Upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10

Apparently 8.1 will stop getting security updates by next January so thinking about upgrading my laptop to W10 (too old for W11). The other option is to get a new W11 laptop but I thought I would try the cost-free option first.

Thing is, I have been all round the houses on the Microsoft web site and cannot find out how to get the W10 upgrade, Anyone able to point me in the right direction.

Thinking about it the one function I still need the laptop for that that I cannot do on my phone or tablet is use get_iplayer which is why I am hesitant about spending hundreds just for that though I find the larger screen and physical keyboard a lot easier for general email and browsing etc. apart from keeping my lap warm in these colder months.

Edited by gomezz (Sun 20-Nov-22 14:34:37)

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-stil... may help.

It was the first result from three pages worth of answers when I googled for "windows 8 to windows 10 free upgrade".

Download Media creation tool.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-i...

To upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, open Media Creation Tool, select “Upgrade this PC now,” and click Install. Yes, you can still upgrade for free since the Windows 8.1 product key will activate Windows 10. Although files and apps will be preserved, you still want to create a backup of your computer.

https://pureinfotech.com/upgrade-to-windows-10-from-...

In reply to a post by zaggie:

Download Media creation tool.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-i...

To upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, open Media Creation Tool, select “Upgrade this PC now,” and click Install. Yes, you can still upgrade for free since the Windows 8.1 product key will activate Windows 10. Although files and apps will be preserved, you still want to create a backup of your computer.

https://pureinfotech.com/upgrade-to-windows-10-from-...

Yep, this is the best way,

Thanks for the answers to show me the way.

Got an external hard drive to backup my previous laptop before I decided to get this current one instead. Just got to find the USB data lead that fits it as it is USB3 which was a short-lived format as I understand it.

Prior task is to swap in the new AV subwoofer I picked up today as the old one seems to have blown its cone and is rumbling in discontent at anything above the lowest of volumes. I wonder if that was a result of upgrading to a new AV receiver earlier this year which is a bit haphazard in its volume levels when switching between sources?

In reply to a post by gomezz:

Just got to find the USB data lead that fits it as it is USB3 which was a short-lived format

USB3 is a protocol, but in terms of connector perhaps you mean the extended USB3_Micro_B connector?
https://luckyretail.com/Uploadfile/201812112/191438/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#Host_and_...

Edited by jchamier (Mon 21-Nov-22 14:29:40)

That is possibly the fellah.

In reply to a post by gomezz:

Thanks for the answers to show me the way.

Got an external hard drive to backup my previous laptop before I decided to get this current one instead. Just got to find the USB data lead that fits it as it is USB3 which was a short-lived format as I understand it.

Prior task is to swap in the new AV subwoofer I picked up today as the old one seems to have blown its cone and is rumbling in discontent at anything above the lowest of volumes. I wonder if that was a result of upgrading to a new AV receiver earlier this year which is a bit haphazard in its volume levels when switching between sources?

Oh yeah, always make a backup, use Macrium reflect to make a image.
As been said above, USB 3 is a protocol and there are different connections. I got an external hard drive about 3 months ago, and it had the extended version as you call it.Granted some are now going for USB C.

I have to get some new speakers for this computer, my old 30 year old hi-fi I have used for the last 10 years have gone belly up, it turns itself off after about 10 minutes and won't turn back on untill it is unplugged and left alone for 30 mins or so.
I am using some old speakers that I used years ago thatlooks like this, What sounded ok then, sounds awful now. using them while playing Left for Dead, make me realise why I started to use the old hi-fi all those years ago.

i spent too much money this week, got myself a now Logitech Mini MX key keyboard, it was cheap, well cheaper, then I got a couple of hue dimmer switches and another Switch bot, bot. i still need to look at a Dell wyse.

Oh well, it is only money

If I am not too late and if you have a few bob to spare, while you are putting a new copy of windows on the laptop why not change the hard disk to a SSD one. I did this recently and it made a huge difference to the speed of the machine, particularly at boot time. It cost me about £70 for a 1 TB disk.

I actually have a USB disk docking station as well so was able to transfer all the files I wanted after upgrading the disk. Re-installing all the software was a bit of a pain though.

In reply to a post by philippercival:

If I am not too late and if you have a few bob to spare, while you are putting a new copy of windows on the laptop why not change the hard disk to a SSD one.

More of an improvement with Win10 than you'll see with Win8 or Win7, as Win10 and later don't expect to be on a mechanical disk.

I would clone the existing OS to the SSD, and then upgrade.

Took the opportunity today while feeling a bit off-colour and staying home in the warm and dry to action the W10 update. Took several hours to run to completion but the job is now done. Firefox running fine and get-iplayer stll working so that is good enough for me.

While all is running fine I have one curiosity which is puzzling me: When I first updated W10 reported that my wi-fi connection was using an old. insecure protocol. Fair enough, I logged into my BT Home Hub and changed the setting from WPA2 and WEP (Automatic) to WPA2 only. However, every time I log into my laptop I am still seeing the message about having an insecure wi-fi connection. What am I missing?

Note, this is an old HH2 from when I first got BT Broadband. I have a newer HH from when I upgraded my BT TV/Sport package a year or so ago but never bothered swapping it in on the basis that if it ain't broke then don't fix it.

First thing I would say is that I would bite the bullet and install the newer HH. I've found that the newer HHs are much better than the older ones, particularly when it comes to wireless networking, and I suspect the OS on them has more security fixes.

Also, if you haven't already done so, I would recommend completely deleting the wireless connection from the laptop and setting it up again from scratch, cold booting the laptop in the process. It may be that it is still trying to use the old settings. Also you have, I assume, power-cycled the HH.

Edit: One further thought - is the WiFi password a nice, secure one?

Edit2: Last thought. Is it possible that the HH2 only supports TKIP encryption for WPA2 rather than the more secure AES? Using the newer hub should fix that possibility.

Edited by TinyMongomery (Tue 27-Dec-22 11:50:00)

Thanks for those ideas. I will work my through them. Currently recording something from the Sounds Dungeon through a "hidden" escape route so need to wait an hour for that to finish first.

First thing I tried was a manual reboot and that seems to have done the trick. That suggest the various other reboots prompted by firewall and AV software updates etc are not full reboots and skip some steps to run in a shorter time.

I will bear the other tips in mind for the future.

Message came back today so this time I told W10 to Forget the connection and then made it anew and rebooted. So far so good.

Here is a funny thing. When I upgraded to W10 I was still able to unlock the screen with a double tap of the touch pad. The last few days however now find I have to CRL+ALT+DEL to get to the login screen and a bit of online searching suggests this is the way it is meant to be and I can live with that, There is a fiddle to change it back but I won't be bothering. Thinking back I think the change coincided with this month's Tuesday update but the thing is, why did not the original upgrade make that happen?

If you mean buying it, the windows 8 key will probably work, so just download the ISO, best to clean install it rather than attempt an in place upgrade from 8.1.

No need to buy it. Upgrade worked just fine. Been using if for several weeks now.

In reply to a post by gomezz:

No need to buy it. Upgrade worked just fine. Been using if for several weeks now.

Windows 8 is better than 10, get a decent third party start menu on it, and it just feels better and runs smoother. I would have kept to it when I updated to the Ryzen, but MS decided to post notices all the time saying that I should use Windows 10. Now, there are problems with some software not running on it.

Staying with W8 was not an option as there are no longer any security updates for it. If you are having problems with software not running on W10 then that is for the software provider to sort out, not Microsoft.

I hated Windows 8 more than any OS I have ever run, switched to 8.1 as soon as it was available because of the normal start menu and I prefer Windows 10 over both of them, can't comment on Windows 11 as my hardware is not up to the job.

In reply to a post by dect:

I hated Windows 8 more than any OS I have ever run, switched to 8.1 as soon as it was available because of the normal start menu and I prefer Windows 10 over both of them, can't comment on Windows 11 as my hardware is not up to the job.
[/quote

Totally agree, I installed it and was back on W7 pro within a week. I left W10 alone for about a year before installing it and its the best OS MS produced IMO. I'm running W11 on a couple of machines but don't nothing to get excited about.

I installed W11 on a couple of old PCs to 11 using Rufus...out of interest not necessity

In reply to a post by gomezz:

Staying with W8 was not an option as there are no longer any security updates for it. If you are having problems with software not running on W10 then that is for the software provider to sort out, not Microsoft.

Windows 8 is end of life sadly, so yes security updates is a problem now. I meant Software not running on Windows 8 became a problem.
As a test, a few months ago I reinstalled Windows 8 on my PC and so much of my software would just not install.
UI on Windows 8 was awful, but as I said that was easy to solve with third party software, I used start is back, in fact I still use the updated version of start is back on Windows 10 as I hate the tiles start menu on Windows 10.
I found Windows 8/8.1 ran smoother than Windows 7 on my then AMD bulldozer machine. Windows 11 seem to feel the same way, the OS just seems more fluid and responsive than Windows 10.
I kind of like windows 11, there are some things that could be better, like being able to get rid of the large gap on the start menu when recommended section is turned off or the multiple search boxes.

At the end of the day it makes little difference now, Windows 8 is end of life and if you are worried about the lack of updates then yes you have to change, I know a couple of people who are still using Windows 7, and they still have no intention to change, myself for what they use their computers for and the age of the machine I would put a Linux distro on them, something like Mint, but up to them at the end of the day.

In reply to a post by dect:

I hated Windows 8 more than any OS I have ever run, switched to 8.1 as soon as it was available because of the normal start menu and I prefer Windows 10 over both of them, can't comment on Windows 11 as my hardware is not up to the job.

A few third party start menus were around to get rid of the start screen on Windows 8, start is back, and classic start were two, made Windows 8 work more or less like Windows 7, but had better memory management, which is why I think Windows 8 worked far better on my old AMD bulldozer based machine than Windows 7 did.
I liked Windows 7, but there was just something about it that it seemed to not be smooth when using multiple software and opening windows.

What do you mean your hardware is not up to the job of Windows 11? If you mean it doesn't meet MS recommendations, That means very little unless it is real old hardware, but if it will run Windows 10 it will most likely run Windows 11. I put Windows 11 on my Ryzen R7 1700 based machine, I used Rufus to make an image, that changes the installation to allow it to be installed. MS thinks my CPU is not good enough to run windows 11 and yet the machine does. Rufus will also get rid of the need for TPM and other stuff, the latest one also bypass the need for a Windows account.

https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/04/rufus-3-18-adds-su...

I put Windows 11 on my brother's computer and that is not supposed to be able to run it and yet been running it fine for nearly a year now.

I heard someone has it running on a old AMD dual-core CPU. I may have a muck around at some point and see if it will run on my old AMD bulldozer cpu, that is if I can find the board, it is somewhere around here in a box with CPU and memory still attached.

I did a rufus install on an AMD Phenom, no problems.

So whats the story these days regarding licencing for Windows 11? I've got some new hardware coming soon thats destined for my pfsense firewall that I wouldn't mind putting Windows 11 on for a few months to see if its worth considering as possible a long term solution for another project.

A proper licence is around £100-150

https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/micros...

There are of course plenty of places that will sell you a dodgy licence key for £20, not recommended.

In reply to a post by dect:

So whats the story these days regarding licencing for Windows 11? I've got some new hardware coming soon thats destined for my pfsense firewall that I wouldn't mind putting Windows 11 on for a few months to see if its worth considering as possible a long term solution for another project.

As andynormancx said, you can buy a licence direct from Ms or other providers. There are also places that sell them cheap, he calls them dodgy, but not all of them. I got one for my brother a couple of years ago. By all accounts they buy them from companies that got them for a job lot or something from MS and find they don't need them, or something like that, MS are not happy about it, but it is not illegal.
You may also be able to buy a OEM version of Windows 10 cheap and then update to 11 using that key, but again only the OEM version.

You can run Windows 11 without a key, but you will not be able to customize it

Hardly worth buying a licence just to evaluate Windows 11.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Hardly worth buying a licence just to evaluate Windows 11.

That is why I put on the bottom, Windows 11 will run without a key. My brother used Windows 10 without one for nearly a year until I got him one while sorting out his computer.

Thanks

I only asked about licencing as I have probably a dozen or so old Windows 7 desktops (think the are Dell) in the barn, we took the opportunity to upgraded the hardware and OS when we moved a few of our outlets to new premises. Didn't know if I could use one of those licences for the proof of concept as the mini pc may be the way forward if I need to upgrade any more .