Windows 10 Discussion Thread and Information

You can do a clean install assuming you have the ISO and the serial

You have to do an upgrade from Win7/8 only once. The machine ID is then stored in the cloud, making a fresh install possible.

Also latest Windows 10 install also activates with Win 7/8 keys.

c627627 said:

You have to do an upgrade from Win7/8 only once. The machine ID is then stored in the cloud, making a fresh install possible.

Also latest Windows 10 install also activates with Win 7/8 keys.

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Since the upgrade fro 8.1 to 10, I have never had to use a product when doing a reinstall.

When the 1151 .isos were released. you were asked kor key when installing, but there is an option to do it later.
After my install, Windows showed that it was activated without having to use a key.

wingman99 said:

I Have a PC that the upgraded windows 10 is gone my HDD died. I have been reading you can't or can do a clean install, what is the outcome now?

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According to another thread here, if you pull the November install, it will accept 7/8/8.1 keys during the install. Haven't tried it myself.

Thanks to all for a quick responses. Yes the instructions said you don't need the key for reinstall.

You would not need a key if you activated once because the key is stored in the cloud, not on your machine.
But if you have never activated Windows 10 on your machine, then you would need to enter a key of course. Once. Then it is permanently associated with your machine for all future installs.

Does windows 10 allow you to change the CPU?

Just a quick note, if you've moved to build 1151 (the new 'version'/update) it appears that the settings to update drivers automatically becomes re-selected. You need to undo it again:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

I sincerely doubt that is the only reset that was and will be performed with every new Windows build.

We need a comprehensive list.

If no one makes one, I will go down my list in a few months when a new build comes out and post on the forums...

c627627 said:

I sincerely doubt that is the only reset that was and will be performed with every new Windows build.

We need a comprehensive list.

If no one makes one, I will go down my list in a few months when a new build comes out and post on the forums...

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Just did a cursory search in my settings/privacy/update options and they look unchanged

Question for you guys. I completed the win10 upgrade but decided to revert back to win7 during my 30 day window. Is my key still a win10 key or did it go back to win7 too?

Can be used for both just not at the same time I think

Can't recall all the posts in the thread, so here you go, making Winderz Defenderer an Adware Blockerator. Info here.

c627627 said:

Thanks for that.
I think that it's official now. Constantly updating drivers, especially video card drivers has never been a good idea for everyone since Windows 9x days.

There are so many machines where stability is key, they do not need a video card update and many other updates either. Microsoft giving us only two options, everything or nothing (not even security updates) resulted in a situation you describe.


I always thought there is no need to go with Windows 7 when Windows 8 can be modified. But the same does *not* hold for Windows 10.

You cannot modify Windows 10 to select which windows updates you want.
A choice between NO UPDATES and ALL UPDATES is not a choice. Installing every update under the sun on every machine is a reason to not update to Windows 10 for everyone....

This has now emerged as a real concern. Who wants to go to their parents/grandparents/computer illiterate cousin's house every time a mandatory update affects their machines...

There are *certainly* driver versions I do not want updated on certain machines in my house, let alone someone else's and if they count on me for support at 2 in the morning and they are 40 minutes away in one direction.... well who wants that? Keeping them on Windows 8 is the only solution...

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I'm going to install a GTX 570 video card with a PC that has windows 10 will it load all the NVidia drivers and software for that card, I only want the video card driver and physics driver.

wingman99 said:

I'm going to install a GTX 570 video card with a PC that has windows 10 will it load all the NVidia drivers and software for that card, I only want the video card driver and physics driver.

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Then do the custom install for the driver before letting it do an auto-update.

How is that possible, wont the auto-update run before I can do anything?

wingman99 said:

How is that possible, wont the auto-update run before I can do anything?

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Not if you cut it off

So, I don't know if this was an ongoing issue, or what, but this morning when I got up, I decided to take a look around my system (haven't done it in a while). I checked out my disk usage, deleted some junk that had been downloaded, and ran/updated all of my Steam games to confirm they were working. Then, I brought up Windows Update, and noticed that the last update it tried had failed. So, I started it again, it ran, rebooted, and apparently had to re-set up my entire system. I thought "Okay, it must be a big update." Once I got it back to the desktop, I noticed it was time for me to get ready for work. So I instructed my wife to write down any issues that she noticed, and was off.

I got home 45 minutes ago, and have been messing with this system since. I ran Windows Update a few more times, installed all of the updates available and rebooted in between. My boot time (from the end of the motherboard splash screen to lock screen) is at least 3 minutes now, and instead of it being just the Windows logo and the circle of dots, it shows that (really choppy though) and then a blue screen with the circle of dots.

Needless to say, I'm a little irritated. I haven't confirmed that everything is working, but it seems fine once it finally does get to the desktop. I rebooted twice, thinking that maybe it was just still updating. Nope, both times it took that long.

Is anyone else having this issue?

My laptop has boot time like 5 seconds so I'm not complaining ( Win10 Pro on Crucial MX200 M.2 SSD ). Generally everything is working fine except weird behaviour of some drivers.

After 2nd recovery I've noticed that Intel HD Graphics driver is crashing randomly while using any web browser. I get info that driver has recovered.
There are no driver updates and I can't manually install drivers from Intel site - I get info that driver is not designed for my PC ( even though it exactly matches my graphics card/cpu ).
Nvidia drivers are working fine and I even see improvements in benchmarks ( up to 20% ). I have no idea how it's possible that each time when I reinstall OS, I have different performance while drivers are the same.

Since last recovery I had no issue with any missing files/applications but I made OS image anyway.

Woomack said:

After 2nd recovery I've noticed that Intel HD Graphics driver is crashing randomly while using any web browser. I get info that driver has recovered.

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The days of Vista driver problems have returned! Is it +1 MS or -1000 to Intel HD Graphics? I would bet Intel is to blame, or are they?

That Intel HD graphics driver is very finicky, ESPECIALLY on older hardware, sounds like an "inadvertent" update from HAL, ..errr..I mean Cortana.