Hi, I remember back when windows Vista was out, there where I had severe problems with some dev tools.

So, I am thinking of upgrading my hobby dev machine from windows 7 to windows 10. I already use windows 10 on my media center, and it's working ok, however, I don't have alot of dev stuff there.

So I wanted to know if windows 10 is compatible with my dev software:

• Visual Studio
• Netbeans
• Cygwin
• VirtualBox
• VMplayer (Using some 32 bit machines as well)
• Java 8
• GIMP
• 3D Studio
• Android Studio + Android toolkit
• Unity

I'm too lazy to reformat before the upgrade. If it comes down to that, I'll just stick with Windows 7. My reason for wanting to upgrade to Windows 10 is to ensure I get updates, and also to gain some mileage on the new system. My work machine shall remain Windows 7 for now.

So I just wanted to know if anyone had compatibility issues with dev stuff,

I can say:

Visual Studio, Virtual Box and 3D Studio work fine.

The other tools i don't use.

Just make sure you understand what you are getting if you are planning to use the "free upgrade"...

You don't get a full serial. If anything happens to your installation, or your mainboard dies, you are left with your Windows 7/8/8.1 Serial.... you can reinstall that, of course. You cannot reinstall Windows 10 directly even now that you can just get another serial for free (at least if your mainboard dies... the serial is linked to your Mainboard... you need a new one, so you need Windows 7/8/8.1 installed to apply for one).

When the "free upgrade" period is over, you will have to buy a windows 10 license to reinstall Windows 10. So Microsoft is not giving you anything for free, unless you are one of the lucky guys that have Zero hardware or OS issues for the next few years. You are just paying later rather than now. Pretty clever if you ask me... I didn't think about it too until my mainboard died and Windows support explained to me how this serial I was assigned during the "free upgrade" really works.

Slightly OT, still worth mentioning IMO.

VMplayer is the only one I'm not familiar with on that list.

For everything else, assuming you are using current versions they work just fine on Windows 10.

As for your reasoning about the OS, or the reasons and costs for upgrades, those are up to you. Personally for Windows boxes I only replace the OS when I replace the machine or completely wipe the machine.

You don't get a full serial. If anything happens to your installation, or your mainboard dies, you are left with your Windows 7/8/8.1 Serial.... you can reinstall that, of course. You cannot reinstall Windows 10 directly even now that you can just get another serial for free (at least if your mainboard dies... the serial is linked to your Mainboard... you need a new one, so you need Windows 7/8/8.1 installed to apply for one).

When the "free upgrade" period is over, you will have to buy a windows 10 license to reinstall Windows 10.

Do you have a source for that, because that is contrary to everything else I've read.

You don't get a full serial. If anything happens to your installation, or your mainboard dies, you are left with your Windows 7/8/8.1 Serial.... you can reinstall that, of course. You cannot reinstall Windows 10 directly even now that you can just get another serial for free (at least if your mainboard dies... the serial is linked to your Mainboard... you need a new one, so you need Windows 7/8/8.1 installed to apply for one).

When the "free upgrade" period is over, you will have to buy a windows 10 license to reinstall Windows 10.

Do you have a source for that, because that is contrary to everything else I've read.

It's complete nonsense. The upgrade entitlement lasts beyond the free upgrade period, and in terms of being tied to your PC's hardware is absolutely no diferent to versions of Windows since XP. If you wish to reinstall Windows 10 without a hardware change you can do so, even after the free upgrade period is over, and since version 1511 even an eligible Windows 7/8/8.1 key is valid for use with it. If you change hardware it's the very same procedure as before: contact Microsoft to reactivate (with 1511 it appears even simpler: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-re-activate-windows-10-after-hardware-change).

I've no idea why people feel the need to spread these kind of lies about it; it's only an operating system.

Except for 3DSMAX, I've ran all of the mentioned software in Windows 10 without problems. I would imagine that 3DS runs just fine as well, but I use Blender nowadays instead so I'm out of the loop on that.

Be sure to use the latest versions of the software if possible, to further reduce potential incompatibilities. However, most stuff that runs under 7 or 8 would run just fine on 10 without any special configuration.

I do know that there are some issues with older Visual Studio versions, but if you use 2013 or 2015 versions they will run perfectly on 10.

If you happen to be in Finland, there is a banking program called "kultalinkki" which refuses to work correctly on Windows 10. The said program likely consists of mountain of emergency patches over very old codebase, though, so I'm not surprised. This is the only "recent" program that I haven't managed to run on 10.

You don't get a full serial. If anything happens to your installation, or your mainboard dies, you are left with your Windows 7/8/8.1 Serial.... you can reinstall that, of course. You cannot reinstall Windows 10 directly even now that you can just get another serial for free (at least if your mainboard dies... the serial is linked to your Mainboard... you need a new one, so you need Windows 7/8/8.1 installed to apply for one).

When the "free upgrade" period is over, you will have to buy a windows 10 license to reinstall Windows 10.

Do you have a source for that, because that is contrary to everything else I've read.

It's complete nonsense. The upgrade entitlement lasts beyond the free upgrade period, and in terms of being tied to your PC's hardware is absolutely no diferent to versions of Windows since XP. If you wish to reinstall Windows 10 without a hardware change you can do so, even after the free upgrade period is over, and since version 1511 even an eligible Windows 7/8/8.1 key is valid for use with it. If you change hardware it's the very same procedure as before: contact Microsoft to reactivate (with 1511 it appears even simpler: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-re-activate-windows-10-after-hardware-change).

I've no idea why people feel the need to spread these kind of lies about it; it's only an operating system.

Well, I am not really sure about reinstalling Windows, to be honest. I am sure about the hardware outage though.

And yes, I did contact windows. They told me no reactivation, get a new key. Which translated to me to "if you can no longer get a new key for free, bad luck"... MS rep on the other end even mentioned that I probably should go buy a Win 10 Key if I wanted to prevent having to reinstall Windows 7 and having to get a new key.

So either

a) the Windows support is even more incompetent than any other support I had dealed with to date (had to call about 3 Indian guys until I finally got a rep in europe whose english I could understand).

b) They changed the rules in the meantime (seems like it, gotta test that)

c) Or they are not really giving you as much free stuff as advertised, as they never said to my knowledge you would get a full serial with your upgrade (which is kinda cheeky, but given MS still mostly lives of software sales, hardly surprising if true).

Now, checking that link of yours, seems like MS changed the process (notice how the date is 25th of june... my mainboard failed some months ago). Maybe MS DID change their mind about the upgrade and keeping windows 10 beyond the free upgrade period.

I still have a Windows sitting at home telling me "not registered" all the time. I'll give this new process a try.

Maybe the next time you call somebody a liar, step back from the keyboard, chill, and then write the facts alone without calling people names. I might have been wrong about MS and their plans for upgrading beyond the free upgrade period (still not convinced until I am able to reactivate my windows WITHOUT getting a new key), that does not make me a liar.

Just as much as much as the nice MS Support lady was most probably not lying. She most probably was just misinformed (or completly right at the time, IDK).

Look, I am not bashing MS at all. Just had a bad expierience and wanted to make people aware of it, thats all.

It's always been the case that if you replace the motherboard you need to reactivate.

This was the case on Windows XP.

This was the case on Windows Vista.

This was the case on Windows 7.

This was the case on Windows 8.

This was the case on Windows 8.1.

That much hasn't changed; the only thing that's changed is that Windows 10 version 1511 makes the process simpler: rather than having to contact Microsoft to reactivate, you just use a built-in wizard.

See for example the discussion here, dated August 2010: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/replacing-motherboard-on-system-running-oem/9aed1ae6-99f9-477a-940b-d8d9003f9246

You've had a bad experience, and nobody is denying that, but you shouldn't extrapolate one isolated bad experience to a general case. There may have been plenty of valid reasons why the support people you spoke to gave you the wrong information. And likewise, you shouldn't extrapolate one isolated case of "one group of support people gave me wrong information" to a general case of "all support people are incompetent". I would suggest that you try again, explain that you've changed the motherboard after a hardware failure and need to reactivate, and please don't come across as agressive or accusative as you come across in your posts here.

[...]

You are still misrepresenting what Gian-Reto was saying. It was definitely the case that having pieces of your hardware break would result in the situation Gian-Reto described.

Now you could have just corrected that with a reasonable "they fixed that a bit later", instead you went off on a rant including the implication Gian-Reto is a liar.