win 10 upgrade ?

west

so , the free upgrade to win 10 is nearly up....
could someone tell me if this is possible ....?
make a bootable flash drive from  windows  media creation tool using my win 7 pro 64  activation key , but without actually installing it ? ready for a future fresh install , i ask as i just dont want to do the overlayed upgrade thing ... er ive left it a bit late but only got my new laptop a month ago ...
many thanks ....

UnclePsychosis

I think you need to install it first.

I installed Win10 over Win7, then used the media creation tool to make a Win10 install disk which I subsequently used for a fresh install.

If you're going to update to Win10 anyway you should just take the plunge. Its not going to be changing significantly any time soon so not sure what you gain by stalling.

TheMarlin

Neither of my laptops have a CD drive.  Can you make a Win 10 install disk to run off a flash drive? 
(Or external hard drive)...

UnclePsychosis

TheMarlin said:

Neither of my laptops have a CD drive.  Can you make a Win 10 install disk to run off a flash drive? 
(Or external hard drive)...

Yes, assuming you know how to make a bootable USB stick.

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

If you're upgrading from 7 or 8 you need to install Windows 10 the first time from within the 7/8 environment (i.e. using the windows update tool). Once you have activated 10 you can then jump straight to a Win10 install disk to reinstall if you need to, using the key from your 7/8 disk. I had to do a fresh install of 10 this week which is how I know!

west

Thanks for the advice unck ...
the suggestions online say upgrade and roll back to secure your copy of 7 whilst reserving 10 if you decide to install later ,. sounds like a faff hence my ??  also take your point  about 10 but there are sooo many bad stories online ,and if it aint broke etc ... 1 day left to decide .. tick tock ...

UnclePsychosis

People like to moan. 10 works really well in my experience (and I didn't really like 8).

Skipped

west said:

Thanks for the advice unck ...
the suggestions online say upgrade and roll back to secure your copy of 7 whilst reserving 10 if you decide to install later ,. sounds like a faff hence my ??  also take your point  about 10 but there are sooo many bad stories online ,and if it aint broke etc ... 1 day left to decide .. tick tock ...

There is only 1 safe way. Back up your  W7 installation (now) using Macrium Reflect (free) or Acronis True Image (not free). Learn how to use it (Macrium is dead easy) and how to restore the backed up image. And.....make a seperate back-up to a usb stick of all of your W7 drivers using free software Double Driver.

You can now install W10, either "over the top", or fresh install (I would suggest fresh install) without risk.
Even if you don't try W10......... backing up W7 is still a great idea.

west

Thanks skipped !  sounds a bit technical but i will have a look at that , like you say it would be great to have an image of my laptop ive only just got it right ... thanks 

Mkjackary

Windows 10 is great. If the it ain't broke don't fix it rule applied then we would all be running windows 2000.

If you look there will also be horror stories about win 7, 8, 8.1, xp, vista, etc. I have found very few issues with win 10, and there are loads of benefits and features I use multiple times a day that make it worth while, plus a lot of new apps will start only supporting windows 10 (how many programs support xp still, not that many)

Mkjackary

Sporky

I like Windows 10 on the laptop that came with it.

The previous laptop ran really hot and slow after the upgrade (from 8.1) so I rolled back. My main PC wouldn't even boot after the upgrade (from 7). So it's not just moaning; I like Windows 10 but the upgrade just doesn't work on some PCs.

57Deluxe

I hate Win 10 - the Windows Explorer looks worse than Windows 3.0  !

https://msdnshared.blob.core.windows.net/media/MSDNBlogsFS/prod.evol.blogs.msdn.com/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/00/00/01/29/43/metablogapi/8358.2-Windows-3_28B9E887.png

http://icdn1.digitaltrends.com/image/file-explorer-minimize-ribbon-900x600.png

Axe_meister

I have no problems with Windows 10.
It's the most stable version so far and the quickest.
Yes the flat look is a backwards step but apple have done the same.
No doubt it's just a fashion thing and we'll get some bling back in the future.

SteveRobinson

I did try to upgrade (from Win 7) months ago but it didn't work and I rolled back.

I think I'll move to Linux.