Windows 10 for musicians SOS article

[robinv]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov15/a ... dows10.htm

I hope this article might be useful to some people here. I put a lot of time into getting the information right and speaking to the right people at Microsoft about it. Solid information can be hard to find so hopefully this is helpful to the conversation.

Cheers
Robin

[Pete Kaine]

Was just reading my mag, when you posted. One thing I've noted is the dual boot bit, and the suggestion that as Windows allows you to roll back, then perhaps having a W10 build and a W7 build, which can be booted between and be seen as a ongoing upgrade/downgrade senario.

It appears that MS has started to impliment a 30 day roll back limit, which I suspect if the end user doesn't log into that W7 install for a month will end up locking them out? The does appear to be work around for this, but its something you need to impliment at first install.

I don't think it was in place/obvious when you'd have submitted the article, but they do appear to be sneaking more and more gotcha's in as time progresses. It has caught out a few of my customers in the last few weeks, much to their annoyance!

[robinv]

There ain't no going back! Probably...

And thanks SOS for the author's name typo in the magazine - geeez!

[robinv]

Was just reading my mag, when you posted. One thing I've noted is the dual boot bit, and the suggestion that as Windows allows you to roll back, then perhaps having a W10 build and a W7 build, which can be booted between and be seen as a ongoing upgrade/downgrade senario.

I think that's always going to be a bit of a fudge and perhaps MS are right to tighten these things up. And also it occurs to me that perhaps it would useful to offer the retail version of Windows with the systems I build so that people can dual boot with abandon and move their OS etc - the OEM version is very restictive and we shouldn't assume that it can be used in ways that the retail version is designed for.

[ezza]

I couldn't read the whole article but I got as far as the clean install part.

If you want a clean install you can do it without purchasing a license. You have to upgrade your PC with the Windows 10 upgrader first. This registers your hardware with Microsoft. After that you can do a fresh install from a DVD or USB drive and you PC will authorize automatically.

Once you are sure that you don't want to go back to the previous OS you can recover a substantial chunk of disk space by deleting it. Instructions here:

http://hothardware.com/news/clean-up-and-recover-storage-spa...

Well worth doing if you are using a small SSD system drive.

[John Reid]

I made an image backup of the Windows 7 partition just before upgrading as I don't trust any automated process to be able to roll back such a substantial upgrade. I'll pop it back in after 30 days and see how it goes.

I've done the upgrade-and-then-clean install several times for people and it works prefectly; yes, you must upgrade first, but once you've done that, any subsequent reinstallation on the same hardware will come up already activated. I've even done this to change from a 32-bit Windows 8.1 to a clean install of 64-bit Windows 10.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone jumping up and down about the fact that, in order for this to be possible, Microsoft have to be able to uniquely identify your PC .... perhaps people need to go on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and all the other anti-social networks in order to protest this intrusion of privacy.

[Forum Admin]

And thanks SOS for the author's name typo in the magazine - geeez!

Not sure how they missed that one in editorial Robin! It's also wrong on the Tablet version.... apologies.

I have corrected the online article credit, which is typically the one that lives on in Google's memory.

cheers,
Ian G

[ezza]

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone jumping up and down about the fact that, in order for this to be possible, Microsoft have to be able to uniquely identify your PC .... perhaps people need to go on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and all the other anti-social networks in order to protest this intrusion of privacy.

Isn't this the same way that they keep track of Win XP, Vista, Win 7 & Win 8 authorizations?

[Matt Houghton]

There ain't no going back! Probably...

And thanks SOS for the author's name typo in the magazine - geeez!

Hi Robin. I imagine that was a slip of my fingers or what passes for a brain, though won't be able to check until Monday (I have no copy or iPad here), when I'll make sure the mistake in all but print is corrected. My apologies...

[ef37a]

The Post Ghost has struck again!
I was sure I asked if the factory recovery partition on my HP laptop would allow a return to W7 at any time if I went ahead and installed the free W10?

Dave.

[robinv]

Hi Robin. I imagine that was a slip of my fingers or what passes for a brain, though won't be able to check until Monday (I have no copy or iPad here), when I'll make sure the mistake in all but print is corrected. My apologies...

It's all cool - gives me another reason to mention it to people

[Matt Houghton]

...and now, back in the office, I find out the nature of the error.

There's rather a lot of manual transposing of information from the edited Word doc to the pre-formatted template in our DTP software, and my fingers/brain must have 'defaulted' to the other Robin's name. I'll get things changed... and make sure the money makes its way to the right Robin

[alexis]

I'd want a few hard copies to place strategically in the studio, give to family/friends, etc., with my name front and center! I don't suppose SOS could have a few copies of the corrected title page printed up? It could then be displayed with each page loose (in a laminated binder, e.g.,), and the SOS "fix" wouldn't have to involve re-binding the entire issue.

Just a thought, probably not a good one, but that's how one thinks when they're not famous like that!

[robinv]

I'd want a few hard copies to place strategically in the studio, give to family/friends, etc., with my name front and center! I don't suppose SOS could have a few copies of the corrected title page printed up? It could then be displayed with each page loose (in a laminated binder, e.g.,), and the SOS "fix" wouldn't have to involve re-binding the entire issue.

Just a thought, probably not a good one, but that's how one thinks when they're not famous like that!

I usually put my name on masking tape over other people's articles so i'm used to that

[ezza]

I couldn't read the whole article but I got as far as the clean install part.

If you want a clean install you can do it without purchasing a license. You have to upgrade your PC with the Windows 10 upgrader first. This registers your hardware with Microsoft. After that you can do a fresh install from a DVD or USB drive and you PC will authorize automatically.

Once you are sure that you don't want to go back to the previous OS you can recover a substantial chunk of disk space by deleting it. Instructions here:

http://hothardware.com/news/clean-up-and-recover-storage-spa...

Well worth doing if you are using a small SSD system drive.

Bought my copy at the weekend and can now see that you covered my points Great article - very useful.

[ezza]

The Post Ghost has struck again!
I was sure I asked if the factory recovery partition on my HP laptop would allow a return to W7 at any time if I went ahead and installed the free W10?

Dave.

The Windows 10 installer will back up your Win 7 install and revert back to it (with all your settings and programs intact) whether you have a recovery partition or not.

[ef37a]

The Post Ghost has struck again!
I was sure I asked if the factory recovery partition on my HP laptop would allow a return to W7 at any time if I went ahead and installed the free W10?

Dave.

The Windows 10 installer will back up your Win 7 install and revert back to it (with all your settings and programs intact) whether you have a recovery partition or not.

Really? Not the impressive I have got. So, I have ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO FEAR INSTALLING W10 ON THIS LAPPY?

Dave.

[alexis]

The Post Ghost has struck again!
I was sure I asked if the factory recovery partition on my HP laptop would allow a return to W7 at any time if I went ahead and installed the free W10?

Dave.

The Windows 10 installer will back up your Win 7 install and revert back to it (with all your settings and programs intact) whether you have a recovery partition or not.

Really? Not the impressive I have got. So, I have ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO FEAR INSTALLING W10 ON THIS LAPPY?

Dave.

Image first!

[The Elf]

The Post Ghost has struck again!
I was sure I asked if the factory recovery partition on my HP laptop would allow a return to W7 at any time if I went ahead and installed the free W10?

Dave.

The Windows 10 installer will back up your Win 7 install and revert back to it (with all your settings and programs intact) whether you have a recovery partition or not.

Really? Not the impressive I have got. So, I have ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO FEAR INSTALLING W10 ON THIS LAPPY?

Dave.

Image first!

+99!

[ezza]

After the upgrade your old Win 7 install is backed up in a folder on your C drive. You can revert back to it if you don't want to stay on Win 10. (I think it's an option if you boot into the advanced options with F8 on start-up).

However, I have not done it myself so I can't vouch for how well it works. As ever, in these situations, Google is your friend!