For a fresh install just for some gaming, is there any benefit to installing Windows 10 rather than sticking with 7?

Assuming I'll need to speak to Jim for 10.

I read this yesterday, and though definitely biased towards Win7 some points do hit home (not specifically aimed at gaming, but it's a good read).

There's an interesting bit about how to get it free if Jim refuses your request (not tried it myself, so no idea if it works).
 

I've been using 10 for a while now and I've not had any problems with gaming, though when I tried upgrading my wife's PC the ageing GPU wasn't detected and AMD don't provide legacy Win10 drivers so she was stuck with a weird non-native resolution for her monitor meaning I had to roll her back to Win7. I realise that's a pretty specific problem, but maybe something to be aware of if you're using some old kit.

 

I haven't got any problem with Win10 apart from the start menu. I use Start10 to make it more like the old one.

I've gone for Windows 7.

And it doesn't even have the drivers for my ethernet adapter.

 :'-D 

 

Dx12 is Windows 10 only, I think.

So I'm using 10 in my new job and it's absolutely fine.

I'm guessing upgrading (rather than doing a fresh install) from 7 to 10 on a dual boot system will definitely ruin the bootloader again?

Not that it was difficult to fix like, but annoying nonetheless.

Likely, I nuked windows 8 and installed 10 last week.


You can switch off the telemetry shit with spybot antibeacon.

And be careful if you have hardware that needs specific versions of drivers, as Windows update insists on updating them :@

I assume everyone just goes for 10 Pro?

That's what I'm running at work at it seems fairly free of annoying shit.

My license is only valid for Home.

Pretty sure Pro also has the data mining nasties. Some can be disabled.by setting a Group Policy, others always run.

Thing with Pro is that you used to be able to turn off a lot of the annoying shit via group policy, but then MS blocked a lot of this in the anniversary update as they want businesses to use the more expensive Enterprise.

Interestingly enough, I'm a contractor at one of the biggest companies in the world, and we've recently started rolling out Windows 10 Pro, so I guess they've found adequate way to suppress the nasties. For me, it's the forced updating which is the main reason I've not put 10 on any of my PCs. Well, that and MS's frankly appalling attitude of trying to ram it down everyone's throats last year.

Bought a new laptop that will come with 10 Home. Is it possible to easily move to 10 Pro (for free) without getting Jim involved?

It would appear yes, but does of course involve paying MS some money.

Personally, I'd Jim it, but then I'm pretty disgusted with how MS have approached the whole ram-Windows-10-down-your-throat mess, so currently I'd rather clean out a septic tank with a toothbrush than give Microsoft some of my money, but hey-ho!

Neither, go for 7 of 9 instead. Definitely, John.

Can't remember the source, but apparently there's a way to download a legit free 10 from MS if you go in through some kind of special accessibility portal/page. So you get a free accessible version which you can then tweak to run like regular version.

It's the "Accessibility" edition or whatever it's called, pretty easy to find - but that's for upgrading from 7 or 8 to 10, not for going from Home to Pro editions, that's normally a paid-for extra.

Ah.

Bugger it, straight to ubuntu, I don't like this Dell Win 10 installation.

FTFY :-Y

What don't you like? We've got 10 on an old Dell SFF here (upgraded from 7 coa) and it seems ok. But we only use it for testing.