BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!
Notes by roamer_1 :
Any Win7 or Win8 - Make sure you have your key (usually on a sticker on the box, on the bottom on a laptop) and that it is legible. If you do not, let me know and I will point you to a tool to suck it out of the operating system... You probably will not need it but in some cases you will. After the key is written down:
Go to this article by Forbes and follow the simple instructions.
How To Upgrade To Windows 10 For ‘Free’ In 2020 [Updated] -by Gordon Kelly
Expect an hour or so. Less with good broadband and more powerful machine. 99 times out of 100 it is a very painless experience.
Cautions:
If presented with a choice, you want the 64bit version.
You will get the same version of Windows that you already have (Home, Pro, etc)
Some programs may be disabled, and may not work on reinstall, though many will. Don;t try to reinstall until Win10 is fully installed and up to date.
Sometimes (very seldom) it does not work. Often it can then be reverted to Win7, but sometimes not... In that case, the machine will have to be completely reinstalled, wherein Win10 will work in most cases.
Sometimes it gets your win7 key automatically, sometimes it doesn't. If it didn't you'll have to enter the key during the activation step as mentioned.
After installation, during setup:
Say no to Cortana. Alright, you can say what you want, but having an open mike in my house just for the stupid pet tricks Cortana can do... Nope.
It will try like crazy to get you to sign up with a microsoft ID - This means your machine will sign into microsoft every time you log in, which can be handy what with the spiffs that come with it, like automatically syncing your user between machines - any hotmail.com, live.com, or outlook.com email will do, but I highly recommend you do NOT... In the lower corner there is an opt out, and you DO want to opt out, at which point your local user will be used, or if installing new, the opportunity to create a local user will be presented.
You will come to an extensive set of toggles asking for permission to do stuff - NO to all, and page-down - There's more of em than you think. This will shut off a whole lot of the bells and whistles, and make it a bit harder on the back end to say, get the mike and cam running in Skype or something, but well worth it to get as locked down as possible right off the get-go.
The rest of the install is pretty benign. Just follow the instructions
Do not worry if it's a little wonky to start with... Make sure it is fully updated before worrying about the graphics being weird or the sound not working... Drivers will be updated as it goes along, and things will generally get better.
After it is up and running, and has reached a fully updated status, you will probably want to install ShutUp10 to restore privacy and quite a bit of performance, and AppBuster to control all those goofy apps windows shoves down your throat... I'll write a separate post regarding that, and link to it in the comments below.
