Windows 10 upgrade

[nocaltom 6]

I,m thinking about upgrading to win 10 but have a few questions . I have 2 computers both for flight simming only and networked one is for sim other is for flight planning and moving map.

1. Will I need to reinstall all programs or can I just upgrade and windows and it recognize everything? 

2.i,m running P3dv4 only any issues or gains with win 10?

3. If I don’t update will win 7 be ok for a couple more years? 

4. If you have win 10 do you like it?

thanks for any guidance 

Tom

 

[bobbyjack 61]

The "upgrade", when I did it the last go around, is not a wipe and reinstall. It "wraps around" what you have. If you are going to do the W10 upgrade, you should be fine, as long as there are drivers for all your hardware. And there should be.

You should visit the P3dv4 forum to get the best info.

W7 is supported till 2020. But by then it will be even harder to switch. And you can go back to W7 (within 30 days, I think) if you don't like W10

I like W10, and have no issues with it. But then, I run a default FSX. 

 

[Chock 17,769]

The only issue I had with going from Win 7 to Win 10 was one of my joysticks not having Win 10 drivers (this was a Speedlink Back Widow XE which only had drivers up to Win 8 available for it), the Saitek stuff I have worked no problem (sticks and rudders), but I had to faff about a bit to get that Speedlink stick working, which I did eventually manage to do. Everything else on my system worked fine after upgrading from 7 to 10 with not reinstallation of anything being required.

With regard to whether I like Win 10 or not, personally, I don't like its appearance as much as Win 7, although much of that is a case of familiarity rather than it being horrible, it's just different, but it's not so different that you can't figure your way around it, unlike Win 8 which was a horrible mess in terms of its GUI and why I never bothered with it on my own computers. Win 10 does make P3D V4 and FSX-SE run better on my system, although that's not because the operating system itself is directly improving matters with the software, rather than the fact that some features of the Kaby Lake processor do not work on Win 7, whereas they do on Win 10, which as a result makes P3D V4 and FSX-SE run a bit better, since the processor can use all of its potential.

Win 10 bothers you a bit more, with pop ups asking you if you'd like to do this or that, but you can disable all that stuff anyway, so it's really not that much different to use than Win 7 and it definitely fires up quicker than Win 7, that I do know for sure.

Personally I would say go for it with Win 10, and this is coming from someone who hung on to Win 7 right up until earlier this year, and prior to that, only upgraded from XP when some of my Adobe programs would not work without a 64 bit operating system, so I can understand people not wanting to change from their familiar operating system, but the advantages of Win 10 over Win 7 are just too many in terms of what the newer OS supports from a hardware standpoint are just too many to ignore.

You will inevitably have to go to Win 10 at some point for software which comes out in the future to work properly, and so you might as well do it now whilst you can do so for free (just about, if you go for that Easy Access freebie upgrade).

[Jude Bradley 659]

The Windows 10 upgrade creates a new "windows" folder, and the existing Windows 7 folder is renamed "Windows.old" in the process, Don't delete this folder if you wish to revert back to Windows 7! You can run an upgrade and then revert to windows 7, that way, you won't have to buy a version of Windows 10 once Windows 7 support has expired - as long as you use the same CPU and Motherboard. 

[Bob Scott 7,714]

I can't say enough BAD about Win 10.  It forcibly installs updates--including video drivers--without asking, several of which (including the current Win 10 Fall Creator's Update) have broken FSX and/or P3D.  There's nothing like reading about how a new version of an nVidia driver causes problems with the sim, only to find out that Microsoft just installed that very driver without asking.  It allows you to specify an 8-hour window during the day (quiet hours) when it will avoid doing one of those automatic updates...but outside those hours, it will install updates and reboot your computer without warning, dumping whatever you're running and potentially losing data.  It's a horrible chocolate mess.

The only reason I have the blasted OS is that there is limited chipset driver support on my Z270 mobo for Win 7.

My humble advice...if you don''t absolutely have to, stay well clear of Win 10, and if you do go that way, spend the extra $100 for the Pro version, which allows some...but only "some"...control over the big Microsoft knows best install regimen.  And make sure you do frequent system backups, as the rollbacks MS does for bad updates often do not completely uninstall the update and the changes it made (like a recent one that changed file system permissions all over the computer).  And prepare for some major butt pain. 

P.S. not sure what this talk about a free upgrade is about...the free Win7/8 ->10 update ended in July 2016.

Regards

 

[nocaltom 6]

Thanks guys great info I appreciate the advice. I know I have until Dec 31st for it still to be free.

Tom

[vortex681 806]

9 hours ago, w6kd said:

It forcibly installs updates--including video drivers--without asking

You can easily opt to have only security updates and no driver updates within Windows 10 - https://pureinfotech.com/exclude-driver-updates-windows-10/. If you ever connect to the Internet, the security updates are essential and I'm always surprised that some people don't want to allow them.

9 hours ago, w6kd said:

It allows you to specify an 8-hour window during the day (quiet hours) when it will avoid doing one of those automatic updates...but outside those hours, it will install updates and reboot your computer without warning, dumping whatever you're running and potentially losing data.

You are not limited to just an 8 hour window. Under "Active Hours" in the Update & Security settings you can set what you want - I have mine set from 09:00-23:00. The dialogue box says "We won’t automatically restart it during active hours and we won’t restart without checking if you’re using it". Just make sure that you definitely set the end time to be after you've finished using your PC for the day.