upgrade

January 2020 marks the end of extended support for Windows 7 from Microsoft. This means Windows 7 users have just one year left to upgrade to either Windows 8 or 10 (or an alternative), before their systems become a major security risk. Support for ... Windows 7 comes in a two-stage process. The first is known as mainstream support, which means the system is under warranty and Microsoft offers free technical support over the phone and its online forums. During this time, Microsoft also continues developing new features, and users can get hot fixes which patch any performance or security problems ... (view more)

A consumer group is demanding compensation for users who've spent time and money fixing computer problems caused by Windows 10. It also wants updates and tech support to be improved. The call comes from "Which?", an independent organization in the ... United Kingdom that's similar to the US Consumer Reports group. It's brought up Windows 10 in the past: two years ago it revealed that more than 1,000 of its members had complained about the system. Now Which? says it's continuing to receive complaints and carried out a survey of members. It questioned more than 1,100 members who use ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jose B. writes: " Dear Dennis, For the past few months, my PC has tried to upgrade to Windows 10 version 1709, but each time it fails to install. Whenever I use my computer I receive a pop up message on my desktop stating that ' ... Your device needs the latest security updates . Microsoft can't install important security updates on your PC until you install the most current version of Windows 10.' When I look at my Windows Update history, it says the upgrade to version 1709 failed (repeatedly) . When I manually check for updates, it says: ' Your device is at risk because it's ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Cindy' writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows 8.1 on my laptop which has been very, very slow. I decided to upgrade to Windows 10 hoping this would fix my problems, however I keep getting a message that ' The installation failed ... in the First_Boot phase with an error during Sysprep Operation ' (pic). I have been researching this problem for 2 days using Google, and have yet to find a fix that makes sense! Absolutely nothing I do seems to work! Can you PLEASE help? " Update 20200116 : I'm getting a lot of emails from folks asking for help on this. If you want this problem ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Mbi Ent' writes: " Dear Dennis, After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 on the C drive, I still have a partition which is viewable under 'This PC' and is labeled as the 'Recovery' partition (also known as 'the D drive'). ... As far as I understand, the D Drive contains the vendor's recovery data for my Windows 8.1 which was originally installed on my system. What I would like to know is if the recovery partition has also been upgraded to Windows 10, or if it still contains Windows 8.1 recovery data? If it is the latter, could I just delete the recovery drive? " My ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jill G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Windows 7 Pro machine that we use at work which has a broken Windows Update. I have tried to do an 'upgrade repair' in hopes of fixing the issue, but the Windows installer exits immediately. ... The major issue we're facing is that our Windows 7 machine has new user accounts on it which we did not create - we suspect that it has become compromised because it has not downloaded Windows Updates in over a year. From what I read online, it is possible to upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8 Pro (not 8.1!) which will keep my programs and ... (view more)

Microsoft has issued three updates to fix flaws in older, unsupported versions of Windows. It's an unusual move that follows the discovery that both the National Security Agency (NSA) and outside hackers are exploiting the flaws , similar to the one ... that allowed the WannaCry Ransomware worm to spread just a few weeks ago. The updates cover both Windows and Windows Server editions going right back to XP . They'll be issued through the usual automated updates, which means people on Windows 8.1 and later shouldn't need to do anything. Those on earlier systems may need to manually ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gail S. writes: " Dear Dennis, On April 26, 2017 I received an email about the new Roboform 8 release. I have been running Roboform 7 (desktop) for a few years, and have only paid a single fee to register the program. I did not ... want to upgrade to Roboform 8 because I wasn't sure if it was free or not. That said, the following week I received a notification from Roboform 7 that an update was available - I chose to download it. During the setup I was warned that the update was irreversible. Afterward, I realized that I had actually installed Roboform 8! I clicked 'Help -> ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read your article about still being able to upgrade to free Windows 10 even after the deadline. I've downloaded the Windows10Upgrade24074.exe file and ran it; however, it takes over an hour to ... download the files and then the Windows 10 upgrade assistant gets stuck at 99% complete. I have tried doing this 5 times and the upgrade assistant keeps getting stuck at 99%. I've left it for an entire day and - as you may have guessed - Windows 10 upgrade assistant is still stuck at 99% complete. What can I do to get the free Windows 10 upgrade, and/ ... (view more)

Just days after the deadline for free upgrades to Windows 10 passed (July 29, 2016), the first Windows 10 loophole has emerged. Reports suggest that users with disabilities can still claim the free Windows 10 upgrade, but proving eligibility appears ... to be nothing more than an honor check. For most users, the deadline for the free Windows 10 upgrade offer has passed and attempting to download and install Windows 10 from Microsoft's website now brings up only an option to buy the system, which costs $120 for the standard Home edition. However, Microsoft also has a separate page for people ... (view more)