I've chickened out and am heading to Win10

[Jonj1611]

On Pro versions you do not need to have a Microsoft account during the installation.
There is an 'Offline' account option during install, albeit not glaringly obvious but it is there, they change the location and wording of it in various releases.
You don't have to disconnect from the Internet either. Though this will make the option easier to find.

EDIT: and just to add you can still use the Windows Store with an Offline Windows account, again it will try to persuade you to make an online account, but you just have to say no

Where is it now then as I installed Windows 10 Pro and couldn't find the offline option anywhere

[AGTDenton]

Where is it now then as I installed Windows 10 Pro and couldn't find the offline option anywhere

From memory during the 1st time startup wizard you select personal account (as opposed to business), then on the screen where it prompts you to key in an Email address, in tiny writing down the bottom left there's an 'Offline account' option, possibly worded differently, the alcohol consumption has been a little high this festive season.

I'm back in the office Monday, will do an install with some screenies. We never use online accounts so I know it's always been available

[Jonj1611]

Used to be there, isn't anymore.

I am using the latest 1909 version.

[Jonj1611]

Apparently in Windows 10 Pro its called Domain Join!

https://www.howtogeek.com/442609/con...ount-creation/

[AGTDenton]

So it's looking like they're going to force pro users down a custom answer file route. I thought I had latest version will have a play next week.
I love how they pretend they're giving us features when they're actually stripping the core away piece by piece. How long before they won't let an offline account use the windows store to try and corner and isolate the very users that kept them going in the 90s and 00s

[Output]

The upgrade to Windows 10 Pro on the current PC* is complete.

It's not very stable so far though, as it seems to prefer complaining of problems most times on boot rather than making it all of the way into Windows successfully. For the record, it didn't try to make me create a Microsoft account in the process.

Whether it is due to it not liking an application or driver previously installed on Windows 7 I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if it just doesn't like the current motherboard though.

I also seem to be unable to install the latest AMD GPU drivers (Adrenalin 2020.1.1) as it just ends up complaining that a previous installation of it wasn't removed properly (even if choosing the 'Factory Reset' option in the Adrenalin installer).

Whether that's connected, they're buggy, or I'm just having bad luck I don't know. For the time being however, I'll have to make do with the ones Windows downloaded and installed instead.



* AMD FX-8350 CPU, Biostar TA970 AM3+ Motherboard, 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 Patriot 1866MHz @ 1600MHz + 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 HyperX Fury 1600MHz RAM for anyone who reads this after I switch and update the system specs in my profile.

[AGTDenton]

Where is it now then as I installed Windows 10 Pro and couldn't find the offline option anywhere

Finally had a go installing 1909 and I still have an 'Offline Account' option bottom left after selecting Personal Account.
The only thing I can think of is the Network hardware I'm dealing with is not being picked up correctly. However, I can see the computer is connected to the router during the first time install wizard.
The other thing to note is I use the UK version of the W10 installer, not the US version.

So at the moment nothing has changed my end.

[Jonj1611]

Strange, I have the UK version, as mentioned it's in several reviews and I have encountered it myself. Much strangeness

[DanceswithUnix]

Whether that's connected, they're buggy, or I'm just having bad luck I don't know. For the time being however, I'll have to make do with the ones Windows downloaded and installed instead.

The default installed AMD GPU drivers will be really old and a potential problem source. But generally, it shouldn't do that.

TBH I would start planning a new SSD purchase for a clean Windows install, keeping the old install for a drive D to get things back from. Windows is so much better than it used to be at updating and general stability, but it is far from perfect. If there was something going iffy in your Windows 7 install, it would be down to luck if it were fixed during an upgrade.

[AGTDenton]

Strange, I have the UK version, as mentioned it's in several reviews and I have encountered it myself. Much strangeness

Another thing I suddenly thought of, I'm not inputting an activation key during install. But yes it is weird, and not the first time I have encountered some differences with other people installing the OS.

[Output]

The default installed AMD GPU drivers will be really old and a potential problem source. But generally, it shouldn't do that.

TBH I would start planning a new SSD purchase for a clean Windows install, keeping the old install for a drive D to get things back from. Windows is so much better than it used to be at updating and general stability, but it is far from perfect. If there was something going iffy in your Windows 7 install, it would be down to luck if it were fixed during an upgrade.

I only switched to the SSD in late 2018 after buying it in the Black Friday week sales, and the previous boot drive is around as a bit of a backup. So if a clean install did end up being needed, I can just copy things to there before that and thus from that to try to avoid losing anything.

As for the AMD drivers - the couple attempts I tried on Windows 10 were before even letting it install its own AMD ones. Interestingly, I had the same error attempting to install the Win7 20.1.1 drivers before the upgrade to Windows 7. Using the AMD cleanup utility didn't help the attempt afterwards from failing with the error.

19.12.2 was running on Windows 7 fine previous to that. I haven't tried to see if the Windows 10 version of 19.12.2 or .3 would work though. I decided I'd leave things as they are for now and see how the transfer to the new PC goes before retrying that.

[g8ina]

Now MS have effectively killed off win7, I will also be taking the plunge next week, just got to make sure everything is backed up, fit a new 2TB data disc and use my existing 1TB as a system disc, retire the 320GB.

Apparently the free upgrade will still work.....

[Jonj1611]

Remember if you worried about privacy try O&O shutup or one of the other various utils that do the same job.

I can't speak for others but myself I have had virtually no problems with Win 10, the odd issue here or there but most were trivial, certainly nowhere near the amount of problems I had with XP or Vista or early days of 7. Its been rock solid mainly

[DanceswithUnix]

Its been rock solid mainly

I would agree, though I am saying that from the comfort of Linux

I have been pleasantly surprised a few times pulling a W10 SSD out on one machine and plugging it into another to give a family member an upgrade, thinking "this will never work" and usually it just does.

[Output]

I've just successfully done my first monthly update, and checking O&O ShutUp10 afterwards showed that this set of updates thankfully didn't change anything from what I had already set it to.

I did have the issues of Win10 complaining of issues and rebooting a few times again, but it didn't take as long for it decide to actually boot (and configure the updates at the same time) on this occasion.

I really do suspect that it's a matter of it not liking my current motherboard, vice-versa, or both. So hopefully once the transfer to the new system goes ahead, there won't be any such issues. We'll see I guess.

[Scryder]

I've been using Win 10 since I got this PC over 3 years ago now. And never had any problems using it. All my games (at least newer ones) still work, so do all the programs I use. It still has a lot of power user features, which are just hidden a bit more. As I said in another thread, I've never used O&O Shutup, but when I got the PC, for privacy I googled it and the one that came up was Spybot Anti-Beacon. But they started charging for some of the blocking features... so I think I might have a look at O&O when I get some time.

Also Windows Firewall, although is alright, has the annoyance of keep turning on MS programs' access even when I disable them. I have been considering getting an external firewall program, but not got round to it yet.

I also went into settings and turned on/off a lot of the anti-privacy features. This is one thing they sometimes turn on again after a major update. So that's something I occasionally go back and check is still off/on (depending on what it's doing).