bphlpt

I don't know for sure, but my impression is that when you "upgrade" to Windows 10, it doesn't cost you anything in the sense that you don't have to give MS any money at that time, but you then lose the ability to continue to use your previous Windows 7 or 8.x license for any other purpose. ie you can't have both. You can either keep using your Windows 7 or 8.x license for your existing installation, or you can use it to "upgrade" to Windows 10 for "free" and give up your existing installation. Think of it like you are trading in your car. You either keep your current car, or trade it in for a new one. You don't keep both cars. Cheers and Regards

So in addition to the "re-upgrade" question, another way to put it is you want to find out if you can obtain all the necessary materials now to do the upgrade, but then not actually install/activate the Windows 10 installation until you want to at some point in the future, even if that point is after the one year time period. ie, do you have to obtain the Windows 10 upgrade materials within the one year time frame, or do you have to actually install and register the Windows 10 installation within the one year time frame? I don't know the answer, but is that your question? Cheers and Regards

I'm confused. Why not just keep the tablet on 8.1, where it already is and where you want it to end up, and only exercise your Windows 10 option on the other machine? Or have I misunderstood something? After all, you can always put Windows 10 on the tablet later, anytime over the next year, if you later decide you want to do that. I have not seen anything that says your move to Windows 10 absolutely must happen, or be reserved, during any time period other than the one year that the offer is supposed to be available. NOTE: I have not used the term "upgrade" since there is some debate whether Windows 10 is "up" or "down" in comparison to any of the earlier versions.

@Molecule, As to your comment about SP3QFE vs SP2QFE, The Last Service Pack of XP was SP3, while the last Service Pack of 2003 was SP2. QFE refers to the branch of updates, "standard" ie GDR -- General Distribution Release, vs "request only" ie QFE -- Quick Fix Engineering aka LDR -- Limited Distribution Release. The last two are synonymous. You can refer to here for more info. Cheers and Regards

While posts in threads such as this, jokes, etc are a pleasant diversion, they are not the main purpose of this forum. There are LOTS of other places where those types of posts are more of the main focus. One way to think about post count here at MSFN, is that other than bragging rights, the absolute only purpose of post counts is an indication of the member's activity level, and so hopefully as an extension their experience, for the benefit of other newer members who are not familiar with the member in question. If a newer member is trying to determine whether to take the advice of another member who they don't know, they might be more inclined to believe someone who has been a member for a long time, has been very active with a lot of posts, and has a title of supervisor or moderator, over a different member who has been a member for a week, with only 2 posts and a title of member. It's not a perfect system since the member with 2 posts could be the next Einstein and the supervisor could be an obnoxious bully or a total jerk, and someone with a lot of posts could have gotten them by whining and complaining and criticizing others, but it's what we have. Anyway, since the main purpose of this forum is to provide help with technical matters, it makes sense to only count posts in technical areas of the forum. Personally, I'm more inclined to do a lot of reading and see the type of comments a member makes and get a feel for how helpful they truly are to other members, so I ignore post counts completely. But that's just me and it takes time that a member in trouble and needing advice quickly might not have. Cheers and Regards

Best I can tell, it's stolen material from bigmuscle and/or NoelC, routed through a couple of sites, including apparently at least one Russian site, according to the comments. Cheers and Regards

I could be wrong, but I think that jaclaz's post here, about SRWare Iron as an alternative to Chrome, was actually meant to be posted in this thread in response to your post above. At least here it makes sense. Cheers and Regards

Sorry Noel, You're correct, of course. That's a better option. Cheers and Regards

We have to abide by the rules set by the various software manufacturers, in this case MS, or we could be penalized. It doesn't matter that the particular files are "free", the end user must obtain the files directly from an authorized distribution source or the file is considered to be "warez". Even if the file has the same MD5 or whatever, both the file and the source of the file has to be legit. MSFN is not an authorized distribution source. Those are the rules we have to live by. Cheers and Regards

Is the link 2 posts above yours not the one you want? Cheers and Regards

Welcome to MSFN! I know next to nothing about theming, and have never used Win8.x+, but from what I have read, one thing you need to keep in mind is that you can't always mix and match stuff. For example, if you use one of NoelC's wonderful theme atlas images i think they will only work with the a very, very few themes. I have now exhausted my entire store of information about theming, so I'll let someone else with more knowledge respond further. Good luck! Cheers and Regards

You are absolutely correct. I apologize profusely to bigmuscle for the gaff. I'm sure that if he identified which recent posts he would like moved, that a moderator would be glad to move them to a more appropriate thread, maybe this one? Cheers and Regards

I consider 7-Zip to be an essential tool that every PC owner should have, no matter of OS or user skill level. It is usually one of the first things I install for every OS install I am involved with. It is just too useful not to have. Cheers and Regards

OK, at least those are work related apps. We're agreed on that. Great! An actual Windows 10 feature! There are equivalent Virtual Desktop programs that can be used with older versions of Windows, but Task View is built in so that's convenient for those that want that function. Thanks for the feedback, even if the features you describe are not enough to convince me to switch. Seriously, I'm glad you like Windows 10 and that it works for you, but I'll still disagree that Windows 10 is the best OS for everyone. Cheers and Regards

Welcome to MSFN! Cheers and Regards

@dhjohns, Thank you very much for the feedback and the details. Everyone has their own way they prefer to work and what they find to be usable to them. There's nothing at all wrong with that, and it's a big reason for the problem I've had with MS lately as they have removed choice and customization options from their later OS. I'm not disagreeing that Windows 10 boots faster, it's just that the startup or restart time is such a small percentage of the time that I am interacting with the system that it is a non-issue for me. Most of the Modern Apps sound like "modern" versions of "gadgets" that used to be available years ago, until MS forced them out to make way for the new apps. So not really new, just newer versions, but still nothing I really need on my desktop. I'm afraid I'd just be distracted by the "pretty play toys" when I'm trying to get something done. Nothing against them for those that want them, but they're probably just as distracting as YouTube links for me. I'm glad that Windows 10 works as it is for you, and that Noel and others have found a way to make it work for them, but we'll just have to agree to disagree as to which OS we prefer. Cheers and Regards

I truly understand it is usually a case of everyone having their own favorite way of doing things, and I respect that, but to address your specific "benefits": Boot time - As ptd163 mentioned, decreased boot time is mainly due to Hybrid boot, essentially being the same as hibernate, which is available in earlier OS. Since I spend much more time using the running OS than I spend starting it, any further small improvements to Boot time are inconsequential, at least to me. Start Menu - REALLY a matter of preference, I know, but personally I just don't like the Win8.x+ versions, any of them. Since I know that you like a simple, clean looking Windows Explorer, it really surprises me that you like the look of the newer Start Menu. What advantages does it give you? Modern Apps - I'm not aware of a single one that provides a function that I need or want. Which Modern Apps do you feel are worthwhile? I really respect your views and opinions, as I know you respect that of others, I'm just interested in what others find appealing in Windows 10. Cheers and Regards my friend

No disrespect meant at all, but what exactly are the benefits you have found in Windows 10? I would really, really, really like to know. ( I haven't seen any real benefits to any Windows OS beyond Windows 7 to entice me to change from Windows 7, and I know there are others who feel that way about XP, Win2K, Win98 and even Win95, but that's a totally different conversation. ) From everything I have read, there is nothing new at all available in Windows 10 that is not available in previous OS either built-in or with free or extremely cheap 3rd party addons. Cheers and Regards

FWIW, the pic you quoted is actually from NoelC, and NOT bapt. Cheers and Regards

IMO, unless you are going to buy a whole lot of the sticks, you will waste more money on gas checking out various stores than you will spend if you just go ahead and buy the few sticks you need. Of course you could call around to the various stores and ask them directly what their prices are. Cheers and Regards

I have no experience with Win10 so this is just a guess, but does this link have anything to do with anything, where it says that "we do not support clean installs of Windows 10240."? Just a thought. Cheers and Regards

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174105-difficuly-setting-up-ad-hoc-network/?p=1103028 Cheers and Regards

@shorterxp, You have several points of failure going on. From the ad-hoc network to the nLited OS. I would strongly suggest trying to separate those potential problem areas as you are trying to troubleshoot this new, for you, ad-hoc network. Regardless of how good a product that nLite is, it is written by one man and it is not perfect. It's job of safe component removal is made extremely difficult due to the complex interactions between all of the OS subsystems. Why do you think that MS itself does not provide built-in methods in the OS for everyone to just point-and-click to remove all of the functions that the user doesn't think they need? Besides which, do you really and truly need to remove the components you are trying to remove, or do you just have the understandable idea that having a leaner OS will be better in some way? Anyway, You can wait to see if another user has run into this situation, or you can try to resolve it yourself. I would suggest setting up the systems on your ad-hoc network with nothing whatsoever removed by nLite at all. That would verify that your hardware and procedures for setting up the network are all working correctly. Then you can begin redoing the OS with nLite. Don't try to remove everything you think you can at once, but do it in stages. That will help you determine which component you are removing that you actually need to keep. I know it's a bit of work, but things are just too interconnected for me to come up with an alternative method. Good luck! Cheers and Regards

In other words: (my own interpretation of the problem) "I have acquired an Acer s680g computer, with BIOS version P01-B0. but the hard drive is locked and I don't know the password. Is there any way around this so I can either access the existing content, or at least reformat the drive and use it in a new install?" Do I have that right? Cheers and Regards

So this successfully fixes the problem we discussed above? Cheers and Regards