Already confused by the Windows 10 upgrade...



  • I want to do a clean install on my laptop, so I go to to the USB creation tool here:

    Running this, the first thing it asks me is which Edition to download: Home or Pro. ... my laptop doesn't seem to have any Edition at all of Windows 8.1, it just says "Windows 8.1."

    When I do the update, does it matter if the Edition isn't the same as the OS I'm updating from? Maybe I'm just overthinking this? I got it started downloading Pro in any case, but I can go back and do Home if that's what I need.



  • It's Home. Windows 8.1 Pro is called that, but Windows 8.1 Home is just called Windows 8.1.



  • Part 2 of the question: does it matter that the ISO I'm downloading is Pro? Do I still get the free upgrade, or does it need to be Home -> Home?



  • My poor laptop's sizzling like a fajita plate decompressing that archive.



  • Ha! You couldn't resist siren's call any longer.



  • My laptop holds no critical data or processes. Also no Nvidia cards. I could update it at any time. Today's just the first time I've had some free time.



  • Goddamned, it doesn't write the product key to the install media when you generate it? What's the point of using the damned tool then?

    Bah, now I have to dig out that product key.


  • BINNED

    I bet that is done in an Open Source tool just to annoy you, you know even Microsoft does open source some times :)



  • Pretty slick so far, but now I have to figure out how to activate it. I hope the Acer box this laptop came in has the product key, because it's not stickered on the bottom.



  • Hm. Not having any luck finding a OEM number...

    Anybody with a MSDN or DreamSpark sub have a spare key I can use to activate this laptop on Windows 10 Pro?



  • Hm, the tooltips off the system tray icons aren't scaled for the display. Maybe that'll work after I reboot.

    EDIT: Actually the scaling is all over the place. The UAC dialog wasn't scaled correctly either. I'm hoping this is due to it not booting with the updated video card driver.

    EDIT: As predicted, rebooting fixed all the scaling issues. Woot.



  • Don't know if this was the case for your laptop but a lot of Windows 8 machines came with a product key baked into the firmware of the machine, but it won't get updated from a Windows 8 key to a Windows 10 key unless you do the upgrade from what I read.

    But yes, this is probably the sketchiest release of Windows yet for inconsistent UI. It's all over the place.



  • @nexekho said:

    Don't know if this was the case for your laptop but a lot of Windows 8 machines came with a product key baked into the firmware of the machine, but it won't get updated from a Windows 8 key to a Windows 10 key unless you do the upgrade from what I read.

    Hm. Maybe?

    Well I know at least 2 people with DreamSpark accounts, so I can get a key as soon as one of them fuckers logs in.

    Or if anybody here has one, please PM me a key.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I hope the Acer box this laptop came in has the product key, because it's not stickered on the bottom.

    It's most likely programmed in. If the 10 installer didn't automatically find it, you should be able to get it by reading the MSDM ACPI table with RWEverything.

    Edit: This single-purpose tool looks slicker but I have not used it myself.



  • @flabdablet said:

    Edit: This single-purpose tool looks slicker but I have not used it myself.

    You can't download it without a Facebook account, haha. WTF. I don't even use have a Facebook account.

    People on this forum are really good at recommending shitty software.



  • FYI Windows 10 Home is cancer. You can't disable automatic updates and other "helpful" features. Because users are dumb and they are treating them like sheep. You need Windows 10 Pro to be back in control.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @flabdablet said:
    Edit: This single-purpose tool looks slicker but I have not used it myself.

    You can't download it without a Facebook account, haha. WTF. I don't even use have a Facebook account.

    People on this forum are really good at recommending shitty software.

    WTF? Are you confusing the Like button with a login? You can download without anything. Even asking for your email address is "optional" to fill in.
    http://i.imgur.com/Qv8N5Ze.png

    http://i.imgur.com/9l7oATL.png

    http://i.imgur.com/L55JS4c.png



  • Playing with that page a little, it appears that the white Download! button does nothing if you've blocked Javascript.

    As I said, I have not used that tool myself. I only linked to it as an act of kindness toward a fellow forum user with a history of difficulty in coming to grips with more general-purpose tools.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    People on this forum are really good at recommending shitty software

    like Windows 10



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Part 2 of the question: does it matter that the ISO I'm downloading is Pro? Do I still get the free upgrade, or does it need to be Home -> Home?

    As stated in Microsoft's FAQ, Home -> Home. If you want to go pro from there, you can get the Pro Pack for $99.



  • @delfinom said:

    WTF? Are you confusing the Like button with a login?

    No, because I am not a retard.

    It's a pretty fucking tiny font, but I put my face really close to the screen and saw:

    If that sentence happened to be a fucking lie, well, then the page lied to me. But I read it correctly, so stop making it sound like I'm the idiot here.

    EDIT: THE SAME SENTENCE IS IN THE SCREENSHOT YOU ADDED! MORON!

    EDIT EDIT: It turns out the sentence is a lie. Well you can't blame me for the site lying to me.



  • @abarker said:

    As stated in Microsoft's FAQ, Home -< Home. If you want to go pro from there, you can get the Pro Pack for $99.

    That must be why the key from my BIOS isn't working. Damned, I have to start over. What a PITA.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Pretty slick so far, but now I have to figure out how to activate it. I hope the Acer box this laptop came in has the product key, because it's not stickered on the bottom.

    Since you upgraded to Pro, you'll probably have to do 1 of 2 things:

    1. Revert to 8.1 and start over, upgrading to 10 Home this time.
    2. But a full license for 10 Pro.


  • @abarker said:

    Since you upgraded to Pro,

    I wasn't even aware I was "upgrading to Pro", I thought I was going from [blank] to Pro. Crappy copy on that install media tool.

    @abarker said:

    Revert to 8.1 and start over, upgrading to 10 Home this time.

    Before I waste my time again, do you absolutely need to start from 8.1? Now that I have the key extracted from the BIOS? ... that key should work to activate Windows 10 Home, right?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    the page lied to me

    What, by asking you politely to do something?

    I had a customer once who paid good money to upgrade the free antivirus I'd installed for her to the paid version just because there was a link in the main window that read Upgrade to Pro! Are you related?



  • @flabdablet said:

    Are you related?

    I guess I am. I am retarded. I have an IQ in the single digits. Excuse me while I eat my own foot.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Before I waste my time again, do you absolutely need to start from 8.1? Now that I have the key extracted from the BIOS? ... that key should work to activate Windows 10 Home, right?

    The FAQ makes it sound like, to get the free 10 license, the first install must be an upgrade from 7 or 8.1. After that, you can do a full install of 10 with that license whenever you need (machine rebuild, drive reformat, etc.) without installing the earlier Windows version first.

    So it sounds like you do need to reinstall 8.1 first.



  • It's OK. Trying to understand Microsoft's licensing rules can reduce anybody to a gibbering fool.



  • Oh God, what a PITA. So I need to make TWO new install USB drives. Ugh.

    Seriously, nobody here has a DreamSpark or MSDN account?

    They could have solved this with a SINGLE SENTENCE on that install media creator wizard, that really is frustrating.

    @flabdablet said:

    It's OK. Trying to understand Microsoft's licensing rules can reduce anybody to a gibbering fool.

    I honestly don't think I interpreted that sentence in an unreasonable way. If you think that's retarded, then you can think whatever you like.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    that key should work to activate Windows 10 Home, right?

    Try it. At worst, activation will fail.

    @blakeyrat said:

    I honestly don't think I interpreted that sentence in an unreasonable way.

    Please punch yourself in the face to continue installing Windows 10.



  • @flabdablet said:

    Try it. At worst, activation will fail.

    True, I guess if it works it's only a 3 GB download instead of a 6 GB download.

    EDIT: oh actually no, because I just remembered I only have one USB key big enough for this. So if it didn't work, I'd have to do 9 GB of downloading.



  • You could go old skool and burn your installer ISOs to actual DVDs :-)



  • I could if I owned any.

    So just to be 100% clear before I waste my time: the correct way to do a clean installer of Windows 10 is:

    1. Start from an activated computer with Windows 8
    2. Do the Windows Update install of Windows 10
    3. Then the Windows 8 key magically gets converted into a Windows 10 key
    4. Now you can clean-install Windows 10 using the same key

    The whole reason I had to do a clean install in the FIRST PLACE is because the 128 GB SSD in this laptop didn't have enough space to do the Windows Update installer. Of course, on a freshly formatted machine it would.



  • /me projects insufferable rosy Debian glow



  • That's how their FAQ presents it.



  • I have a Windows 8 Pro licence, and I still ended up just doing the KMS crack / activator thing. I'm not hunting down that cardboard sleeve and typing in some long ass S/N.



  • Well this thing originally shipped with 8.0 so I guess I'll find the media creation tool for that. Whee.



  • @abarker said:

    That's how their FAQ presents it.

    And ghacks agrees. What a complete pain in the arse.



  • It's not that it's a pain in the ass, if I had known that WHEN I STARTED MAKING THE USB IMAGE it would have been fine. It's just badly communicated.

    Like a SINGLE sentence.

    EDIT: well 2 sentences:

    • If you have Windows 8.1 with no "Pro", download Windows 10 Home Edition
    • If you haven't updated Windows 8 to Windows 10 using Windows Update, your product key may not activate Windows 10

    And maybe:

    • If you own an Ultrabook with a particularly small SSD drive, Microsoft kind of fucked you over here because you undoubtedly no longer have enough working disk space to do the Windows Update install without deleting all your shit.


  • @cartman82 said:

    I still ended up just doing the KMS crack / activator thing.

    Which one do you favour? py-kms is running nicely on my router at present. I have not yet tried Windows 10 with it though.



  • Don't go in my thread talking about how to steal shit. Get the fuck out of here with that shit.



  • Steal shit be buggered. I have a school laptop with a genuine KMS VL and it's nice not to have to visit the school during the holidays just to fix an expired activation.

    Edit: also, being admonished not to "steal" is pretty funny, coming from a guy who in this very thread was bemoaning his own inability to filch somebody else's Dreamspark or MSDN key for Windows 10 Pro.



  • @delfinom said:

    Because users are dumb and they are treating them like sheep.

    From my years-long experience with end-users, this is exactly the right approach. We had several cases where we had to resort to outright temporary bans because some idiots insisted on disabling Windows update and thus spewed forth their Trojan / Worm / Whatever crap all over our network.

    And no, simply telling them "You're infected with a keylogger that's known to target banking credentials" didn't make them clean up their act. They'd inevitably tell us: "Oh, yes, it's all good now" and a mere 10 minutes later a ZEUS warning for their laptop would popup on Snort.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    Is there a specific reason you want to upgrade using a USB-device?
    When I updated there was an updating tool that allowed to upgrade. And after I upgraded I could do a clean install.
    That might sound stupid but according to the internet it was the most reliable solution to change my BIOS win 8.1 key to a Win 10 key and still get a clean install.

    Filed Under: If this has already been mentioned, I must have overlooked it and I am sorry and stuff



  • @Kuro said:

    Is there a specific reason you want to upgrade using a USB-device?

    I wanted a clean install. And also my poor Ultrabook SSD didn't have enough spare storage to upgrade otherwise.

    @Kuro said:

    When I updated there was an updating tool that allowed to upgrade.

    That is the step I skipped.

    @Kuro said:

    And after I upgraded I could do a clean install.

    I plan to be able to do that also, once I do the upgrade.



  • If you're that short on storage space, don't forget to run the Disk Space Cleanup Manager (cleanmgr.exe) afterwards to get rid of unneeded upgrade and Windows backup folders.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    @blakeyrat said:

    And also my poor Ultrabook SSD didn't have enough spare storage to upgrade otherwise.

    Ah, that makes sense.

    @blakeyrat said:

    That is the step I skipped.

    Well the cool thing about that step was that it detected what version of Windows I had (both home and pro) and downloaded the right thing accordingly.

    @blakeyrat said:

    I plan to be able to do that also, once I do the upgrade.

    From what I could gather on the internet some people had problems converting their Win 7/8 keys to Win 10 keys. Which was my main fear.

    Filed Under: Good luck, though.


  • kills Dumbledore

    I've done the upgrade install but want to do a clean install now on my ssd rather than the hdd that 7 was installed on. Will I be able to do that with a disk made with the media creation tool now I've had 10 installed?



  • Hm. If you have the key burned into the firmware, a clean install of 10 should work no matter what system you are on. At least it did for 8 - I reinstalled it after a total disk wipe, and it didn't even ask for a key.



  • Yes. I did it on a machine the other night. I had to use a key finder to read the key (Jellybean something) first as the upgrade modified the Win 7 key I was using.


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