My try at installing win10

I'm normally a clean install kind of guy, but I've let my Surface Pro 3, and my desktop machine upgrade through the automatic process. The Surface Pro 3 was running Win8.1 and the desktop Win7. No issues on either machine to speak of.

Normally, I also have a preference to clean installs. I have grown weary of finding and installing all the programs I have. Would like to save that time.

Also from what I read, the first install should take place with win7/8 in place in order to prove the validity of the previous install. Did I read that correctly? Of course, I may well have misread something along the lines..... but I am sure that there was no option of skipping the key entry on the upgrade.

I'm guessing that the difference is that I didn't install from a dvd. Both my machines had a little white windows icon show up in the toolbar near the clock singing the praises of Win10 and gave me the option of reserving my copy. I reserved my copy on both machines and waited until Windows told me it was ready to do the upgrade. The Surface Pro 3 was ready within a couple days of the Win10 release, the desktop took about an extra week before Microsoft was confident in their ability to do the upgrade. In both cases the system popped up with an announcement that it was ready to do the install. I pulled the trigger and the whole process was automated including the download and multiple restarts.....in fact I never even saw anything about registration or license numbers.

John, post: 332134, member: 791 wrote: Normally, I also have a preference to clean installs. I have grown weary of finding and installing all the programs I have. Would like to save that time.

Also from what I read, the first install should take place with win7/8 in place in order to prove the validity of the previous install. Did I read that correctly? Of course, I may well have misread something along the lines..... but I am sure that there was no option of skipping the key entry on the upgrade.

I just lifted this from a Google search on the subject:

If you want to perform a clean install of Windows 10 and haven‰Ûªt upgraded to Windows 10 yet on your Windows 7 or 8.1 PC, you have some extra work to do. You‰Ûªll need to take advantage of Microsoft‰Ûªs upgrade offer before performing a clean install. (Obviously, if you have a PC that came with Windows 10 or you‰Ûªve purchased your own Windows 10 license, this isn‰Ûªt necessary.)
When you upgrade a Windows 7 or 8.1 system to Windows 10, the installer confirms that you have a ‰ÛÏgenuine Windows‰Û system installed and activates your computer for use with Windows 10. Note that you don‰Ûªt actually get a Windows 10 product key ‰ÛÓ instead, your computer‰Ûªs hardware is registered with Microsoft‰Ûªs servers. When you install Windows 10 on that PC again in the future, it will check in with Microsoft‰Ûªs servers, confirm it‰Ûªs installed on a registered PC, and automatically activate itself.
If you don‰Ûªt take advantage of the upgrade process first, this registration will never happen. There‰Ûªs no way to enter a Windows 7 or 8.1 key into the Windows 10 installer, nor is there some sort of web form that will give you a Windows 10 key if you provide your Windows 7 or 8.1 key. Sorry ‰ÛÓ you‰Ûªll have to upgrade to Windows 10 before you can perform a clean install.
If you need to upgrade, you can download Microsoft‰Ûªs Windows 10 media creation tool and tell it to ‰ÛÏUpgrade this PC now.‰Û It will automatically upgrade you to Windows 10 if your PC is running a genuine version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Thank you Stephan. In the case of that computer, I had to save the file instead of upgrading at the moment. When I tried the upgrade now option on that computer, I got the ever so helpful message "something happened" (yes, that was the exact error message from Microsoft, apparently lots of people got that message).

The info you found seems to fit with what I read. Time to do some more research....

Any chance you can go back to the little windows icon near the clock, ask for a do-over and let it run the automated upgrade?

If it won't let you, check out this link: Win10 fix

Edit: Here's one that gives a more comprehensive list of errors and fixes: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-installation-upgrade-errors

Just bookmarked the links. Hopeful the suggestions will provide some insights. I suspect tomorrow after work will be the time I start looking seriously at that.

On 2 of my three computers, I don't have the windows upgrade icon. It appears only on my desktop. My "better" (bigger, more powerful) laptop has the option of "update now" when I run the tool. My baby laptop produces the errors. Strange....

I guess my search abilities have gotten rusty. I will start in looking at your links in depth tomorrow and see what happens 🙂

One last question/suggestion. On the machines that don't have the windows upgrade icon, do you have automatic windows updates enabled? If not, try running windows update and see if it will add the windows update icon.

I also have a pretty hot Win7 laptop that still says it's not ready each time I query it. Research on the manufacturers website indicates that even though it was top of the pile when I bought it a couple of years ago, it may never be officially blessed for the upgrade. They don't give a specific reason but I suspect there is a specific piece of hardware that is not supported. Your machines may have similar issues. Microsoft promoted the free upgrade far and wide with little mention that many Win7 machines would have hardware issues. At least this go round they're actively trying to keep people from trashing their machines.

That is definitely worth looking into. My "good" laptop is a couple years old, an Alien. The other is a base Toshiba with some "issues".

I don't have automatic updates.... I have them downloaded and I decide when to install. The Toshiba gets updates but I can not change some of the settings (screen saver for instance). I think something is corrupt in there. Hasn't been a big deal yet.

On my Alien, I checked the registry and found the key the link says to look for. I had to create the key and sub value on the Toshiba. Need to work some more on that.

Love computers when they work, hate them when they break. 🙂

John, post: 332131, member: 791 wrote: Has been futile.

I found out that the Win7 product key is not used for win10. Yes, I should have known that. I had no idea that the key would supposedly be populated in a "couple days" instead of immediately. Oh well, no big deal. Just choose "not now" type thing. Yea, all right.

So, booting to the DVD, I started and chose "skip". Then a step or two later get to the message that if I want an "upgrade" instead of a clean install, to start the DVD after I had win7 going. Ok. Well, get to the part where I'm told to enter the product key that I don't have and was not given. No option to skip or do later. None at all.

Scared to even try other machines. Would like to test things on that machine first to make sure I"m good with it before going hog wild on my other machines......

Open to suggestions from those who have been through this, thanks.

I've found (for the 4 machines I've done so far, including one HP Stream 8 tablet), is to forget about the invitation thing. Go to MS Windows 10 web site and check the option to "make DVD or Thumb drive install disk".

Then just boot from that on one or more machines as desired/needed. It works fine, and you don't have to go through the 3 hour download time every time you want to install it. If you're installing over Windows 7 or 8, it doesn't ask for a product key (although it probably does use the "Genuine Windows" algorithm to check and see if your copy is legit.

I downloaded the iso image and put it on disc. The statement on Microsoft site is that a product key is not needed if installing over win7/8. Well, on my baby laptop, for some reason, I Do get asked for a product key. There is no option to skip that step.

If I start with a clean install, it looks like I can skip inserting a product key. But I worry that 10 won't become activated because it won't find 7/8 on activated on the computer.

In my experience in upgrading my company's computer using a USB drive is that it isn't an unattended install.

Here is the process that I found on the interwebs that works:

1. Insert and run the setup, either DVD or USB. Let it do whatever it is doing in the back ground.
2. You'll get a notice that your computer needs to be restarted. REMOVE THE UPGRADE DEVICE (DVD/USB)
3. Let computer restart and finish install. If you do not remove the upgrade device, the computer will reboot and start the process all over. This is because your BIOS has booting for USB or DVD set higher than hard drive. Removing the device solves that problem. You won't need the DVD/USB anymore

When I left the USB in the computer, it asked me for the Windows Key. When it was removed, the install worked ask expected.

Hope this helps.

Unfortunately for me, the setup process initializes, then promptly asks for the product key before anything else happens, before anything gets installed.

After I get home, hopefully the list of errors that Stephen so kindly provided may well give me insights on what is causing the issue.

Is this a good time to ask if Windows 10 will run all my programs that presently run on Windows 7, such as Carlson 2014 & 2006, Autocad 2013 & 2004, smi transfer, adobe acrobat 10, Trimble tbc and data transfer?

MISSOURIMULE, post: 332188, member: 9473 wrote: Is this a good time to ask if Windows 10 will run all my programs that presently run on Windows 7, such as Carlson 2014 & 2006, Autocad 2013 & 2004, smi transfer, adobe acrobat 10, Trimble tbc and data transfer?

I don't know the answer to the software you mention but I use a password program called RoboForm and it takes a work around to get it to work. I also wonder if TGO will run in Windows 10. I'm on the verge of running the update to 10 so hopefully somebody will chime in with answers.

I upgraded one of my non-essential computers last night. It went pretty flawlessly. So far I haven't gotten a program that wouldn't run, but I haven't tried every one of them on that computer. Curious about our survey stuff being able to work on Win10.

I have decided NOT to move to windows 10 for either my XP or Win7 computers

I can see no compelling advantage offered by it

It wont support some of my legacy hardware

I dislike the user interface

And I greatly object to the data-mining (aka spying) now undertaken by Microsoft

I might rephrase that last sentence to .... greatly object to the more blatant data-mining.......

MISSOURIMULE, post: 332188, member: 9473 wrote: Is this a good time to ask if Windows 10 will run all my programs that presently run on Windows 7, such as Carlson 2014 & 2006, Autocad 2013 & 2004, smi transfer, adobe acrobat 10, Trimble tbc and data transfer?

I am waiting a couple/few more years. Win7 works.