Sigh, my free Windows 10 upgrade hasn't been too "free" so far.

Hopefully, this rant can help to save other people from the hassle known as Windows 10. First of all, I am not computer illiterate; my degree is in software engineering, and I've been around multiple operating systems since Windows 95. I've set up new laptops, dual boots, triple boots, and even kicked Windows 8 off my primary laptop and got Windows 7 to run flawlessly. However, my main enemy has come to haunt me: Windows 10.

This has been a hellhole for a while now, and because I'm rather quick to the chase, here's the events that happened that should make you want to stay away from Windows 10:

1. Originally, I had Windows 7 Pro. Life was great. And then, I decided to download the Windows 10 upgrade via Windows Update. For the first two days, everything worked fine: I didn't lose any of my files or settings.

One day, I noticed I could not log into Windows 10: What I got was a variant of the "infinite spinner" (where the PC takes forever to boot because it's stuck on something internally). So naturally, I went for the repair disc, as Startup Repair worked wonders on Windows 7. Startup Repair in Windows 10 is worthless - All it would say is "I cannot repair this PC". At least Windows 7 gave me more to work with.

Called up Microsoft Support, and they told me a stock answer (it was a corrupted hardrive). They hung up when I told them that my Linux partition worked fine, and I could still see my old files from there.

I also found that the revert to previous version of Windows also didn't work, even though I was only a couple days into the 30-day max.

2. After that mess, I ended up resetting my PC. Seemed to fix the issue, despite me losing almost all my files and programs. And then, I discovered that it restored the wrong version of Windows 10 (Seeing as I was originally on Windows 7 Professional, it should have been Windows 10 Pro).

More than fed up at this point, I just clicked the "buy now" option, which wouldn't work unless I was logged in with a Microsoft Web account. So I created the account, logged into it, and found that they didn't charge me for Windows 10 Pro upgrade (still don't know why). All was working again.

3. Two days later, I go to log into my machine - And find that I cannot log in. What I found was that somehow, my online account got locked due to too many password tries, which rendered my PC useless. After resetting the online account from another PC, I was finally able to get in - Changed the account to a local non-internet account, and all was good.

4. Here's the last straw for me: My motherboard died yesterday. So, I went out and bought a new Laptop. Now, in Windows 7, you can actually swap the hardrives between computers, so that you basically have the same drive you always use in the new PC (you might need to install some new drivers and utilities, but it's doable). All I used to have to do was run Startup Repair, and Windows never asked for Activation.

Windows 10 is officially tied to your PC - so if you change too much, then it needs to activate again (which usually fails because it's tied to your old hardware). Despite my previous attempts with Microsoft Support, I tried again, explaining that my old PC died, and that because I just wanted to use my existing hardrive, I wanted to use it in the new laptop.

The first thing they ask for: What was my old Windows 7 Pro license? (Which I purchased as an upgrade a long time ago). Don't have it. They then looked at my existing Windows 10 Pro key (still on my hardrive). I basically let him bill me for a full Windows 10 Pro license ($200).

So, if you've managed to read through this all the way - Here's a quick summary:
1. Do not do the free upgrade - Buy a physical copy if you have to. The Windows 10 key will help for disasters.
2. Do not trust that you will be able to revert back - Some PCs have (in my experience), and others like my old machine do not.
3. Before Upgrading - Write down your existing Windows 7/8 key (there's free software online to do this - I also recommend Hiren's Boot CD, as it will help you in more ways than one).
4. Microsoft Support will only give you a canned answer; you are better off using google + their support forums and seeing what other people have gone through.
5. Do not create an internet account! At least with a local account, the only way it can get messed up is if I do it myself.
6. Don't get Windows 10 until they stop supporting Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

I've officially decided that at least for my home use, Mac and Linux are the best. Even now, My Windows 10 is just big enough so that I can remote from home; Linux Mint is my main OS, because I know that at least I can transfer that from machine-to-machine.

-fossilera

I've upgraded from the Internet 3 computers over the past 6 months..

2 from Win 7
1 from Win 8

No problems at all

I'm not a fan of Win10, but the upgrades have gone perfect..

i've been using windows 10 for four months...flawless performance.
must be a you thing.

Linux

Not touching Win10 until I have to.

a reply to: semperfortis

I've got three computers at home (2 win 8 and 1 win 7 ) nagging me to upgrade all the time.

I have tried the compatibility test thing on all of them and every one of them says there is a hardware problem of some sort. So I ain't touching it.

These are not home built computers either - I'm talking an Asus, an HP here with only the parts they left the factory with.

I upgraded to Windows 10... Reverted back to Windows 7 within days. And the annoying thing is, I will have to bite the bullet and re-revert BACK to Windows 10 while it is still ~free~ (because I'm cheap. heh.) so I have the luxury of future Direct X 12 necessities. Sigh.

a reply to: markosity1973

How do they nag you?

Mine only has Win7 on it, and it hasn't bugged me once since I installed it earlier this month and fired it up.

a reply to: fossilera

Part of why I won't upgrade, windows 7 works fine for me on my main rig, if it's not broken don't fix it.

I stayed with win xp until 2 years ago well after its end of life too because it worked fine until my PSU died on me so I decided to do a full new build and had access to Dreamspark at the time so could get free copies of windows.

I do not like these new iterations of windows and their horrible made for touchscreen UI designs at all.

If I could, I would still be using win 98, but at least in 7 I can have a similar look to "classic" and with 8 through windows shell mod.

a reply to: markosity1973

I never even checked the compatibility ...LOL

Again, I don't care for 10 but when you shut all the useless stuff off, it works very well...

a reply to: kaelci

It's horrible, isn't it? I forgot to add too - My anti-malware became my enemy as well, as I found that Windows 10 loads the Anti-malware before the rest of the PC boots.

AVG prevented me from even getting into safe mode because while Windows loaded it, it was incompatible at the time, so the PC wouldn't boot up.


What are you planning to do when you have to upgrade again? We don't get the free version much longer.

Just a week ago I got a call from a friend "Please get this (profanity) off my laptop"


Luckily it had not touched his back up drive and it was easy to revert back to 7.

I also use Mint, been using it for about two years now, best os I've ever had (although I did like xp), just reinstalled win7 on another drive because I wanted to install Project Cars. Oh how I'd forgotten all the nonsense that goes along with an ms os! Firewall - antivirus - service pack updates - reboot after friggin reboot!

Give me linux any day, it just works!

Upgraded all 3 desktops from Win 7 to 10, each worked just fine, no problems at all.

Upgraded two of them with new motherboards and CPUs....Windows 10 didn't have an issue at all with the upgrades, it simply took a bit longer to boot up, with reboot and BAM, both computers were done and ready to go.

My son, wife and I are all big gamers and noticed right away when we upgraded to 10 that all of our newer games were actually running better than they had before.

Yeah, it's been a bad choice of hardware selection for me - I just got the bad luck of a PC that hated Windows 10 despite being compatible (according to them).

Understand, I'm not complaining about the basic usage - What I did like about it for the brief period I had it was that it was similar enough to Windows 7 that I at least know where everything is.

But if this new computer dies, I'm not looking back at Microsoft for my next one - Linux Mint + OS X will be what I work with.

-foss

a reply to: Discotech

Trying to not break the double-post rule, but I really wish that they made Windows XP open-source; I would have loved to keep XP on my main PC as it's what I'm most familiar with (main reason I like Mint so much - it's very WIndows 2000/XP like).

originally posted by: fossilera
What are you planning to do when you have to upgrade again? We don't get the free version much longer.

Don't

There's a reason that win 10 has a market share only 0.43% higher than XP (yes there's still lot's XP systems running)

Market share

Hopefully we won't need win 10 solely for DX 12 which is kind scummy from M$ as it feels like they're holding us to ransom to upgrade, because Vulkan will hopefully become the new "thing" for gaming architecture

originally posted by: ketsuko
Not touching Win10 until I have to.

After watching Katherine Albrecht's video, I agree...

Windows 10 Is Full Blown Electronic Tyranny

a reply to: fossilera

I'm really umm'ing and ahh'ing about the upgrade. On the one hand I should do it while it's free and because this computer was only recently built, a nice amount of RAM and a shiny GPU to last a good few years before upgrades will become necessary. That darn DX12! *shakes fist*

And on the other hand... Windows 7 is near perfect.

But I will likely wait til the very last week the free upgrade is available, bite my tongue harshly, and just do it.

originally posted by: Discotech

Hopefully we won't need win 10 solely for DX 12 which is kind scummy from M$ as it feels like they're holding us to ransom to upgrade, because Vulkan will hopefully become the new "thing" for gaming architecture

I'm feeling that we will... I hope not! But *shudder*. Feeling like there's no choice at the moment.

I would recommend a CLEAN INSTALL for anyone thinking of upgrading to Windows 10. Myself and many others I have read about have encountered problems after choosing the "upgrade" option.

BEFORE doing a clean install, ensure you back up all your data to an external hard drive. (Include recording down your Windows key you are currently using.) That way you are covered if something does goes wrong.

Be sure to adjust the privacy settings — DON'T click "express settings" but rather choose to configure them, it only takes 5 extra minutes to do.