Home Forums Discussions General Discussion windows 10 upgrade.

Sandeep answered my question in the shoutchat box. thanks

I upgraded a client computer from windows 7 to 10 without problems. Sandeep's concern about database probably applies only to the main computer ( ours is a peer to peer network) ? The client computer I upgraded is 7 years old but working well without performance issues.

My dilemma is this for the main computer-buy a new windows 10 or upgrade the 7 machine? the main computer I have is only 3 years old and has i7-7000 , 32 g ram. 500G ssd and 1Tb 7200 drive built in, a Lenovo thinkcenter.

I thank all for insightful discussions and help over the years (especially Sandeep for his technical prowess).
I may appear to be a new member but i lost my previous credentials!

Hi cholan,

I think some of the issues you are wondering about are similar to those in this thread

https://acusersforum.com/ub/ubbthreads.php/topics/74303/windows-7#Post74303

I have upgraded a few of our client computers from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro using the free upgrade, no problems so far.

I was actually somewhat heartened to hear that Bert is using a server that is about 9 years old. Some rudimentary research that I did seem to indicate that the most common failure items, by far, as computers age are hard drives and power supplies. I have swapped out several hard drives on older PCs, and I keep spare power supplies around.

So I feel much better about older hardware.

Since you are talking about your main computer, I personally would be a little chicken about upgrading it. What would happen if, for whatever reason, the upgrade failed? Do you have a "plan B" to keep you up and running if this turned into a disaster?

I think I would purchase a new Windows 10 machine, install amazing charts on it, get AC support to credential it, all the while having the current main computer as a backup.

Then, if all was well after a few weeks, the old main computer would be a really, really nice computer for someone. (Presumably you)

Good luck whatever you decide!

Gene

Thank You, Doc Gene!
your suggestion is the better option.

If you go with Windows 10, make sure you don't get the home edition. Change the update settings to block feature updates for 365 days. Good for all computers in the office really.

If you're comfortable installing windows/replacing minor components here and there, keep on using those old machines. As long as you're not losing any data if they go down, I wouldn't worry about it. Like if you know how install an SSD, you could always do that with your main computer for the upgrade. If it doesn't take, switch back to the old/untouched drives.

SandyBridge machines are still very capable today (released 2011). i5-2500/i3-2100. Processors are getting cheaper and more capable as well thanks to AMD getting back in the game.

What a great idea! I think I will swap the 500 g SSD to 1Tb SSD with windows 10. If it does not work, as Sandeep suggests,I will put the old SSD back and get a new machine!

I have been replacing the older drives with SSDs without problems in other machines. The one thing I have not had to replace is the power module. I do not know how difficult it will be.

It is interesting you suggest to block updates for 365 days. I have been faithfully updating my 10 computers every month!

Thank you for your suggestions.

Hi cholan,

If you can swap a hard drive then swapping a power supply should be no problem. 4 screws and a lot of connectors.

But it has to fit. A full size power supply may not fit in a smaller case.

And, yeah, Sandeep usually does have great ideas.....

Gene

Ha, I was specifically referring to feature updates. Feature updates basically update the entire operating system to a new version. Windows 10 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, etc. You don't want to be the beta tester for Windows... Things can break, AC might need to be re-credentialed. Windows 10 Home is basically Windows 10 Beta now.

Windows 10 October update problems: Wiped docs, plus Intel driver warning

thanks Sandeep. I understand now.

Thank you Doc Gene for your encouraging words!

Sandeep, does blocking Win 10 feature updates increase our risk of security issues?
Is there any significant downside of doing so? The actual "features" that change seem to be negligible. (We regularly hear how an update broke something; when was the last time sometime described a terrific new "feature" with an automatic feature update?

No feature updates are just that. They add new features. Most of the features are kind of cool things. Like the Windows Sandbox feature in 1903 is basically a mini VM for opening sketchy stuff. Don't expect any game changers. There's a reason why Windows 10 is the "last" version of Windows. People are pretty happy with what they have and aren't really looking to upgrade.

By disabling feature updates, you just get security updates and bug fixes.

Is the free upgrade still available for Windows 7 Pro?

I successfully upgraded my Win7Pro computers to 10 Pro with free upgrade years ago but no longer can find it on Microsoft website.

I can answer this.
If you took advantage of the free upgrade to win 10 during the availability.
Then you can., if it is the same pc.
If not it will be hit or miss,
You need to install the microsoft media creator tool then download win 10 built in to the app.
Then select the similar version you had before.
When prompted for a license. elect I don't have one.
That is because your first time it was saved as a digital copy.
I will look for a guide.
Here is one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUX7sQeOkg
another is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdNL-pvvXH4

It takes a lot longer than the video.

Hi Dino,

This is from an older post about the w7-to-w10 upgrade with a link:

Page describing the free Microsoft w7-to-w10 in-place upgrade:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

The link shown on that page was live just now on 2019-08-07:

https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10

As the page explains, the upgrade is fairly easy and automatic, but something tedious to do on a weekend.

Expect lots of updates and restarts.

Preserves your logons and programs, sometimes complains but updates hardware drivers.

Never hurts to have your original W7 key, either from a sticker or from a key-finding utility.

An image backup from something like the free AOMEI program is also reassuring.

It's worked on a few dozen systems for me, mostly Dells and HP's.

Don't expect the machine to be any faster.

Hi all,

We upgraded 4 more PCs over the weekend, using links in Carl's note above. 3 went flawlessly, one reverted back to Win 7 and I have not fooled with it further.

We will have to upgrade PaperPort and QuickBooks before updating to Win 10 on several other PCs.

Gene

Upgraded 2 more PCs from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro using the above free method (Thanks for the tips). it takes FOREVER, like 6 hours. All that is left in my office to upgrade is the main computer. I seem to remember that database may have to be recredentialed by Amazing Charts so will wait till a Thursday night to do .

Thanks for the update.. I have a few more client computers to go! Let us know how the main computer upgrade went!

Re: "I seem to remember that database may have to be recredentialed by Amazing Charts so will wait till a Thursday night to do ."

If one is upgrading a machine already credentialed for AC to Win 10, would it have to be re-credentialed?

I guess it all depends on if during the upgrade you opt for a microsoft account if you did not use one before.
If you switch to a microsoft account it will change your existing credentials.
But you should be able to add extra credentials per site in
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Credential Manager
It is about clear as mud on the screen on what to do but it does work..

hello KenP,

would you care to post your experience in updating Amazing charts main computer to windows 10?
thanks

cholan,
Have not upgraded the main computer to Windows 10 yet. Waiting for courage...

windows sever 2019 was based on windows 10 version 1809.

so maybe pick that? consider avoiding the the "lastest" 1903 or forthcoming 1910. the newest versions tend to break things and slowly get patched. keep a backup so you can revert to 7 or 8.1 in case 10 doesn't like your hardware.

then setup the computer to delay feature updates as long as possible. you don't want you main computer randomly updating drivers and rebooting as win 10 is prone to do.

carlfogel says "Preserves your logons and programs"... I still find it hard to believe that would require "recredentialling" by AC, but I understand your reluctance, Ken.
Someone has to have the courage to go first....

This may be the way to go. Sandeep had posted this earlier, I had already done this to a few PCs.

Clone the hard drive (this would be a perfect time to upgrade to solid state drive, BIG improvement in speed.) Then install and use the new SSD, and update that to Win 10. If anything goes wrong, just pull the new SSD and reinstall the old hard drive, and you have not lost anything....besides a few hours....

Gene

I can only provide my experience with upgrading to a ssd os drive.
Yes far more performance.
But at the time I was on windows 7. with a older motherboard and bios.
The pc would not boot even though in bios I set it to AHCI (required for a SSD).
The reason was when windows was installed prior to the new drive, a windows driver was missing to use a SSD.
So bottom line I had to do a fresh install of windows 7.
Even after setting bios to AHCI.

I now have newer pc's and I just automatically set the bios setting to AHCI and run the win 10 install after.

Even though we think a ssd is far faster than a spinning drive.
Try a M.2 ssd card if your mother board supports it.
It uses two sata channels instead of the pci bus.
Much much faster.
But two sata channels means two sata ports used.
That hurts a bit.

Upgraded the Main Computer (hosting the Amazing Charts V 10.0.1 database) from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro without issues. It took 2 hours but there were no problems. Amazing Charts works. Updox works. Network works. Didn't need any database re-credentialing. My spouse jokes I must have done something wrong!

I just downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation tool direct to the main computer and ran it.
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
It installed a fully licensed Windows 10 Pro using a "digital license" (did not have to buy additional license).

Thanks to all for the helpful advice.

Thank you for the update.It is reassuring. I have completed upgrading all client computers (with minor issues ) without much difficulty over the last month. Now I am ready to do the main computer.

Ten of 11 computers updated with windows 10-minor glitches with amd graphics driver, MBR not enough, diplayextender not updated-
Amazing charts workstation upgraded without issues, did not need to recredential.

So, having some extra time at home recently, I’ve been cleaning up a bit. I have several old computers that have been sitting around unused. They are all Lenovo business machines I3s running Windows 7 pro. I thought just for fun that I would see if they can be updated to Windows 10. It would not be bad to have extra up-to-date computers around.

I tried an old Lenovo think center desktop. It may have started life as windows XP and been upgraded to windows 7, I can’t remember for sure, it’s probably 10 years old, but runs fine since it has added RAM and a newer SSD. I tried three times to install windows 10, along the way updating drivers, doing a repair installation of Windows 7 etc. but it would not update. It always failed at first boot.

I am updating a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop now. It’s probably seven years old but appears to be updating without problems.

I am just curious, since I know there are many on here who have upgraded a large number of computers, is there any way to know in advance if a computer will be upgradable? Any specific features in the configuration which would make it a nonstarter for Win 10?

Hi Donna,

Over the last several years I have probably upgraded about 25 computers from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro. It surprised me, probably about 80% of the time things went very very smoothly.

When that was not the case, I found what worked best was reinstall Windows 7 Pro, then do the Windows 10 upgrade. I am not sure whether repair of Windows 7 would accomplish this.

I suspect that if any of the machines were originally Windows XP, that would prevent the free upgrade. If the Windows 7 had been a licensed copy, this probably would not be an issue.

Hopefully one of the board members more knowledgeable than I will comment.

Gene

Thanks, Gene. Win 7 would have been licensed. I bought licenses to upgrade XP.

Interestingly enough, the laptop that I upgraded to windows 10 went fine even though I know it had some kind of corruption in the Windows 7 system which had caused me to stop using it some years ago.

Have you tried just downloading Windows 10 iso and reinstalling from scratch? Just wipe the whole drive.

With this approach I do not think you would be able to use the free upgrade….I am cheap, what can I say….

Gene

No, I did not wipe it, wanted to keep programs.It is not an essential machine, not worth the time to set it up from scratch. If I can upgrade it, great, but if not, I’m just taking it offline. I was doing it more as an experiment to see if a machine this old could be upgraded to windows 10. I found its label, it actually started as a vista machine which was then upgraded to Windows 7. Thanks for chiming in, Bert.

Well, if you had a Windows 10 disk or .iso which has Pro on it, if you have the license, you could install it and keep your programs. Just a thought. I get you.

Don't listen to Gene. We once had lunch together and he paid for it, but he wouldn't let me get cheese on my burger. Too expensive.

You can get the windows 10 media creation tool to get the disk: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

There are a number of places that have inexpensive licenses, the legality may be questionable however.

You could take the old system, make a virtual disk and load it on the windows 10 machine you have just created
To make the virtual machine you would need disk2vhd, a free program from microsoft
To set up virtual system you may need to install hyper-v onto windows 10 pro (doesn't come with home)
Then you can create a new virtual machine using the .vhd file you created in disk2vhd.
This can be done with virtualbox as well if you chose to use that. It seems easier to set up at first but hyper-v is more flexible.

Now about that cheese, he was just looking out for your cholesterol

That's what I thought! Until he tipped the waiter $1.50. Hell, don't leave a tip and give me my cheese.

We use AC 8.3 and that doesn't play nicely with Windows 10 (the server part anyway, the clients are fine). I just recently purchased a couple of laptops running Windows 7 in case Microsoft did something unexpected to Windows 10 and AC wouldn't run on it at all. Much to my horror, it appears the AC 8.3 installer no longer functions, as it has a dependency on obtaining a remote file from SAP for Crystal reports runtime. This is apparently not available anymore, so the entire installation fails.
Fortunately, I had previously had the foresight to install AC on a Windows 7 virtual machine for VMware fusion, so in the future if I have to run AC on Windows 7 on a new computer we can certainly just clone that. Otherwise we would be stuck, obviously.

remember having problems trying to install previous versions of AC on Windows 10 had to go into Windows features and click box to have net framework 3.5 active