Finally upgraded to Windows 10

Thought I may aswell seeing as its still free. Few issues with unsupported drivers but fixed in the end. First thing ive noticed is Win10 seems to be a lot more "busy" than Win7

At idle Win7 would run at 0% CPU usage, where as Win 10 runs between 1-5% idle. Is this normal? Ive turned off all the privacy stuff that sends data on my PC to Microsoft

Ignoring my AV and Genie Timeline backup activity (and closing Chrome to prevent it's usage), mine is around 2-3%. So a similar figure.

Out of interest, where is it still free?

If you use the creation tool on the Microsoft site it lets you upgrade or create a bootable iso file.

Microsoft dont advertise is but apparently its worked ever since theu officially stopped offering it for 'free'

Edited by bobble_bob (Mon 13-Jan-20 09:32:43)

Does it show as activated in Settings > Update > Activation?

Yup with a digital licence

Interesting. Win10 has always been a "free download" in that it will install without a key being entered, but I wasn't aware upgrades from activated Win7 installs are still causing Win10 to be activated.

As with most versions of Windows, it depends on what processes and services you leave enabled / Auto.

Win10 wants to have a lot more forced to auto than a lot of previous versions, and setting some to manual or disabling them is very difficult without hacking the registry or taking ownership of files/folders/services.

Bear in mind I'm talking about Home version, and not other version(s) that allow for group policy settings (gpedit is disabled on Home versions).

I'd take a peek of all the processes and services. Set to manual if possible, any that look unlikely to be used by you. If they want to kick in, they can. If not, they don't use resources needlessly.

Also appreciate that Win 10 is more hungry than previous versions, and with automatic updates / monitoring etc it's likely to be using your network connection more, and especially after a period of downtime.

As a result of all this activity, a system built in 2015 might see more activity compared to a system built in 2019. Faster storage, faster RAM and a faster CPU will minimise that effect. No idea how new your system is, but my Win10 system has an NVME C: drive, and it's mighty fast. From POST to desktop is under 5 seconds. My 2015 SATA SSD (fast for its tech) takes about 20 seconds on Windows 7.

PC is 7 years old. Looking at getting a new one but thought i would see how it copes on Win10.

Computer active magazine regularly talks about this ability to get it for free.

I had assumed when Microsoft said people had only a year to upgrade for free they meant it. I guess not!

MS want everyone on Windows 10, they wanted people to migrate. Giving them a deadline of 1 year probably made alot of people move over, rather than waiting for today to do it.

Or prompted people to pay for Windows 10 if they weren't aware it was still available as a free upgrade.

Yes, it is a 'free upgrade' BUT don't use the option 'upgrade windows' in the install menu!!
this will scan all your software and get it saved... OK if you have a day to spare, and a few retries... :/

If your win7 PC has the registration code on it (that DOES NOT have the OEM in the numbers!)

then you can use this for win 10 make sure all your software is available on CD or USB so you can do a fresh install later...