Upgrading to Windows 10 for free?? - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

Flysofree · 05-31-2015, 09:17 PM

I have a notice on my computer that i can upgrade for free to Windows 10. (I am currently running Windows 7 professional. It's only professional because I bought the Virtual XP machine and installed that. I no longer have the codes and disc to downdown the Virtual XP machine again).. Question if I upgrade to Windows 10 do I automatically lose my Virtual XP machine??

MJC922 · 05-31-2015, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flysofree

I have a notice on my computer that i can upgrade for free to Windows 10. (I am currently running Windows 7 professional. It's only professional because I bought the Virtual XP machine and installed that. I no longer have the codes and disc to downdown the Virtual XP machine again).. Question if I upgrade to Windows 10 do I automatically lose my Virtual XP machine??

I don't think that will be a problem. Windows 10 will have a Hyper-V role, you will just have to enable that and then you should be able to host an XP instance. It's good to hear that you're running a VM. A lot of people on here who want a physical system to run legacy software should be going the VM route instead. Far better to purchase a newer machine with plenty of memory 8-16GB and then host an XP instance, give it 2 or 3GB of RAM. VMs are a beautiful thing, just files in a folder. Everything I do with production systems is virtualized. I use VMware instead of Hyper-V but either way you're doing it right.

Flysofree · 05-31-2015, 10:08 PM

Yeah, but I don't know what I'm doing..When I bought the XP mode at Best Buy it came with all the instructions to follow for installation which was very simple .Type in number codes which sent me to a Microsoft page and from there it was very simple... A 3rd grader could have done it.. I only bought it to run my horse hacing software on which would not work on Windows 7.. So if Windows 10 makes me do anything which is complicated, I'm dead in the water... Think best to wait until I can ask someone..I don't have the disc or the numbers for the XP mode.. It's a great addition and I don't want to lose it.. Maybe Microsoft will have a webpage to adddress this soon.. Right now I can't find it on Google.. As a matter of fact,all I read is that it's coming soon... Soon is here I guess, unless I disregard the free upgrade.

MJC922 · 05-31-2015, 10:10 PM

On the other hand I find it a bit strange that you're receiving any message about upgrading already. Win10 release date is by all indications about 90 days away at the moment. What's available now is the insider preview (beta) which has problems with Hyper-V so I wouldn't be eager to jump into anything yet. I've played with 10 a bit at work, it's an improvement over 8, Spartan aka Edge browser renders much faster than IE, aside from that I prefer Win7 but then I'm always slow to warm up to new versions.

Flysofree · 05-31-2015, 10:18 PM

The Notice has a button for me to "Reserve My Free Upgrade"..."It will download automatically when available. I'm not touching it yet.

MJC922 · 05-31-2015, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flysofree

Yeah, but I don't know what I'm doing..When I bought the XP mode at Best Buy it came with all the instructions to follow for installation which was very simple .Type in number codes which sent me to a Microsoft page and from there it was very simple... A 3rd grader could have done it.. I only bought it to run my horse hacing software on which would not work on Windows 7.. So if Windows 10 makes me do anything which is complicated, I'm dead in the water... Think best to wait until I can ask someone..I don't have the disc or the numbers for the XP mode.. It's a great addition and I don't want to lose it.. Maybe Microsoft will have a webpage to adddress this soon.. Right now I can't find it on Google.. As a matter of fact,all I read is that it's coming soon... Soon is here I guess, unless I disregard the free upgrade.

I guess if I were in your shoes then being uneasy about the process I would not upgrade from 7. You aren't gaining anything with the upgrade unless you have a need like me for the day job to stay hands-on with the latest BS. In your shoes I would run 7 and then within the next year or two if you buy a new machine it will have Win10 on it and you can copy the XP VM off to an external hard drive and then copy to the new system.

MJC922 · 05-31-2015, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flysofree

The Notice has a button for me to "Reserve My Free Upgrade"..."It will download automatically when available. I'm not touching it yet.

I don't blame you... well if /when you dive in I'll try to help as much as I can.

Dave Schwartz · 05-31-2015, 11:54 PM

Just my $0.02 here.

Make sure that your Win7 machine is not a machine that was upgraded from the XP era. I have a bunch of those with motherboards that only accept 3gb of RAM. (This has been an issue for my primary machine because I run so many applications at once.)

If win8 is any indication, Win10 may not run well with only 3gb.

HoofedInTheChest · 06-01-2015, 12:21 AM

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for those who own a legitimate copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Windows 10 (OEM)
Home - $109.99
Pro - $149.99

OEM Release Date - August 31/15

RTM will be released in late July.

Minimum hardware specs for Windows 10

• Processor: 1GHz or faster
• RAM: 1GB (32-bit) or 2GB (64-bit)
• Free hard disk space: 16GB
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
• A Microsoft account and Internet access

Flysofree · 06-01-2015, 07:49 AM

I could care less about having Windows 10. Unless Microsoft is going to stop support for Windows 7 after August 31st. Then I will have no choice, because I need this computer to be on the internet .

I hope it will be easy to copy this XP mode to one of those little slide peace devices.....forget their name, flash drive maybe to transfer it.

upthecreek · 06-01-2015, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flysofree

I could care less about having Windows 10. Unless Microsoft is going to stop support for Windows 7 after August 31st. Then I will have no choice, because I need this computer to be on the internet .

I hope it will be easy to copy this XP mode to one of those little slide peace devices.....forget their name, flash drive maybe to transfer it.

Not to worry yet
Windows 7 --Extended support January 14, 2020 (from Microsoft Windows fact sheet)

Tom · 06-01-2015, 08:16 AM

So I have to buy all new hardware to continue doing what I am ding now?
Real good deal.
Not.

Flysofree · 06-01-2015, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upthecreek

Not to worry yet
Windows 7 --Extended support January 14, 2020 (from Microsoft Windows fact sheet)

Ok in 2020, I'll buy a new computer and pray that I can use the Virtual Machine( XPmode) which I'll try and copy to a flash drive for the new computer. If not I will be up the creek. No need to fu#k this computer up with something "FREE"

DJofSD · 06-01-2015, 09:48 AM

If I recall correctly, the free upgrade for W10 will be good for a year. No need to rush into an update. Let the early adopters find the problems and glitches.

However, waiting for the first "system pack" as a cue to update your system will not be possible, or at least, not as easy with W10. That is due to Microsoft changing the way they are going to maintain the software. Before, they'd bundle things then post them for Update to discover on the so called Update Tuesday which occurred roughly once a month. Now, they will be posting those changes continuously. And, whether or not there will be a huge bundle of things packaged as a "system pack" (or whatever new terminology they'll use) is not clear.

Stay tuned.

Flysofree · 06-01-2015, 10:04 AM

I don't know, but if making money is the goal of Microsoft and that's the goal of all companies...my reading on a googled page leads me to think there may be eventually a monthly or yearly fee for updates to something simply called "WINDOWS". That will be without a number following it. This would make it simplier and we could cut the games out about what version of windows runs which software.
Maybe, but if too simple someone loses a job somewhere along the never ending chain of whathaveyou in the computer world.