Stuck at Win8 – what to do?

Topic

New Reply

Interesting question from DB: Don’t yell at me too bad, but for various reason I have not upgraded to Win 8.1, still using 8. Should I wait till the d
[See the full post at: Stuck at Win8 – what to do?]

Reply | Quote

Replies

Buy a copy of Win10.
Use the tool to download Win10, but choose the ISO method.
Extract or mount the ISO and run the installer.
You can upgrade from Win8 home to Win10 Pro and keep all files using this method, and it can be done remotely (as all services are live during the Win10 setup screens that were previously installed, like TeamViewer or Kaseya).

Reply | Quote

Or use Magnifier and get “Windows 10 free upgrade for customers who use assistive technologies”: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

Reply | Quote

FYI to DB: Microsoft ended support for Win8 (aka 8.0) on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 [except for Win8 Embedded Standard Edition which MS is STILL providing updates until 2023].

Upgrade to either Win8.1 or Win10 using an ISO DVD image of either one; the Win8.1 upgrade will NOT appear on Windows Update for Win8 – it used to be available thru the “Windows Store” on Win8.

Reply | Quote

My mistake. Wow, it’s been truly scrap-heaped.

Reply | Quote

The Windows 8.1 Update to upgrade Windows 8 should still be available from the Windows Store as far as I can see.

I just completed upgrading an old laptop given to me by a relative from the factory installed Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 using the Windows Store a few weeks ago.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Reply | Quote

I would just update to Windows 8.1, which is pretty good and much better than 8 that’s for sure. Plus, you do not give MS a dime. Plus, you won’t have to deal with Cortana.

Plus, I bet our friends at Microsoft will transition your Windows 8.1 to look more and more like 10 in the following months…

If I were you, I wouldn’t turn off automatic updates and just hope for the best, unless you plan on patching manually, but obviously, if you are still running 8, you are not too preoccupied about security or there is something you don’t understand about unsupported, no offense.

I am tech savvy and the thought of having to manually manage updates and then play cat and mouse with Microsoft if they try to make it more difficult is completely demoralizing and makes me want to be group A while I look for a replacement. Really, if MS wanted you to be group B, they would have made it easier than having to go to an old ActiveX based web site by hand, which they didn’t even get ready on time for the new patching methods. This is irresponsible from a security standpoint. They should just have put the option for security only in Windows Update.

For this reason, I don’t trust them to not put obstacles later to only get security updates. They want everyone on the same versions, not continuing to patch different versions of Windows.

Alternatively, if you don’t care about the content of your PC and getting malware because you just play games and browse for unimportant stuff, you could just update to 8.1 and stay unpatched from now on. If snooping is the biggest threat to you, that is not an unreasonable option.

Reply | Quote

I guess I will be the dissenter here. If the user has an old machine, it might not work very well with 8.1.

I had a 32-bit eMachines computer, maximum 2GB of RAM, from 2008. It came with Vista. I did a clean install of 7, and it ran well with that OS. I did a clean install of 8 (with StartIsBack), and it ran very well – very fast – with that OS. I then did the upgrade to 8.1, and the ride got bumpy at that point. Several little things quit working, or developed problems (e.g. File Explorer had problems. After a lot of troubleshooting, I found that a program I had installed was causing the problem. I uninstalled it, and the problem went away.) 8.1 didn’t feel smooth and fast, like 8 did.

So I recommend that if the user has an old computer, and if he has an available copy of Windows 7-32, he might want to go with 7.

Reply | Quote

Thank you all for helping and suggestions.
Knowing just enough about computers to get me in very deep trouble, so this may be a crazy question, EP’s suggestion about “IOS DVD of either one” is there a trusted site to see these?
I have never used the Windows Store either, but my computer asks me if I want to upgrade to 8.1 or 10 once or twice a day. Is this an ok method to upgrade and is there any thing I need to ‘know’ before I do this?

Reply | Quote

I disagree with Jim. I have an even older laptop that runs Windows 8.1 happily. It has the last of the 32 bit single core mobile processors. I only gave up on it because Google’s Mobilegeddon made browsers impossibly slow on its single core mobile processor.

It is a 2005 Windows 8.1 Dell laptop. It was originally an XP system (Built for Windows XP logo). I acquired it as a refurbished machine in 2010 or 2011 because of budget.

When I bought it, I was able to have it shipped with 32 bit Windows 7 on it, as Jim did. I originally ran it with 1GB RAM, which was painful. I kept it up to date with all required updates (per Woody’s instructions). I bought a Windows 8 upgrade license but did not install it until Windows 8.1 became available. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB, as Jim did above. That made a big difference on Windows 7. I waited a month or two until Windows 8.1 updates settled down and then spent a long weekend installing 1) Windows 8, 2) all of the required Windows 8 updates, 3) upgrading to Windows 8.1 and finally 4) installing the already existing Windows 8.1 updates. Windows 8.1 was significantly smoother than Windows 7 with 2GB RAM.

FYI, I never installed any third party utilities, like StartisBack. Maybe that was the source of Jim’s trouble.

Hope this helps!

Reply | Quote

One last piece of information. When the upgrade to Windows 10 came, I asked the local Microsoft Store about upgrading to Windows 10 on it.

The answer that I received after letting them try it was that Windows XP logoed machines could not be upgraded to Windows 10.

I do not know whether or not a Windows Vista logoed system can be upgraded to Windows 10.

Reply | Quote

They can be upgraded – if you can find all the right drivers.

Whether you would WANT to upgrade… that’s another question altogether.

Reply | Quote

I ran Windows 8 in Desktop Mode, using StartIsBack. I then ran Windows 8.1 in Desktop Mode, using StartIsBack+. So perhaps you are right. But I absolutely could not stand running 8 or 8.1 without the 7-style interface. When I first got 8, I tried it without StartIsBack, determined to give it an honest go. But after a month, I had all that I could stand, and I then installed StartIsBack.

Although your computer sounds a lot like mine, every computer is different; so maybe yours was better with 8.1 than mine was.

The user can always upgrade to 8.1 and try it. There’s no harm done, because he will have to do a clean install to get to 7, whether he goes from 8 or from 8.1.

One benefit of going to 8.1: he will get security patches for about three additional years than if he goes to 7.

Reply | Quote

Jim:

I do not remember whether it was in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 but when I was done setting up Windows 8.1, I had all of my commonly used applications in the taskbar on the bottom. The other feature that was important to me was the “power users menu” that was (and still is) accessed by right clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left hand corner.

Using these two interface elements was enough for me.

Reply | Quote

I second what woody said – I’ve successfully upgraded my mom’s Dell Inspiron e1405 laptop (which used to have Vista Home Basic preinstalled) to Win10 64bit, though it required a clean install and some hardware upgrades like faster CPU [upgraded from an Intel Core duo T2350 (Yonah) 1.86Ghz to an Intel Core 2 duo T7600 2.33Ghz (Merom)], more RAM (from 2Gb to 4Gb) and bigger hard disk drive [replaced a Seagate 80Gb hard drive with a Seagate 320Gb drive]. DITTO for an old Hewlett-Packard A6110N desktop PC that my friend gave away last year – had pre-installed Vista Home Premium BUT I put Win10 Pro on there instead of Win10 Home like I did on the Dell laptop.

Note that I upgraded to Win10 v1511 (with April 2016 cumulative Win10 update already integrated/slipstreamed). There were DVD ISO images of Windows 10 v1511 that had the April 2016 CU slipstreamed – google search for them.

I may consider upgrading to Win10 v1607 (anniversary update) by either Dec 2016 or Jan 2017.

Reply | Quote

FYI about Win8 & 8.1:

Windows 8 or 8.0 = NT 6.2.9200
Windows 8.1 = NT 6.3.9600

Windows 8.1 is actually a FULL OS upgrade from Windows 8

Reply | Quote

@Dianne: I get either Win8.1 or Win10 DVD ISO images here:
http://windowsiso.net/
although the direct links from the WindowsISO.net site go to either MSDN or the Microsoft software site.

If you are just upgrading from Win8.0 to Win8.1 directly (AND you are using either a retail or OEM version of Win8), you can simply go to the Windows Store and download the Win8.1 upgrade from there. The Win8.1 upgrade is not available from the Windows Store if using Win8.1 enterprise edition or a version of Win8.1 that was activated with either a MAK or KMS product key as I’ve recently confirmed this myself on a test machine with Win8.

Reply | Quote