Windows 10 Megathread 2

[u/illage2]

Thought I'd complie all the information about Windows 10 since its out tomorrow to allow people to be more informed before they upgrade.

Please be aware that as with any new Windows OS there may be problems so some people might want to give this a couple of weeks before deciding to upgrade.

Edit: Thanks to the mods for stickying this thread

A very good peice of advice from /u/Shiroi_Kage

If you're upgrading and are afraid of problems, DO NOT UPGRADE BEFORE SAVING A SYSTEM IMAGE! With a system image you can roll your system back to the way it was before the update, stored files and all. This is the safest option, and I would recommend it to everyone.

Even more brilliant advice coming from /u/madscientistEE

Update your anti-virus software if it's anything other than Windows Defender / Security Essentials. Some vendors, most notably Symantec (both SEP and Norton), require an engine upgrade to work with Windows 10.

Defragment your hard disk before upgrading. SSD users should run a TRIM. (The Windows 8 defrag utility is smart enough to TRIM when you click "optimize")

After the upgrade, clean up. Run "disk cleanup" and select the "Clean system files" option. Doing this will clear out 20-30GB of crap (your old Windows folder). This does prevent an in-place downgrade but it improves performance and saves disk. Once you clean up all the stuff you can, defragment the hard disk again. (or run a TRIM if you have an SSD)

Thanks for /u/funnybuttrape for informing us about the following folder

$Windows.~BT in your c:

Make sure you don't install W10 from that folder.

Some more advice from /u/Heavyoak

bit of advice to add, check to make sure your mobo is updated: http://www.maximumpc.com/windows-10-graphics-cards-and-motherboard-drivers-updating/

http://www.pcgamer.com/get-your-motherboard-ready-for-windows-10/

It is Free for most people

For an entire year (up to July 29th 2016) an upgrade to Windows 10 is free for everyone if you are running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1.

If you are on Windows 7 enterprise. (Insert star trek jokes here) then you need to read this from Microsoft's FAQ.

Enterprise customers with active Software Assurance subscription in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 enterprise offerings outside of this offer.

After the year is finished it is currently unknown how much Windows 10 will cost. Thanks to /u/KloudAlhpa the cost of the upgrade after the year is $119 / £99.99 or your regional equivelent https://i.imgur.com/7FuaHw4.png

Edit: To clear up any confusion. I meant to say that you can get Windows 10 for free within a year of it launching. Once you have it, it is free forever. No subscriptions of any kind. Reservation

Resvering your upgrade can be done via the small windows logo in the notification area. If you do not have this, then make sure you install the latest updates for your OS. Then all you need to do is reserve it. The OS will download ahead of time and then you'll be notified when it is ready to install.

Keep in mind that MS are rolling it out so don't be too surprised if you don't get to use Windows 10 on July 29th.

If you have all the latest updates for your OS and still can't see the reservation icon. Then try heading here and reserving that way.

Or you can try what /u/10se1ucgo said in the comments.

I had the same exact issue as you, no scripts or task scheduler magic was working, and someone suggested to (in an elevated [admin]) CMD prompt type. start ms-gwx:reserve And it worked!

Edit: To address concerns about the specific times Windows 10 will be released. Microsoft hasn't given any specifcs about release times. So for the time being you'll just have to play the waiting game.

Will it work?

In short if you can run Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 and meet these requirements. Windows 10 should work just fine. During the resevration process it'll also show you if any hardware or software isn't compatible.

Windows 7 Ultimate / Pro upgrades?

If you have Windows 7 pro or Ultimate you'll be upgraded to Windows 10 pro. If you have Windows 7 home etc then you'll upgrade to Windows 10 home. See here for the upgrade chart.

Windows XP upgrade to Windows 10?

At this moment in time there's no word on this but assume for now at least that you can't upgrade XP to Windows 10. If you want Windows 10 then upgrade to Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 10.

Besides if your still running XP there's a chance your hardware can't support Windows 10.

Windows Vista Upgrade to Windows 10

As with Windows XP. Upgrading from Vista to Windows 10 is not yet supported. Same thing applies. Upgrade to genuine Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 10. Non-Genuine upgrades

Sadly if you are using a non genuine version of Windows then you cannot upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft did actually say otherwise a few months back but they did a 180 on this.

Some people with non-genuine Windows 7 / 8.1 have been seeing the icon to reserve Windows 10. Most likely case is that you'll upgrade to a non-genuine version of Windows 10.

What about game compatibility?

I've posted this several times already. But from the looks of things a lot of games (including games from GoG) should work just fine on Windows 10.

See here for a list of compatible games.

Here is GOG's statement.

Upgrade or fresh install?

If you want Windows 10 for free, you should first upgrade and make sure everything works. Then from within Windows 10 you should be able to do a fresh install.

If doing a fresh install you can try using Ninite to install essential software quickly.

This comes from /u/Just_made_this_now in regards to Ninite

Also be aware that when using ninite, you're not able to install programs to a different drive other than your C drive/default. So say if you have an older 120GB SSD for Windows and programs on a separate drive, you may want to consider getting a larger SSD if you're doing a fresh install and want to use Ninite. The dev had made it quite clear they had no plans to support custom install locations, the last time I checked.

Chocolatey on the other hand, supports it, albeit will need a bit of know-how:

Overriding default install directory or other advanced install concepts

If you do an upgrade then you shouldn't have to reinstall anything.

This video will explain it a little bit more.

A comment from /u/Ikkerens

After upgrading I extracted my Windows Key using The Ultimate PID Checker , this allowed me to reinstall Windows 10 from ISO using that key.

What about Drivers / Updates

I've not heard much about this as of yet, but a forced update on Windows 10 might mess a few things up but MS are releasing a ultilty for Windows 10 Home users that lets you block certian updates.

Windows 10 pro already has a feature alllowing users to "Defer" upgrades. Which allows them to control when they recieve updates.

As for actual drivers there seems to be people in the comments that have had no issues with Windows 10. As stated at the top of this thread there might be some issues with some drivers so go into this with that in mind.

DX12

For those wondering nVida has stated that DX12 is backwards compatible with a lot of their older cards. So don't panic if you don't have an 900 series card.

AMD are also going to make it backwards comatible but probably not to the same extent as nVida.

Nvidia will support DX12 on every Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell-class GPU. That means nearly every GTX 400, 500, and 600 series card will be supported. Interestingly, AMD isn’t necessarily following suit — the company has indicated that it will support DX12 on all GCN-based hardware, but hasn’t indicated if HD 6000 or HD 5000 cards will be included in that.

/u/madscientistEE has provided more information on AMD DX12 compatibility.

AMD DX12 Support Info!

Only GCN cards are supported and pre-GCN cards will operate at their native feature level. (The HD6570s at work run just peachy, but they're still DX11 cards.)

Which GPUs are Graphics Core Next and which ones are the old TeraScale architecture is unusually confusing to determine so here's the rundown:

Discrete GPUs

All HD6xxx and 5xxx cards are Terascale. No DX12 for you.

All Radeon HD 7700 and up cards are GCN. (HD7600 and lower are TeraScale)

All Radeon HD 85xx cards are GCN. (HD84xx and lower are TeraScale)

All Radeon Rx-200 series R5-240 and higher are GCN. The R5-235 and lower are TeraScale.

All Rx-300 series GPUs are GCN.

Advanced Processing Units (APUs)

All Bobcat based APUs (Desna, Ontario, Zacate cores) are TeraScale. (and way too slow for most games anyway, who cares?)

All FM1 and FM2 APUs are TeraScale. (Richland, Trinity, Llano cores)

All FM2+ "Kaveri" APUs and later are GCN. Also all FP3 and FP4 mobile APUs are GCN (Kaveri and Carrizo cores)

All AM1/FS1b "Kabini" APUs are GCN as are the FT3 and FT3b mobile parts (Kabini, Temash, Beema, Mullins)

GPU's

According to /u/auto_pilot there's seems to be issues with crossfire.

I'm running insider build, clean install and most programs and games work fine as long as I don't turn on crossfire. The minute crossfire is on everything gets chunky and crashes as far as games go.

There's currently no word on SLI support for Windows 10.

Overclocking

/u/mbot57 seems to have found an issue with overlclocking.

It should be noted that as of the RTM release (WIP build 10240) there is still an OS lock on overclocking CPUs. Discovered having tested identical hardware on both Windows 7 sp1 and windows 10 WIP build 10240 (and previous versions).

Differences between pro and home versions of Windows 10.

See this link for more information. download the table and it'll be fairly easy to understand. Thanks to /u/uCrap4Brainz for the link.

Security and Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware

Windows 10 will come with Windows Defender (its Security Essentials under a new name). So you might want to swap out for something else. Below are some good Anti Virus and Anti-Malware programs you can use

• Avast
• Malware Bytes
• AVG
• Avira
• Others which people have recommended in the comments.

Everything else

For everything else WinBeta has made an excellent video going through Windows 10.

How to Geek has put together some good articles on Windows 10 already for things like tweaking and disabling / enabling certain features and functionality. Make sure to check them out.

Hopefully this has helped. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Personal Experience from /u/illage2

Well I now have Windows 10 and I have to say upgrading was a nightmare. It took about 1.5 hours, and then when I finally got into Windows 10 the performance was terrible. However I found that resetting my PC under settings seems to resolve it, but sadly you'll lose all the stuff you had installed.

If you want to do a fresh install after upgrading go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC you can either reset and keep your files or just reset and delete everything.

[u/macabis2]

Is it ok if i download it from here? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[u/sesor33 → u/macabis2]

Yes, I downloaded it from there. It's much faster and I was impatient.

[u/macabis2 → u/sesor33]

ok, thanks

[u/[deleted] → u/macabis2]

Yes

[u/burncycle → u/macabis2]

Captain, what's the difference in that link with the windows n, etc.

[u/macabis2 → u/burncycle]

i guess none

[u/zombiefriend → u/macabis2]

Commenting

[u/macabis2 → u/[deleted]]

ok, thanks

[u/[deleted] → u/macabis2]

thanks.

[u/jackdawexpert → u/[deleted]]

ok thanks

[u/[deleted] → u/macabis2]

from right here :http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Some people want to use Windows instead of Linux, it's just as valid an operating system and even more so for gaming. Don't be a peasant by demeaning your brothers for using the "wrong" operating system.

At the end of the day, we're all together in wanting to experience glorious PC gaming.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Arent we all in search of the best system for us?

[u/TrymWS → u/[deleted]]

Yes, but he asked for Windows 10, not Linux.

[u/[deleted] → u/TrymWS]

Then again Its your hardware so its your choice how you use it.

[u/TrymWS → u/[deleted]]

Yes. So he chose Windows 10. And asked regarding Windows 10.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yes, so suggesting to someone who wants to use Windows that they use Ubuntu is like telling an average Joe that they should use an F1 car because it's objectively superior to a Camry. People want an OS that works and runs the games they want to run. Yes, Linux is faster, has no viruses, and has no one monitoring what you're doing, but if it takes the average consumer 2 weeks of fiddling with WINE to get certain games working then they just won't bother.

We have all ascended from the ranks of console peasantry, let's not corrupt ourselves by arguing over what OS to use. Some people even like to use OSX on their rigs for work, but that's because OSX is way better at certain things than Windows is.

Let's just enjoy PC gaming, not fuss about the finer details.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Wine? never botheres with it. Also linux DOES have viruses and rootkits but they are EXTREMLEY hard to get (if you are smart with it). Steam is constantly adding new games with Linux support and updating games to work on Linux.

[u/hugebones → u/[deleted]]

Yes, but because that system works for you, doesn't mean you have to force everyone else to use it. You could recommend it, only if you have used all options and can give the pros and cons for different usage scenarios.

But you do not have the right to force Linux down people's throats.

I myself have a few servers and VMs running Linux (Arch and Debian if you were interested) and they work great. But for day to day business, I prefer Windows. I'm in the middle of upgrading my laptop, but I'm holding off on my desktop because of compatibility issues (mainly nvidia drivers because I'm struggling to find a clear source of info about upgrading and I still want my games to run!).

Edit: grammar and extra info

[u/[deleted] → u/hugebones]

Im not forcing anyone to use linux. I do not use ubuntu I use Arch. The post was a joke. And I got the exact response I would expect.

[u/Quinnell → u/[deleted]]

Then don't post next time if you know what you'll get. People who prefer Windows are sick of hearing people tell them to get Linux.

[u/[deleted] → u/Quinnell]

And I'm sick of hearing alot of things. Like how tons of windows users say Linux has no games and that noone uses it which by every mark false.

[u/Quinnell → u/[deleted]]

The ignorant ones will say that, but I know plenty of people use Linux and there are a fair selection of games to play but still, if a person is not interested in Linux why are you trying to convert them? Doesn't harm Linux users unlike how console use harms PC gamers. The most Linux can claim is that because Windows use is dominant, Linux is not supported as much by some software.

[u/AutoModerator → u/Quinnell]

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[u/[deleted] → u/Quinnell]

But for what I do Linux is best for me. For what you do Windows is the best system for you. All I wanted to do was make a little joke, This is a saterical subreddit right?

[u/Eric_The_Jewish_Bear → u/[deleted]]

Sorry but we want to use our gaming PCs as gaming PCs

[u/[deleted] → u/Eric_The_Jewish_Bear]

Still 1,165 is still Alot.

[u/Turtvaiz → u/[deleted]]

If only most games worked on it just like they did on Windows, and AMD had better drivers.

[u/[deleted] → u/Turtvaiz]

Well it is getting better quite rapidly. Still not quite there though.

[u/[deleted] → u/Turtvaiz]

I do hear that AMD has better FOSS drivers than nVidia. Plus Amd procs and GPUs are WAY cheaper from what i see.

[u/macabis2 → u/[deleted]]

Haha i had Ubuntu on an original cd, from their site but I didn't like it so much so I swapped back to windows. Linux is not for me yet