Installation :: Upgrade When Owning Multiple Computers
Aug 29, 2015
I'd like to try 10 on one of my computers. If I sign up for it on one of my computers, does it automatically download to all my computers? Programs I use from GM are not supported for 10, so i need to keep all my laptops on 7. I'm willing to gamble with 10 one my garage computer.
I have win10 running beautifully after hours of configuring on my main computer, now I want to put win10 on 2 of my 3 other computers, is there a way to sync win10 so I don't have to spend additional hours configuring the other two computers like the first one?
I have two windows 10 computers on the same network in different rooms. One is in my bedroom, one is in the living room. My roommate's girlfriend has a 10 year old son that comes by sometimes. I like to have my pin up girls on the desktop in my room but I keep generic desktop themes in the computer in the living room since I let other people use that one. I had to reinstall Windows 10 on the computer in the living room, and for some reason, the themes keep syncing and I can't figure out how to keep them separate (the computer also share the same Windows ID, it did it on it's own). So if I have my pin up girl theme in my room, eventually it shows on the computer in the living room. If I use a generic theme in the living room, eventually it shows in the bedroom. How do I keep these desktop themes separate?
I have recently upgraded my laptop that was running windows 8.1 to windows 10. When I was doing this, I was asked if I wanted to create a copy of the install to upgrade my other computers. I also have an older desktop pc running windows xp. Is it ok to use the copy to upgrade the xp, as I recently found out that you need to pay to upgrade from xp. Basically, by having one copy of windows 8.1, does this allow me to upgrade another pc running xp for free?
Essentially, ever since I upgraded, my computer (which has had its issues in the past, admittedly) has been crashing repeatedly, multiple times per day, exact amount varying with what I'm doing. The most common error according to WhoCrashed is Video_TDR_ERROR, followed by DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION, and HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED.
I've noticed it crashes more often when playing a flash video or similar streaming, followed by media players, and then even sometimes when just browsing the web. The majority of the time, it will freeze first, repeating a sound loop varying from a split second to a full second or so until it finally bluescreens.
I've taken the following steps so far to try fixing it, after some google searching:
*Rolling back Nvidia drivers to .30 *Completely removing the nvidia drivers with the uninstaller utility, and then reinstalling them again *Reinstalling sound drivers and wifi drivers. *SFC checks, and DISM even when nothing was found *Hard drive repair (Check disk and seatools) *Virus scans
But no luck so far. I'm assuming it's driver/software related based on what I know of the errors and the timing of it all.
As a side note, I can't change back to 7 right now, it's a long story that basically comes down to the files getting deleted when they shouldn't have been. I'd also prefer to avoid Restoring, as that removes all programs (Effectively, I don't have any from the Store), which defeats the purpose of upgrading instead of doing a clean install, unless someone knows of a 'repair' installation option like Windows 7 had, that keeps ALL programs installed, but I can't find anything like that.
Except the last 3 digits in Product ID ( underlined ) everything is exact same on all three devices.
Before upgrade, all devices were using the OEM Product Keys came with them and everything was different. Now it is all the same. I do understand that I am not supposed to get a new Product key for each device or installation, it is a free upgrade that MS will validate online on each installation using some sort of Hardware Hash/ Identity from my devices. But still...
If I now perform clean install on all of, hopefully it shouldn't cause any problem, or would it?MS is giving same Product Key, Product ID to all my devices because they are attached to same MS account, or is MS giving same Product Key/ ID to all who are upgrading from a specific type of Source Windows Version and Edition?Say same Product Key/ ID is only because of same MS account to all 3 devices, suppose I upgrade a fourth device, but before upgrade switch to Local Account, will MS still give me same Product Key/ ID?I install fresh Windows quite a lot of times, like to play around and mess around a lot, when I have time. Sometimes even change (experiment with) RAM, HDD, SSD, and even processor. My concern is that I might lose Windows 10 validity.
I am wondering what the best way is to install windows 10 on multiple harddrives, so that the OS is my SSD, the programs are on a HDD, and the user files are on another HDD. Any way to do this and it has worked successfully could you say that the windows 7 method works.
I am building a new PC with no internal storage. I am installing a 2.5" SATA dock in one 3.5" bay and one 3.5" SATA dock in a second 5.25" bay.
My intention is to have one SSD for my work PC on Windows 10, one SSD for my son for his gaming on Windows 7 (some of his games are not Win 10 compatible yet), and perhaps a third SSD for playing around with Linux installs, etc.
The 3.5" dock will have a 1TB HDD for backup.
From what I have read, since these drives will not technically be external. (plugged into the SATA on the mainboard through the dock, and not via USB or e-sata.), that their creation and use could be problematic if I use the UEFI boot system, or secure boot for that matter.
So.... I am looking for a methodology which I should use to setup these boot SSDs which will give me the least problems and management issues.
A side related question. I have a boot SSD with Win 7 home premium that is eligible for Win 10 upgrade. It currently resides in my Dell Alienware x-51 R1 system, but I want to move it to the new system as the drive my son will be using.
Will there be any issues in moving the drive to a new system architecture?If/when he can upgrade to Win 10, will there be any issues with that since the architecture has changed from the system of origin?Do I need to backup/reformat/restore the drive in order to get it to boot properly in the above mentioned docking bay system?Since only one drive could be used at any one time. In your opinion, do you think I need multiple Windows Licenses?
I have a Dell Venue 8 Pro with an upgraded Windows 10 installed. Always perform Windows Update but did not pay attention too closely. When the drive space was low and started looking a little bit closer, I found out that I have several Recovery Partitions. From Disk Management display, from left to right are the partitions:
The problem is I do not know which partition that Windows 10 actually created as its Recovery Partition. I do know that the 4.75 GB partition is my original Dell Venue 8 Pro Recovery Partition. Which one can I remove to allow the expansion of my C drive? What gives?
Currently we run 5 workstations on win7/8 on old hardware. In the near future, we want to migrate to windows 10 - and use the free upgrade offer from ms.Problem is, we'll get new hardware for all workstations. So the plan is, to build the new hardware. install win7/8 on every new hardware and use the free upgrade on the new hardware. After that, a new clean-install will be made.the clue is, besides the OS it'll take very much time to install all 3rd party software on the machines.To skip this work, we would like to duplicate the harddisk after the setup of the whole system is done. This should be possible from driver-side, because the hardware will be identical.
But now comes the win10 licence question :-) I know win10 will recognice the hardware and validate the licence due to the win7 upgrade. but what will happen if i switch the harddisk to the new system?or i can try to keep the system unlicenced (no network connection. Best way?) until i mirror the harddisk. There is no internet to update the other parts of the system ...
I just recently decided to dual boot my UEFI-based system between Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. Upon using EasyBCD to create a bootloader that only includes Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, I get this mess:
How I can get back a Metro-styled Bootloader that only includes Windows 10 and Windows 8.1?
I started my windows 10 update around 10:00 last night. For awhile it seemed stuck in suspend mode (black screen, monitor light orange, computer light still on etc) and I was worried but eventually I got the update screen and it went from 30% to 56% in around 30 minutes or so.The bottom screen said my computer would turn off and on again multiple times. But then later it went back to the "suspend mode" again right before I fell asleep and now 9 hours later it's still stuck like this!! No update screen no nothing. Just sitting is a suspend mode (I think!) And not allowing me to do anything.
I work for a small company, with a network of 25 users. We have recently replaced 4 of the users with new Intel machines.
All of the other machines on the network have retained their ability to print to the network printer after the Windows 10 update, but the four new machines cannot even see it.
I have tried the usual process of adding a printer using the wizard, and also tried locating the printer manually using the printers network address.
The closest I have got is a message telling me that the driver could not be located - i tried connecting the printer directly to a new machine in order to install the driver, before disconncting the printer and trying again through the network. I received the same 'No Driver' message.
It is worth noting that the printers access point to the network is via a Vista machine in the admin department.
I have two Win 7 computers on my wired network and 6 Win XP computers on this same network. This main computer was Win 7 and just upgraded to Win 10 in November. For a year this network has worked just fine, plug and play basically when I set it up, now after Christmas shutdown (2 weeks), I can't see any of the computers on this network. The only thing I can see is the media drive on a computer called 6Head2. All I really do is transfer files from this main computer out to those 8 other computers.
What is wrong with my computer? Network discover, file sharing all checked, network location was changed from Public to Private today by me. But it did work last year, even with the network location being public.
I'm finding Windows 10 enjoyable and pleasant for the most part.
Unfortunately, some things that are easy to find or to do (probably due to years of experience) in Windows 7 and 8/8.1 are not easy to find, assuming they exist at all, in Windows 10 build 10130. For instance, I've looked high and low for "Change PC Settings" and it is like the proverbial needle in the haystack.
My present problem is that I can't see other computers in my network/workgroup. They are visible to my Windows 7 and 8.1 computers. My network is set to private in Windows 10. Find devices is set to on.
I note that I can ping all my devices, Squeezeboxes, WDMycloud hard disk, chromecast, computers etc., and the squeezeboxes, Logitech Media Server , WDMYcloud and Chromecast are showing up as devices.
No matter what application I open, whether it be a video in an internet browser or a game, I can't hear anything. I then have to reboot my computer, to which everything works fine. I do not have a sound card. I have an HDMI cable connected straight to my graphics card. The problem only started happening when I upgraded to Windows 10.
Ever since I've upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 I've had issues using remote desktop connection, always giving me an error that said:
Remote Desktop cannot find the computer xxx. this might mean that xxx doesn't belong to the specific network
I know that's the right computer name (and user credentials). When I try to ping it in CMD I get the same error. It's not only using remote desktop though, I can't ping anything. Google/yahoo won't ping, nor tracert.
I have an issue on both my Windows 10 laptop and desktop PC. Both are DELL and new. Suddenly, my PC wouldn't connect to the internet using ANY wifi network. For this reason, I eliminated my WiFi modem - because the same issue happened when using my phone tethering. Using the Ethernet cable worked. Then a few weeks later my laptop has the same issue, but with this I can't plug in an ethernet port, because it dosen't have one. Both computers had IP Vanish VPN (probably nothing to do with it but thought I'd mention). I believe these issues happened after updates.
I've tried disabling firewall, antivirus, uninstalling Vanish VPN, using cmd from things I've seen recommended, updated network adapter on desktop.
suddenly none of my computers can log onto my homegroup. They all say one is available, but when I put password in it just keeps running as if it is looking but can't proceed. I am not able to change homegroup either.
I have 3 computers on the network. All have shared folders . My problem is as follows.
Lets call the computers c2, c3, c4. I am using network shares
When on computer c4 , computers c2 and c3 are not listed at all under network. Sometimes I do see c3 listed but cannot access it.
In computers c2 and c3 , all computers are listed and I can view all the shared folders in c2 , c3 including those on C4.
I cant understand why c4 have such problems viewing other computers on the network. I have rebooted router ( E4200) and computers but still have same problem .
All shared folders are properly shared. and no passwords are required for networks in adv sharing .
I have upgraded my pc (the one im posting from) and upgraded my parents pc and they both have the same keys. I used the forced upgrade method explained on this site using the media creation tool and belarc advisor both computers have the same serials and i dunno what to do at this point...
I thought one uploads some files to their One Drive and then they can be accessed via other computers that they login into, why in the heck is One Drive downloading the files to each of my computers, we are talking 14GB of music I uploaded, it is taking forever and it is slowly down my computers and network, I don't care to have access to the files offline on my other computers, it in a way completely destroys the whole concept of files in a cloud.
Is there a way to turn off downloading of One Drive files to every computer that tries to access them, if not, that's it, I am completely done with all this junk and will then politely tell all upper Microsoft officals to go play in traffic, yet just another bone head concept.