Free WIN 10 upgrade

[VK4WDM]

Should I take the offer of a free update to WIN 10 or would it be best to wait awhile? I currently use WIN 7 and I am worried that my AR-related programs might not run correctly under WIN 10. I had a bad experience with VISTA and never tried WIN 8.

Please go easy on the jargon, I am a computer-challenged semi-

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK4TI]

I upgraded the win8.1 machine and the tablet , the win7 hardware is over 3 yo so not upgraded , imho win10 seems better than 8 so how good is the hardware ?

no rush either , there are other o/s you might consider for old hardware
B

[VK3RX]

As I posted on another radio forum when someone reported a couple of programs no longer working:

Never be the early adopter of any Windows upgrade, when running any software not in the usual suite used by the general population

[VK1JA]

G'day Wayne,

I took advantage of the free upgrade from 7 to 10, but like you I'm worried about programs and drivers not being compatible with 10 yet. What I did was took a full image of my Win 7 setup, then went through the upgrade process to get Win 10. Ran all the updates for Win 10 and then took a full image of the Win 10 setup, then reloaded the Win 7 image.

My plan is/was to take advantage of the free upgrade to Win 10 (which looks much better than Win 8!!), but wait until all my programs are compatible and drivers are released, or wait until the first service pack is out etc.

As I had a Western Digital (WD) hard drive in the machine I used the free WD imagine software that's available on their website to take an image of both Win 7 and Win 10.

Cheers

[VK4CLG]

I've always found the best way to test a new O/S is to have a 2nd hard drive to copy the new O/S onto. That way if things don't go well you can always go back to the original drive.
I have downloaded the latest windows 10 and have started playing with it. I will admit I'm not to thrilled with the look and feel of win 10 yet but in time I will get use to it. Like most people I was worried about how well the ham software would work with the new O/S and I got to say so far so good. I am a full time digital mode operator and have not had time to test all the software but will report my findings here on the forum.
This coming weekend will be a good test using digital modes on win 10 at the 23 on 23 field day.

Cheers
Robert
VK4LHD

[VK5PJ]

Hi Wayne,
the answer to this question probably comes down to the type of hardware your PC is using. Yes I know that mas seem strange but for the most part those with up market video cards and other 'fancy add-on boards' have had the only problems I have seen reported.

Should I take the offer of a free update to WIN 10 or would it be best to wait awhile? I currently use WIN 7 and I am worried that my AR-related programs might not run correctly under WIN 10. I had a bad experience with VISTA and never tried WIN 8.
Please go easy on the jargon, I am a computer-challenged semi-
73
Wayne VK4WDM

My shack PC has been updated from Win 7 home (32bit) to Win 10 home (32bit) over the last few weeks and so far all my AR related software runs with no need to make any changes. I have given it a big work out to check out what was "broken" by running multiple copies of the WSJT digital mode software for JT65 and WSPR side by side (busy CPU), my Win-EQF log book, time set package (NTP), a meteor scatter decoded (my most finicky software) and others that escape my memory.

Some will say wait and be cautious but this update to windows 10 takes the upgrade process to a new level of smooth, it downloaded smoothly, asked my nicely if it could go ahead with the update and then quietly did the job. At no time did I have to fiddle with setting or deep dive into any of the configurations to make it work. All the Desktop icons from Win7 are on the new PC and all of them WORKED first time.

We have a number of PC system at work that we have been doing repeated Windows 10 installs on in preparation for moving our school onto Win 10 and it has impressed me with how complete this release of windows is.

Hope I have kept the buzz words to an acceptable level

Regards,
Peter.

P.S yes I do work as a Computer Systems Admin, so installing an operating system on a PC is part of my work, thus I have no fear of it.

[VK2MUS]

ok I setup Win10 pro as a second operating system on my radio related desktop - installed ok I run a rascal hardware interface via two serial to USB units using the PL2303 Windows Drivers software is Ham Radio Delux and its related packages, JT65HF, Wsjt, wsjt-x and wspr also the JT ulitities and the Jt Alert software. The PL2303 is marked on the site as not being comparable to W10 however if you download the driver off that site and then reboot it appears to work ok.

Windows 10 pro does not seem to have any problems with the radio related software

However Windows 10 home may be another problem - in W10 pro you can turn the automatic update off as you can in W7 but in home you cannot and the OS will merrily download large blocks of data without your knowledge which could create problems with the timing required by the radio software. I would strongly suggest you not upgrade to W10 home but purchase W10 Pro and install ( if you are already running W7 Pro then it will update via the free update to W10 pro)

Should you update - just for the sake of update NO - if you are running W7 then you are already running the fastest Microsoft OS and the smallest - if you have a touch screen then probably yes or maybe yes
John

[VK3LU]

Hi,
Can it be installed as dual boot with Win7?

Nev

[VK5PJ]

Nev,
in short NO, the FREE update via download can only be used to 'update' an existing PC. Trying to do other things withit will just drive you to an early grave as the license aspect of it is only geared to update a running O/S on your PC.

If you go to the store and buy a new copy of Windows, then you can go down the dual boot path.

Hi,
Can it be installed as dual boot with Win7?
Nev

Regards,
Peter, vk5pj

[VK3LU]

Thanks Peter,
As I suspected. Microsoft are really after as many upgrades as possible.

Nev

[VK2JDH]

I'm going to wait till service Pack 3 is out

[VK4EA]

No need to wait people, it's a very worthwhile upgrade from 8.1, and everything works.

Sent from my SM-T805 using Tapatalk

[VK3BQ]

Windows 10 is great. Everything works (it's a new wrapper for the windows 7-8 changes) with some more improvement. Do it. ITS VERY EASY to move back built in should you not like it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[VK3RX]

Define "everything works" WRT the actual radio software being used -

[VK3BQ]

Everything that matters. If it works in win7/8. It will in 10. . Icom control software. Wspr. Wsjt. VKCL. Omnirig. Hrd. N1mm. Everything that matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[VK4TI]

I have little bit of rare software thats not running well in win 10 , however the more that do take the upgrade the cheaper the maintenance cost are for microsoft , just be sure to back everything you meed like email and take care to not give general access to your machine unless you like being a lab rat

[VK3HJ]

Thanks for this thread.

I'm also looking at "upgrading" the Win7 Starter Pack on my Netbook. This is the machine I usually use for DXpedition logging, but is now my office PC as the old P4 carked it recently.

What concerns me is the situation described above where I cannot control the downloading of updates (W10 Home). If the OS decides to start downloading a substantial update on an evening or weekend, everything will stop here! The interim NBN satty will NOT allow me to download anything big at these times, I expect due to the restricted capacity and high usage then.

How is the resource usage in Win10? My Netbook uses an Atom processor, so is way down the order of processor power. A new PC is on the shopping list, but not before I finish paying for some car repairs.

[VK5TM]

As an aside, make sure to turn off all those things that are telling MS everything about you.

This version of Windows is the most invasive ever re your "privacy".

[VK3RX]

From other forums and groups I've seen, people are getting mixed results with AR & radio software e.g. some report no problems with whatever software they use, others reporting problems with particular programs and some drivers when external devices are involved. Rolling back to Win7 was said to cure things.

I tend to adopt a watch and wait approach, and usually these days don't bother with Win upgrades if everything is working fine.

If it's not broken .......

I get a new version of Win with a new PC, so not only is it a clean install but also by then its usually matured sufficiently for bugs to be fixed, new/updated drivers are available and the makers of software have published their notes for the version.

[VK3DXE]

Thanks for this thread.

I'm also looking at "upgrading" the Win7 Starter Pack on my Netbook. This is the machine I usually use for DXpedition logging, but is now my office PC as the old P4 carked it recently.

What concerns me is the situation described above where I cannot control the downloading of updates (W10 Home). If the OS decides to start downloading a substantial update on an evening or weekend, everything will stop here! The interim NBN satty will NOT allow me to download anything big at these times, I expect due to the restricted capacity and high usage then.

How is the resource usage in Win10? My Netbook uses an Atom processor, so is way down the order of processor power. A new PC is on the shopping list, but not before I finish paying for some car repairs.

I don't think Win 7 Starter will upgrade.