Windows 10 Guidance

Reading that ^^^^ gave me a headache, and is why I'm a 'plug and play' Mac man.

Reading that ^^^^ gave me a headache, and is why I'm a 'plug and play' Mac man.

He overcomplicated it. Just install windows 10, put in the 7 pro key under the battery. Done.

Reading that ^^^^ gave me a headache, and is why I'm a 'plug and play' Mac man.

He overcomplicated it. Just install windows 10, put in the 7 pro key under the battery. Done.

Yeah, he over engineered the crap out of it. Installed Windows 10 on my PC and Surface with no problems.
Now dealing with OS 11 on my iPhone7 and the iPad Air and iPhone6 I use at work. Let's just say it's been "interesting". Yeah, that's the phrase!

Did you actually read the reason behind the complications?

You can upgrade your notebook, Surface, etc., through an upgrade or by downloading a purchased installer,
however you can't upgrade a CAP notebook, or any other, if it's running Win 7 Enterprise.

Since I know the end state works now, I'm going to see if you can scratch a Win 10 .ISO right onto
these machines using the OEM key without the interim Win 7 Pro step.

But as they sit, you can't "just" upgrade to Win10 from W7E.

Also, simply put, if you read the instructions and feel they are overly complicated, it's probably
because you didn't need them at all.  A lot of CAP ITOs do not have the same level of ability or experience.

The actual steps are...

1 - Insure you have the OEM Key from under the battery.

2 - Backup your data (if needed), and make sure you can reinstall Office (if needed).

3 - Scratch load Win 7 Pro.

4 - Activate it via the phone.

5 - Upgrade to Win 10 Pro.

If it turns out you can go direct to a scratch of Win 10 Pro, there's still a lot of people
in CAP who would be lost creating install media and getting that to work.

Bob tagged it. If you're unsure the difference between Win7 Home, Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate, it's really necessary to let your Sq ITO or maybe the CyberPatriot team handle things.

It's not as simple as "I just upgraded my PC at home and it wasn't that hard." That's like saying "I change the oil in my lawnmower.  How hard can a plane be?"

Because otherwise you're going to create a slagheap for the IT folks to fix. And speaking as an IT guy in my day job,  I really dislike the "I thought I was doing the right thing" tickets from well meaning but not IT savvy users.

+1 in using the 64bit version of Windows 10, especially if your unit uses the laptop for CyberPatriot which requires 64bit host operating systems because of VMware Workstation Player.

Bob tagged it. If you're unsure the difference between Win7 Home, Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate, it's really necessary to let your Sq ITO or maybe the CyberPatriot team handle things.

Actually even if you are sure, your squadron ITO or higher should be handling it or at least directing you.