Solved Upgrading Anytime upgrade to Windows 10

[hazel123]

Ok. We have four laptops in the house. I only want to upgrade our son's Fizzbook Spin to Windows 10 and keeping the others on Windows 7.

The Fizzbook Spin came with Windows 7 starter. Rather than do a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium, I did any anytime upgrade which has its own licence key. (The reason for this is you can't get hold of the drivers for the quirky educational software it comes with and the upgrade went smoothly and improved its performance no end).

So my question is - can I do an upgrade to Windows 10. We have not received the upgrade icon but I have a copy of Windows 10 32 bit burned to usb drive. As I understand it, if you haven't already downloaded the Windows 10 upgrade (thereby registering your computer with microsoft) you can install from the dvd/usb but need your Windows 7 Product Key to be able to register/activate Windows 10.

Does anyone know if this will work with an anytime upgrade of Windows 7 Home Premium please? And also which product key do I use? The original Windows Starter one, or the Windows Anytime Upgrade one? (Which is not described as a Product Key but as an upgrade key).

I can't do a clean install for the same reasons as above - wouldn't be able to get the touch screen and so on working again. Thanks!

Either that or could I just find somewhere to download the Windows 10 upgrade?

In case you're not aware of the Fizzbook spin, it's a 10" netbook with an Atom processor, similar to an Eee PC (might even be an Eee Pc with added software) and has a package of Intel educational software, a touch screen and pen.

 

[Barman58]

It should be OK as the system is running Windows 7 Home premium with a valid license. but due to the relatively low spec of the system you may have issues

all the basic information for the upgrade and options is here...

Windows 10 - Upgrade Installation - Windows 10 Forums

I would advise running the upgrade adviser as it may well be that the drivers and the actual educational software may not work with Windows Ten. I would also advise you do a complete backup, (disk image and Data ) before you do anything

 

[hazel123]

Thanks very much! Yes have everything backed up and recently reinstalled from system image, updated everything and made a new system image. So can just put it all back if necessary.

Ok So I tried booting from the USB and kept getting in a loop where it would tell me to start windows normally, insert the usb and then reboot. Then next time it would say boot before starting windows. Upgrade key wasn't recognised and couldn't find the original windows starter key as it has a manufacturer made rugged casing and nothing on the back.

After 10 minutes or so I googled a bit about upgrading from the usb and stopped trying to boot from it lol. So you start Windows 7, put the usb in, open the file and double click on 'set up'. It's installing now. I don't expect it to be perfect on this machine but if it works it will be something (and a lot better than Linux where graphics wouldn't work on it due to Cedartrail processor).

Will see what happens .....

Actually I suppose I could try a clean install and just use it as a basic laptop with Windows 10 software, which may have some better stuff than the installed educational software, via apps. And TBH our nearly 8 year old isn't the slightest bit interested in the educational programs. It would be a shame to lose the touch screen though.

I guess if I tried a clean install and couldn't get everything working, I could just reinstate W7 via the system image.

 

[hazel123]

Well it's all working perfectly - except for one thing - the screen resolution. Have run Windows Update a few times but it doesn't seem to have fixed it. I'm thinking there may be an ACPI driver or something needed. Which isn't available lol. The touch screen works fine, everything has installed well. Not sure if it'll be much good with a stretched screen though. I can only assume that the original driver was removed during the update due to incompatibility, because it was fine with windows 7. When I look on device manager it just says 'Windows Basic Display Adapter'. The only other thing is - I had two accounts before upgrading - one admin account and one standard user and can only find one account now and no 'log on/log off' setting. The account is the standard one but it still requires the admin password for doing any admin tasks.

 

[hazel123]

Well I checked in device manager, looked up on PCI Vendor and Device list and I needed Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3600 series. So I downloaded it for Windows 7, thinking I might get the option to run it in some kind of compatibility mode (which I didn't). It installed and hey presto, perfect screen - for about 6 seconds and then it crashed. So have had to give up and go back to Windows 7. It seems, according to Google that Intel don't have a version for Windows 10 - yet. TBH after seeing all the xbox adverts and xbox apps advertised, maybe it's a good thing our little boy can't have it! Windows 10 was instead of an ipad (which he wants and we can't afford) and instead of an xbox (which we also can't afford and I don't really want anyway), so the last thing I need is xbox advertising all over the place!

So back to good old Windows 7 for the Fizzbook Spin. Sorry to be so long-winded - thought I'd post the process in case anyone else is trying it on an Atom netbook.

For reference this was the Atom N2600 processor. Apart from the screen, everything else worked brilliantly.

 

[Barman58]

Because of the rules of the free upgrade you have to perform an upgrade install as a first install - after you have the system updated and working on Windows 10 you can then install a fresh copy and the license will be recognized

 

[hazel123]

Thanks. Well it looks like we're stuck with Windows 10 on it now lol! Installing the driver made it crash and sent it into a loop, so I wiped the drive and went to reinstall system image from usb and it wouldn't work. So clean installed Windows 10 again. Which is fine apart from the slightly stretched screen - touch screen works - didn't need the junky intel software that was on it before anyway (our little boy wasn't interested in most of it and all his other programs can be redownloaded), plus he gets lots more choice of apps and games - if I doctor it a bit as to what he can download. And he won't be bothered with the slightly stretched screen - he got used to that with the Linux dual boot I had on it before lol. But it does seem that Windows 10 prevents re-imaging with Windows 7. And for the record the Intel GMA3600 driver that is needed, only works with Windows 7 and Intel are not going to make one for Windows 10 (found this after much reading around). Shame on them. So if you have an Atom Cedar Trail N2600 processor, stick with Windows 7.

Any tips on how I might be able to re-image with Windows 7 would be helpful. I could try a clean install with Windows 7 maybe but would rather not have to do this. The image I have on USB was created with Intel's program that came with the laptop. I do have an older system image made via Windows 7 back up and restore, but that's on a portable hard drive and not sure if the laptop will accept it. Will have a go with that anyway.

 

[hazel123]

Ok I've now got a defunt laptop/netbook. Windows 10 not only doesn't have screen resolution but won't run games. So now I'm trying to get back to Windows 7. Boot menu won't boot from either usb or portable hard drive to restore system image, it just refreshes or comes up with an error message about nothing found. The usb stick should work without Windows Recovery - all the software was built into it. I do have recovery discs but this machine doesn't have a dvd drive. I have now wiped the disk and will try the usb dvd drive I have to see if I can either install Windows 7 from disc and then install the image via recovery, or just see if I can get the recovery discs to load. But if can't get anything to work through usb then I've wrecked it! I suppose that gives our boy an excuse to get a cheap tablet though.

USB dvd drive is working so should get it reinstalled now.

 

[hazel123]

Have Windows 7 up and running again from recovert discs and doing updates now. So as he can't have the Store apps from Windows 10, does anyone know if Pokki or Ipadian are any good/safe?

 

[hazel123]

Ok so I'm having problems getting Windows 7 running on it again now. I reinstalled from factory discs, then installed latest system image and Windows updates wasn't working. So I reinstalled from first system image (which is in Windows Starter before the home premium anytime upgrade) and Windows updates still not working. Ran fixit - says there is a problem, downloaded latest Windows update agent - no change. Checked disk - ok. Decided to reinstall from scratch with recovery discs and do all updates from there and not use system image - and now the machine won't recognise the portable dvd drive (which it would earlier). Ran Malwarebytes on machine, all usb sticks and memory card and nothing there.

So now I'm stuck with an early installation of Windows 7 Starter and unable to do Windows updates. Followed a tutorial on Microsoft answers (System Readiness, update tool, Scannow (fine), renaming Software Distribution folder, ran Fixit manually. Still no change.

So I'm thinking of wiping the disk again and seeing if the dvd drive will work again after that. Unless anyone else can suggest anything as to why Windows updates won't work. Have tried it with two system images installed. I somehow think Windows 10 has installed something on the Motherboard or bios that is preventing me from updating Windows 7 - is that possible?

 

[Barman58]

Thread moved to allow update issue to be better checked

 

[hazel123]

Thanks. Right here's where I am at. I have reinstalled Windows 7 Starter to factory settings from recovery discs - clean install with recovery discs. Disk check done first. No viruses anywhere on any hardware.

So I didn't remove MSE and install my own antivirus, thought I'd keep it simple. Connected to internet, let MSE update, uninstalled windows essentials, restarted. During restart it said Windows applied an update. After restarting went to Windows update and there is a red cross there already.

So something is preventing me from running Windows 7. The Recovery discs are genuine OEM from the manufacturer. It seems to me that since installing Windows 10 I am now prevented from running Windows 7 - is that possible?!

I suppose it is, if the activation for Windows 10 is taken from the Windows 7 product key.

I am going to do it one more time - install from recovery discs, connect to internet, activate MSE and not uninstall any programs or restart, but go straight to Windows update after MSE is updated.

Nope still has a red cross. It's searching - last time it did this all day and night so I guess I'll have to leave it and see if it actually does anything, but did read on another post on here that upgrading the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver might do the trick.

 

[hazel123]

I tried updating Windows defender as described somewhere on the net. This triggered Windows update to update itself. I now have all my programs back on and Home Premium installed, but still no Windows updates. It is just searching constantly. Will leave it overnight and see if it comes up with anything.

 

[hazel123]

I'm marking this as solved to open a new thread on Windows updates as I have gone off topic a bit.