, watch, search, or type is run through Google's spy circuits. There is ZERO privacy on a Chromebook.