FN-GM

I just mentioned WMI as I have recently made come queries

nkedel

As you probably know, WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER is an invaluable thing on old-but-still-under-warranty laptops where the sticker on the bottom is no longer legible (Dells seem much more prone to this than Lenovo.)

Other than that, I mostly stick to Linux for professional stuff where the management interfaces would come in handy.

BigLar

OK - I have an older Dell laptop running Win 7. Hadn't been updated in a couple of months, so I went ahead. Noticed the "magic" upgrade in the list, so in it went. After re-start, the icon (a tilted 4-pane white window) showed up.

So, I clicked on it, and they took my email address. Apparently I'm all set.

Now ... I have perhaps a half-dozen machines running Win 7 and I'd like to try Win 10 on all of them --- Hey, it's free, right? However, I will be giving them the same email address for all of them. Is there a limit on the number of machines they will send out the software to? Is each copy somehow 'personalized' to the machine you are running when you request the software?

Bottom line - what am I going to get, and how do I activate it for the various machines?

nkedel

From https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq
What if I have more than one Windows device�can I upgrade them all?

Yes, you can get a free upgrade for each of your eligible Windows devices. All you need to do is make a separate reservation for each device you want to upgrade.

Probably. They will be providing a key somehow, since you'll be able to do a clean reinstall if needed (see same FAQ) but once activated, it's probably tied to the hardware.

I've got one machine which is dual-boot Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 7, and where I've reserved two copies; we'll see if they give me two keys for it. If so, the second will be a "spare" as I need to keep the Windows 7 environment for some older software that won't run on 8.1 (and thus presumably won't run on 10.)

It can't be tied to the original Windows 7 key, as I've gotten the upgrade offer on several Windows 7 machines using Lenovo or Dell OEM versions where the key is shared with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of other machines out there.

If you're on a fully patched version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, it will be an automated process via Windows update. If you're on a not-fully patched version of either (or Windows 8; 8.1 is basically 8SP1, so by definition 8.0 is not "fully patched) there is supposed to be an ISO-download mechanism, the details of which have not been made public

RedRaptor

I'm really looking forward to get this as a full release.

The game streaming stuff sounds incredible. I can leave my Xbox One on at home and still play it on my Laptop when travelling? Amazing.

BigLar

Out of about 7 or 8 Win7 machines I've examined, all of them either had the 'magic' upgrade (some of them twice - once back in March and another one later) or stuck it in when I checked for upgrades. So far, only 3 of them show the icon for Win10.

Activation status doesn't seem to matter as to whether you get the icon or not, although their FAQ seems to require that the machine be activated (must be Genuine Windows, and you don't get that until it's activated).

Oh well, I have until July 29 to see what happens. I'm trying to ascertain whether they just download it and do an upgrade-in-place which will wipe out your existing Win7 (what if you want to go back because of driver issues, etc.?). Really want the .iso image - I don't mind burning a DVD for each machine, though I suspect the activation key is buried in the download which would mean each DVD is different.

nkedel

Unpacking the ISO onto a USB stick is MUCH more flexible than actually burning it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...-download-tool

WillCAD

I doubt that the key is included in the download. It will probably be sent out later via email, and entered into each machine individually, as MS keys have been entered since they were introduced.

I have two machines, but I'll likely be The One who gets to upgrade my family's machines as well, so I'll have at least 7 to do, maybe more. Everybody is currently on Win7HomePremium, so we'll all get the same Win10 upgrade. I will definitely be downloading the ISO only ONCE and installing it on all of the various machines. But if the product keys are supplied by email, I'll be carrying a sheet of return address labels with me to write the key on and stick it to each machine as I install. My family are not a Monkish as I about keeping such vital information handy, secure, and backed up.

I've never installed Windows from a USB stick, only from optical media. I will give it a try this time, though I will most likely only use the USB for installation, and keep the ISO on a DVD for archival and storage purposes.

blackjack-21

Just a FYI....

I've got an older model Epson printer that I purchased at the same time as my HP desktop running Windows 7 Home, in 2011. The printer works well with W7, no problems at all. Got the MS offer to do the upgrade as many here have, but I thought I'd contact Epson to be sure my printer would still work with the Windows 10 when I installed it. Answer was that Epson's driver wouldn't work with W 10, and at this point in time they didn't anticipate upgrading their driver for that model.

Possibly newer Epson models might work (I don't know), but be sure your printer and possibly other add-ons don't get lost with the upgrade.

bj-21.

WillCAD

Some manufacturers have been doing this all along, but it really turned into an epidemic when Vista was released - old hardware (some less than a year old!) had no drivers for the new OS, and the manufacturers flatly refused to release updated drivers. This left many people with only two choices - don't upgrade OS, or upgrade OS and have to replace a bunch of perfectly good hardware that has no drivers. A buddy of mine with an Epson pro photo printer still runs Windows 2000 on one of his machines, because there are no drivers available for that printer that work on any newer OS.

I'm dreading the idea of buying another printer/scanner, because I have a Kodak and like it, but Kodak no longer makes printers, so I might be forced back into the Epson or Canon camps after the Win10 upgrade.

DenverBrian

When you got the MS offer to do the upgrade, did the MS audit flag your Epson printer as an issue?

tentseller

I have Xp and 2000 boxes that I am still running due to driver availability to special peripherals issues. Replacing these perpherals is just too costly (HP large fromat colourjet printer, large format laserjet and Nikon 9000 film scanner)

BigLar

Which is why I try to keep my active machines as dual-booters.

You don't need a large partition, because XP/7/10 will all be able to read each other's files. Only one repository for the data is needed.

Yes, it's somewhat inconvenient to have to re-boot, and I'm sure some of the experts here will advise you run a virtual machine with the desired OS, but at least there are workarounds.

Other avenues to explore:

1. Let windows update see if it can find drivers, This has worked for me when the driver CD I had for a device didn't work.

2. See if there is a compatible device that they do support. Fer'instance, I have an Oki laser that hasn't had official drivers since Win98. However, they actually tell you in the documentation that, if you can't find a driver, just install it as a Laserjet 4 and it will work fine. It does.

For a lot of these devices, they're just handling PCL5 or Postscript, so how you get the data there is not all that important. Where you run into trouble is with specialized capabilities your device may have and there's no way to control that without the driver.

3. Check with any support groups that might be out there. That's where I found that my LJ 5si (which was not directly supported) was essesntially the same as the LJ 8000, so in went the driver and voila! (Then I got a real 8000 so the point is moot, but still ...)

nkedel

For printer drivers, if they have a driver for Windows 7 "won't work with Windows 10" just means they haven't tested it. The fundamental way printer drivers work hasn't changed since Vista and while it's untested, I would be very surprised if it actually didn't work.

Scanners are a much bigger problem, although even here, the biggest part of that was the transition to the new driver model in Vista and the change to 64-bit.

Also, for printers (less practical for scanners) it's very easy to just set up a VM to run the drivers; I have an old Canon photo printer where the driver support ended with XP and it's pretty easy to print from the XP mode VM that came with Windows 7 (although I am now running that VM on 8.1)

nkedel

Windows Vista and 7 and 8.0/8.1, and I'm willing to bet 10 as well (although I haven't checked) support an absolutely immense number of older printers. including the HP Laserjet 5si. The trick is that for non-plug-and-play printers (A) you have to be online, and (B) you have to press the Windows Update button to load the full database before you can find the printers:



Loading the database takes a few minutes, even on a relatively fast internet connection. Annoyingly, it never caches this, so if you hit "cancel" and go back in, it's another few minutes...

(Above screenshot from my 8.1 laptop, a few minutes ago...)