Hiya...I am new to 10 come over from 7 blog
I am from UK and run my own very small online business so my laptop is my life lol.
I am soo panicking about what to do as I know I must upgrade to Windows 10 and have left is as late as possible...am currently running Windows Home 7.
I have read up about this transaction but find it all a bit daunting even though I have a little knowledge of OS's. What I am thinking is to make an ISO using media tool and burning it straight to DVD. I want to do a clean install but think it best to first upgrade using the disk mainly to keep my drivers in tact. As far as my files and folders are concerned am happy to reinstall all my apps etc.
Can anybody tell me please the best plan of action?
The best way to do the upgrade will require an external (USB) hard drive at least the size of all the used space on your hard drive. If your laptop is your life, then you should have one for backup images anyway. Install Macrium Reflect Free. Create a rescue DVD with it. Make a backup image of your entire hard drive, all partitions, to the external (USB) hard drive. Make a Windows 10 DVD with the Media Creation Tool and a program like IMGBURN.
Run Showkey Plus from this forum and record your product keys.
Showkey - Windows 10 blog
Follow the first 6 steps of this tutorial, but do not do the clean install:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 blog
Copy the genuineticket.xml file to the external (USB) hard drive.
With Windows 7 running, insert the Windows 10 DVD like you were going to copy files off it. From Within Windows 7 run setup.exe on the DVD. Let it do the upgrade. After the upgrade, make a folder on the same USB external hard drive you save your image to, call it something like DriversW10. Right click on the start icon, click Command Prompt (Admin). In the command Window, run:
DISM /Online /Export-driver /Destination:E:DriversW10
The path in red will be to the drive letter and folder you created on the external hard drive.
That is the safest way to ensure you get a good upgrade and that you can recover from it if it goes bad.
Macrium Reflect Free
Must upgrade to Windows 10? Not so, at least for a few years. (Extended support for 7 ends in 2020. Extended support means that there will be no new service packs, but that security updates and bug fixes will be forthcoming.)"...as I know I must upgrade to Windows 10 and have left is as late as possible...am currently running Windows Home 7. "
I like 10 well enough, and I'm using it on all 3 of my PCs. I think of it as a worthwhile upgrade from Windows 8 because of the much improved integration of the desktop and the interface formerly know as Metro. I don't recommend it as strongly as an upgrade from 7.
If you wish to do the upgrade, my personal preference is to do it from a USB flash drive rather than a DVD. The DVD works, but it's slower. The main advantage of the DVD is that it's read-only.
(You probably want to skip this bit, but I include it for completeness. You don't actually need any external media to do an upgrade install. If you download the 10 installer as an ISO, you can mount it using a third party utility and run the upgrade from that virtual device. [Windows 8 and 10 natively allow you to mount ISOs.] You need a bootable device to clean install Windows, however.)
I strongly concur with the recommendation to image your current installation before proceeding with an upgrade. The upgrade is safe, but it isn't nearly safe enough.
