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[Red Hood]

edit: It's been two weeks now since I upgraded from 7 to 10 and I'm very satisfied with it. As I was with 7. It feels, controls, and looks basically like 7. Haven't found any flaws yet. I can't even use the Cortana stuff apparently because of where I live, but you can't miss what you didn't have so I don't really care. It's essentially "just" a Windows 7 skin and that's the biggest compliment I can give it so far.

Original post:
I have Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) and it has served me excellent, it still does. But it's no secret that Windows 10 is the near future of PC gaming, primarily because of DX12 (most Steam users already have 10 (edit: the 64bit version)), and I wanted to ask if this is the right time to upgrade. I've been postponing the upgrade since its release in the hopes that several issues would have been ironed out by the time I'd consider an upgrade. I installed it on my dad's PC so I'm a little familiar with it, it feels okay. Would I get the Ultimate version of Windows 10 or the basic/Home one? Any disadvantages to upgrading, be they gaming related or in general?

 

[Rellik]

It's been great for me on my gaming PC from day 1. Never had a single issue. I didn't even get them Nvidia driver issues some were having in the first week of release.

You being on Windows 7 Ultimate will mean you'll be upgraded to WIndows 10 Pro.

 

[aaaaa0]

Yes. It started out rocky, but it's pretty good now.

 

[Gattsu25]

Well, the free upgrade period from Win7 and Win8 is only supposed to be for 12 months, right?

Disadvantages are mainly in the form of privacy. By default, Win10 wants to know everything about you and even includes a fucking keylogger. Blah. There are guides to fixing some of those issues but even after taking all those steps it still frequently phones home...something. No one's sure what.

From a gaming perspective, expect better performance since Windows 10 is even more lightweight than Win8 (which was more lightweight than Win7).

I personally made the upgrade to Win10 but disabled all monitoring and invasive settings. Make sure if you create your account to not use a microsoft/live account as that enables some extra snooping that can't be disabled in the settings.

 

[gamz]

Just got a new update this weekend and it's even better. Hands down their best desktop OS. The Windows Ink Workspace seems cool as hell. I really have to get a Surface this year.

 

[HanzSnubSnub]

If your happy with Windows 7 then don't upgrade. You still have a few months to get W10 if you change your mind.

 

[luckygodzilla]

Never had any issues with it on my home desktop and Surface Pro 4 for what its worth.

 

[Sophia]

The only issues I've had are related to Windows store downloads. Had some account issues early on, and then later had an issue with Windows refusing to update because the older Windows install was still on the PC. Both of these have been sorted out and no issues what so ever.

Oh, I guess I also had an issue with DS4Windows and exclusive mode, but that was sorted out too.

Well, the free upgrade period from Win7 and Win8 is only supposed to be for 12 months, right?

Disadvantages are mainly in the form of privacy. By default, Win10 wants to know everything about you and even includes a fucking keylogger. Blah. There are guides to fixing some of those issues but even after taking all those steps it still frequently phones home...something. No one's sure what.

From a gaming perspective, expect better performance since Windows 10 is even more lightweight than Win8 (which was more lightweight than Win7).

I personally made the upgrade to Win10 but disabled all monitoring and invasive settings. Make sure if you create your account to not use a microsoft/live account as that enables some extra snooping that can't be disabled in the settings.

Yeah, all stuff to consider too if you're worried about privacy.

 

[Firestorm]

As you said, you'll need to eventually for DX12 games. The only issue I have with it is the annoying Control Panel / Settings crap where it feels like two places do almost the same thing but not quite so I never quite know where to go.

 

[recklesscognition]

Not sure if it's just me but I cannot get around something leaking my location when using a VPN on Windows 10. I could never figure out what it was so I went back to 7.

 

[Pewpewlazors99]

Have you guys been clean installing? At this point the main reason I haven't upgraded is because I don't want to format my drive....again.

 

[Psychoward]

I'm still having issues with certain games and don't really notice any upgrades, so I'd stick with 7 personally.

 

[Zedox]

Just got a new update this weekend and it's even better. Hands down their best desktop OS. The Windows Ink Workspace seems cool as hell. I really have to get a Surface this year.

That's for Insiders though...granted they would get those features down the line (July) but still not a feature for regular users. I would get the free upgrade. I have a friend who upgraded and been waiting because he's a music producer and it's been fine with all the software he's used to running. I think most of the issues that usually plagues new Windows releases are pretty much minimal. No OS is perfect but this OS is shaping up to be a "Windows 7" caliber release. I would also do a clean install after the upgrade. A lot of issues happen because of migration. It was easy for me since I keep most of my documents in OneDrive and other stuff on an external so resetting my PC and clean installing was easy for me.

 

[Gattsu25]

Have you guys been clean installing? At this point the main reason I haven't upgraded is because I don't want to format my drive....again.

Nah, I did an inplace upgrade and it worked flawlessly.

 

[Sophia]

Have you guys been clean installing? At this point the main reason I haven't upgraded is because I don't want to format my drive....again.

I went from Windows 8 to Windows 10, no issues. Mind you, it was relatively new PC at the time, so it was probably only about four months off from a clean install. But outside of the issue I mentioned above that kept the old Windows install around when I no longer needed it, it was fine. I basically had to remove the old Windows install to force an upgrade to download Killer Instinct tho.

 

[wumster3000]

Go ahead and upgrade. Move on from Windows 7. 10 is a great OS and you can have it for free. I've yet to run into any major problems.

 

[gamz]

That's for Insiders though...granted they would get those features down the line (July) but still not a feature for regular users. I would get the free upgrade. I have a friend who upgraded and been waiting because he's a music producer and it's been fine with all the software he's used to running. I think most of the issues that usually plagues new Windows releases are pretty much minimal. No OS is perfect but this OS is shaping up to be a "Windows 7" caliber release. I would also do a clean install after the upgrade. A lot of issues happen because of migration.

Yeah, I probably should have been more specific on the insider build.

 

[Deleted member 325805]

Great, no issues here.

 

[Rolodzeo]

The system is rock solid for me since day 1. Win 10/10.

 

[sssstententen]

Have you guys been clean installing? At this point the main reason I haven't upgraded is because I don't want to format my drive....again.

One of the best aspects of 10 is the very excellent upgrading. They made it pretty seamless. I upgrade on my desktop and clean installed on my laptop, and didn't notice any difference besides the obvious.

Also, anyone who plays modern games should upgrade to prevent any future DX12 compatibility issues.

 

[Shaneus]

If we "upgrade", can we do it with something like a dual-boot (or dual system drive) scenario? Wouldn't mind trying out Win 10 with one of the spare SSDs I have, but to have a fallback to Win 7 (or just switch between the two) without too much hassle given my boot drive is external.

 

[KZXcellent]

Ever since I got Win10 the search engine on my start menu dies after awhile. Like I try to type stuff in the start menu to search for a program and nothing happens, I have to forcibly restart Windows Explorer to fix it. Anyone know if there's a fix for that?

Other than that I love it. Everything feels faster having upgraded from 8.1

 

[texhnolyze]

I only have 1 problem with Win10 so far.

My audio randomly disappears (often while playing youtube videos). For some reason when this happens none of the windows toolbar menu working (start, sound, clock, etc) It requires a restart to fix it.

Anyone have a clue what's going on with my Windows?

Edit: It doesn't always happen. Only once in about 10 hard boots.

 

[Pewpewlazors99]

One of the best aspects of 10 is the very excellent upgrading. They made it pretty seamless. I upgrade on my desktop and clean installed on my laptop, and didn't notice any difference besides the obvious.

Also, anyone who plays modern games should upgrade to prevent any future DX12 compatibility issues.

I went from Windows 8 to Windows 10, no issues. Mind you, it was relatively new PC at the time, so it was probably only about four months off from a clean install. But outside of the issue I mentioned above that kept the old Windows install around when I no longer needed it, it was fine. I basically had to remove the old Windows install to force an upgrade to download Killer Instinct tho.

Nah, I did an inplace upgrade and it worked flawlessly.

Thanks! Guess I will be giving it a go without a clean install.

 

[gamz]

I only have 1 problem with Win10 so far.

My audio randomly disappears (often while playing youtube videos). For some reason when this happens none of the windows toolbar menu working (start, sound, clock, etc) It requires a restart to fix it.

Anyone have a clue what's going on with my Windows?

Chrome or Edge?

I haven't had this problem. Could be sound drivers with your browser or something.

 

[Massa]

For me it was a complete mess until I did a fresh install, and I barely use Windows on my laptop. Every other time it would fail to boot and become completely unresponsive, forcing a hardware shutdown.

 

[aaaaa0]

By default, Win10 wants to know everything about you and even includes a fucking keylogger.

So does everyone who uses SwiftKey. The data is used to train the autocorrect system.

By collecting common words from everyone using the soft keyboard and running them through machine learning, they can make the guesses more accurate. For example, if a whole bunch of people start using the term "drumpf", they can increase the weight the autocorrect system uses for that word.

 

[davepoobond]

upgraded from 8.1, its better because i dont have to deal with all of those random "tablet-esque" features i would accidentally use unwillingly.

i dont think its much of an upgrade from 7, personally, but since everything is going to require 10 at some point...

 

[LostDonkey]

Fantastic, couldn't be happier. Boots up very fast, great performance, easy to use, nice tools etc.

Day 1 win 10 pro.

 

[texhnolyze]

Chrome or Edge?

I haven't had this problem. Could be sound drivers with your browser or something.

Oh, the sound is also missing while playing games. So I'm pretty sure it's not a browser issue.

 

[Weebos]

I'm a casual PC gamer and it is totally fine for me.

Not so amazing that I would be clamoring to upgrade, but it's fine, and enough of an improvement to satisfy me.

 

[MarcoZombieCannon]

It was fine from day 1. No reason to stay on W7 for most people.

 

[Steel]

It's not bad once you fiddle with the settings a bit. Definite performance increase.

 

[chrominance]

Just did the install today. Aside from some annoying Windows Update shenanigans before I could even download Windows 10, the whole process went very smoothly. I did an in-place upgrade from Windows 7, not a clean install. Pretty much everything I've tried so far works fine; the only thing that required a fix was my install of Apache not working because something else had already taken over port 80. This is not a concern for 95% of Windows users; I only have Apache on my system because I do web development work and Apache is a web server I run locally.

A few things:

Disadvantages are mainly in the form of privacy. By default, Win10 wants to know everything about you and even includes a fucking keylogger. Blah. There are guides to fixing some of those issues but even after taking all those steps it still frequently phones home...something. No one's sure what.

The linked Ars Technica guide is good, but I think Microsoft has made changes since that guide was originally posted, because many of the options Ars Technica says are hidden are no longer so. Telemetry is now part of the standard privacy options panel, and the torrent-esque update sharing option was shown during the initial Windows setup. As long as you're paying attention during the install and go through the Privacy options once Windows 10 is up and running, you'll likely catch everything without the use of a guide.

Games for Windows Live: this was the thing I was most worried about upon upgrading to Windows 10. My advice here is to make sure your games already work on Windows 7/8 before upgrading, just in case. That said, I haven't tried all my GFWL games yet, but I managed to get Battlestations Pacific running just fine, as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, I installed the PS4 Remote App and can now play PS4 games on my PC, which is sweet (albeit at a max resolution of 720p). Haven't tried the Xbox One streaming yet but the Xbox app seems nice. Steam works exactly as it did before, no changes there. Overall, I think you're good to go!

 

[III-V]

At home, I am a Mac guy for the last 15 years, but in the office I have used everything from XP to 10. 10 is good, honestly feels like they finally got it right. I am literally feeling as productive/more productive than my Mac with 10.

EDIT: have not tried it for gaming yet.

 

[Chesskid1]

i'm def going to wait as long as possible to upgrade from my windows 7.

i like my OS to be really simple, just run the stuff i want to use all the time, with everything de-cluttered and stuff i don't want disabled.

i'll have to disable all the privacy stuff. look into disabling the windows store since i'll never use it and cortana/voice chat.

there is auto-updating. call me old fashioned but i love to upgrade when i say it should update. have to disable that.

i think windows store even advertises to you on the start menu lol. i'll probably want to customize and make a simple start menu as well.

i find being able to reinstall windows 7 and setting it up a relatively painless process, while i'm going to have to do alot to reinstall 10.

i'm sure i can live with all those things, but man it's going to be a hassle setting it up to my liking.

 

[RazorbackDB]

If you waited this long, migh as well wait until the anniversary update, there is a new start menu and notificacion center which seem better, plus dark theme for most bundled windows apps.

 

[fluxanimator]

I recently had to upgrade my w7 to 10 so remote play would work. Honestly it's been a much smoother transition than I ever thought it would be. Works great and boots quicker than it used to. Id say go for it.

 

[lethial]

I upgraded a month or two ago and I think it's been great. I don't really use any old software so I can't comment on compatibility but no problems on what I do have.

 

[family_guy]

If you have an edu account, I would check to see what discounts are available to you. Sure you can upgrade for free, but I have the option to get a license for $10, so I'll be dual booting Windows 8 and 10.

 

[Silent Hill]

It's really good. Just make sure to turn off the auto driver updates. Appart from that, its great.

 

[Trace]

Been pretty fantastic for me so far.

 

[PSqueak]

The following games on my steam library have problems in Win10 that i didn't have in Win7:

-Undertale: Using a controller causes the character to be stuck into a direction from time to time.
-Civilization 3 Complete: Game crashes whenever a cinematic plays, at the space race status screen, randomly at the victory/lose screen and after giving you your ranking after finishing a game.
-Fallout 3 Game of the year edition: Game is 100% uncompatible with Win 10, will not even open.

This might seem like a short list, but it could mean many other games will have problems with it.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

I have three issues which aren't major but very annoying and they've been there since the beta:

1. If the screen resolution changes when I launch a game, the taskbar no longer works and I have to reboot.

2. On the Netflix app when it switches to DD or DTS there's a very loud pop sound from my speakers.

3. Sometimes when Windows loads, the size of the icons and text are too big, and I have to reboot to fix the size. This affects everything within windows and Chrome.


Wish they'd fix it, I've reported them countless times. Other than that though W10 works great.

 

[LAM09]

It's been perfect for me so far

 

[BiggNife]

It's fine. Download classic shell if you don't like the redesigned task bar.

 

[HF2014]

Been avoiding this upgrade, fearing my alienware m14x wont handle it right. I decide to install it a month ago,and honestly, it run pretty great. Love all you can do, customize your desktop, remove what you dont want. Its a bit slower to start from boot, but in standby, i found it quicker. And plus, my dual shock 4 still work perfectly , was affraid it was no longer work.

And one other big plus, used to have Killer Instinct on x1. Its crossbuy, i start it back on x1, and was able to download from xbox on pc for free with mu purchase of season 1. But jesus it run like crap on my system lol.

 

[potatohead]

I have like 100+ games installed so I am not particularly interested in learning which ones will stop working when I upgrade.

Plus I have to upgrade a laptop and a desktop, nah I'm OK, sticking with my ancient Windows 7

 

[Gattsu25]

I have like 100+ games installed so I am not particularly interested in learning which ones will stop working when I upgrade.

Plus I have to upgrade a laptop and a desktop, nah I'm OK, sticking with my ancient Windows 7

You remind me of my uncle. He asked me to help him with his computer. He was running WinME.

That was when I officially retired from my duties as family PC repair person.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Well, the free upgrade period from Win7 and Win8 is only supposed to be for 12 months, right?

I may be wrong, but I honestly find it hard to believe that the free upgrade will actually be ending. Consider how hard Microsoft has been working to "force" Windows 7 users to upgrade.