Hello everybody.

Since it is coming close to the end of the free upgrade period, I am taking a close look at the free win10 upgrade.

My primary concern is that the Microsoft website only lists the different versions/editions(KN/N/Single-liscense) and not wheather they are Home/Pro.

So, Is it now only one ISO file neaded for either Home/Pro?

Has anybody here upgraded from Win8 Pro (Not 8.1, I tried updateing to 8.1 by downloading the installers which then gave a error (inside a VM to be safe :) )) to Win10 Pro.

Are there any subtle gotchas that I will need to be aware of if I do end up upgrading? (I have read several articles about the update process and what-not, And the only concern I have is the changes to how updates work and data usage).

The reason I want to download and use the ISO (downloading it directly so that I can resume downloads when I get my data top-up) is that I don't want the upgrade tool to download, supossidly downloads ~5.3GiB's (I jkust want the x64).

I have just seen on reddit that the ISO has both versions, Can anybody verify?

Looking forward to replies.

---Edit---

Duh, The Microsoft page says this about the ISO files "Windows 10 editions below are valid for both Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro."

I feel kinda stupid, I gues I should spend more time reading the writing instead of filtering to what I think is important.

---Edit2----

I used a Win8 Pro Upgrade disk shortly after Win8 was released (Not bootable).

Although there is still two months for free upgrade thing,

First of all, yes there is one ISO for Home/Pro (mine is named Windows_1511_1_Language_X64.iso ) and there is one another for Single Language not common in every country. (unless you deal with MSDN ISOs , there is multiple_editions version for Home/Pro)

And for upgrading, I never upgrade an OS but reinstall, as since 1511 you can install directly install Windows 10 by your 8.1 key , it is the best option.

Finally for post-install , I made Windows 10 tolerable on my standards by not using online account (easiest way is not to be connected to Internet during install) , getting rid of Defender, Windows Update , Telemetry, Notification Center and resident apps (by using DWS lite) . And for very same concerns I'll keep using Office 2013 instead of 2016.

Edit : For updates, I think there are two good options. There is an utility called wumt (apparently windows update management tool) that you can use if you don't mind it not being open source or there is an ancient Windows catalogue site only works on IE :) which lists updates not present on your system so you can download individual file and install update.

Or, simply enable disable it time to time :)

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know if 8 and 8.1 use different keys, But I will try that in a VM first.

The main reason I want to do an upgrade and not a reinstall/clean install is that I am unsure if Steam and the Epic launcher are going to want to download lots of data when reinstalled.

My main concern is that I get 6.5GiB's of data a month, So I cannot just download and test everything I come across.

So I am trying to make sure that the download is going to be a good descision.

And All the stuff about the upgrade explicitly mentions 7, 8.1.

But the media creation toolkit gave the upgrade option, The problem is going through the whole revert process if there is a problem with liscensing.

Have done in place upgrade on 3 machines, one a heavy dev machine with VS 2010,13 & 15 installed along with a hard life of Many Games/applications installed and uninstalled. All went smooth. Most of the MS stuff is good now in that it picks up with download where it left off when pulling down what needs to be installed

Pro will upgrade to Pro and Home to Home. You need to do the in place I believe and after that you can do a clean full ISO if required.

Are there any subtle gotchas that I will need to be aware of if I do end up upgrading?

The most obvious subtle gotcha that you will have is that you will run Windows 10 afterwards.

I would think very carefully whether you absolutely need Windows 10. There may indeed be valid reasons why you may need Windows 10, for example if you are developing for that platform and want to test your software on it. And yes, in 5-10 years you will probably have no other choice.
But in the mean time, it may just as well be the case that Windows 10 does not offer any significant advantage to you over the Windows version that you use right now (but noticeable disadvantages). Reflect carefully.

Just "free offer is running out" is not a valid argument (limited time offers are often a warning sign, just like "I got 3 other customers interested". They're the kind of sales tricks that used car sellers apply to rip off the foolish).

Now, before the inevitable shitstorm from the Win10 fanboys will start, and we will have 350 posts of how great Windows 10 is and how all the massively negative things don't count... please consider two things:

(1)
You are worried about bandwidth because you are on a tight quota. Steam re-downloading some stuff might be a problem. Yet you wish to install an operating system (3.2 GB download alone) that sends a lot of data over the internet uselessly all the time. And that's not just a few bytes of telemetry once per week we're talking about, it's a noticeable amount of data (audio data, plus lots of stuff for the blinking live thingies from Bing, etc.).

(2)
Windows 10 has been marketed in the most aggressive way possible, exploiting all tricks and trickery, and even applying means which I personally deem marginally legal or even outright illegal. It may be "OK" for the US cowboy mentality, but at least in the EU, things like covert no-opt-out installation of an undesirable software that has incompatible license terms which arguably violate in-place privacy rights is certainly not legal. Anyway...

Despite all aggressive pushing, Windows 10's adoption rate is still rather modest. Microsoft is trying to sell Windows 10 like sour beer. All discussions about how great someone thinks it is aside... do you not think that this is a very strong indicator that something is not quite right?

If Windows 10 is really that great, why doesn't everybody already use it? Why is is so darn hard to get people to install it, why can you hardly get people to even take it for free?
You should think that everybody installed Windows 10 during the first two weeks after its publication date, and that people would pay a hundred currency for a license. If it's that great, that is. This isn't happening, and this should be considered an indicator.

With a 6.5gb data cap I woudn't upgrade; Windows 10 is much heavier on data usage than previous versions and you're going to find yourself regularly hitting that limit.

One tip that can help keep things under control is to set your connection as a metered connection - I think this is only available for wi-fi connections, however, so if (as seems possible) you're using a mobile broadband dongle, it won't be available to you.

If you don't have a pressing need for D3D 12, and if you don't have issues with the UI, then 8 or (preferably) 8.1 are still good and viable OSs.

Despite all aggressive pushing, Windows 10's adoption rate is still rather modest.
If Windows 10 is really that great, why doesn't everybody already use it?

It's the most popular OS in the steam HW survey at the moment - 40% of windows gamers. That's much better uptake than Win8 had.

?

Thanks for the replies.

Are there any subtle gotchas that I will need to be aware of if I do end up upgrading?

The most obvious subtle gotcha that you will have is that you will run Windows 10 afterwards.

I would think very carefully whether you absolutely need Windows 10. There may indeed be valid reasons why you may need Windows 10, for example if you are developing for that platform and want to test your software on it. And yes, in 5-10 years you will probably have no other choice.
But in the mean time, it may just as well be the case that Windows 10 does not offer any significant advantage to you over the Windows version that you use right now (but noticeable disadvantages). Reflect carefully.

Just "free offer is running out" is not a valid argument (limited time offers are often a warning sign, just like "I got 3 other customers interested". They're the kind of sales tricks that used car sellers apply to rip off the foolish).

Now, before the inevitable .poostorm from the Win10 fanboys will start, and we will have 350 posts of how great Windows 10 is and how all the massively negative things don't count... please consider two things:

(1)
You are worried about bandwidth because you are on a tight quota. Steam re-downloading some stuff might be a problem. Yet you wish to install an operating system (3.2 GB download alone) that sends a lot of data over the internet uselessly all the time. And that's not just a few bytes of telemetry once per week we're talking about, it's a noticeable amount of data (audio data, plus lots of stuff for the blinking live thingies from Bing, etc.).

(2)
Windows 10 has been marketed in the most aggressive way possible, exploiting all tricks and trickery, and even applying means which I personally deem marginally legal or even outright illegal. It may be "OK" for the US cowboy mentality, but at least in the EU, things like covert no-opt-out installation of an undesirable software that has incompatible license terms which arguably violate in-place privacy rights is certainly not legal. Anyway...

Despite all aggressive pushing, Windows 10's adoption rate is still rather modest. Microsoft is trying to sell Windows 10 like sour beer. All discussions about how great someone thinks it is aside... do you not think that this is a very strong indicator that something is not quite right?

If Windows 10 is really that great, why doesn't everybody already use it? Why is is so darn hard to get people to install it, why can you hardly get people to even take it for free?
You should think that everybody installed Windows 10 during the first two weeks after its publication date, and that people would pay a hundred currency for a license. If it's that great, that is. This isn't happening, and this should be considered an indicator.

Is'nt there an option to stop sending telementary to Microsoft?

The ISO download would be sone between deciding to download it and the free upgrade period ends, I use "Free Download Manager" which allows you to change the download address so that you can resume from a broken link.

With a 6.5gb data cap I woudn't upgrade; Windows 10 is much heavier on data usage than previous versions and you're going to find yourself regularly hitting that limit.

One tip that can help keep things under control is to set your connection as a metered connection - I think this is only available for wi-fi connections, however, so if (as seems possible) you're using a mobile broadband dongle, it won't be available to you.

If you don't have a pressing need for D3D 12, and if you don't have issues with the UI, then 8 or (preferably) 8.1 are still good and viable OSs.

Unfortunetly the modem I currently use creates a ethernet connection, So that won't work (I tried :( )

Despite all aggressive pushing, Windows 10's adoption rate is still rather modest.
If Windows 10 is really that great, why doesn't everybody already use it?

It's the most popular OS in the steam HW survey at the moment - 40% of windows gamers. That's much better uptake than Win8 had.

?

How valid is that tho?

can (general) figures on bandwidth be givin, Especially with telementary and updates disabled/off?

Data usage is a concern I am weighing up in regards to the download and usage of Win10.

Win8 is working just fine for me, But the free upgrade (used car salesman trick) is enticing.

I probably woud'nt have bought Win8 if I lisend to some people compain about the UI and general Microsoft broke this or that (wheather they did or not).

So @samoth you would recogmend against Win10 if there is no (pressing) need/feature that I want/need ?

Does anybody think that Win10 is a sufficent update over Win8 to warrent the upgrade process?

Thinking about it now, The only thing that I know of that Win10 added that I would probably use is the workspace (two differnt desktops thing).

Why is is so darn hard to get people to install it

It isn't. Amongst the non technical I find windows 10 to be very popular and everyone wants a freebie.

The interface is a lot friendlier for people finally moving from Windows XP, as it doesn't confuse the stubborn user with the full screen tablet style start screen.

I've found that amongst my own network of non technical people it's the most popular OS and everyone offered it leapt at the deal.

I did upgrade myself a long time ago, and I prefer it over windows 7. Admittedly I don't use a windows live account for login, I have no use for cortana and bing search (why do I want to be speaking to my pc?) and most of the built in apps are poor imitations of Microsoft office which I get with office 365 anyway.

I find it performs better for certain kinds of usage than windows 7 (game development in UE4 primarily) but I never used windows 8 as the interface put me off so I can't compare to that. YMMV.

Edit: if you buy a new windows pc, it will come with Windows 10. Microsoft oem licensing means that system builders stop selling pcs with the old OS as soon as the new ones reach retail so it doesn't take long for the supply of windows 8 pcs to dry up at the store. This inflates the installation figures quickly. You can still get windows 8 dvds legally (we order them for business use at work) but these will eventually be leftover stock and eventually these will be gone too and like hens teeth...

Windows 8 and 8.1 uses same keys, just you were needing to use generic keys at install in early 8.1s. (And just for the records, my ISO is 3.94GB but not in English)

And I am not using Steam very frequently but I am pretty sure you can somehow keep this data and restore, I do at Origin simply by restoring Origin Games folder.

Finally "normal" way of getting rid of telemetry and automatic updates is having an Enterprise version which is unfortunately not sold if you are not enterprise :)

@samoth

Well, Microsoft currently has no support for any Windows version earlier than Windows 8.1 and it is much likely that Windows 10 will be last Windows with a version number for a long while (New badges simply say "Windows" and "Windows Pro" no mention of 10) as now there are fast and slow rings (and a supposed surprise at the end of free upgrade)

And quoting myself "Windows 10 = NS-5" , just it is tolerable if you get rid of uplink to VIKI. Truth is Windows 8.1 and Office 2013 are last gentlemen, both successors are very Google like.

But because there is no leap from W7 to W10 like it was from XP to W7, it isn't end of the world if you don't catch W10 train, just you might upgrade once to be eligible for free upgrade then revert back. I seriously doubt (but not sure ofc) rules are strict for eligibility. Actually I upgraded my computer and still using same OEM license which is automatically activated although sole unchanged hardware is harddisk :)