My laptop has Windows 8.1. My desktop has Windows Vista. Would I have to buy Windows 7 first in order to upgrade to Windows 10 for my desktop? If not, how? And by wiping the drive before a Windows 10 download, would you be deleting all of your files and programs? If so, I would have to back up my files first? As you can tell I'm not very computer literate but I'm trying.
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Details on free Windows 10 offer
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Hokiefyd
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Originally Posted By: Sierra048
My desktop has Windows Vista. Would I have to buy Windows 7 first in order to upgrade to Windows 10 for my desktop?
Yes, to do it right, this is how you'd have to do it. You could buy a Windows 7 upgrade license, upgrade to 7, then do the free upgrade to 10. There are other methods, but they're often not legal.
Originally Posted By: Sierra048
And by wiping the drive before a Windows 10 download, would you be deleting all of your files and programs? If so, I would have to back up my files first?
There are two potential ways to do this.
(1) In-place upgrade. This is where you let Windows 10 upgrade your installation of Windows 7 (or 8.1 for your laptop). All of your programs and files remain on the computer. But all of the "bloat" and temporary files and other system files that get used and abused over the years remain as well. This is the easiest way to upgrade in the short term, but can have long term effects.
(2) Fresh install. This is where you format your hard drive (or let Windows do it) and install Windows 10 on a clean hard drive. None of your programs or files would remain. But none of the other junk does, either, like the Symantec System Resource Hog 1-year trial type programs you probably never use. Your personal files are (hopefully) easy to back up. If you keep them all in your My Documents folder or some other data folder, this should be easy. You'll need an external hard drive or large SD card or USB stick, etc...you need some place to put those files temporarily until Windows 10 is up and running. Then, when it is, you'd copy your files back over. You'll have to re-install your programs (like Office, Chrome, Firefox, TurboTax, etc). This is more difficult than (1) above, but it usually is the best way forward for long term satisfaction.
Now...all that said, Where are most of your personal files? Are they on your laptop? Or on your desktop? Or on a cloud service (like Google Drive or Dropbox, etc)? The more consolidated you keep your personal files, in terms of how and where they're stored on the computer, the easier method (2) above is to do. If they're scattered across your hard drive in 15 different locations, it may be tedious to find them all. But if they're all in a data folder or the My Documents folder, it shouldn't take too long to back them up.
My desktop has Windows Vista. Would I have to buy Windows 7 first in order to upgrade to Windows 10 for my desktop?
Yes, to do it right, this is how you'd have to do it. You could buy a Windows 7 upgrade license, upgrade to 7, then do the free upgrade to 10. There are other methods, but they're often not legal.
Originally Posted By: Sierra048
And by wiping the drive before a Windows 10 download, would you be deleting all of your files and programs? If so, I would have to back up my files first?
There are two potential ways to do this.
(1) In-place upgrade. This is where you let Windows 10 upgrade your installation of Windows 7 (or 8.1 for your laptop). All of your programs and files remain on the computer. But all of the "bloat" and temporary files and other system files that get used and abused over the years remain as well. This is the easiest way to upgrade in the short term, but can have long term effects.
(2) Fresh install. This is where you format your hard drive (or let Windows do it) and install Windows 10 on a clean hard drive. None of your programs or files would remain. But none of the other junk does, either, like the Symantec System Resource Hog 1-year trial type programs you probably never use. Your personal files are (hopefully) easy to back up. If you keep them all in your My Documents folder or some other data folder, this should be easy. You'll need an external hard drive or large SD card or USB stick, etc...you need some place to put those files temporarily until Windows 10 is up and running. Then, when it is, you'd copy your files back over. You'll have to re-install your programs (like Office, Chrome, Firefox, TurboTax, etc). This is more difficult than (1) above, but it usually is the best way forward for long term satisfaction.
Now...all that said, Where are most of your personal files? Are they on your laptop? Or on your desktop? Or on a cloud service (like Google Drive or Dropbox, etc)? The more consolidated you keep your personal files, in terms of how and where they're stored on the computer, the easier method (2) above is to do. If they're scattered across your hard drive in 15 different locations, it may be tedious to find them all. But if they're all in a data folder or the My Documents folder, it shouldn't take too long to back them up.
Thanks Hokiefyd. Not looking to do something illegal. Probably wouldn't know how anyway. I think all the programs I use could be easily added again, just a little time consuming. Don't really have a lot of files so saving them should not be a big deal. I might just try it on my laptop. Not going to sink any money into the desktop so I'll just leave that one alone. Most in this thread were talking well above my pay grade. In simple terms, what would Windows 10 do for a techo-clutz like me? Are there advantages that even I would see? I was really not a fan of Windows 8 but it came with the laptop and I had no choice.
Hokiefyd
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Originally Posted By: Sierra048
In simple terms, what would Windows 10 do for a techo-clutz like me? Are there advantages that even I would see?
The main benefit for Windows users of using a current version is the system is being updated by Microsoft with security updates, etc. For example, Windows Vista's end of extended support (which is when Microsoft stops shipping updates) is April 11, 2017. Certainly by that time, you'd want to upgrade it to a newer version of Windows if you were going to keep the computer. If you don't plan to keep the desktop computer that much longer, then there's probably little to gain there. Windows 10 will likely provide a noticeable performance gain over Windows Vista. Depending on how much you use the computer, this may or may not be worth the trouble for you.
Compared with Windows 8/8.1 (for your laptop), Windows 10 will have a similar user interface, but the Start Menu will be included again. You can very easily install a Start Menu for Windows 8 (there are free options out there, as well as paid options). Windows 8 runs much faster than Windows 7. You probably won't notice a difference in performance between Windows 8 and 10, but if your laptop had 7 on it now, you'd get a nice boost with either 8 or 10.
In simple terms, what would Windows 10 do for a techo-clutz like me? Are there advantages that even I would see?
The main benefit for Windows users of using a current version is the system is being updated by Microsoft with security updates, etc. For example, Windows Vista's end of extended support (which is when Microsoft stops shipping updates) is April 11, 2017. Certainly by that time, you'd want to upgrade it to a newer version of Windows if you were going to keep the computer. If you don't plan to keep the desktop computer that much longer, then there's probably little to gain there. Windows 10 will likely provide a noticeable performance gain over Windows Vista. Depending on how much you use the computer, this may or may not be worth the trouble for you.
Compared with Windows 8/8.1 (for your laptop), Windows 10 will have a similar user interface, but the Start Menu will be included again. You can very easily install a Start Menu for Windows 8 (there are free options out there, as well as paid options). Windows 8 runs much faster than Windows 7. You probably won't notice a difference in performance between Windows 8 and 10, but if your laptop had 7 on it now, you'd get a nice boost with either 8 or 10.
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