FREE Win 10 ends on July 29

Carl Kilmer · Post by **Carl Kilmer** » 27 Jun 2016 6:06 am

Don't look now, but July 29, 2016, is coming up fast. That is the one-year anniversary of the release of Windows 10, which means the ability to upgrade to the new operating system for FREE will soon expire. (If you are interested, you can take a look at the official countdown here.)

...we want to remind you that if you haven't taken advantage of the free upgrade offer, now is the time. The free upgrade offer to Windows 10 was a first for Microsoft, helping people upgrade faster than ever before. And time is running out. The free upgrade offer will end on July 29 and we want to make sure you don't miss out. After July 29th, you'll be able to continue to get Windows 10 on a new device, or purchase a full version of Windows 10 Home for $119.

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 27 Jun 2016 6:24 am

I am sorry and I do not mean to be confrontational but after all of these months of having to fight Microsoft to keep
them from forcing a new OS on my computer I will never buy another computer based on their platform.
Windows 10 may or may not be good however it is my computer. What goes on it is my choice.
I like 7 and spent a lot of time keeping 10 from being forced in to my system.
Being angry doesn't even begin to cover it.
It's like buying a new car and 6 months later they take it away from you,
put an engine in it you don't want, return it and expect you to like it.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 27 Jun 2016 6:24 am

I'm still dragging my feet and probably will for another month and two days.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 27 Jun 2016 7:52 am

I just did it, but you still have another month and 2 days as per Charlie. It was relatively painless and took less than an hour.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Jun 2016 7:54 am

The title of this topic is off by a month. This is still June and free Windows 10 upgrades don't end until JULY 29.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 27 Jun 2016 8:48 am

I gather if one wanted to roll back, that deal would be off at the end of the month as well.

Zero Wing: we let them win. Just kidding!

So, Jerry, do you find it pretty friendly?
Are you using the improved Windows security or other anti-virus?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 27 Jun 2016 9:27 am

Charlie McDonald wrote:I gather if one wanted to roll back, that deal would be off at the end of the month as well.

I think the "rollback" feature is good for 30 days following activation--when it works.

At the latest, that would be July 29 plus 30 days, circa August 28.

After that date, if you wanted to revert to Windows 7, you'd have to use an imaging application to restore an image you made prior to doing the free upgrade. Or do a clean re-install of Windows 7.

Georg Sørtun · Post by **Georg Sørtun** » 27 Jun 2016 9:29 am

I upgraded from win7 to win10 on my laptop a few days ago, and find the new OS to work just fine. Apart from that I don't like the look of the default interface, I cannot find anything to complain about.

Upgraded ESET to latest version while I was at it, so security is as I am used to

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 27 Jun 2016 10:59 am

Yeah Charlie, just learning the navigation differences. Otherwise, reasonably friendly. Haven't had it up long enough to really know yet.

Using Windows Defender security.

My new PC came with 8.1 installed so I guess I had nothing to lose by upgrading.

Scott Duckworth · Post by **Scott Duckworth** » 27 Jun 2016 2:16 pm

One word... Linux Mint... oops, 2 words...

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 27 Jun 2016 5:18 pm

Scott Duckworth wrote:One word... Linux Mint... oops, 2 words...

Great! But what happens when a program calls for a Windows registry entry, and there IS no Windows registry, since there's no Windows OS? What now?

Or, maybe there's no Linux drivers for the hardware in question.

If Linux was an acceptable alternative to Windows, Microsoft would have been out of business long ago. It's not, and that explains why the market is predominantly Windows.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Jun 2016 7:53 pm

Everybody who currently has a valid copy of Windows 7 has the built in backup feature that can save a full system image to a location other than your boot drive. My last Windows 7 image was 104 Gb. I would recommend using a USB 3.0 external disk, or preferably a thumb drive, to store the Windows image. You can buy 256 Gb thumbdrives for under a hundred dollars right now. If your image will exceed about 256 Gb (the largest commonly sold thumbdrive today), use an actual internal or external slave disk drive.

The Windows Backup utility is found inside Control Panel. There is also an option in Windows Backup to create a bootable recovery disk to use to restore an image. It can be a CD or DVD to become bootable. You will need this disk to boot the computer if you need to restore Windows 7.

To restore Windows 7 with this system, insert the bootable recovery disk and restart the computer. If the system bypasses the boot media, reboot and press whatever key takes you to your BIOS. Within the BIOS settings you will find one option for Boot Order. Set your optical drive or drives as the first boot device, followed by the primary hard disk.

If your computer is older than USB 3.0, consider buying and installing a PCI Express USB 3.0 adapter card. It is gobs faster than the old USB 2 and even older USB 1.1 ports.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 4 Jul 2016 9:07 am

So far so good. The device set up it's own incept date and was just a day late. The only place that gave me pause when it seemed to stop at

All your files are exactly where you left them

Reminded me of Zero Wing... and didja notice that Win is the first three letters in the last word...? Fortunate that it's run by men of compassion and vision.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 4 Jul 2016 9:14 am

Charlie McDonald wrote:So far so good. The device set up it's own incept date and was just a day late. The only place that gave me pause when it seemed to stop at

All your files are exactly where you left them

Reminded me of Zero Wing... and didja notice that Win is the first three letters in the last word...? Fortunate that it's run by men of compassion and vision.

All your data are belong to us!

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 4 Jul 2016 9:29 am

Exactly! Actually, that's apt. I did disable several switches about sharing data for automatically connecting with other networks which might not be secure.

Sharing preferences, likes and dislikes in this robot server social medium... Yeah, I'd really like to share all that.
Night, Cortana.

Catch Shoot Beat Them Down!

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 4 Jul 2016 1:55 pm

Charlie McDonald wrote:SNIP

Night, Cortana.

Catch Shoot Beat Them Down!

"I'm sorry Charlie, but I can't let you do that"

Carl Kilmer · Post by **Carl Kilmer** » 26 Jul 2016 6:06 am

<TTT>

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 27 Jul 2016 4:20 am

Everybody in the lake!

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 27 Jul 2016 5:28 am

Charlie McDonald wrote:Everybody in the lake!

Yep - and now, even I've jumped in, and it's OK, finally.

After my uber-rant about Win10 breaking my flight sim software multiple times, knowing time was running out, I decided to do it again last week. Same thing happened, but this time, I persevered, and found the problem. Turns out, Win10 had been enabling the "Proxy Server" feature, which I don't need or want, and it disabled the software. Coupla' mouse clicks to turn that off, and, voila', everything worked.

So all 4 computers are perkin' along with Win10 now. I even found a hack to disable the silly "lock screen", which, for me, at least, is just a needless bother - why would I want to have to log into my own computer? Now it boots straight to the desktop, as it should.

But just in case you need something else to worry about, the camel's nose may already be under the tent. Microsoft has announced that, beginning this fall, it will start offering Windows 10 Enterprise to large businesses for $7/seat per month, as Adobe is doing for Photoshop. Will this eventually morph into "Windows" (no version number) as a subscription service to home users?

Microsoft's official position, for now, is that it won't, but a subscription model is hugely attractive to Microsoft from a financial perspective.. There are numerous rumors on the internet on both sides. This Forbes article describes how Windows 10 might evolve into a subscription-based "Windows", and we'll all start getting "nags" again to "upgrade" to subscription "Windows", as we did with Windows 10.

Time will tell.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 27 Jul 2016 6:09 am

Whoa...I saw what you did there, Charlie...

People are going to wonder how I can quote you before your post shows up.

Charlie McDonald wrote:About the lockscreen, my unit may be learning how to bypass it on its own. Strange but useful...From the article: "Windows now recognizes when you're using a traditional desktop or laptop...."

Seems my objections were about things that amounted to appearance, but still the dang thang still rearranged my photos into strange albums and collections, useless for information retrieval

Yeah, that's why I avoid using Windows "Libraries" - "Pictures", "Music", "Videos", etc. MS has its own ideas about how people ought to do that stuff, and it's always different from how **I** want to do it. I keep all those files in folders **I** set up, and manipulate them how **I** want to do it, mostly using 3rd-party software, not the canned Windows junk.

On the lockscreen deal, I just wanted some way to get it done, and it turned out to be pretty easy. Keeping 4 computers all on the straight and narrow is like herding cats, sometimes. I'm still struggling with all the new and elevated security that keeps me from doing the simple, routine housekeeping stuff I've done unchallenged for years.

"You need administrator permission to do .. yada, yada" Huh? I **AM** the "Administrator", and duly logged into my own PC as such...what is this?

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 27 Jul 2016 6:10 am

Yeah, it got timey-wimey for a minute there.

Possibly even monthly upgrade offers in the future, who knows.

About the lockscreen, my unit may be learning how to bypass it on its own. Strange but useful.
From the article: "Windows now recognizes when you're using a traditional desktop or laptop...."
Maybe new software will make it easier for machines to learn from us. But I used the hack anyway, it worked, thanks, Dave.

Seems my objections were about things that amounted to appearance, but still the dang thang still rearranged my photos into strange albums and collections, useless for information retrieval, but there's still File Explorer. Meet the new boss.

Resistance is futile.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 28 Jul 2016 5:46 am

See my newer topic about reserving your free copy of Windows 10, in case you're not ready to upgrade by July 29.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 28 Jul 2016 6:01 am

Dave, do you get the SIGN IN screen, or does the display go directly to your desktop screen? Just being picky...
didn't want to ask Cortana... wouldn't be prudent....

Sound plan, Wiz.

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 28 Jul 2016 2:14 pm

Charlie McDonald wrote:Dave, do you get the SIGN IN screen, or does the display go directly to your desktop screen?

Charlie, no sign in, straight to the desktop.

Carl Kilmer · Post by **Carl Kilmer** » 28 Jul 2016 4:38 pm

Charlie, you can set your computer to boot up to desktop every time
without having to sign in with your password. It's really easy and it
only takes 2 or 3 minutes to do it. Click the link below for directions.
There are 2 ways. I used the first one, it's so easy and the fast way.

www.intowindows.com/how-to-automaticall ... indows-10/

The Steel Guitar Forum

FREE Win 10 ends on July 29

FREE Win 10 ends on July 29

Free Win 10 Ending