Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   There are many questions regarding Windows 10 that so far seem like they can only be answered by experimentation, by giving whatever it is you're interested in a try. I was curious about what would happen if I tried upgrading a regular Windows 10 Home 64 install [in a VM], that itself was an upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium 64, to the new Insider Build 10565 now that an ISO had been released. I fired up that win10 VM, ran setup from the ISO, & with 2 hiccups it worked. I don't know if or how posting the results might be useful, but in the interest of adding to the public knowledge re: win10, here they are...

   The way you're supposed to do it is associate win10 with a Microsoft account when you install it, though that is optional. Then you can sign in to that account & join the Insider program, & then install whatever preview build, again associating it with that same account. In that copy of 10's Advanced Update settings you select either the Fast or Slow ring -- Fast gives you more frequent upgrades -- but in either ring when an upgrade is pushed out you cannot ignore it. You're supposed to be able to pause or stop your participation in the Insider program, leaving the installed build intact.

   I didn't want this copy of 10 associated with Any account, nor did I want it to be part of the Insider program. *Maybe* because there was never a Microsoft account associated with this copy of Windows, win10 setup froze when it got to the screen where you enter your Microsoft account data -- I had to reset [hard restart] 3 times before it would let me click Skip & proceed.

   The 2nd problem I expect will be an occasional annoyance... Because it was never set up with the Insider program, the part of the advanced upgrade settings where you select fast or slow rings simply says that it needs fixed, & in the half hour that I was running win10, Windows told me that it needed fixed a couple of times. The button is there to stop Insider builds, but it wouldn't work -- I don't know if that's a bug, or if because it was never set up for the Insider program, it can't leave the program.

   My original questions were how the 1st ISO since 10's RTM handled Windows' keys, Microsoft accounts, activation [particularly on a VHD for a VM], and potential drawbacks to upgrading a regular build to a Insider preview. The 2 problems noted were the only issues I encountered, so I consider those questions answered [using BTW the most expendable of my win10 installs]. I personally consider this sort of thing risky...

   *If* Insider builds continue to have hard coded expiration dates, which they may or may not, does stopping the updated builds leave you with a copy of win10 that will expire? If your copy of 10 is tied to a Microsoft account, & maybe if it isn't, *If* something goes wrong & you lose activation, can you get it back? Will the upcoming major update work with the preview builds, & if so, will the result be the same as regular win10 installs. If not, will there be a preview build that achieves parity, e.g. the prior Insider preview ISO was essentially the RTM?

   microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewiso

   Posted 9 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Again, just posting info so it's here in case it does anyone any good at any time...

   There's sometimes a difference between what Microsoft says & how things work [unrelated to bugs that is].

   Installed the latest Insider build of 10 on a PC that had never seen 10 before, using a Microsoft account that had joined the Insider program. It wouldn't activate... I had thought that maybe it would based on prior experience, but Microsoft has apparently tightened things up a bit. [Apparently they feel their supply of willing guinea pigs is sufficient.] Even though it was not activated 10 seemed fully functional, & the only warning Windows gave was that occasionally it would bother [nag] me.

   Using the ISO burned to DVD, 10's setup would not acknowledge Vista -- Microsoft has published that you couldn't upgrade from Vista -> 10 the way you can with 7 & 8, but the 32 bit setup wouldn't even run in Vista, saying you had to boot to the setup DVD/USB stick.

   I was able to activate this fresh install of 10 using the win8 license key for the copy of 8.1 that was installed on another partition. The language Microsoft uses, saying that you can enter the key of an *activated* copy of 7 or 8, led me to believe that this attempt at activation would fail... 8.1 had been installed, but soon forgotten, & had not been fired up for years, during which the PC had been upgraded -- I had fully expected that we'd have to call & get 8.1 reactivated.

   I was also both surprised & relieved that I could freshly install 10 to an empty partition & have it activate the way it did. Ed Bott [ZDNet] had written how he had tested 10's new ability to work with keys from 7/8, but he had done so using the drive & machine that had 7/8 installed. [I haven't read of anyone else doing that testing.]

   I had hoped [& guessed] that Microsoft would eventually allow the use of earlier keys, like they did with 8.1, but that option wasn't available when I upgraded my licensed copy of 7 HP 64 in a VM. At the time I couldn't move that copy of 10 to another VHD [Virtual Hard Disk] without losing its activation, which meant a bit of extra work getting 7 & 10 both working in the same VM. Being able to install 10 fresh to an empty partition eliminates that hassle.

   As importantly, installing 10 that way leaves the earlier version of Windows intact. It's long been understood that when you upgrade software you should plan on losing the prior license, though in my experience this is seldom enforced. I didn't know whether Microsoft will reactivate a copy of 7 or 8 once you've upgraded that copy to 10 -- it will keep its activation, but once you change hardware would it be possible to reactivate? It now looks like Microsoft may be letting you keep that older version of Windows...

   Microsoft has published repeatedly that the license for a free upgrade to 10 was good for the *original life of the hardware*. From what others have posted that's apparently strictly enforced, as replacing faulty components like a hard drive deactivated 10. Allegedly when they called, Microsoft's reps said to reinstall their old version of Windows or buy a new license for 10. That's bad news if they're being that strict, good news as that would mean your old license is completely in effect forever.

   So providing you have the disk space [or maybe a drive you can swap into a laptop etc.], it seems it would make sense to install 10 to a clean disk partition. If your system needed to be repaired, having your old Windows installation handy would be a lot easier than reinstalling it fresh, not to mention cheaper than having to buy a new license for 10. If you didn't/don't like 10, your old copy of Windows is right there. And if you didn't want to upgrade to 10, or just weren't ready, you could still claim your free license in case you wanted it in the future.

   Posted 9 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.