My point was the opposite of that .

Ignorance is no defence!

Will you try upgrading to W10 if problem persists?

I'm hoping it won't ! That there is something else up with the laptop.

One problem about upgrading the new one to W10 could be disk space. It has a 256GB SSD and no hard drive. We shall see .

W10 has small footprint like Win7 so that shouldn't be an issue. The preview requirement is 16GB.

Yes, but I don't think upgrades like that remove the original OS. Or do they?

I don't yet know if part of the 256 is also swallowed by a restore partition for Win 8.1, which would complicate things.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Yes, but I don't think upgrades like that remove the original OS. Or do they?

I don't yet know if part of the 256 is also swallowed by a restore partition for Win 8.1, which would complicate things.

Upgrade? upgrade?!? you should always be doing a fresh install

You have the choice, it will upgrade the existing windows 8.1 installation, unless you specify that you want it installed separately into another Windows directory, which would create a dual boot scenario between w8.1 and w10. So if you don't do that and just upgrade 8.1 in place it will effectively wipe it and the restore partition would just be ignored, as that's something that was created by the supplier of your desktop/laptop. I believe its just the bootblock that's updated in both cases, so it will either boot to a menu, so you can choose between using w8.1 or w10 or it will boot directly into w10.

However it's done, it's an upgrade . You obviously cannot upgrade the Win 8.1 product itself by patches, it has to be a fresh install.

Yes I would want it booting direct into W10 and ignoring the other, but how much of the disk is released I have my doubts about. Having done several older Win version updates. IIRC most of it stays where it was.

neither is not informing people of what is entailed, it is the suppliers responsibility to give all necessary information and they are liable if they do not do so, even if that information is common knowledge, they have to ensure you have that you are in possession of it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

However it's done, it's an upgrade . You obviously cannot upgrade the Win 8.1 product itself by patches, it has to be a fresh install.

When the preview upgrades to a new release it keeps the old version compressed. Using "Disk cleanup" wizard you can then remove the "older version of windows" and it releases about 4GB.

Win8 may not have a recovery partition, as the OS has similar tools built in, depends on the laptop maker.

Yes I would want it booting direct into W10 and ignoring the other, but how much of the disk is released I have my doubts about. Having done several older Win version updates. IIRC most of it stays where it was.

Disk cleanup works better from W7 to 8 etc, than it did from 2000 to XP or XP to Vista - but yes, if you can get a full ISO downloaded, burned to DVD or USB stick, and install from there that is generally more efficient use of disk space. That way however you have to find all your drivers and reinstall software again