Windows 10 Should I upgrade Win7 Home Premium to Win 10?

paleobuck

New Member
I have an HP Pavilion HPE, 8G ram, 410G free on C:\, with Win 7 Home Premium loaded. Other than previously backed up files on a second HD the PC is largely clean. No local Win Office installation, etc. I intend to load my Office 365 business plus Visual Studio 2016 and do some development on the machine.

Should I upgrade the Win 7 version to Win 10? It is my understanding that free upgrades are no longer available. Is that true? If I do upgrade, are there any tips or tricks I need to pay attention to?
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :up:

Technically, that's true. At least free W10 upgrades that are guaranteed to work on your W7 machine. They ceased being free on July 29th 2016 last year. Generally, speaking if you've never done an OS upgrade (Windows) before yourself, it's recommended that you pay a professional to do it. FYI, about 90% of the customers who attempt this upgrade theirselves fubar their computer up and have to bring it to a licensed repair Tech like me.o_O

As far tips and tricks, the #1 tip would be to FIRST BACKUP ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA TO EXTERNAL MEDIA! THIS WOULD INCLUDE YOUR LIBRARY FOLDERS FOR DOCUMENTS, PHOTOS, MUSIC, VIDEOS, AND ANY SAVED E-MAILS OR ATTACHMENTS IN ORDER TO AVOID IRRETRIEVABLE DATA LOSS!!!
The #2 tip would be to ensure you run the W10 COMPATIBILITY TEST to make sure your hardware and drivers are all compatible with W10. Here's a Guide that can help you with how to run this test: Get Compatibility Report for Windows 10 in Window 7 and 8.1

The #3 tip would be is to upgrade your HP's BIOS if your W10 COMPATIBILITY TEST fails repeatedly. Unfortunately, this is a VERY HIGH RISK procedure. Again, if you've never attempted to upgrade your BIOS by yourself before-DON'T!!:ohno: Pay a licensed Professional Tech to do this for you. If you do not, it is very easy to Bork your Motherboard!!:headache: This can cost you from $400-$1,500 US to repair!:waah: Do not listen to the teenager next door to tell you it's easy and just go watch a YouTube video. They are idiots!

Those 3 things should get you past the most of the things that are computer killers and require you to take your PC into a computer repair shop and have a professional sort things out for you--that is if you don't destroy it first!:eek: Of course, it's your computer, so you can do whatever the heak you want. I'm assuming you came here for free expert advice; so hopefully you carefully consider the consequences of doing your own W10 upgrade. :andwhat: Most of this doesn't apply, if you've done a Windows OS upgrade in the past yourself.

If you have further questions or get stuck along the way, just post back to this thread. We are here 24x7x365 to help you!

Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>> :usa:
 
One thing I can tell you from having worked directly on a few of those units and one not long ago, is that even though the initial model number maybe be similar the hardware may not be. Example one of the earlier units I worked on was a HPE-110t that had a Q9300 Processor and that one was not Win 10 compatible ( missing PAE or SSE2 instruction sets). Another unit and I believe it was manufactured after a certain date 2013 (the other was prior) had a 2nd Gen I7 2600 which was compatible and had these CPU instructions.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should find out exactly the model number because there are about 4 in that series and various models within each of those series. Look at the sticker/model number on your PC and also take note of the processor it uses because this will give you a good indication of the manufacture date. Then before you did anything else call HP up and give them your serial number, or use the HP assistant here that will tell you exactly what you have and your compatibility.

Basically within the HPE h8 series you have 4 models as listed here below.

---------------------------------------------

HPE h8-1000
HP Pavilion HPE h8-1000 Desktop PC series | HP® Customer Support

HPE h8-1100
HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support


HPE h8-1200
HP Pavilion HPE h8-1200 Desktop PC series | HP® Customer Support


HPE h8-1300
Contact HP Customer Support | HP® Customer Support


*Note there are different models within each model range category example HPE h8-1050
---------------------------------------------

So from this point find out exactly which model you have and with exactly what hardware. If you're familiar with computers you can get most of that by what you see in your MyPC properties, and also you can download SPECCY and it will tell you a lot about your hardware as well.

Secondly once you get that information I would then either call HP, or use the HP Assistant and find out if your model has been tested with Windows 10. A few links.

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SPECCY
Speccy - System Information - Free Download

HP support assistant
HP Support Assistant | HP® Official Site



*On a final note about upgrading the Bios, an example there are 4 BIOS upgrades for some specific models, and these HP BIOS upgraded come in the form of an executable file (.exe) so it's actually a one click deal not the same as an aftermarket self built unit. So even if you do find out the exact model within the model range listed above and your hardware, and through HP support (or by booting into your BIOS) find out what BIOS model you have, and which one you need, I would still recommend taking it to a *reputable* shop as the above member mentioned that has good service, well known good repair, and good service warranty and let them deal with it that way should you be eligible to upgrade to Win 10 and you decide to go for it they will be responsible for handling that upgrade process (BIOS upgrade, Windows 10 install etc.) and the warranty theretofore. Peace of mind for professional service without the trepidation of any issues that might arise and warranty-coverage. Can't beat that :)
 
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