Several questions regarding moving from Win7 to Win 10

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My extended support for Windows 7 runs out in about 6 months, so I am planning my move to Windows 10. I have Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) SP1 on both a laptop and a custom built tower. My questions here relate to the laptop, which is the first I plan to tackle. It is a Lenovo ThinkPad. I will replace it with another ThinkPad, which will have Windows 10 preinstalled. I am a user, not a computer expert. That is why I have a Plus membership to Ask Woody!

I see that Woody is the co-author of a book, “Windows 10 All-in-One for Dummies”, 4th edition. I was planning on buying a copy. Are there any other books or sources you would recommend?

I am assuming that the version of Windows 10 that comes on my computer will not be up to date. Should I plan to have it run all the required Windows 10 updates before I try to install any programs?

I have Microsoft Office Professional 2007, 32 bit. My version (on 2 CD’s) I believe was made for distribution to schools, etc., so it has no limitation on the number of installations. I have installed it on 4 computers (2 XP and 2 Win 7) so am assuming that I will have no trouble installing it. Have you heard of any problems doing this?

According to my Installed updates list, Office has received 51 specific updates on three dates: 5/15/2014, 1/24/2018 & 11/6/2019. Once installed on Windows 10, will Office Professional automatically install the above updates, or will I have to manually search for them and install them?

When I updated my computers from XP to Windows 7, Microsoft provided something called Windows Easy Transfer, which transferred files and folders (not sure about programs) fairly successfully. I don’t believe that Windows 10 offers such a feature. Do you know of any program or utility available that will perform that function, or do I have to move them manually?

I have made a list of the programs and utilities that the authors say are Windows 10 compatible. Is there any way that I can transfer them to my new laptop, or do I have to find the installation file for each, and do them as a new install?

Thanks for any support that you can provide! I am sure that once I get the new laptop, I will be back for more advice!

Harry

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You should set up the computer for the first time OFFLINE (before connecting to your network or the Internet) if you want to use a LOCAL ID. If you set the computer up online (connected to the Internet) you will be forced to create a Microsoft ID. After you set the computer up, you should go through all the settings (particularly Windows Update) and be sure you have the level of privacy and control you want before connecting to the Internet.

You will have to bring your computer up to date after the setup.
You will have to back up your personal data to an external drive and restore it to the new computer. You can use a backup program to do the data file backup if you want. Should be everything under your User ID (C:\Users\<your ID>)
You will also have to reinstall your third-party programs – you can’t copy programs from one computer to another (especially from different versions).

Windows 10 comes with a Trial install of Office (I think C2R or 365, not the .msu version). You should uninstall it before you install Office 2007 or you may have conflicts.

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Thanks for the tips. Especially setting up offline first.

I think I want a local ID. Since I am the only user of my computers, I never set up a password in Win7 or XP, so that step gets bypassed when I boot. I will do the same for Win 10.

I hadn’t though of using a backup program for my folders and files. I have Macrum Reflect, and it lets me back up files and files.

Harry

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PK Cano:

I have two more questions. First, how much space will Win 10 Pro consume once it is installed? I ask because I plan to buy a Lenovo Thinkpad with Win10 Pro preinstalled. That Thinkpad has a 512 Gig SSD. I currently have a Win7 Pro Thinkpad. Thinkpad has some form of internal backup system (which I have never used), and it reserves some amount of hard drive space for this system. I’ll admit that I have never tried to see if I can access that space.

Second, since the new laptop will not have a CD drive, I assume that I will need to use the CD drive on my current Win7 Pro tower to copy the contents of the CD’s which contain my Office Pro 2007 program files to USB drives. But when I put those disks in my CD, won’t they try to automatically install the contents on my Win7 Pro tower computer? How do I prevent that from happening?

Harry

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Win10 reserves 7GB for updating IF your drive space is limited. Depending on your current data, you should be fine with 512GB SSD (unless you store Movies, lots of music, RAW photos, etc.)

You can buy an external USB CD/DVD burner for under $40 US. I imagine you can also get Blueray if you need it. (I still have bunches of music on CDs and Movies on DVDs that I don’t want to burden my computers with!). It’s worth the price to buy one, and you can get it locally or online.

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PKCano:

I just ordered a Lenovo ThinkPadP17 directly from Lenovo. Should ship tomorrow. As I may have mentioned earlier, it comes with Win 10 Pro 64, 10th generation Intel I9-1088H processor (16 MB catch), 16 GB Ram, 512 GB SSD, NVidia Quadro T2000 4GB graphics, etc.

I have added an external CD/DVD drive to my ever growing list of Amazon orders.

I’ll come back after I get it and have followed (or tried to follow?) all of your and the others great advice.

 

Harry

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hmw3 wrote:

how much space will Win 10 Pro consume

I have 10 Home installed on a 250GB SSD with 80GB free. Pro will be the same size.

hmw3 wrote:

the new laptop will not have a CD drive

Install ISORecorder on a machine with a CD and convert all the CDs to ISO – right click on the CD in Explorer.
Copy the ISOs to the new machine, double click on them to mount them, go to the new drive letter and run the installer.

The software may try to install when you insert the CD, but you can cancel the installation.

cheers, Paul

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Cybertooth

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Paul T wrote:

I have 10 Home installed on a 250GB SSD with 80GB free. Pro will be the same size.

That’s at least 100GB bigger than my Win 10 Pro. You must have a lot of third-party programs installed, as I have 144 apps installed including Microsoft 365.

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Lots of VMs.

cheers, Paul

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My questions here relate to the laptop, which is the first I plan to tackle. It is a Lenovo ThinkPad. I will replace it with another ThinkPad, which will have Windows 10 preinstalled.

If you haven’t already ordered it or purchased it, make sure that it comes with Windows 10 Pro preinstalled. Having the Pro edition will make it much easier for you to control the updates you are offered or receive with Windows 10. With Windows 10, Windows Update no longer has the check boxes for you to check or uncheck to tell it which update(s) you want or don’t want just yet. When it comes to Windows Update on Windows 10, the author of the post above, @PKCano , has a great support item here on Askwoody for you to go through once you get your computer up and running per the instructions in the post above.

As far as Woody’s book goes, it’s based upon Windows 10 version 2004 which was released in May, 2020. It’ll be out of support officially this coming December, I believe, but it’s still on many folks’ computers, I’m sure. I used the 3rd edition of Woody’s book to get up to speed when I made the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and it really helped. Therefore, I would presume the same thing will apply in your situation.

However, while reading through the book please bear in mind that possibly not all of the items Woody mentions will be in exactly the same place he mentions, as Microsoft likes to tinker with the interface according to feedback they receive from telemetry that they get from users of Windows 10. If you have any issues finding something mentioned in the book, feel free to drop a line here and folks will gladly help out!

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Coldheart9020

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Bob99:

I have not yet ordered the laptop. I plan to get the Pro version. I remember reading some of the many posts here on the trials and tribulations of getting Win 10 updates that one did not want!

I don’t care if the book is completely up to date, as long as it gives me a good understanding of the features and what they are used for, or lack thereof.

Harry

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My biggest concern for your move to Windows 10 is Office 2007.

In particular, Microsoft stopped supporting Office 2010 (that I have) a couple months ago.  Office 2007 is even further out of date.  Being it’s the 32 bit version, and written for XP, you may discover that it won’t install from CDs in a Windows 10 environment.

For what it’s worth, I have 2 game programs that were written in the XP days.  Try as I may, I couldn’t “trick” Windows 10 into installing them.  The installation process would crash within 30 seconds of starting as it would ‘kick off’ a secondary task that did the bulk of the installation.  Unfortunately, the secondary task doesn’t start in ‘compatibility mode’ and it came up with a ‘failed to install’ or something like that popup message.  I’m a techie, and manged to ‘capture’ the kicked off task as it had been written to temporary storage.  Even running THAT in compatibility mode failed.  My solution…I still have my full tower XP box side by side with my Win 10 tower.

On my desktop computer, my first effort was to ‘upgrade in place’ Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the Windows 10 installation CD(DVD).  I don’t even know if newer Windows 10 installation CDs(DVD, actually) still offers an ‘upgrade’ option.  If it does, you may be in luck.  The Windows ‘upgrade’ option gets initiated from a fully booted up Windows 7 computer and the CD(DVD) is inserted.  It offers the ‘upgrade’ to Windows 10 and if selected, ALL programs, files, etc are fully retained, and Windows 10 is installed keeping your desktop and other personalized Windows stuff.  It first puts all of Windows 7 in a new folder that if I recall, is a hidden file.

The BIG thing about doing the ‘upgrade’ is that you will need at least 60 GB of hard drive space available or it will refuse to install/upgrade.  And it won’t tell you WHY it failed, either!  I had exactly that happen when I upgraded versions of Windows 10 on my laptop.  I HAD to free up space or it wouldn’t install!

The ‘beauty’ of the upgrade is that it automatically figured out the XP programs had to be run in ‘compatibility’ mode.  They ran perfectly!  Unfortunately, there were some persistent Windows problems I was encountering every now and then when it was Windows 7.  The computer would come to a complete stop for 1-5 minutes, ignoring all inputs, then magically pick up and continue running like nothing happened.  In Windows 7, I replaced drivers, verified Windows modules, and a dozen other steps to fix that problem for over 6 months before upgrading to Windows 10.  Unfortunately, the problem did not go away.  Whatever ‘it’ was in Windows 7 was still there in the upgraded Windows 10.  I tried a couple of new ‘tricks’ to correct the problem with no luck.  So, after a couple weeks of computer ‘pauses’, I gave up, backed up my drive twice, then put the Windows 10 DVD in the drive and booted the computer.  It formatted the drive and then installed a ‘clean’ installation of Windows 10.  I have the benefit of having every installation CD/DVD and every downloaded software readily available either spinning on my ‘bulk’ storage hard drive or within arms reach.  There’s about 30 different applications on my desktop computer.  After first installing the motherboard device drivers, and letting Windows do an update that upgraded drivers as needed, then I set about the task of putting all my software back.  I’m sufficiently backed up at all times that I easily got Mozilla Firefox (browser) and Thunderbird (email) set up exactly as it was in Windows 7 with my 200+ ‘favorite’ web sites and about 100 people in my email address book.  Copying My Documents from one of the the 2 final Windows 7 backups and I was off to the races with only a few ‘battle scars’ from ‘making peace’ with Windows 10.

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hmw3 wrote:

I have Microsoft Office Professional 2007, 32 bit. My version (on 2 CD’s) I believe was made for distribution to schools, etc., so it has no limitation on the number of installations. I have installed it on 4 computers (2 XP and 2 Win 7) so am assuming that I will have no trouble installing it. Have you heard of any problems doing this?

My wife bought a Windows 10 PC in 2016 (17?). We used PCMover to transfer her files and programs over from her Windows 7 machine, which had Office 2007 on it.

Office 2007 installed and worked just fine on the new computer. But if we had to do this all over again, I would first make sure to uninstall all traces of any more-recent MS Office software that may have come pre-installed on your new PC. The reason is that we ended up with double Office listings (for Word, Excel, etc.) in the Start menu and she was never sure which icon there was for what version of Office. As I recall, there were also issues with default programs that opened files when you clicked directly on them.

So if you have any version of MS Office on the new PC, and you want to use Office 2007, I recommend removing everything related to the factory-installed Office before you install Office 2007. The experience afterward will be much cleaner.

Good luck!

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Cybertooth:

 

Thanks for the tip.

Harry

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Use Microsoft Office Removal Tool to Completely Uninstall Office | Gear Primer

Use this tool to totally remove Office

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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hmw3, Cybertooth

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hmw3 wrote:

I plan to get the Pro version

Why spend $100 for something you can fix by setting the network to “metered” or running WUMgr and turning off Windows Update from there.

Spend the money on a backup disk, or a nice dinner.

cheers, Paul

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Paul:

Because to buy a Lenovo Think Pad with a reasonable amount of memory, they come with Pro. I can order one configured the way I want it, but that takes 4+ months to arrive. Plus, it actually costs more!

Harry

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There’s more to Pro than just using metered connections and WUMgr.
I wouldn’t touch Home Edition with a 10-foot pole.
And when it’s time to upgrade to Win11, Home will be required to use a Microsoft ID – Never for me!

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wavy, LHiggins

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hmw3 wrote:

My extended support for Windows 7 runs out in about 6 months, so I am planning my move to Windows 10.

This is not a reason to move to Windows 10.
0Patch Pro will continue patching Windows 7 (until further notice).
You can browse Win7 beyond End-of-life forum for how to keep using Windows 7

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SueW, Cybertooth, LHiggins

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You don’t need support!!

I still use winXPproSP3  and  also win98SE!

win 10 is total POS compared to win7.

win7 is the last good windows so hang on to it forever.

 

 

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Charlie

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Cybertooth:

Thanks for all the info. I looked up PC Mover. There seem to be several companies that sell such an item, with slightly different names. One is free (500 MB limit), and some charge. Which company did you get your version from?

And thanks for the two links. The closer I can get the result to ‘look and feel’ like Windows 7, the easier the learning curve for this old mind!

 

Harry

 

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Cybertooth

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@hmw3, here’s the link to the product that we used: https://web.laplink.com/product/pcmover-professional/#tabs2

On that page, I recommend that you scroll down to read more about the software, what it does, and how it works. We’ve been very happy with it on those occasions we’ve needed to use it over the years.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Cybertooth:

Thanks for the looks. In the past I used a program call EaseUS Todo PCTrans when moving stuff between my two Win 7 computers. It works fine, but the Chinese/English translation is a little sloppy at times. I read up on the PCMover software, as you suggested.

Harry

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Harry,

In your quest for tools, you might look at Freeware Spotlight – Forensit Transwiz in the January 27, 2020 Newsletter. I sucessfully used it in late 2020 when migrating 2 older Win 10 laptops to newer hardware. They appear to be based in the UK.

HTH

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PhilF:

Thanks for the tip. I made a copy of the article, in case I need it in the future.

Harry

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Don’t forget, Harry is not migrating one Win10 to another Win10.
His old laptop is Win7 and the new one will be Win10.
Transferring data is the easy part.
Transferring programs may be a different story. And he won’t have the advantage of an upgrade that will save “programs and data.”

Maybe the route to take would be to upgrade the Win7 laptop to Win10, saving programs and data. Then doing a migration between the same Win10 version?

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Understood, I was just drawing attention to another tool, which handles several Windows versions. However, the route you describe, PK, is essentially the one I used, updating one W7 laptop and one W8 laptop to W10 back in 2016. Then last fall the older W10 laptops were migrated to 2020 models.

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PKCano:

You said:

“Maybe the route to take would be to upgrade the Win7 laptop to Win10, saving programs and data. Then doing a migration between the same Win10 version?”

Could you expand on exactly how to upgrade the Win7 laptop to Win10, saving programs and data? Is that saving feature built into Windows 10? What does it do with the programs that are not compatible with Windows 10?

And wouldn’t this require me to buy a copy of Win 10 Pro in addition to the one that comes on the new laptop?

Harry

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The upgrade from any version of Win7/8 is still free so you won’t need to buy a copy of Win10 (heck, you can still update Win10 Home to Pro using a Win7/8 license key.)

As for incompatible programs…

I had numerous programs on my Win7 Pro that were “supposedly” incompatible with Win10 Pro (including Office 97 Pro) but every single one of them still worked after I upgraded to Win10 Pro.

The only problem I encountered was a lack of Win10 drivers for some items (or the existing driver did work but was “unsigned“) which were all solved by either using a MS provided alternative, Googling for Win10 versions of those drivers on the manufacturers site, or using Window’s “disable driver signing” option to reinstall the unsigned driver.

To upgrade a PC to Win10, go to Microsoft’s Download Windows 10 page and click the Update now button (the default setting is to keep all your existing programs and data.)

Then when you’re ready to move everything over to the new PC, either swap the drives or clone the old drive onto the new one. Then when you start the new PC, Windows will go thru the process of making any driver changes needed for the change in H/W and you’ll be good to go.

Notes: Win10 will need to be “activated” on the new PC before you make the swap (so MS knows that particular PC is running a valid copy of Win10) and both PC’s must be using the same version of Win10 (i.e. Home, Pro, Enterprise, etc.)

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Just another Forum Poster wrote:

To upgrade a PC to Win10, go to Microsoft’s Download Windows 10 page and click the Update now button (the default setting is to keep all your existing programs and data.)

If you do this, and allow the upgrade directly, I believe you will be forced t create a MS account. The best wat to accomplish this may be to use the MCT and create an ISO on the PC, disconnect from the Internet, mount the ISO and run setup.exe from inside the running Win7 installation. That way, you have the option to save programs and data AND create a LOCAL ID. You also have the opportunity to adjust all the settings (particularly Windows Update) to your level of privacy and control before you connect. See #2385201 above.

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PKCano wrote:

If you do this, and allow the upgrade directly, I believe you will be forced t create a MS account.

Not true, it uses your existing Windows user account to install the upgrade. In fact, there isn’t even an option to create a new user account.

The Upgrade Assistant process flow is:

1. You click the Update now button and it downloads Windows10Upgrade9252.exe and asks if you want to run it.
2. After you say yes, you’ll get a UAC prompt “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” to confirm you really want to run Windows 10 Update Assistant.
3. Once the Update Assistant starts, click the “Update Now” button on the lower right.
4. Update Assistant should display “Congratulations, this PC is Compatible” and it’ll start downloading Win10 after a few seconds (or you can start it immediately by clicking Next on the lower right.)
5. You’ll see a “Getting your update ready” message with a download percentage.
6. Once it’s done downloading, you’ll get a prompt “Your update is ready. Your PC needs to restart to complete the update.” with a 30 min countdown timer. You can wait 30 mins for the automatic restart or you can click Restart now and, when you see the “You’re about to be signed out” message, click Close to immediately restart.
7. You’ll see a “Working on updates” message with a percentage and a warning to not shutdown your PC and how it will restart several times.
8. The upgrade process will continue until it reaches the login screen.
9. Once you login, you’ll see a “We’ve got some updates for your PC” message while Windows finalizes it’s configuration.
10. Once that’s finished, the Update Assistant will display a “Thank you for updating to the latest version of Windows 10” message.
11. Click Exit on the lower right and you’re done.

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PKCano

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You apparently don’t have any choice to change the settings during the upgrade?
You just get the full impact of whatever MS wants to do with/install on the computer?
I would rather have the choice.

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aleir:

You and PKCano are way over my head on this one!

You said:

“Then when you’re ready to move everything over to the new PC, either swap the drives or clone the old drive onto the new one. Then when you start the new PC, Windows will go thru the process of making any driver changes needed for the change in H/W and you’ll be good to go.

Win10 will need to be “activated” on the new PC before you make the swap (so MS knows that particular PC is running a valid copy of Win10) and both PC’s must be using the same version of Win10 (i.e. Home, Pro, Enterprise, etc.)”

My new Win10 Pro laptop has a large  SSD and my current laptop has a small conventional drive, so swapping is not a realistic option. How does one ‘clone’ a drive?

What is your definition of ‘activated’ for Win 10?

My current Win 7 laptop runs Pro, and so does my new Win 10.

Harry

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Cloning a disk basically means creating a full backup of the entire disk (using your favorite backup S/W) and then restoring it “over” the existing drive on the new PC.

Depending on which backup S/W you use, it’ll give you the option during restore to either “extend” a smaller partition so it uses the remaining space on the disk or create a new “logical drive” partition using the extra space.

---

The Windows activation process happens the first time you start up a “new” PC (where you have to answer all those questions before you can actually use it.)

That process “registers” that particular PC and the specific version of Windows 10 it’s using in Microsoft’s data base and issues a “digital license” for that specific version of Win10 on that particular PC.

If a PC has a valid Win10 “digital license” (i.e it actually boots to the Windows desktop after you login), then any copy of the same version of Wind10 will automatically activate itself when installed on that PC (using the Win10 “digital license” for that PC that’s stored in Microsoft’s data base.)

The problem occurs if you attempt to clone an existing copy of Win10 onto a new PC that’s never been booted up from initial purchase (i.e., it was never issued a Win10 “digital license“.) On first boot up, Windows will detect it’s on a different PC and connect to Microsoft’s data base attempting to find a valid “digital license” for that particular PC and version of Win10.

If Win10 was never activated on that PC, that process will fail and you’ll get a “This copy of Windows is not genuine” prompt  and have to to jump thru all sorts of hoops to get Microsoft to activate it for you.

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aleir:

Thanks for the clarifications.

I have Macrium Reflect, and it appears on a quick reading that it can either “extend” a smaller partition so it uses the remaining space on the disk or create a new “logical drive” partition.

 

Harry

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Always extend. Logical drives are a very old way to manage large drives when Windows couldn’t.

cheers, Paul

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aleir:

Re: Your August 25, 2021 at 6:27 am #2385795 post which starts with: “The upgrade from any version of Win7/8 is still free so you won’t need to buy a copy of Win10 (heck, you can still update Win10 Home to Pro using a Win7/8 license key.)”

Here is what I initially plan to do:

1. Using Macrium Reflect, make a complete image backup of everything on my Win 7 Pro laptop. (I have already done this)

2. Update the laptop to Win10, following the steps and suggestions outlined in your posts #2385795 and #2385810.

3. See how many of my add-ons really will run, and for those that don’t are their any updated drivers available? (I know that the authors of several of my utilities never made the move to Win 10).

4. If that seems to work well, do another image backup, and then try to move all that to my new laptop.

Harry

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You’ll likely find most if not all of your add-ons still work.

Some of mine haven’t been updated since 2012 when I finally moved from WinXP to Win7 and I even have a few that were originally written for Win98 that still work!

BTW, the driver problems I mentioned were mainly for some of my “older” external peripherals, printer, scanner,  FAX modem, etc. where I just didn’t see the need to spend money on newer ones as the older ones still worked for my purposes.

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aleir:

Well I finally did it. The first few steps you mentioned in post #2385810 went fine. I got through the steps of having to uninstall Windows Media Center and Microsoft Security Essentials [a ‘What needs you attention’ screen] (seems like I get Windows Defender in it’s place). Then I got a notice to upgrade.

Then the ‘fun’ began. It downloaded, got updates, upgraded and verified. Then I AGAIN got the ‘What needs your attention’ screen. Then a notice to download, followed by notice to upgrade. Then it downloaded again, got a notice to install, and then finally installed. And I did get Win 10 Pro.

So far, only my Classic Shell utility had to be upgraded. I haven’t gone through all of my other utilities to check. And the program icons and location on my screen are identical to before the upgrade, so that all worked fine. I see that I am stuck with the little blue arrow in a white box on each icon, because in a recent upgrade, Microsoft deleted the ability to remove them.

But it seems sluggish. Sometimes a command works, and other times it doesn’t. Before I added Win 10 I had 63GB of free space. Now I have 49GB. So that shouldn’t be the issue.

And it is going to take me some time to get used to the interface. In their wisdom Microsoft eliminated the ‘Window Color and Appearance’ feature where one could specify the font, size and color of many different items. It seems I am stuck with the Win 10 default. I can change all the text to 125%, but that is all I can find.

As always, any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Harry

 

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I didn’t have Media Center or Microsoft Security Essentials installed on my Win7 before my upgrade so didn’t encounter that issue.

As for the other stuff, where do I begin…

I also had a lot of issues with the “look and feel” of Win10 and found various different 3rd party S/W that allowed me to tweak them back to what I wanted (like Classic Shell – which is now Open-Shell) or I found ways to change them with some “manual” registry tweaks.

I’d suggest you start with Winaero Tweaker and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which both provide quick and easy methods to “customize” some of the more annoying aspects of Win10 that users moving from Win7 don’t like.

As for Win10 seeming sluggish, both myself and my Uncle had laptops that seemed that way after the upgrade (both were older HPs) so it seems there are some older laptops that just don’t run Win10 very good. I’d say it was a processor/memory thing except I’ve got an old Dell D-830 with the exact same CPU and memory as my HP and it runs Win10 just fine while the HP is very sluggish (so much so that I “downgraded” it back to Win7 using the backup I made before doing the upgrade!)

Just remember, the whole point of doing this was so you could move your OS over to your new laptop with all your existing S/W still in place and working. Not so you could run Win10 on the old one.

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aleir:

Thanks for the names of the two add-ons. I’ll take a look at them.

“Just remember, the whole point of doing this was so you could move your OS over to your new laptop with all your existing S/W still in place and working. Not so you could run Win10 on the old one.”

You are absolutely correct. I only noted all that so if your experience would lead you to believe that there is a problem, I know you would mention it.

I sent the first Lenovo Win10 I ordered back without even turning it on. I had thought I wanted a 17″ model, but after looking at the size and putting it on the scale (7.61 lbs) vs. my current Win7 14″ (4.65 lbs), I really searched the Lenovo website (very poorly organized in my opinion), and selected a 14″ that weighs (their data) 2.8#.

I was waiting to see how your procedure looked and worked, before I placed the order. I am doing so after I send you this post.

I’ll be back in touch after I get it.

 

Harry

 

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aleir:

I’ve run into a new problem. I have spent all afternoon working on it. I have two Win 10 books, and neither help. I have a wired ethernet connection.

First, the About page clearly shows that I have Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, installed Aug. 29, 2021.

The books say to go Settings->Network and Internet, click on the name of the connection, and a Network Profile pane appears, where one can set the metered connection slider. From the Control Panel,->Network and Sharing Center, I can turn on and off printer sharing, etc., but no place can I find a way to set metered connections.

Likewise, the books say I can postpone Windows updates by going to Settings, Update and Security, and then click on Advanced Options, Pause Updates. My computer has a Security and Maintenance Page, but nothing that lets me pause updates.

Have I missed something basic here, or  are these features not available in the way we have manipulated the Win 7 system to function as a combination of Win 10 with Win 7 layouts?

 

Harry

 

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Settings and Control Panel are not the same starting point.

Find Settings (gear icon) near bottom left of the start menu.

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As b pointed out, Win10 uses a new Settings panel and “some” of the things in it can’t be accessed/changed using the old style Control panel.

Also, in typical Microsoft fashion, they made some “significant changes” in exactly where things are located in that Settings panel between 1909 & 21H1 so your books “may” be outdated.

Here’s how to get to the metered connections setting:

• Settings > Network & Internet > click the Properties button in the right-hand panel.

• The window that opens will contain the Metered connection slider.

Here’s how to get to the pause updates settings (there are 2 different options):

• Settings > Update & Security > Pause updates for 7 days in the right-hand panel.



• Settings > Update & Security > Advanced options

• The window that opens will contain a Pause updates option right below the Update notification slider.



You use the “Select date” drop-down to pause dates for up to 35 days.

 

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aleir:

Thanks for all the info and screen shots. Unfortunately , I don’t have an ‘Update & Security’ section. I have Security & Maintenance, and I can’t access Advanced Options screen from there. I was able to do a search for Pause updates, and was able to put in a 35 day delay.

i was not so lucky with Metered connection. I don’t have a Network and Internet. I have a Network and Sharing Center. Metered Connection is not listed, and doing a search brings up nothing.

I think I need to go back into my cave and start communicating by chipping messages on the wall!

My new laptop is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Harry

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Cybertooth

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hmw3 wrote:

I don’t have an ‘Update & Security’ section.
…
I don’t have a Network and Internet.

You have both, but at Settings, not Control Panel.

How to Open Settings in Windows 10

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I don’t have an ‘Update & Security’ section. I have Security & Maintenance,

Update & Security is a  subsection of Settings (Gear); Security & Maintenance is a subsection of Control Panel. You are still trying to do Win 10 using Win 7 paradigms.

Zig

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“Update & Security is a subsection of Settings (Gear); Security & Maintenance is a subsection of Control Panel. You are still trying to do Win 10 using Win 7 paradigms.

Zig”

At my age, just trying is an achievement!

 

Harry

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Let me bring everyone up to date with my status on Win 7 to Win 10. As noted above, I followed the directions and, on my Win 7 laptop, installed Win 10. My problem with not finding the correct info on the various screens was my stupidity. It took me a few days to realize that Win 10 hides the vertical scroll bar! Once I hover over that, then I can expand the screen and I found what I needed. Then I did a full backup using my Macrium Reflect.

I also did a before and after check using a utility I have named Folder Size. My computer added about 20 GB of data files.

I received the new Win 10 laptop I had ordered. A Lenovo T14 model. I first followed the warning and removed all traces of Office 365 (?) that comes on the computer using the tool that Susan Bradley recommended. I went through and made all the settings that have been suggested so that Win 10 would not automatically update. Then I did a full backup with Macrium Reflect.

I then installed Open Shell. I noticed that some of the colors (background, etc.) were slightly different, but otherwise fine.

I noticed that Macrium Reflect has a featured called  ReDeploy, which apparently provides updated drivers for programs when one updates from Win 7. I posted on the Macrium forum that I had updated my laptop to Win 10, and was going to use Reflect to copy everything from it to my new Win 10 laptop. You would think I was a heretic! I was advised to only install programs directly, not copy over what was converted.

I am not yet convinced. but I thought I would directly install a few of the programs I usually run, and see how they look/feel compared to what they are like in the Win 7 laptop I converted.

Which finally leads me to my question. I have Office Professional 2007 on a CD that Microsoft made to distribute to schools, I think, so it has no practical limit on the number of computers it can be installed on. (I have installed it on 5 over the years). But I see that there are over 50 Security updates for Office 2007 installed on my win 7 computer.

I have two questions:

1. I assume that I will have to remove the 35 day delay I have placed on Windows updates to have these Office updates installed?
2.  Will Windows automatically search for these and install them, or do I have to manually go look for them?

Harry

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The setting to show/unhide the scrollbars is in the Settings App under Accessibility, somewhere near the top.

Office 2007 should update through Windows Update to it’s EOL, and any security updates past EOL that were handled by WU. It may take several runs at updating if, for example, Service Packs are involved.

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“The setting to show/unhide the scrollbars is in the Settings App under Accessibility, somewhere near the top.”

Got it. Thanks.

 

Harry

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Time for an update. After reading all the trials and tribulations users had with PC Mover on their Amazon reviews, I decided not to do that. I backed up the new Win 10 laptop with Macrium Reflect (after removing any traces of Office 365 per S. Bradley), and just started installing some of my most used utilities. Some had a new version for Win 10, and the others installed fine.

I installed Office Professional 2007 from my CD. That  only had one hitch. The installation program lets you choose what you want to install/not install. But when I tried to use that feature, there was no option to proceed once I had made my choices. Not sure why that would not work in Win 10. So I just installed everything and removed the programs I did not want.

The worst part so far is the very small icons on some of the programs, which were not a problem in Windows 7. I was able to fix a few with some utilities I found online.

 

Harry

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