Update to Windows 10

[Pug3]

Would anyone please help me to determine if my desktop PC as described above can be updated to run Windows 10? If not full compatible, what are the limitations? Thank you so much.

Abe (2017-06-05 16:20)

[TheOldMan]

HERE IS A SIMILAR question which I advised about.  check out the link to the windows 10 upgrade assistan

[Pug3]

Dear TheOldMan:  Thanks for your quick advice. However, what you provided appears to be "updating" a PC that is already running on Windows 10. What I am trying to learn is how to "upgrade" a Vista OS based PC to run Windows 10. Hope you have more direct instruction for me. Thanks, Abe (2017-06-05 17:40)

[TheOldMan · Accepted solution]

Actually the Windows 10 installer supposedly will check before it tries to run the install.  So if you want to try the Windows 10, just go to the Windows 10 download site and use the Media creation tool.  If you really want Windows 10.  Scroll down to the "Using the tool to create installation media".  On a PC that old, I would get a new hard drive and then run the install media on the new hard drive.  When it asks for a key, click skip.  It will complete the install and work for 30 days.

Either way you will need to buy Windows 10 for a useful install after the 30 day trial.

BTW: an upgrade from Vista is not possible, it will need to be a clean install.  Another point on using a new hard drive.

[Pug3]

Hi, TheOldMan:

Thanks for the additional information. This may work. I will have to look at it closely first:

A.  Reading between the lines, it is apparent that for PC with Vista (WinXP as well), a clean install of Win10 is advisable.

B.  Because my PC has been used very lightly for all these years, I believe that the H/D probably still has some life in it.

C.  I will check my PC's existing capabilities such as RAM size etc. before attempting to upgrade.

One question is the microsoft instruction talks about running in Administrator mode to download the Win10 into USB. Could you tell me what is this and how to activate it?

Thanks,

Abe (2017-06-05 21:56)

[TheOldMan]

The instructions on how to run the tool after it is downloaded indicate " You need to be an administrator to run this tool."  I believe what that means is - after the tool has been downloaded, find the "MediaCreationTool.exe" in the folder where downloads are placed.  Right click and pick "Run as administrator".

Even if the hard drive is OK at this point, I would still advise to not run the Windows 10 install on the existing  hard drive that Vista is installed on.  That would wipe out a working Vista OS.  If, for whatever reason you do not like Windows 10 or it will not run on the old hardware, then you have a working computer by just placing the old drive back in service.

But that is my take.  That is the gamble you take,  if you choose not to follow that path.

[Pug3]

Hi, TheOldMan:

Appreciate your additional instruction.

Since the WinVista has been left as an orphan these days (Not only Microsoft skips mentioning it, but also many application softwares have no updates or support for it.), it does not do any practical good beyond a short term to keep around a WinVista H/D. So, my thinking is to fresh-install the Win10 OS on the current H/D. If I can't get a reasonable performance out my PC, I probably have to trash the entire thing. - Sorry to environmentalists.

Checking the Win10 System Requirments, it seems that the first three, CPU speed, RAM size and H/D size are straightforward and my PC is a couple folds over the stated minimum requirements. 

The fourth requirement about Graphics Card asks for "DirectX9 or WDDM 1.0 driver", while the specification of my PC says "128MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 [DVI,VGA]". These are hard to compare. Since the fifth Win10 requirement is "800x600 Display", while my PC is currently driving a "1680x1050 resolution monitor", my gut feeling is that my graphics card should be fine. Could you validate?

Thanks so much,

Abe (2017-06-06 16:44) 

[TheOldMan]

According to this page

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3710/~/nvidia-gpus-supported-under-windows-10

That GeForce model has Windows 10 drivers, which menas it should work with windows 10.

BTW: I understand the deal with Vista and no M$ support.

[Pug3]

Hi, TheOldMan:

Thanks for confirmation.

I started to try the upgrade procedure.

A.

[Pug3]

Hi, TheOldMan:

I touched a wrong key causing the previous short MSG gotten sent. Sorry.

When I tried using my WinVista PC to download the MeadiaCreatin Tool.exe, I got redirected to download the ISO DVD image version. Although this may be more convenient in terms of keeping it in the file drawer, I do not have a blank disk handy to proceed.

I then downloaded the USB version to my Win10 PC. When I executed it, it appeared to be going to install the Win10 OS on my PC instead of to the USB stick that I had plugged into this PC. So, I terminated it to avoid causing problems.

Could you clarify these for me?

Thanks,

Abe (2017-06-06 19:38)