Replies

If you have your Windows 7 Product Key and a backup of your data, you could do a clean install of Windows 7.

I have updated Windows 10 on VMware Player to Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.3). When I went to Windows Update and clicked on Check for Updates, it came right up.

I have set the Update settings for my Windows 7 machines to either

“Check for updates but let me choose whether to download them” or
“Never check for updates (not recommended)“.

Before Microsoft started forcing updates to Windows 10, I had all my machines set to

“Install updates automatically (recommended)“.

Now I have the pain of having to Check for updates, and then review each update to see which are Windows 10 forcing updates.

Next week Threshhold II will become available for download. When you install it, if your problem is not hardware, it should fix your problem.

There is no relationship between being able to use the previous OS Keys & TH2… which, BTW, is a series of Updates that start in October not, a ‘package’. Do not think of ‘Thresholds’ as being anything like Service Packs of the past. Thresholds have about a 3 month span so figure 4/yr.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/7122/windows-10-fall-update-is-set-for-november-release

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-windows-10-fall-update-dont-expect-edge-extensions/

If you wait until Threshhold II is available – sometime in November – You can do a clean install and enter your Windows 7 Product Key, and it should work fine. This is a new feature in Threshold II.

If you do a clean install now, the current version of Windows 10 – Threshhold I – will not accept your Windows 7 product key.

For more information from Paul Thurrott see:

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/6815/microsoft-will-now-let-windows-10-upgraders-use-windows-7-8-or-8-1-product-key-to-activate

1. If you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, you will have 30 days to roll back to roll back to Windows 7. After 30 days. it will delete the roll back file. So your Windows 7 license is good for at least those 30 days

I think it’s good for longer than that, and you can restore from backup, but I’m not certain about that.

1a I don’t think you can buy a new license from a retailer, and if you buy one in a private sale, you better know and trust the seller, but yes you can.

1b If you roll back within 30 days you don’t need to do that, and I think that you can restore from backup after that.

1c ?

1d Backup, backup, backup! Both file backup and Image backup.

2 Yes it is cloud oriented. They will try to get you to sign up for cloud storage, Office 360, Azure, etc, etc. I’m not interested, so I haven’t done any of it.

2b Yes.

3 for one year from July 29, 2015. I think this means midnight PDT July 28, 2016, but they could stop it at some other time. And there will probably be a last minute rush. If you wait until July 28, you may not be able to connect to a server. Probably better to do it before the 4th of July to be safe.

4 I’ve heard about it too, but I’m not sure exactly how it works. It should not do that.

4a. I don’t think it will happen, as long as none of your employees accept the “invitation”, but Microsoft wants very much to get everyone on Windows 10.

I don’t have Windows 8.1 running on either hardware or a virtual machine any more, but in Windows 7 if you use the Start Menu search function to search for CEIP, and click on “Change Customer Experience Program settings” you will get

42072-Change-Customer-Experience-Program

Change it from Yes, I want to participate in the program. to No, I don’t want to participate in the program.

In October when the upgrade, which some people are calling Windows 10.1, but which Microsoft is not calling anything, is downloaded, unless you select the custom install and go through each setting, all of the privacy settings will be reset to Microsofts preferences, not yours.

When I had this problem, it was a mismatch between a “USB” keyboard and the USB port/driver. When I got a real USB keyboard, it worked fine.

All USB keyboards work with all USB ports, but not all “USB” keyboards work with all USB ports.

Some “USB” keyboards are really PS/2 keyboards with USB connectors. This is mainly only true for older keyboards. I think that newer keyboards with USB connectors will all use the USB 1.1 protocol to connect to USB ports.

So if your keyboard is fairly new this shouldn’t be a problem.

Some USB ports/drivers have been modified to work okay with PS/2 keyboards, but some have not.

Is the keyboard that you are using the one that came with your computer? If it is, the manufacturer should have set them up to work correctly with each other.

Do you have another keyboard that you can try?

Hi. I am having a lot of problems with my 32-bit Windows 7. I keep trying to install updates and it keeps saying Failure to configure updates…reverting changes. I have tried everything I have found on the net (mostly unchecking all updates and then checking 1 at a time), but I still get the message. It did end up updating to 7%, but then it always goes back to the failure to configure message. I am having problems also trying to get my HP 6500A plus officejet printer/scanner/copier/faxer to be added. I am not sure if that has anything to do with the update problem, but I have a sneaking suspicion it does. Also, if you all are kind enough to help me, I would need step-by-step instructions. Thanks for any help!!

When you are done with your computer for the day, what do you do? Do you leave it running, or put it to sleep, or do you shut it down? If you shut it down, stop reading now.

If you leave it running or put it to sleep, have you tried shutting it down, and restarting?

This has less than a 50% chance of fixing your problem, but it is easy to do, and it will fix more things than you would expect.

Wow. Talk about some great misinformation. Has anyone here actually replaced a MB with Win 10 on it? I have. You just do the same thing one always does when one’s Product Key fails to activate…..Call Microsoft and they will give you a new product key that you type in. I’ve done this countless times with Win XP, 7 and 8/8.1, and I just did it with Win 10….no issue at all.

*************************

Hey you kids…get off my lawn!!!

I have been waiting for someone to actually upgrade a motherboard with windows 10, and report the results. Microsoft will never make anything clear and understandable, it seems to be company policy.

Thanks for reporting. I have upgraded hardware with XP and 7 and except for motherboards, never needed to call in. I have upgraded motherboards with XP and called in and gotten a new number, but that was a long time ago on a computer I don’t have anymore, and I don’t remember it that well.

Simple answer is MS didn’t stop because they can’t stop…that’s what (among other things) they do. Personally I’m happy as a pig in slop with XP…I keep trying the more recent OSes but they just don’t measure up in the ways that are important to me, so I just keep using XP, simple as that. The Great White shark has to keep swimming but I don’t.

I liked Windows 2000. I stayed with it until there were just too many things, both hardware and software, that weren’t compatible with it. I wasn’t with XP that long between windows 2000 and Windows 7, it may only have been about a year, so while XP was better than Vista or Windows 8, I was happy enough to go to 7 when it came out.

Did you try to install from a DVD or USB flash drive?

If you did, did you start the DVD or flash drive from inside Windows 8.1, or did you boot into the DVD or flash drive?

Did you choose Update, or custom install?

When you do a successful upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, as part of your activation, Microsoft validates the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system that you are upgrading from, and them examines your processor and motherboard to create a unique ID for your system, saves that ID in Microsoft’s activation database, and then activates your Windows 10 installation.

After that, if you reinstall Windows 10, either through the system, or from a DVD or flash drive, as part of the install it goes back to the motherboard and processor, and reconstructs the hardware ID, then when it gets to activation, it sends the hardware ID to the Microsoft activation server, the activation server compares it to it’s database of valid hardware IDs, and if it matches, your installation is validated.

So if you did a clean install without ever having upgraded from your Windows 8.1 software, the hardware won’t be in the Microsoft activation server database, and it won’t accept your Windows 10 as Genuine Windows.

In your adventures with trying to install Windows 10 did you clobber your Windows 8.1 install?

If you did can you restore it from a backup?