Upgrading Windows7 to Win10 for free

[fly-navy]

Do I really need to upgrade mine gents? I have a Toshiba laptop running Windows 7, with Microsoft Essentials installed. I have had the message it will not be supported after the end of the month. I do not use internet banking as such, but in truth I do book holidays and buy some items on line using PayPal which is paid for on my CC which is cleared every month. All your helpful guides I'm afraid just goes over my head so if needs must it will be a new / reconditioned laptop with 10 already installed or should I just carry on. Tis only used for forums and the web really.

TIA John

[kc]

Actually updating from the web link shown is dead easy - you just click on a few options as they come up and then you need to be patient as it might go on for an hour or two.   Nothing to it anyone could do it!

The theory is you need a system that has security updates so that is why you should update to Win 10

Edited By kc on 15/01/2020 19:39:51

[Martin McIntosh]

Just looked at this thread. The last laptop I bought came with Windows 8 which I upgraded to 8.1. Offered W10 for free with the option of reverting within a certain time. It very soon got reverted.

I still have a couple of much older ones on XP. When it comes to downloading pics to this site It is so much easier to find and use the photo files on one of these. Call me a technophobe if you like.

[kc]

When Win 10 started a few years ago it seemed slower than Win 7, but recent updates have made it much faster. The computer I updated on sunday now works much faster on Win 10 than it did last week on Win 7. Probably the automatic cleaning of old files whilst installing Win 10 did something good.

Actually that computer doesn't work as well as my own Win 10 computer that has a slightly lesser spec, so thats my reason for thinking about an extra SSD to have a clean install without losing the old files.

[fly-navy]

Thanks for replies gents. Is there a minimum equipment requirement?

Mine has 3.8 rating

AMD E 450 ADU HD graphics 1.65 GHz

4.0 GB Ram

64 Bit

[Jon H]

The reason W10 seems slower than W7 is that it is constantly chatting with the hard drive. Goodness knows what it is those two talk about but my god do they go on. Anyway, if all this chat can consume more or less all of the hard drive's resources and so anything you want has to wait while the interrupt is pushed through.

as a result W10 is disproportionately slower than 7 on the same hardware when compared to an SSD.

Fly-navy....ouch. Those specs are pretty rough. I have a celeron n3060 powered laptop with w10 and it struggles. The N3060 is 10-20% faster than your processor but my machine is limited by only 2gb of RAM (not enough). My girlfriend has a laptop with the same N3060 but 4gb RAM and a real SSD. It works fine on W10 but its not fast, its just not annoyingly slow. SO i guess the answer is yes it will run but make sure you fit an SSD.

To be honest though, you might just do better with a new machine. This machine here **LINK** would run rings around your old one and would last a good long while. There are cheaper alternatives, but that looks like a really nice machine

[fly-navy]

Thanks John, seems pretty reasonable price also.

[Jon H]

Posted by fly-navy on 15/01/2020 21:38:21:

Thanks John, seems pretty reasonable price also.

no problem. the laptop im using now uses the n4000 cpu (2 cores vs 4 in the 4200) and it sails through most day to day work so the 4200 will only be faster still. You also have high speed usb3 on there if you need to transfer large files quickly.

[Tony Harrison 2]

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 15/01/2020 20:38:01:

...

To be honest though, you might just do better with a new machine. This machine here **LINK** would run rings around your old one and would last a good long while. There are cheaper alternatives, but that looks like a really nice machine

I'm struck by your reference to price, Jon: at well under £300 who'd want a "cheaper alternative"? Like other tech, PCs now seem ridiculously cheap. At the risk of seeming like one of the "I remember when..." brigade, our first domestic IBM PC (replacing an Amstrad PCW...) was a Viglen, chiefly to run WordPerfect 5.1, and with - wait for it - a massive 20Mb of memory. That was a decent quality PC with a good spec for the early '90s - and it cost a grand. We continued to spend that kind of money on a new PC every few years, and my first laptops certainly cost that.

I've had good laptops in the past by Toshiba, and Dell - the latter can be good value and well built, but the company is a pain to deal with. The Lenovo to which you link looks pretty decent, thanks for the tip. I'd want 16Gb RAM, and a backlit keyboard, but still. For some years my personal computers for work (entails lots of writing in Word, plus heavy lifting in Photoshop/Bridge for large quantities of big image files) have been custom built by PC Specialist in Wakefield, excellent company to deal with, recommended.

rgds Tony

[Jon H]

Oh i agree with you Tony. I remember when a laptop was 1000 quid and that was the end of it, but i still consider 300 quid quite a bit of money in the context of this thread as we were looking at 20 quid SSD's and getting windows for free!

[fly-navy]

The reason I joined the thread is, (a) I'm an old git

(b) Puters frighten the **** out of me

(c) I want some security for the minimal purchases I do on line

(d) I do not do any work as such on pc, transfer files etc just want something for browsing, going on different forums, using my flight sim, booking holidays so really do not need an all singing / dancing laptop. if Jon says that one will be ok seems good enough for me. You can guarantee when my son visits wekend it will be " Why don't you get a decent refurbished win 10 one for your needs dad!" Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Now whats these Apple Mac's

[Jon H]

Posted by fly-navy on 16/01/2020 18:11:06:

The reason I joined the thread is, (a) I'm an old git

(b) Puters frighten the **** out of me

(c) I want some security for the minimal purchases I do on line

(d) I do not do any work as such on pc, transfer files etc just want something for browsing, going on different forums, using my flight sim, booking holidays so really do not need an all singing / dancing laptop. if Jon says that one will be ok seems good enough for me. You can guarantee when my son visits wekend it will be " Why don't you get a decent refurbished win 10 one for your needs dad!" Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Now whats these Apple Mac's

To address point B, i can relate. As i already mentioned i play an online combat flight sim on my pc and a friend from model flying seemed interested so i showed him the game. He was dead keen to get it so we sorted out the machine and got him setup. We then hit an unexpected (for me at least) road block as he refused to come online and play. All he wanted was to play missions, as online play just made him uncomfortable. The whole concept of joining a 'chat room' and striking up conversation with people all over the world while trying to wage virtual war was just totally alien to his 56y/o brain and it made him very uncomfortable. Anyway, to cut a long story short i was able to coax him into trying it and now he wont play it alone as its too boring. He also finds the whole thing fascinating. The dynamic of being online with 60 or 70 other people, all flying realistically modelled aircraft, in a game with high detail graphics which are being rendered at a quality and frame rate that was impossible to imagine only 20 years ago, and all of this going on while you chat with people in the 4 corners of the world over the internet for free. And if you ask him now what made him uncomfortable, he cant answer! What im getting at is that technology can seem intimidating/make you uncomfortable but in all honesty i just find it all amazing.

But, a refurb laptop is an option. It might be a bit cheaper but warranty is always a question mark. With a new machine you know exactly what you are getting.

The machine i linked is more than capable of all the things you want to do with it. You can also watch BBC iplayer or youtube videos on it if you want, the high speed usb ports might come in handy if the kids or grandkids (not sure what you have!) have some video they took of something or other and want to share it. Its got bluetooth so pictures can be sent wirelessly from a phone or you can connect a bluetooth speaker. I got my mum a bluetooth speaker for her laptop and she uses it on holiday to play music in the evenings and stuff like that.

While many of those use cases might not spring to mind immediately as something you might do its good to have the functionality available.

The only thing i recommend is you follow a guide like this one **LINK** for adjusting some of the privacy settings.

[fly-navy]

Thank you for that Jon, I shall probably get the one you linked.

Ahh, grandkids, we have a 4 year old great granddaughter, and her fingers fly across the keyboard, "Grumpy this is what you have to do" LOL talk about embarrassed.

[Jon H]

Posted by fly-navy on 16/01/2020 19:15:49:

Thank you for that Jon, I shall probably get the one you linked.

Ahh, grandkids, we have a 4 year old great granddaughter, and her fingers fly across the keyboard, "Grumpy this is what you have to do" LOL talk about embarrassed.

She sure put you in your place! My cousin has a 3 year old and she is also as bold as brass. You dont cross young Alice without a scalding. The problem is, she's to adorable to tell off so gets away with murder!

Perhaps you should whip out some meccano or something and turn the tables.

[PatMc]

Not disputing the suitability of the linked Lenova laptop for fly-navy's needs but I'm curious as to whether the spec would suit many others reading this.
The hard drive may be fast but I'd want at least 500GB or, preferably 1TB of storage. Also I'd want an optical drive if only to allow me to install some of the existing programmes I already have & to burn or play the occasional DVD.

 

Edited By PatMc on 16/01/2020 20:34:04

[Martin McIntosh]

I may be interested in one but can usb 2.0 connectors be used with the only available 3.0 ones?

[Jon H]

Posted by PatMc on 16/01/2020 20:32:50:

Not disputing the suitability of the linked Lenova laptop for fly-navy's needs but I'm curious as to whether the spec would suit many others reading this.
The hard drive may be fast but I'd want at least 500GB or, preferably 1TB of storage. Also I'd want an optical drive if only to allow me to install some of the existing programmes I already have & to burn or play the occasional DVD.

Edited By PatMc on 16/01/2020 20:34:04

Im with you on the dvd drive but they are considered obsolete now im afriad and most desktop pc cases dont ever have a space for them any more. I have a usb dvd drive for my laptop just in case.

Hard drive space will depend on usage. If its not being used for photos, music etc then 128gb will be plenty. My Gaming desktop has a 500gig drive and its got all my music, games and photos on it. I have a media pc hooked up to the tv though and this has 4tb of storage for all my films/box sets.

However, from the instructions it looks like the lenovo one i posted has an M.2 SSD as standard and a spare bay for a 2.5inch standard SATA SSD or hard drive so it could be upgraded down the track if needed

[Jon H]

Posted by Martin McIntosh on 16/01/2020 20:44:31:

I may be interested in one but can usb 2.0 connectors be used with the only available 3.0 ones?

yep. usb3 type A ports work with all earlier types of USB

[fly-navy]

Righto guys all getting bit too technical for me now, sorry. Decided I will go and have a look at Curry's weekend and after five minutes they will realise I'm a pc duffer. If you could give me some idea what would be best for me long term, don't intend buying another one after this, ie, what size RAM, GB space, drives, ssd? memory etc. Willing to go to 3/400 squids.

Thanks again for your help, this doesn't mean I'm getting one from Curry's just getting their speil.

John

[Jon H]

I certainly wouldnt buy anything from currys/pcworld if you can avoid it. Their prices are often poor and they just want a sale.

But to give you an idea look for the following.

If its an intel processor dont buy anything starting with a 3 or with atom in the name. 3305, 3060 etc. Look for 4000 series or better. In order of performance celeron is the entry level, pentium is better, i3 better again, i5, i7 etc. If you are not sure then walk away. The only exception to the rule is the pentium N3700 or 3710. Both are ok.

If its an AMD processor walk away from anything that is not Ryzen something. It might be Ryzen 3, 5, whatever just dont touch the A series AMD chips.

RAM, 4gb will be plenty for your purposes but dont go lower.

Storage depends totally on what you plan to do with it. I run my pc here at work on a 120gb drive and its just fine. I have photos, some video, CAD, Photo shop all installed and even a bunch of music. Unless you see yourself saving thousands of photos look for 120 - 256 gb of hard drive space and look for SSD's. I wouldnt buy a new machine with a mechanical hard drive.

I had a quick look on currys page and this **LINK** has good specs but battery life is half that of the other machine. Battery life is a personal choice and depends on how often you want to use it off power. My Celeron N4000 laptop is always on and i charge it once a week. I use it for only about half an hour a day and the rest of the time its asleep so uses little power.

Anyway if you finally get fed up with the salesman being to pushy just ask if the machine has LRF support. Its unlikely he will be able to answer and that should help you escape

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Often, cooling works better with LRF support.

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 17/01/2020 08:38:35

[Jon H]

Posted by Chris Bott - Moderator on 17/01/2020 08:38:18:

Often, cooling works better with LRF support.

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 17/01/2020 08:38:35

Ha! too true.

[Peter Miller]

Posted by fly-navy on 16/01/2020 18:11:06:

The reason I joined the thread is, (a) I'm an old git

(b) Puters frighten the **** out of me

(c) I want some security for the minimal purchases I do on line

(d) I do not do any work as such on pc, transfer files etc just want something for browsing, going on different forums, using my flight sim, booking holidays so really do not need an all singing / dancing laptop. if Jon says that one will be ok seems good enough for me. You can guarantee when my son visits wekend it will be " Why don't you get a decent refurbished win 10 one for your needs dad!" Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Now whats these Apple Mac's

I have had various computers. I still use my old Vista one for writing and photos. Amazon Vine program gave me a £1900 HP Spectre to revie with Windows 10...I still can'r get my head round it,

BUT!!!! andd oit is a big BUT. For all my internet use I use a chromebook. So easy to use. I reccomend them to anyone who just want to browse and buy stuff and book things. They are cheaper than laptops. They have their own built in and self updated antivirus..

You have vast on line storage for files as well as in the machine.

One slight downside.They can be a bit tricky to connect to a printer,or at least mine is but it can be done. although maybe that has been improved sine I bought this one. My last one which finally gave up one the keyboard was fine, It connected wirelessly via my old laptop.

[David Hall 9]

edit:   removed. 

 

 

 

Edited By David Hall 9 on 17/01/2020 10:05:17

[Jon H]

I cant deny that chromebooks and ubuntu are options but given FN's familiarity with windows and slight distrust of all this silicon witchcraft its probably safer he stick to windows to prevent total confusion. That is why i didnt bother mentioning them.

Also, if you think microsoft is bad at collecting your data through windows then you best not think about what google are doing with a chromebook.