Move to Win 10

OK, so certain compatibility probs apparently having been resolved I'm now thinking of shifting to Win 10 from Win 8.1, preferring to do it by upgrade rather than a clean install.

Experts seem to advise doing complete security backups before starting. I have Dropbox, with loads of spare capacity, so I am comfortable about ensuring my data is secure - apart from emails and associated stuff. I have both gmail and outlook accounts.

What, please, is the easiest way of making certain I don't lose the stuff in them?

Gmail and outlook data is store on the relevant servers, so they will be safe.
Just make sure you know all your log in info.
If you have a external drive, best to make a image of your system first before you update just in case it goes belly up, i use Macrium Reflectwhich is free and does a good job and it is free.

So what compatibility problems have been solved? while i did update to Windows 10 just to really be nosy and to get the free key for it, i went back to Windows 8.1 and at the moment have no intention of going to windows 10 again.

Thank-you for your advice. I do have a 1TB WD MyBook which I could use. It would more than cover all the stuff on my Dell XPS desktop, so I'll take a peek at the software you mentioned.

When I first ran the Win 10 compatibility check it suggested that I would have a graphics card prob. I started to do the change anyway and it just hung, and hung, and hung, for hours overnight, so I knocked it on the head. That was some months ago. I have now done a software mega-update which has made that compatibility report disappear. I have also been concerned about some of my ancient progs. However someone has suggested that I'd probably get away with it by running in some sort of simulation mode?

In view of euphoria about Win 10 in pc mags, I'd be interested to read why you went back to the notorious 8.1 and currently have no plan to return?

Thanks once again for responding.

Reflect is great, i used to use Acronis, which is good, but my version is getting old and is not updated unless I want to buy the latest version. Reflect is free there is a paid for version whihc also offers file backup, no doubt there is more to than that , but the free version is fine for cloning and image back up.
You need either a USB memory pen or a blank Cd to make a boot up media as well, so you can get the image back if something goes wrong.
it saved me today, I switch on my computer this morning before work to check for messages and the machine did not boot up. I tried to sort it out when I came home and I still not get it to boot, so I put a image on I made last week, all working now.

So even if you are not updating to Windows 7 making a image back up is a good thing.

Your card is a Nvidia? i heard there was some problems with windows 10 and Nvidia cards, not sure which ones or how.

There are a few reasons I went back to Windows 8.1, I started to use Windows 10 when it first became available for public use and carried on using it when it was launched and after the November update for a while anyway.

I found that the OS was not polished, it seemed half finished and even on launch it seemed like we was still testing it, the big November update really did not make much difference.
I had a problem with my sound card in that Windows 10 kept deciding that it wanted to replace the drivers, I thought it was sorted after the November update as it was ok for a while. Someone I know that have the same sound card had the same problem,, but they say now the problem seems to be sorted. Maybe Microsoft have realised that the drivers they produce for it do not work.

I did not like the forced updates, I like to see what my OS is updating before I allow it to do it, Windows 10 you can not do that, sure the pro version allows a delay but it will still force some updates.

This service idea also puts me off, the fact that Microsoft can add anything to Windows 10 and say it is part of the service or they can do or change what they want. Too much integration as well with Skype, Cortana, one drive and anything else MS decides to put in.

The universal apps are awful, as bad as Windows 8.1 Metro apps, but at least with 8.1 you can hide them, windows 10 seems to chuck them at you and worse will try and change your defaults.

Edge the browser is awful, worse than Internet Explorer if that is possible and unlike IE there is no way to get rid of it, I know that disabling IE is not really getting rid of it, but it is as close as it is going to get.,

Spying is another thing, to much wanting to know who you are, they even got adverts in the lock screen, sure you can get rid of it at the moment and also app Suggestions in the start menu, again you can get rid of it, at the the moment. Talking about the start menu it is awful, who ever thought about that start menu should be sacked, still at least that is easy to sort out and can be changed.
On the subject of Spying, Ms have even decided to download updates to Windows 7 and 8 to do the same thing if you allow it, which I have not.

Last thing is I just do not like the look of Windows 10, the UI is worse than Windows 8.1.

As for Windows 8.1, once you get rid of the start screen and use a decent start menu, get rid of silly flip out bits like the charm menus, set the defaults so that none of the modern/Metro apps are used it is not a bad OS at the core, to be honest I found Windows 10 had no advantage over windows 8.1 for me.

Cheers Adrian.
So I gather that you've actually proved Reflect by restoring successfully?
I've downloaded it and made a boot-up disk as you suggested, then got confuzzled.
Would you suggest using the Clone or Image option?
Presumably one or other of them copies the unused space?

Image, Clone will clone your drive onto another new drive if you are replacing it.
Say if you decided to get a SSD to replace your system drive you would use clone, a bit more difficult on a laptop, but you can get USB to sata connectors, easy on desktop.

So yes to back up use Image.

None of them copies the unused space.

Taken me back sereal weeks seeing this to about a week ripping my hair out trying to clone my laptop HD to a new hybrid HD. As far as I could ascertain, Paragon HD Manager that I was using cloned the old drive to the new one exactly all 6 partitions and the free space as well but would it boot the laptop? Would it h***l as like!!!!

I'm sure imaging and re-instating to the same drive would be simpler though. I'm sure that my problems were down to 2 things - 1. SONY 2. to a lesser extent efi and possibly secure boot.

I cloned my 120GB SS to a 250-GB SS with no problem using reflect, ok there was a small problem but that was my fault, I did not read the instructions and it did not open up the unused space on the larger drive.

i noticed a couple of months back, in fact I posted about it here that secure boot was a option on my desktop, it is not switched on and to be honest I would never turn it on, hate the idea, while I do understand that it could be a good thing.

Renewed thanks Adrian

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Gmail and outlook data is store on the relevant servers, so they will be safe.

Outlook.com data is stored serverside but Outlook data is stored locally in a .pst file.