Windows 10 upgrade/migration

[Barry Scott]

Hi all

I'd normally pm JJ about this kind of thing, but I decided I'd put this on the forum so as to not continue to abuse JJ's kindness.

Obviously Win 7 support ends soon so I've got to do something I hate and upgrade the software on some Windows machines. They're all currently running Windows 10 EDIT: 7 and fortunately learnt I can still upgrade for free. My issues are as follows, so any advice would appreciated, please.

All computers are of a reasonable spec. They're office computers all with at least 8GB of ram and i5 processors. They've all got 128gb ssd and a few other platter drives.

1/ I think I know the answer to this, but does Windows have a migration feature (or third party program) where I can migrate the profiles (and programs) from Windows 7 onto a fresh Windows 10 install, as opposed to upgrading?

(I will upgrade them all first so I can validate the windows installation - don't quite understand this now product keys seem dead!)

2/ Is thee any advantage in a clean install over an upgrade nowadays (I remember the old upgrades were terrible)?

3/ UEFI/GPT, yay or nay? Any advantage to be gained?

4/ I'd quite like to encrypt them, does Win 10 have encryption, is it any good and can it be enabled with relative ease?

I know I could Google a lot of these and I did, I just got fucked off with the info overload.

Thanks

[Sippo]

I would do a fresh install. Have you not got a Wds server? If not, build one and have a Windows 10 image. Will save time in the long run.

Win 10 has bitlocker, so you could use that.

[Barry Scott]

Have you not got a Wds server? If not, build one and have a Windows 10 image. Will save time in the long run.

I don't. I'll look into it as I've always wanted to sort roaming profiles as well.

I suppose the big fear is adding complexity (and learning) to something that's just a simple network presents future/ongoing maintenance/headache issues.

[Sippo]

Happy to help where ever I can.

We are possibly starting a new project and moving everything to the cloud - literally everything. No servers across 8 sites, all one domain.

Now that is scary. Over 3000 users.

[Batch]

what could possibly go wrong

[suttonred]

Just finishing one. 20 odd servers to O/S upgrade from 2003 to 2016 and 2019. 500 new desktops and 1000 users. We backed everything up, started afresh and downloaded the data and shares etc. Created departmental images and ditched roaming profiles. The 37tb of data was the time eater... Don't forget your sys prep..

[Bob's Orange]

This is kind of linked so I'd like to ask the Townend techies if I may..........

So last night I downloaded a Windows 10 update on my (about 2 years old) HP laptop. This took about 3 hours but I expected that and isn't the issue.

After restarting I can now no longer access any web pages, the laptop is connected to the wifi ok, but when I open both chrome and Internet Explorer and put in a website (BBC for example, nothing fancy) its like the computer is trying to access the website, but it doesn't time out, I don't get any error messages and just that spinning wheel as if the computer is doing something but nothing seems to happen.

Any suggestions? Please note I am not very computer savvy so please dumb down any suggestions

[Sippo]

Have you uninstalled Chrome and reinstalled? It may have been corrupt during the upgrade.

IE isn't really used in Windows 10. Are you talking about Edge?

Can you press the start button, type cmd and press enter. Type in 'Ping 8.8.8.8' and press enter. This is google, so if that 'reply's' then there is an issue elsewhere.

[Bob's Orange]

Have you uninstalled Chrome and reinstalled? It may have been corrupt during the upgrade.

IE isn't really used in Windows 10. Are you talking about Edge?

Can you press the start button, type cmd and press enter. Type in 'Ping 8.8.8.8' and press enter. This is google, so if that 'reply's' then there is an issue elsewhere.

Thanks for the reply Sippo. I'm at work so can't try and suggestions until later but appreciate the suggestions.

I only use IE to work from home as the remote access only works with Explorer apparently.

[Batch]

If two browsers aren't working I'd guess the network settings are somehow a bit screwed.

If reinstall chrome doesn't help/you can't ping you might want to look around to see if there is an upgraded driver for you wifi hardware.

Might also be worth right clicking the wifi status icon and run the troubleshooter.

[Bob's Orange]

Just had an update from the wife that it seems to be working ok today so not sure what was the issue last night.

Thanks Batch and Sippo for the messages though, I appreciate the feedback.

[Flashheart]

so not sure what was the issue last night.

*clears throat*

last night I downloaded a Windows 10 update

I think I found the issue. Updates are always fucking up my machine, for a while at least.

[4D]

Rather than starting a new thread.....

I need to upgrade a laptop from windows 7 to windows 10. I have questions 

a) does it cost me anything to do it?
b) can a Wally like me do it?
c) do I need to back up any files before doing it?

Ta.

[suttonred]

It shouldn't

Yes

Always back stuff up you dont want to lose

[Chubbs]

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/