update to Win 10, a war story
I have a few tiny computers with Windows 8.x. They came with 2G of RAM and 32G of m.2 SATA SSDs. (A raft of systems were produced with these specs since the Windows licensing fees were essentially waived when these limits were observed.) 2G RAM + 32G HDD is actually a useful size for normal Linux distros. But there's not enough room for dual booting with Windows. I wanted to update to Windows 10 (1) before the deadline for free updates (2) because I could then wipe Windows and install linux without losing the ability to go back to licensed Windows. Note that the Windows 10 license authentication is based on Microsoft cloud records but previous versions require a magic code (that is no longer printed on the device) (I recently found out that it is in the ROM of these machines and can be discovered from Linux). For the life of me, I could not get one of the machines to update. The update process kept making disk demands that were impossible to fulfill on a 32G disk. I've been trying off and on for months. I've spent a couple of hours on the phone with HP and Microsoft support. I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update. There was NO hint of this in any of the diagnostics. None of the support folks brought it up. Sheesh. Every time I muck with Windows I find new reasons not to touch it.
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 11:23:10AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update.
(Trimmed and bottom posting to accommodate business-handicapped people in the list...) I noticed that Windows sets aside 2 x RAM for Page File (swapfile). Does that mean your machine was setting aside 16G swapfile? -- William
On 04/09/2016 11:23 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update.
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too. 1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would be overly optimistic. ;-)
| From: William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> | On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 11:23:10AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote: | > I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the | > machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update. | I noticed that Windows sets aside 2 x RAM for Page File (swapfile). | Does that mean your machine was setting aside 16G swapfile? I think something like that must be going on. But not exactly. When I found the swap file size (at rest, without running the Win10 update program), it was miniscule. | From: James Knott <james.knott@rogers.com> | I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my | notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, | this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer | worked for me too. But my problem was the opposite: I had to REMOVE RAM to make the update work.
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 01:29:45PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too.
Except the solution here was to remove memory, not add memory.
1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would be overly optimistic. ;-)
-- Len Sorensen
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 01:29:45PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too. Except the solution here was to remove memory, not add memory.
1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would be overly optimistic. ;-) I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite
On 04/09/2016 03:58 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote: the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently. Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed. Any thoughts? John.
On 04/10/2016 09:40 AM, John Moniz wrote:
On 04/09/2016 03:58 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 01:29:45PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too. Except the solution here was to remove memory, not add memory.
1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would be overly optimistic. ;-) I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently.
Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed.
Any thoughts?
Are you running any software that might not work with W10? Don't forget Windows 7 support has already ended with security support ending July 2017, IIRC. I'm not to keen on W10 either, but expect I'll update before the free update ends. BTW, you might want to install something like Classic Shell, to get rid of that gawd awful W10 user interface. http://www.classicshell.net/
On 04/10/2016 09:53 AM, James Knott wrote:
On 04/10/2016 09:40 AM, John Moniz wrote:
On 04/09/2016 03:58 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote: I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently. Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed. Any thoughts? Are you running any software that might not work with W10? Don't forget Windows 7 support has already ended with security support ending July 2017, IIRC.
I'm not to keen on W10 either, but expect I'll update before the free update ends.
BTW, you might want to install something like Classic Shell, to get rid of that gawd awful W10 user interface. http://www.classicshell.net/ --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk I don't think I have any problem software. I was worried about GNUCash but just checked and W10 is listed.
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 09:40:30AM -0400, John Moniz wrote:
I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently.
Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed.
Any thoughts?
You can do the upgrade, then play with a few days, then revert the upgrade (which you can do within 30 days) and then you can upgrade (or even do a fresh install) later for free. As long as you do the upgrade once during the free upgrade window you get the upgrade forever on that machine, including fresh installs (the first time has to be an upgrade though). -- Len Sorensen
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 9:40 AM, John Moniz <john.moniz@sympatico.ca> wrote:
On 04/09/2016 03:58 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 01:29:45PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too.
Except the solution here was to remove memory, not add memory.
1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would
be overly optimistic. ;-)
I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently.
Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed.
Any thoughts?
I also have a Windows laptop purchased just to run an Access application. It came with Windows 8, and one day I got a pop-up that it had downloaded everything that it needed to install Windows 10. Since there's nothing particularly valuable on this laptop, I shrugged and told windows to go ahead. The upgrade went smoothly -- the interface looks a little different, otherwise it works fine. What did disturb me a little while after that, was booting up my computer to get the message Everything is fine / All your files are exactly where you left them .. With fear in my heart, I worried that my laptop had been trashed and all of the files locked by some ransomware (not a big deal, but pretty damned inconvenient). So much for the "Trust me, I'm an engineer, I know what I'm doing." bravado. It turned out that it was some stupid update from Microsoft [1] for some desktop search functionality (OK -- it's Cortana, a personal assistant). Nice idea, but a ridiculously, horrifically bad installation implementation. Alex 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/3x88yj/all_your_files_are_where_yo... -- Alex Beamish VP Membership, Toronto Northern Lights, 2013 Champions / www.northernlightschorus.com Candidate Contest Administrator, Barbershop Harmony Society / www.barbershop.org
On 04/10/2016 04:38 PM, Alex Beamish wrote:
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 9:40 AM, John Moniz <john.moniz@sympatico.ca <mailto:john.moniz@sympatico.ca>> wrote:
On 04/09/2016 03:58 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 01:29:45PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
I had similar when updating¹ the W10 version in a virtual machine on my notebook computer. The update failed for no apparent reason. Also, this was a W10 to W10 update. Putting more memory in the computer worked for me too.
Except the solution here was to remove memory, not add memory.
1) I say updating, as calling anything from Microsoft an upgrade would be overly optimistic. ;-)
I have a laptop for a particular application that has to use MS windows. It is now running on Win7. I've been resisting the move to W10, despite the constant nagging of the MS 'helpful' notices. This is a production computer and interfaces with the government frequently.
Should I bite the bullet and switch to W10? I'm afraid the government might force me switch some day, and it'll surely be after the free switchover window is closed.
Any thoughts?
I also have a Windows laptop purchased just to run an Access application. It came with Windows 8, and one day I got a pop-up that it had downloaded everything that it needed to install Windows 10. Since there's nothing particularly valuable on this laptop, I shrugged and told windows to go ahead. The upgrade went smoothly -- the interface looks a little different, otherwise it works fine.
What did disturb me a little while after that, was booting up my computer to get the message
Everything is fine / All your files are exactly where you left them ..
With fear in my heart, I worried that my laptop had been trashed and all of the files locked by some ransomware (not a big deal, but pretty damned inconvenient). So much for the "Trust me, I'm an engineer, I know what I'm doing." bravado.
It turned out that it was some stupid update from Microsoft [1] for some desktop search functionality (OK -- it's Cortana, a personal assistant). Nice idea, but a ridiculously, horrifically bad installation implementation.
Alex
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/3x88yj/all_your_files_are_where_yo...
-- Alex Beamish
I imagine you had the same feeling as one would if a flight attendant announced that everything is fine, nothing to worry about. :-)
On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 11:23:10AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
I have a few tiny computers with Windows 8.x. They came with 2G of RAM and 32G of m.2 SATA SSDs. (A raft of systems were produced with these specs since the Windows licensing fees were essentially waived when these limits were observed.)
2G RAM + 32G HDD is actually a useful size for normal Linux distros. But there's not enough room for dual booting with Windows.
I wanted to update to Windows 10
(1) before the deadline for free updates
(2) because I could then wipe Windows and install linux without losing the ability to go back to licensed Windows. Note that the Windows 10 license authentication is based on Microsoft cloud records but previous versions require a magic code (that is no longer printed on the device) (I recently found out that it is in the ROM of these machines and can be discovered from Linux).
For the life of me, I could not get one of the machines to update. The update process kept making disk demands that were impossible to fulfill on a 32G disk. I've been trying off and on for months. I've spent a couple of hours on the phone with HP and Microsoft support.
I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update.
There was NO hint of this in any of the diagnostics. None of the support folks brought it up.
Sheesh. Every time I muck with Windows I find new reasons not to touch it.
I wonder if the extra ram meant the default pagefile size got much bigger in order to allow hibernation. -- Len Sorensen
On 9 Apr 2016 at 11:23, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
I wanted to update to Windows 10
(1) before the deadline for free updates
(2) because I could then wipe Windows and install linux without losing the ability to go back to licensed Windows. Note that the Windows 10 license authentication is based on Microsoft cloud records but previous versions require a magic code (that is no longer printed on the device) (I recently found out that it is in the ROM of these machines and can be discovered from Linux).
How much of this was because of (3) Got sick of Windows status icon nagging you to do the upgrade. I stayed with W7 because there would be a ton of work in also upgrading the drivers to my laptop. I may cave in at some point, but only when I have time. Paul
On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 11:19:57PM -0400, Paul King wrote:
How much of this was because of
(3) Got sick of Windows status icon nagging you to do the upgrade.
I stayed with W7 because there would be a ton of work in also upgrading the drivers to my laptop. I may cave in at some point, but only when I have time.
Depends on the laptop. My thinkpad was a non issue and just worked. -- Len Sorensen
participants (8)
-
Alex Beamish -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
James Knott -
John Moniz -
Lennart Sorensen -
Loui Chang -
Paul King -
William Park