How to prepare your computer for updates – Guide
Windows 10 has been available for a few months, but many people still haven’t accepted the free upgrade offer. But you need to keep in mind that the free upgrade offer is for one year and ends on July 29, 2016.
Get ready for a successful Windows 10 upgrade
There’s still a long time, so when you finally decide to pull the trigger, here are some things you can do before starting the update to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
1 – Fix hard drive and operating system errors
If you’ve been running a Windows installation for many years, it’s possible, even though it’s working perfectly; there may be potential blockers for a successful update. Corrupted applications, operating system updates, improper shutdown, power outages, and other factors can corrupt files on your hard drive that can make it difficult to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows has, for years, included built-in utilities that can fix most of these common problems . Be warned; you’ll need to get your hands dirty with the command line for some of these actions. The first one we’ll start with is the check disk command, which scans your hard drive for errors and tries to fix them. If you upgrade from a previous version of Windows, sometimes corrupted system files can prevent the installation from working correctly. See the following article for instructions:
How to Check your computer’s hard drive for damage
Also, run the System File Checker utility, which will scan your system and attempt to repair corrupt operating system files: For a computer running Windows 8 or later, another powerful command-line utility that users can run is the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool, used to maintain a Windows installation. With the System File Checker utility, you can use DISM to fix corrupted system files and determine system status.
2 – Disconnect non-essential devices connected to your computer.
If you have non-essential external devices (printer, scanner, etc.) connected to your computer during installation, they can interfere with the setup mechanism and prevent the installation from completing because Windows 10 is trying to detect and install them. So keep the essentials attached, keyboard and mouse. If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive connected, disconnect them as well, as they can confuse your setup.
3 – Disable your anti-virus utility, non-essential services and startup programs.
If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Windows or an earlier build of Windows 10, a typical blocker for Windows setup is security utilities. Disable them; these include antivirus, antispyware and firewall utilities. In most cases, it is highly recommended to uninstall these security utilities and install versions compatible with Windows 10. Norton offered a free upgrade to a compatible version of Windows 10, one of my systems.
4 – Make sure you install the latest updates for your current version of Windows.
Realized before the release of a new version of Windows; Microsoft may offer fixes to make the upgrade smoother. You can choose this option during the Windows 10 setup wizard, but it seems to take forever; instead, run Windows Update manually on your current version of Windows. Click Start > All Programs > Windows Update (or press the Windows key + R > type: wuapp.exe > press the Enter key) click Check for Updates.
5 – Make sure you have all administrative privileges.
If you are using a standard account, this may prevent the Windows 10 App from presenting the Windows 10 offering. If you are installing from the Media Creation Tool, this will also be blocked as the installation will not have the privilege to write installation files to hard drive. Make sure your account privileges are set to Administrator. If your computer is part of a business network, you will need to downgrade it to workgroup mode.
6 – Restore redirected personal folders to their original locations.
If you keep your personal folders on another partition or drive to gain additional space, it can prevent Windows from installing correctly. It would help if you could restore them to their original locations. Although Microsoft officials have said the configuration is compatible, I still encounter errors due to it.
7 – Unplug multiple hard drives and storage devices.
If you have more than one hard drive installed in your computer, unplug all but the target hard drive that is installing Windows 10. If you have a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) configuration, disable the RAID controller. Disable general USB devices (example – Smart card reader).
8 – Gather essential software and drivers in case you need to reinstall them.
While the update can go smoothly, it’s a possibility that it might crash an application or hardware driver. Gather all necessary hardware and application driver disks that you might need to reinstall. Also, check the software manufacturer and developer website for updates available for your system and to find out the Windows 10 compatibility status. If the software is compatible with Windows 7, it will likely work with Windows 10 as they share the same driver model. You can download some relevant driver software in advance: Chipsets, Audio, Video, Network (Ethernet, Wireless LAN). i notice right laptops can be especially demanding with the Windows 10 update, make sure you’ve downloaded the latest touchpad drivers. Another issue I’ve experienced is that the keyboard isn’t working near setup completion, so have an external USB keyboard and mouse handy to be sure.
Final note
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