Jim
April 17th, 2016, 10:18 PM
For the folks with Windows 7 and 8.1 (non-corporate) systems, Microsoft is making the Windows 10 upgrade free of purchase cost for one year from Win10's rollout. Microsoft says the free period is available "until July 29, 2016". (1)
The question that many have is "should I do the upgrade - I keep getting notified to do it"? Microsoft is quite persistent with its Get Windows 10 app (GWX.exe). My stance is this:
If you have a Windows 8.x system
MS's advertised "end of extended support" for Win8.1 - January 10, 2023 (2)
If you have a Windows 8.0 system - do the free upgrade to 8.1. If you have an 8.1 system and are happy with it - consider staying as-is.
Ask yourself - do I think I'll be using this system when end of support arrives in January of 2023? That's a little under seven years from the date of this post. If you think you'll replace the system before then, and you're happy with the system as it is now - stay with Windows 8. If you're not happy with Windows 8 or if you think you'll have the system longer than Jan 2023, do the Windows 10 upgrade in June.
In general, I recommend moving Windows 8 systems to Windows 10 as the Win 8 interface is less desirable than Win 10's.
If you have a Windows 7 system
MS's advertised "end of extended support" for Win7 - January 14, 2020 (2)
Ask yourself - do I think I'll be using this system when end of support arrives in January of 2020? That's a little under four years from the date of this post. If you think you'll replace the system before then, and you're happy with the system as it is now - stay with Windows 7. If you're not happy with Windows 7 or if you think you'll have the system longer than Jan 2020, do the Windows 10 upgrade in June.
In general, I consider Windows 7 to be more desirable than Windows 10. I am choosing to stay Windows 7 on my primary system. Should I end up keeping the system longer than Jan 2020 I'd likely be looking to buy an upgrade to whatever version of Windows is current then.
Why wait until June to do the upgrade?
Give Microsoft a bit more time to work out some bugs. Win10 installed on factory fresh systems looks to be fairly stable. On upgraded systems a few issues exist such that they can be "not pleasant" to cope with or resolve (Start Menu not popping up is one, WiFi not connecting under specific turn-on / restart conditions is another).
Conclusion
I prefer Win7 over Win10. Some of the bugs are not nice with Win10 and some of the privacy settings concern me (I prefer to not share info with out side sources, though realize this is not always possible or reasonable in our connected world). If you have Win10 on a system go to Start > Settings > Privacy and adjust the 20+ items as you see fit (no, no, no, no, off, no, etc.). Also look into the Windows Update settings for getting updates from "nearby" computers along with WiFi settings for your system to share your WiFi password (not really the password, but that gets the message across) with your friends via Skype and other Microsoft related accounts. Also decide if you wish the user account on the system should be a "Microsoft connected" account or a "local only" account. The Microsoft connected account does have advantages, so look into the plus's, though most folks I talk with, once they know the setup, prefer a local only account (which is what things were from Windows 7 and older).
I just want to get rid of the GWX upgrade nag!!!
You're not the only one! There are many third party programs to keep turning the GWX program off. Microsoft is kicking that program onto systems via Windows Update. They are persistent and folks have had to "turn it off" via multiple avenues. Microsoft finally has come out with a "Disable OS Upgrade" process:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351
I run the registry edit to disable the OS upgrade then I go into C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Windows\Setup\ (I might be a bit off on that line) and give myself permissions to modify the files within. From there I visit the Task Scheduler > Microsoft > Windows > Setup and disable all GWX and GWX Triggers scheduled tasks.
Lastly, I unhide the Windows 10 setup files download cache on the C-drive and delete all of it. It's called something like "Windows.~BT" and can be upwards of 5GB.
Once I reboot, the system has been told to not upgrade the OS, scheduled tasks that keep GWX running have been disabled (they could be deleted) and the Win10 install files cache is gone and not taking space on my hard drive (and image backups of the drive).
(1) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/upgrade-to-windows-10-faq
Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as a free upgrade for compatible devices that are running genuine Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
The free upgrade is a full version of Windows (not a trial or introductory version) and is available until July 29, 2016. Once you upgrade, you’ll have Windows 10 for free on that device.
(2) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
The question that many have is "should I do the upgrade - I keep getting notified to do it"? Microsoft is quite persistent with its Get Windows 10 app (GWX.exe). My stance is this:
If you have a Windows 8.x system
MS's advertised "end of extended support" for Win8.1 - January 10, 2023 (2)
If you have a Windows 8.0 system - do the free upgrade to 8.1. If you have an 8.1 system and are happy with it - consider staying as-is.
Ask yourself - do I think I'll be using this system when end of support arrives in January of 2023? That's a little under seven years from the date of this post. If you think you'll replace the system before then, and you're happy with the system as it is now - stay with Windows 8. If you're not happy with Windows 8 or if you think you'll have the system longer than Jan 2023, do the Windows 10 upgrade in June.
In general, I recommend moving Windows 8 systems to Windows 10 as the Win 8 interface is less desirable than Win 10's.
If you have a Windows 7 system
MS's advertised "end of extended support" for Win7 - January 14, 2020 (2)
Ask yourself - do I think I'll be using this system when end of support arrives in January of 2020? That's a little under four years from the date of this post. If you think you'll replace the system before then, and you're happy with the system as it is now - stay with Windows 7. If you're not happy with Windows 7 or if you think you'll have the system longer than Jan 2020, do the Windows 10 upgrade in June.
In general, I consider Windows 7 to be more desirable than Windows 10. I am choosing to stay Windows 7 on my primary system. Should I end up keeping the system longer than Jan 2020 I'd likely be looking to buy an upgrade to whatever version of Windows is current then.
Why wait until June to do the upgrade?
Give Microsoft a bit more time to work out some bugs. Win10 installed on factory fresh systems looks to be fairly stable. On upgraded systems a few issues exist such that they can be "not pleasant" to cope with or resolve (Start Menu not popping up is one, WiFi not connecting under specific turn-on / restart conditions is another).
Conclusion
I prefer Win7 over Win10. Some of the bugs are not nice with Win10 and some of the privacy settings concern me (I prefer to not share info with out side sources, though realize this is not always possible or reasonable in our connected world). If you have Win10 on a system go to Start > Settings > Privacy and adjust the 20+ items as you see fit (no, no, no, no, off, no, etc.). Also look into the Windows Update settings for getting updates from "nearby" computers along with WiFi settings for your system to share your WiFi password (not really the password, but that gets the message across) with your friends via Skype and other Microsoft related accounts. Also decide if you wish the user account on the system should be a "Microsoft connected" account or a "local only" account. The Microsoft connected account does have advantages, so look into the plus's, though most folks I talk with, once they know the setup, prefer a local only account (which is what things were from Windows 7 and older).
I just want to get rid of the GWX upgrade nag!!!
You're not the only one! There are many third party programs to keep turning the GWX program off. Microsoft is kicking that program onto systems via Windows Update. They are persistent and folks have had to "turn it off" via multiple avenues. Microsoft finally has come out with a "Disable OS Upgrade" process:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351
I run the registry edit to disable the OS upgrade then I go into C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Windows\Setup\ (I might be a bit off on that line) and give myself permissions to modify the files within. From there I visit the Task Scheduler > Microsoft > Windows > Setup and disable all GWX and GWX Triggers scheduled tasks.
Lastly, I unhide the Windows 10 setup files download cache on the C-drive and delete all of it. It's called something like "Windows.~BT" and can be upwards of 5GB.
Once I reboot, the system has been told to not upgrade the OS, scheduled tasks that keep GWX running have been disabled (they could be deleted) and the Win10 install files cache is gone and not taking space on my hard drive (and image backups of the drive).
(1) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/upgrade-to-windows-10-faq
Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as a free upgrade for compatible devices that are running genuine Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
The free upgrade is a full version of Windows (not a trial or introductory version) and is available until July 29, 2016. Once you upgrade, you’ll have Windows 10 for free on that device.
(2) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle