Update Vista To Windows 10 – Microsoft will stop supporting Windows Vista on April 12, but there are some options available if you want to stick with Windows. Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP

Readers responded to messages about the “end of Windows Vista” with a flurry of questions about their options. Here are the most important ones

Update Vista To Windows 10

Microsoft will end support for Windows Vista on April 12, so you have less than a month to decide what to do. The short answer is, yes, you can upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 or to the latest Windows 10. Whether it’s worth it is another matter.

Windows 10 = Windows Vista + 4

The main advantage is the hardware. PC manufacturers installed Vista from 2006 to 2009, so most of these machines are eight to ten years old. They are likely to be low spec, by today’s standards, and their aging hard drives will continue to fail. Users can upgrade these PCs to 4GB of memory and replace the hard drives with SSDs to extend their lifespan, but in many cases it’s not worth it. They can buy something new on eBay, or get a refurbished machine from a supplier like Tier1online.

Keep in mind that upgrading hardware and software can involve quite a bit of work with an uncertain outcome. It’s good for PC hobbyists, but if you were that kind of person, you wouldn’t use Vista. In fact, you probably wouldn’t have bought a Presario CQ60-215DX. If yours has a dual-core AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 processor, it will be slow. If it has a single-core Sempron, it belongs in the trash.

Windows Vista. People with faster or newer Vista laptops should find they run better under Windows 10. Photo: Microsoft

People with faster or newer Vista laptops should find that they run better under Windows 10. The minimum useful specification is something like a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 and 4GB of memory. This processor has a PassMark CPU score of 1482. Search for your CPU score on PassMark and see if it is higher. If it is much lower, leave the idea. Life is too short.

Windows 10 Surpasses Windows Vista And Windows 8 Desktop Usage

If you have doubts about Windows 10, try it for free. Anyone can install it at zero cost simply by not activating it (if you care about the power of purchase): see below.

You can also try installing a version of Linux, such as Mint 18.1, which is free. (If you’re having trouble getting your wireless LAN card to work, this may help.)

Linux is not directly compatible with programs such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Apple iTunes and other common software. Check to see if you can run everything you need on Linux, or find workable replacements.

Anyway, clone your hard drive first so you can go back to Vista if Windows 7/10/Linux doesn’t work properly.

Windows Vista Skinpack For Windows 10 And 7/8

From Vista to Windows 7 If I upgrade to Windows 7, do I have to upgrade the programs etc first? Lynn

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 is what Microsoft calls “an in-place upgrade”. All your current programs and data should remain the same as they were before. Of course, it’s important to back up your PC and all your data first, because sometimes things go wrong.

Make sure Vista is patched and updated before upgrading. You can also update all your PC drivers to the latest versions – there’s some help online – and check your PC manufacturer’s website for ROM upgrades. However, you do not need to upgrade your programs.

Windows 7 is no longer the current version, and there are scammers selling pirated copies, so take caveat emptor. You must purchase a version that is as good or better than your current version of Vista. For example, you can upgrade from Vista Home Basic to Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate. However, you cannot go from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Basic. See Windows 7 Upgrade Paths for more information.

Windows Vista Dark Theme For Windows 10 By Protheme On Deviantart

Furthermore, in-place upgrades must go from 32-bit to 32-bit versions, or from 64-bit to 64-bit versions, not from 32-bit to 64-bit versions, or vice versa. You can upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit – this is a good idea – but only by doing a “clean install” that removes all current software and data. To do this, select the Custom option instead of the regular upgrade option.

One problem with upgrading to Windows 7 is that the DVD versions are now many years out of date. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll need to download hundreds of updates, many of which force reboots. The last time I did a clean install of Windows 7, it was still installing updates three days later.

Regardless, I don’t recommend upgrading to Windows 7 today unless it’s a stepping stone to Windows 10. Windows 10 is much better than Windows 7, and it keeps getting better. Windows 7 will reach the end of its life in 2020, although you may have to buy a new PC before then.

By upgrading to Windows 10 I have a decent PC with Vista – fast processor, 8GB memory. Is there an easy way to clean it up and do a fresh install of Windows 10? I have backed up my data files. hours

Microsoft Monday: Windows Vista Support Ends Soon, Creators Update Early Access, Xbox Transcriptions

You cannot perform an in-place upgrade from Vista to Windows 10, so Microsoft does not offer Vista users a free upgrade. However, you can certainly purchase an upgrade to Windows 10 and do a clean install. (Actually, it doesn’t matter how you do it. You can install Windows 10 first and then go to the online Windows Store to pay for it.)

You don’t need to wipe your current copy of Vista: the clean install takes care of that.

Microsoft wants people to move to Windows 10, so adoption is ahead of profit right now. Photo: Microsoft

To perform a clean install, you can either follow Microsoft’s instructions and create a DVD or thumbdrive, or you can purchase a retail copy. (With retail copies, you can remove a copy of Windows from one PC and install it on another. You can’t do this with pre-installed versions, which are locked to the hardware they’re first installed on.)

Windows Vista Aero 8.1.1 By Simplexdesignss On Deviantart

Technically, it’s too late to get a free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8/8.1 to Windows 10. But even after last year’s deadline, Microsoft continued to offer upgrades when users entered their Windows 7 product keys. It may still work. Microsoft also left a loophole by offering free upgrades to people who need assistive technologies like screen readers. This can of course be withdrawn at any time.

Alternatively, you can get a free copy of Windows 10 by joining the Microsoft Insider trial program and doing a clean install of it.

Finally, you can skip the product key screens and use Windows 10 without activating it. Some features are limited, it puts a watermark on your desktop, and it will nag you to buy a copy, but it’s still a big improvement over Vista and costs the same as Linux (ie nothing).

Of course, Microsoft might one day crack down on unactivated copies. However, Microsoft wants people to move to Windows 10, so for now it’s adoption ahead of profit. And if you have Windows 10 installed, all future upgrades are free. Today, Windows Update sees the first mainstream release of the Windows 10 Creators Update and the last public updates, ever, for Windows Vista.

Windows 10’s Free Upgrade Deadline Looms: Make Sure It Stays Free Plus Full Install Guide

Released to production on November 8, 2006 and shipped to consumers on January 30, 2007, Windows Vista had a worrying development and a sad life once shipped. But it was an important Windows release that laid the groundwork for Windows 7 and beyond. Despite all the criticism that Vista and Microsoft received, the company never backed down on the controversial aspects of its release. After a while these aspects just stopped being controversial.

Windows Vista was originally intended to be larger in scope and ambition. Microsoft’s Longhorn project envisioned a new database-like file system known as WinFS, a radically new development model and set of APIs based on .NET, and a 3D-accelerated user interface built using these APIs.

But the development of the longhorn failed. Some trouble came from Longhorn himself; WinFS never worked properly and was eventually abandoned. This in turn removed much of the development work Microsoft had been doing on things like the new Explorer and Mail client, which depended on WinFS. Scrap WinFS, and Microsoft has to scrap everything that requires WinFS. Even if the code worked, much of it seemed to be of questionable quality, with a lot of instability and memory leaks.

But rather with the software on which Longhorn is based: Windows XP. Windows XP was ravaged by remotely exploitable security flaws, and Microsoft realized it had to do something about it. Over several years, the company transformed itself in several ways, developing methodologies and development processes to try to ensure that the code it developed was much more secure by default. The most immediate product of this change was Windows XP Service Pack 2; it reinforces the built-in

Windows 10 Update Kb5003637 Outs For Versions 21h1, 20h2, 2004

Update vista to 10, update windows vista to sp2, vista update to windows 8, update to windows vista, how to update vista to windows 10, update windows vista to 10, windows update from vista to 10, can i update vista to windows 10, can you update vista to windows 10, vista to windows 7 update, update windows 10 from vista, how to update windows vista

The post Update Vista To Windows 10 appeared first on Adela Techno.