…and “it” is the apparently inevitable upgrade/migration to Windows 10.
Yes, it’s true: support for Windows 7 is quickly nearing an end (January 14th, last I heard) and I’m having flashbacks to when I went kicking and screaming from XP to 7. Of course, that migration was helped along by the fact that my XP computer literally died about 2 days before the end of software support. Hmmm….
Well, the hardware side of my machine seems to remain sound, thanks in no small part to the fact that it was built by my amazing son. But alas, we’re going to have to do something about the Windows 7 operating system which it currently runs under and has done so since 2015. Yes, that’s 5 years of history, tweaking, customizing, installing and whatnot that I will have to once again attempt to mimic as I move to the latest OS.
I have two machines to hit – my main machine on which I do pretty much “everything” and a secondary machine that performs a number of tertiary functions. Obviously, I will probably be hitting the secondary machine first and hopefully identify all the “gotchas” I can prior to moving on to the “money maker”, as it were. The process will begin by taking a trip to our local Micro Center, where I plan to purchase a 1TB SSD for my main machine (which will be an upgrade from its current 500GB SSD) and either a 1TB SSD or 1-2TB HD for the secondary machine. I haven’t definitively decided on which way I’m going to go on that machine yet, but its current system drive is a 1TB HD, so I want to at least equal that in space.
Following those purchases, the fun will begin. I’m going to use this post to centralize all the relevant information I can find on the subject, starting with the first article below on the whole “Microsoft Account” ridiculousness that I’m hoping to avoid. Expect the list below to grow as I move along in the process, and learn with me, won’t you?
Oh, and a reminder to myself – install Win10 Professional!
- Skipping the Windows Account creation process
- One of the many documented ways to still get Windows 10 for free (thanks, Phil!)
- A very helpful video outlining some of the many settings you may want to change after installation/upgrade of Windows10
- In order to co-exist with Linux and, more specifically, UnRaid, SMBv1 had to be (re)enabled on Win10. Instructions on how to do this will be forthcoming; this is a placeholder to remind me to add that one of these days.
- Windows 10 automatic reboot shenanigans
- I’m going to use Clonezilla to clone my existing SSD to a new (and larger) one because this is the software that Barnacules recommends!