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Any idea how I can fix this, or at least find out what is causing the problem?

Might be a permissions issue.

Have you looked at the Windows Error Logs? That might give you a clue. Alternatively, you can look at the Windows Update log files if you’ve got lots of time.

My advice: UPGRADE. Windows 10 is a beautiful thing.

If you think that performing a major operating system upgrade without confirming the drive is without error, you have no viruses, Windows 7 or 8 is running without errors, Windows updates are current, and you have no image backup in your back pocket, be my guest, pilgrim.

I, too, like to live dangerously. But I’m not stupid.

And that’s the big problem with Microsoft doing coerced updates. You have no opportunity to confirm that your machine is really ready to upgrade. The only thing worse than a forced update is a badly aborted update. Microsoft is not infallible, as you can discover by reading this forum. They screw up on a regular basis.

Nothing wrong with Windows 10. I have upgraded about 75 machines, including all of my own machines, but I’ve been around long enough that you don’t make changes that drastic without doing your homework first.

I’ve had to use the GWX utility on two of my customer’s machines. It works.

In both cases, they got a pop-up asking if they wanted to upgrade to Windows 10 right that very second, or if they wanted to “postpone” it – for up to five days. There was no Red-X to cancel the window, you couldn’t close it, you couldn’t postpone it longer, task manager wouldn’t end the process. Worse, if you rebooted, you guessed it – you got Windows 10 when it started up again.

Choose one: Would you like for me to poison you right now, or wait until next Wednesday?

I wonder why Microsoft is so eager to get everyone on Windows 10. I understand not wanting to have to support older operating systems, but isn’t Microsoft committed to supporting Windows 7 and 8.1 until certain dates? What do they gain by getting people off those systems before those dates arrive?

Because people running windows 7 don’t need to replace MS Office.

Finally everything works. Ran Tweak.exe (free from Tweaking.com) in safe mode and after two runs through the repairs as they recommend all is well again. First run took 30 minutes and the second 20 minutes.

Jim

I’ve upgraded about 50 machines so far, and spend more time preparing for the upgrade than the upgrade itself: Full disk scan, full virus check, all updates, and finally, Windows Repair Tool from Tweaking.com in safe mode.

Great little utility. Hasn’t failed me yet.

Open a Command Prompt (Admin) and enter –

netsh winsock reset

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

exit

Then reboot.

It may also be worth checking to see if your Network drivers require updating for Win 10.

Thanks, Sudo. I was dealing with the very same problem.

I think that the Windows 10 upgrade is only available for non-enterprise versions of Win7 and Win8.1. According to Microsoft, the free Win10 upgrade is not available for Vista users unless you buy a Win8.1 license first, upgrade to that, and then upgrade to Win10. That’s their official position. I’ve gotten around this on a couple of machines by upgrading to Win7 (and all 250 updates), and finally upgrading to Win10.

Don’t even think about doing this unless you have an image of the drive in your drawer, or a fresh clone on a separate drive. I prefer a separate drive, because it’s already bootable if things go to hell. You can always clone it back.

You may discover that drivers for your machine are not available and have to retrench. Had this happen with a client’s low-end Asus laptop and had to reinstall Vista the hard way. Also got burned trying to regress a Win8.1 HP laptop to Windows 7 (the client hated 8.1), only to discover that HP had no Win7 drivers. Just finished installing Win10 on this machine (without problems).

Lessons learned:

1. Clone or image first, and contain your optimism. Assume it’s going to fail, and you won’t be disappointed.
2. Get network drivers for the new O/S before you upgrade. I always forget this one. You can download any other drivers you need, but you gotta be able to connect once the deed is done.
3. Make sure your machine is squeaky clean and current before you upgrade. No disk errors, viruses, spyware, missing Windows files, windows permissions errors, yadda yadda.
4. Windows Repair Tool from tweaking.com has served me well, and heals a lot of problems (like registry permissions issues) you would never think to check.
5. Allow adequate time. It’s gonna take you all day.

While it hasn’t been stated explicitly, I believe you have to have made the upgrade before the year is out to get it free. Just having downloaded the upgrade isn’t adequate.

I’m going strictly on memory here, but I believe the free upgrade will be available through about the end of July, 2016. I want to say July 23 or so.

My advice is to upgrade to Windows 10, and don’t look back. Actually, you shouldn’t even be on Windows 7 anymore. There has been Windows 8/8.1 for a while, and I have been using Windows 10 for much more than 1 year. So, why use an antiquated OS that is going to be defunct in a few years? It just does not make any sense at all. It is not logical.

I would generally agree, with one huge caveat: If you run Quickbooks, don’t do it for a while. As soon as you start Windows 10, you’ll find out that Quickbooks 2014 and earlier are not compatible and require an upgrade to 2016. Then, as soon as you install that, get registered, and install their R3 update, all hell breaks loose.

There are some serious problems with this update. It trashed two of my own machines, and it took an Intuit recommended tech seven hours to unscramble my main office machine. I had also installed it on a client’s machine, and the mess was so bad I had to reformat his drive, do a clean reinstall of Windows 7 (with all that entails), and then reinstall Quickbooks, and it was still a dirty install. I don’t know what Intuit is doing for product testing, but somebody was asleep at the switch when they released this version.

I’m no rookie with this stuff. I’ve upgraded about 40 machines so far, and this is the only major issue I’ve seen with Windows 10.

If you’re a small business, do you run Quickbooks for accounting?

If you do, stay with Windows 7. QB 2016 is a train wreck under Windows 10.

Happy to help:

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.
– Groucho Marx

I hear you, but unfortunately, Mac’s have their issues as well.

Creating a disk image before upgrading or making any major changes to your system, and backing up your personal data on a daily basis (incremental…changes only) is always a good thing to do.

You then have a safety net for getting back to a known good state.

Best advice today. I had to roll back one of my clients to Windows 7 after Quickbooks 2016 completely lunched Windows 10. I didn’t have a recent system image, and I wish I had. Took me two days to get him back in business. Screwed up two of my own machines as well. I’m 0 for 3 so far.

This is a bit off topic, but it’s worth mentioning: Quickbooks 2016 and Windows 10 does NOT work. If you think it does, look at your Windows error logs after you’ve installed the R3 update. Somebody at Intuit should be horsewhipped.

I had upgraded about a month and a half before I installed Quickbooks and Build 1511, so rolling back to Win 7 is not an option.

My client’s machine had Windows 7 issues before I upgraded to Windows 10, so I put in a new hard drive and did a clean install of Win7, did the updates, and then upgraded. In retrospect, it was the right thing to do. Did have user files backed up, which was all I needed. Slow, but he’s starting off clean.

My own machines have backups, but not an image backup. NBD. If I have to go back to Win7, I’ll do a clean start on both of them.

The point of my post was to give a heads up to people thinking about upgrading. If they’re Quickbooks users, they should wait a while.

Just to follow up, I did that clean install of Windows 7-64 on a brand new hard disk, installed all 225 Windows updates, and then installed Quickbooks 2016 and the R3 Quickbooks update. No other software was installed, not even MS Office.

What I got were 210 Adminstrative alerts in the Windows error log, including a fatal error that crashed the machine. Most related to the R3 update, and most were improper registry permissions.

So the problem isn’t Windows 10 after all. The problem is Quickbooks 2016 and an inadequately tested major update. Trouble is, if you’re running Windows 10, you HAVE to “upgrade” to either Quickbooks 2015 or 2016.

If you’re a Quickbooks user, you’ve been warned.:mad:

I use Windows Repair Tool on every machine before I even attempt an upgrade to Windows 10. Be sure you run it in safe mode.

I had upgraded about a month and a half before I installed Quickbooks and Build 1511, so rolling back to Win 7 is not an option.

My client’s machine had Windows 7 issues before I upgraded to Windows 10, so I put in a new hard drive and did a clean install of Win7, did the updates, and then upgraded. In retrospect, it was the right thing to do. Did have user files backed up, which was all I needed. Slow, but he’s starting off clean.

My own machines have backups, but not an image backup. NBD. If I have to go back to Win7, I’ll do a clean start on both of them.

The point of my post was to give a heads up to people thinking about upgrading. If they’re Quickbooks users, they should wait a while.