13 thoughts on “Windows 10 Retail and OEM Download

  1. I downloaded the MediaCreationToolx64 to desktop on my OptiPlex 790 , ran as Administrator, selected "Upgrade this PC", hit "Next", screen changed, blank blue screen, then white message "Something happened".

    I let it run about 15 minutes, no change on screen, so I shut down, re-ran MediaCreationToolx64, same thing happened, "Something happened", no other info and no further progress.

    Moved the MediaCreationToolx64 to an OptiPlex 960 desktop, ran it there, after selecting "Upgrade this PC", hit "Next", screen changed, blank blue screen, then window for tool closed and there is no indication anywhere that anything is happening, downloading, or that an upgrade is in progress.

    No idea whether a 3 gig download and upgrade that could take 10 hours is actually in progress, or if nothing is happening. NO MESSAGES OR INFO ANYWHERE. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

    This is even more ridiculous than all the installation / activation key nonsense with the Insider Preview program. Maybe I'll shut down and just wait to see if Windows 7 automatic updates tells me it's "ready" to upgrade.

  2. Update – OptiPlex 960 – checked my Windows 10 reservation status with GWX icon on taskbar, it now says Windows 10 is downloading and will let me know when it's ready to do upgrade. Not sure if the OptiPlex 790 upgrade is now permanently screwed up. If I keep getting "Something happened" error ?? message I can hopefully just do that upgrade after making Pro edition iso and installing from USB.

  3. Update – OptiPlex 960 – From start of Windows 10 Pro upgrade download to completing installation and final re-start, total elapsed time = 7 hrs 20 minutes on rural wireless non-high-speed connection. Haven't yet made iso recovery USB, have begun downloading Latitude E 6500 Windows 10 Home upgrade. Microsoft page is a bit confusing whether the media toolkit can create Home edition recovery USB on a machine that's been upgraded to Pro edition. Will complete Home upgrade and then compare toolkit instructions for creating USB on both Pro and Home edition machines.

  4. I opened Dell's support web page for my computer (XPS 8500 (Early 2012)) and see this message:

    Product not tested for Windows 10 upgrade

    Dell has not confirmed that this product can upgrade to Windows 10. Some drivers, firmware, applications, and connected devices may not work as you would expect.

    What's your opinion?

    1. Guys, I read comments. I understand that a lot of people want a new OS to get rid of old one. Unfortunately, a lot of manufacturers did not test the old hardware. Yes, this hardware to be compatible with the new OS. by the way I read comments that after people upgraded to Win 10 …. they had problems with sounds. That's why I decided to postpone installation for 2-3 months when MS would publish first important upgrades. By the way I installed Visual Studio Community 2015 edition. When I tried to install Win Phone environment w/Android SDK it took more than 60GB (I tried to install total SDK). Unfortunately I have only 250 Gb SSD (and 2 TB SATA). I did not have a choice to install Android SDK @ SATA drive. Therefore I uninstalled Win Phone. That's why I plan to buy a new SSD drive. Would it compatible with my XPS8500 Dell compute? I suggest that after I would install a new hard drive I would have to make a clean install aOS. Is it correct? Thank you for your opinion…

      1. Anything shipped with Windows 8.1 like the XPS 8500 was will be fine. I had the older XPS 8300 working fine.

      2. Sorry, I could not reply to you (something blocked). That's why I reply to myself. I bought XPS 8500 with Windows 8 and made a clean install Win 8.1 w/Windows creation tool according to your instructions. Is it OK? Thank you

      3. By the way would Win 10 support .NET 2.0-3.5 like Win8.1? I have a lot of applications were built on this framework (some of them critical).

  5. I AM NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS PROCESS. From what I can make of the Media Creator Tool, it is NOT possible to create media to be used to upgrade another upgradeable machine. I am just about 100 % certain that each machine has to be upgraded live, online, and directly from Microsoft. My first Latitude E 6500 took 10 hours 40 minutes from start of downloading upgrade to final restart. Then it took ANOTHER hour to retrieve and install Nvidia driver. My second Latitude E 6500 has already been downloading installing for more than 10 hours, reached supposed "final" stage after LONG delay with screen apology " This is taking longer than usual." Finally switched to a black "Let's Start" screen, and nothing has happened in over 45 minutes. Hard drive light shows activity, mouse cursor still moves, but that's it. NO INFORMATION WHATSOVER WHETHER IT IS STILL WORKING OR IF PROCESS HAS CRASHED.

    Nothing from Microsoft has ever been free, including this "free upgrade". You pay for it in stress and time and aggravation. I think I'll wait 'til the end of the "free" upgrade period of one year before attempting any more upgrades. If they do nothing to improve this IDIOTIC process, I will stick with Windows 7.

  6. I AM NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS PROCESS. From what I can make of the Media Creator Tool, it is NOT possible to create media to be used to upgrade another upgradeable machine. I am just about 100 % certain that each machine has to be upgraded live, online, and directly from Microsoft. My first Latitude E 6500 took 10 hours 40 minutes from start of downloading upgrade to final restart. Then it took ANOTHER hour to retrieve and install Nvidia driver. My second Latitude E 6500 has already been downloading installing for more than 10 hours, reached supposed "final" stage after LONG delay with screen apology " This is taking longer than usual." Finally switched to a black "Let's Start" screen, and nothing has happened in over 45 minutes. Hard drive light shows activity, mouse cursor still moves, but that's it. NO INFORMATION WHATSOVER WHETHER IT IS STILL WORKING OR IF PROCESS HAS CRASHED.

    Nothing from Microsoft has ever been free, including this "free upgrade". You pay for it in stress and time and aggravation. I think I'll wait 'til the end of the "free" upgrade period of one year before attempting any more upgrades. If they do nothing to improve this IDIOTIC process, I will stick with Windows 7.

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    Update – I do NOT recommend using the Media Creation Tool available from Microsoft to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on upgradeable machines. It does NOT use the Windows Update interface in the Windows 7 control panel. It has crashed twice on two machines which I know for a fact are eligible to upgrade and with compatible hardware for upgrade. When it stops working, you will NOT receive an error message or notice to re-start or ANY information at all.

    After 2 hours of a black screen with NO activity, I just did a cold shutdown of my second Latitude E 6500. Re-started twice >> NOTHING for 15 minutes each time. On third re-start, black screen, after a couple of minutes Windows 10 startup logo, "Please wait" and spinning timer. After a couple of minutes got taskbar, but no desktop, finally generic 1024 x 768 desktop but no Nvidia driver installed for 1440 x 900.

    Checked Windows 10 Home activation number, it looks good – it's a unique, not generic ID.

    I re-started, everything loaded okay, I then shut it down again … automatic updates will probably take over an hour just for the Nvidia driver, I will do it later.

    Then moved on to OptiPlex 960 unit # 2 … did NOT run Media Creation Tool from desktop, just went straight to Windows 7 automatic updates, on checking for updates, got prompt to proceed with Windows 10 download. Is now downloading, it's at 21 %, a bit faster than using Media Creation Tool. It is remaining WITHIN THE WINDOWS UPDATE INTERFACE, so I assume Windows 7 is mediating the download directly, whereas I have no idea where or how the Media Creation Tool was interacting with Windows Update.

    It the 960 # 2 upgrade succeeds, I will go back to OptiPlex 790 and hopefully Windows Update can undo or repair or cancel the botched upgrade from the Media Creation Tool.

    This is all very tedious and complicated … think twice before taking the plunge.

    1. The Windows 10 Media Creation Tool works pretty well, it was slow yesterday due to the large number of users trying to access the downloads but today its better.

      I think many of your issues are due to nvidia drivers.

  7. The lack of real-time feedback to the user while it's running makes the Media Creation Tool frustrating at best. At worst, the user has no option but to do a cold shutdown when it crashes. I would suggest that users who don't have a wired high-speed connection should avoid it and just use Windows 7 automatic updates to complete the upgrade to Windows 10. My OptiPlex 960 unit # 2 has completed download and is preparing to install … it is slow but the progress is obvious … all happening in the Windows Update interface so it's perfectly clear that nothing has crashed or frozen. "Something happened" on repeated attempts to use the tool after multiple restarts, no instructions to shut down, or wait, NOTHING …. really bad design, suggests Microsoft is clueless about its own process.

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