I have Windows 8.1. I am perfectly happy with it. I have been building and fixing computers since Windows 95.

I really don't like or want Windows 10 but being I am the "computer guy" for family and friends it kinda makes sense I should have it installed so I have some sort of clue when people call me with issues.

I have attempted to set it up many times over almost two? years now and rage quit it every time. In fact I apparently have attempted it so many times that my key is no longer usable??? That is my first issue. OEM keys are apparently now limited on how many times they can be used so I had to buy a new key.

I decided to give it another go this weekend for some reason. I am 12ish hours into it so far between yesterday and today and am "this close" to saying F it again.

Setting it up on a second drive for dual boot with Win 8. Took a bit over a hour of screwing around just to get it installed and actually working and being able to switch between them.

I am now in the process of trying to get all my stuff installed and set up and trying to get Windows itself set how I want it. Holy crap! So far I do have most of the "basics" set up, keyboard, screensaver,desktop ect..

Because I am using the same data drive for both installs, most things "should" be easy enough. Steam so far seems to be working, altho one of my games seems to have lost my save game file. And it now seems to be gone for Win 8 as well...which means I now need to start over on the game. All my progress is gone.
And the screwy part, I actually knew that specific game would be wonky so I backed up the files before hand. But for whatever reason, the backups don't work.

Origin...sees my games but none of them will start. Apparently none of them are actually installed??? They still work on 8 tho.

I have a non Windows media player that I really like. So far I am unable to get it to play ANY of my music or most of my videos. I don't know why.

I still have almost two thirds of my programs left to try to install yet. The third-ish I have already installed/attempted to install, at least half of them eather didn't want to install right or don't want to run right. Seriously I can't even get any of my benchmark programs to work....Heaven, Valley, RealBench...none of them will run, I don't know why. I haven't tried the last couple yet.

And this is only a "small" amount of my frustrations with this so far...

I REALLY do not like Windows 10. This is not how something like this should go, and this is exactly why I gave up on every other attempt at this. It so far just really don't seem to be worth it.

On the "plus" side tho, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does seem to run pretty nice with DX12....so there is that at least I guess.

When they planned Windows 10, I believe they got together and asked how can we make this as confusing as possible. It's like surfing the net back in 1993 when people would hide their site navigation behind random, unlabeled glyphs.

I don't share in your distaste for 10. I've installed it many times. If you get the message that your OEM version has been installed too many times there is a pretty easy process to get it reactivated.

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
I don't share in your distaste for 10. I've installed it many times. If you get the message that your OEM version has been installed too many times there is a pretty easy process to get it reactivated.

I was under that impression as I have never had issues in the past, but when I called Microsoft for the phone activation they were not able to get it to activate and were the ones who told me it was no longer usable.

I did manage a install on a "new" laptop for my aunt a while back but that was a pretty basic setup. She only really uses it for email, web and office work tho.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
When they planned Windows 10, I believe they got together and asked how can we make this as confusing as possible. It's like surfing the net back in 1993 when people would hide their site navigation behind random, unlabeled glyphs.

LOL sounds about right

I just upgraded from 7 to 10 last night and it was a pretty painless process. I did it because Win 7 support is ending in January and you can still upgrade for free. Hey, even my Quicken 2004 still runs on Win 10.

I did actually attempt the upgrade route a couple times early on. Cloned my drive and ran the upgrade on that. I spent several nights frustratingly laughing about how people were getting upgraded whether they wanted it or not and here I was trying to get it to upgrade and was failing miserably. I pretty much had no choice but a clean install

I used to work in a small computer repair/build shop. I still do a little computer work for family and a few friends. I have installed Win 10 many times on various makes and models of computers and haven't had any problems. However you did state that you are trying to set it up on a separate HD for dual boot. That may or may not be the problem.

W10 version 1903 also has bluetooth issues.
It completely removed the BT and I was unable to get it back.
Rolled it back to v1803 and it's good again.
The IT at work will not update our stuff to the latest version as it's still a mess.

quote:

OEM keys are apparently now limited on how many times they can be used so I had to buy a new key.

No they are not.

quote:

Setting it up on a second drive for dual boot with Win 8.

Why dual boot?
We used to do this all the time on the transition from XP to W7 but why go through this for 8 to 10 when there is no real difference in the platform except the shell?

quote:

I have a non Windows media player that I really like. So far I am unable to get it to play ANY of my music or most of my videos. I don't know why.

Which one? Have you looked into their support?



So what hardware are you using?
Old or new?
Most old hardware doesn't like newer OS like W10.
Pretty much all new hardware doesn't like anything but (on MS side) W10.

I understand your frustration as from someone who builds computers for a living I can tell you there are many times I also say why as well?

I can tell you in general it is best to draw the line or old vs new at W10 > both hardware and software.
Do you prep work and check for compatibilities ahead of time and plan accordingly.
For those reasons I never liked in-place upgrades and always try to install W10 on new updated Intel based machines.

Good Luck.

The 20+ year old HP4050LJ I have at work was "entertaining" to get working with Win 7. I'm not really looking forward to trying Win 10, even though the MS site claims to support it.

molachi thanks,

Dual boot I don't think it should be a issue. My spare computer....hobby room computer....is set up as dual boot similar to this one HDD wise with a separate drive for each OS and a common data drive. It works no problem, all tho it is 8 and XP so...

I have read plenty of articles on 8 and 10 that says it is no problem.


smschulz thanks,

Don't know what to think about the key issue. I am just going off what the phone dude said. I did think it rather odd myself being I have never bought anything other than OEM and I didn't think they changed how they worked.

Hardware wise, that is definitely not a issue. Crosshair 6 Hero, Ryzen 1700X, 16gb 3200 and 1080TI SLI under water.

For the dual boot, partly due to my 8 drive not being easily accessable....need to drain and pull the loop and pull the GPUs to get it out as it's a M.2 drive. But mainly due to the issues I keep running into trying to get everything working. This is only the second time I have tried it as dual boot. Every other time was eather a upgrade attempt on a cloned drive or just a straight install without the dual boot....before I set up SLI and the 8 drive was easier to get at lol The many failed upgrade attempts is what prompted me to just but a copy and be done with it.

Right now my 8 is working with no issues, including updating of things. Actually the only thing I can't update anymore is my chipset, but so far that has not been a issue. I don't have any specific need or reason to switch right now and I want to be 100% positive everything will actually work how I want before I "commit" to switching.

For all my software so far, the only "old" stuff that isn't working so far is my media player. It is Creatives old Media Source 5 player. It is actually not even officially available anymore but I like how it works and it does work on 8. Best I can tell at the moment, it is most likely just a codec thing which "should" be fixable. I just need to do some digging online.

But it is really the newer stuff that has been giving me the most issues. Like I mentioned with the benchmark programs, they were downloaded fresh from the respective sites and they don't work.

As it is tho, I am pretty much committed to get this working now regardless, especially since I had to buy another key. But I am not in any hurry so I guess it will just take as long as it takes now

quote:

Right now my 8 is working with no issues, including updating of things. Actually the only thing I can't update anymore is my chipset, but so far that has not been a issue. I don't have any specific need or reason to switch right now and I want to be 100% positive everything will actually work how I want before I "commit" to switching. For all my software so far, the only "old" stuff that isn't working so far is my media player. It is Creatives old Media Source 5 player. It is actually not even officially available anymore but I like how it works and it does work on 8. Best I can tell at the moment, it is most likely just a codec thing which "should" be fixable. I just need to do some digging online. But it is really the newer stuff that has been giving me the most issues. Like I mentioned with the benchmark programs, they were downloaded fresh from the respective sites and they don't work.

Lots of media players out there - maybe check out some new ones.
The Creative one as far as I can tell is about 14 years old which is many light years old in the computer business.

Like I said it is best to check with the individual software companies with any old or ever not so old software for any compat issues.
You can't always blanketly blame the OS when something doesn't work as expected.
Sometimes it is a minor fix and sometimes it may just not work at all.
Good Luck.

Lol yup, the creative player is pretty old. I did manage last night to get it basically working again. I installed a codec pack and everything plays again except for WMA files. Thankfully I don't have too many of them and they still play in stock media player.

Of course after I finally got that working.....I still was not able to get a lot of other things to work or install right. I have two programs that require SQL server. Even with a fresh download right from Microsoft it would not install...tons of errors. Spent a hour and a half digging online trying various fixes that didn't work. Most everything I was reading from a lot of people with the same issue basically say Win10 is "broke" lol.

I gave up sort of and just did a reset/reinstall of 10 and am starting over. Just finished with the updates and now installing all the drivers. We'll see what happens this time

Well, a bit of a update here.

After the "reinstall" so far. The SQL server issue seems to be fixed. I installed one of the two programs that need it and it installed and works...YAY Haven't tried the second one yet.

Heaven benchmark now seems to work as well. It will at least start now, which it wouldn't do before. So "plus" number two I guess.

Now I just need to start installing the rest of my stuff and hope there are no more issues.

Aaannnndddd now my videos don't work again, even with the codec pack, but music works. And my printer installed no problem the first time through but now will not install this time....

Seriously...???

quote:

Seriously...???

If you would like some actual help (if you need it) perhaps post some actual details?


If you are just venting (totally understandable) … then carry on.

smschulz thanks

I think it's mostly leaning twords the venting side but I am not at all opposed to help trying to get this working.

I am not really too worried about the media player right I guess. Everything will still play with the stock player. I can worry about that later if I start spending more time with 10.

The printer thing, I am still not sure what's up with that. It installed fine the first time but now it don't. The installer tries to check for whatever latest versions before it starts to install. It errors with something network related. The only fixes I have found are several years old and don't apply anymore. Basically uncheck the box to check for latest stuff. That box don't exist anymore.

I have my AV installed but no firewall yet, same as last time, and everything else internet wise works fine.

This really is just one of those things that to me shouldn't be this difficult. It worked fine the first time through. I haven't done anything different this time through so it should work.

I still haven't tried most of the other stuff yet but will probably play a bit more tonight yet.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not in a hurry

EDIT: The printer thing now seems to be fixed. I found a mention of a group policy thing having to do with Edge. I changed some settings there and it is now installing.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing my selfe here but I think....I THINK....I actually have pretty much everything actually working.

I still don't have my media player figured out yet and I am still "in process" on a replacement for media center, and I still need to transfer my financial software over....and i have not run all my games yet and I sill can't get the one screwed up game working again.

I also still need to decide if I want to set this up as the primary boot. I will need to clone it to a new M.2 drive but because of the amount of work needed to swap the drive, it might be a bit before I try that. For now I will be keeping 8 as my primary and just keep playing with 10 until I feel I can maybe stick with it.

I still don't like the new start screen. It is set to full screen but it's just not quite as nice as 8 I think. I will get used to it I suppose tho. And trying to remember the power button has moved, along with seemingly most everything else settings wise is still taking me a bit.

Hopefully everything will stay "right" and maybe I might begrudgingly actually switch to 10...at some point, but not quite yet

This thread is not bringing me any joy.
My desktop at work is about to be upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 for the purpose of running SAP software.
I'm expecting problems and I'm so used to 7 (I know it's more than old) that it's going to be a shock probably.
I really don't want the upgrade but I have to help one person as he's overwhelmed with work.
I can't wait.