UDPATE: I'm not sure what it is about my rig, but R3E is loving windows 10. I just jacked up Anti-Aliasing to 4x, many settings on high including track detail, and tracks are still running silky smooth @ 5760x1080. Bathhurst looks amazing on high. Even Sonoma runs flawlessly now, and that was previously a slideshow on high at some points. I still have not fully tested other games, but i'm amazed at the performance increase. I would not expect this for everyone, but for whatever win 10 has made R3E a seemingly super optimized game on my rig. I didn't know R3E could look this good since i've been on triples for so long. It really does look great.
Hey guys I want to make sure I've got this straight, as I definitely need a clean install.... Do I need to let Windows do an upgrade first and then I can do a fresh install? I thought I read somewhere that if I just did a clean install now (using iso file) then I'd have license issues. Yes, no? B
You need an upgrade to activate you installation then you can do a clean install. The ISO file installation is for multiple installations after activation.
Anyone else here with 120/144hz monitors who can confirm Nvidia/Win10 can use full refresh rate? thanks, B
To upgrade/install my computers/laptops I created a DVD from a Windows 10 Pro ISO that can be downloaded. To upgrade (mine were all Win 8.1) just run the install on the DVD while you are in Windows. You will have basically 3 choices when the install/upgrade starts - one to wipe/format the partition to start completely from scratch (this option requires a Windows key), another to keep user settings but start with a clean Windows registry (current license used, must reinstall applications), and the last is an upgrade that keeps (tries) everything - apps,user profiles, settings, files. The last I personally wouldn't recommend as it can bring along problems from the previous install. I used the third option for a laptop that I knew didn't have any issues and had very little tweaking/tampering (wifes!) but used the second option for 5 other installs - all went great. I had all of my sims up and running in short order with SimVibe, Dashmeter Pro, Roccat Power-Grid, Thrustmaster driver, etc.. Most of my sims are Steam based so reinstalling Steam to the same root folder kept everything working fine. Same with rFactor 2, reinstall to same root folder and all went well. Good luck.
Thanks William, I had downloaded an earlier ISO a long time ago when Win10 was first out for testing but installed it on an empty drive for kicks and giggles, it wasn't ready for prime time so I spent no more time/effort on it. Like you, I also used the last - upgrade option on one of my laptops as it had a clean Win7 install on it so I thought what the heck, I keep backups. It went smoothly, haven't noticed any issues with it fortunately. I know I need a clean install on the racing desktop though, too many oddball issues to be trusted. Thanks for the info, will wait a little longer or at least until I'm giddy enough to think sorting thru problems and hunting down drivers is a fun thing. lol Bailey
I've made the step to Win10 on my Gaming-PC last Weekend without any bigger issue so far. First I've done the Upgrade from Win7 Pro x64 to Win10 Pro x64. Parallel to that i've created an Win10-Install-CD with the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft on my Notebook that was already running on Win10. After the Upgrade was finished I've checked that Windows was activated and than I proceed to a clean Install by Booting from the fresh Win10-CD. After the Booting I've deleted the primary Partition within the Dialog where i have to select the Installation-Drive and created a new one. Everything than is quite similar to older Windows-Versions without any problems. Now with the new Install i've tried R3E on Win10 a bit. The 59hz-Bug is definitely an annoying one and makes the Graphics-Settings a bit complicated. As I know about the Problem I was aware of it, but definitely Strange for any Newcomer... As I'm running on 1920x1080 I didn't had the Option win R3E to select that resolution. I had to set my Screen on 59hz in the Windows-Monitor-Settings and than I was able to select the Resolution 1920x1080 59hz in R3E. Unfortunatly I can't try AMD's VSR without any trouble at the moment as the Resolution 2560 x 1440 is only available with 60hz. Everything else runs really perfect, smooth and quick. Definitely better loading-times and more fps than before, even with higher Settings.
I have Windows 8.1 on my gaming laptop. What do you guys say, should I change to Windows 10, is it worth while or should I wait? What are the pros and cons 8.1 vs 10? (actually not a big fan of 8.1 more than the start up speed..)
Windows10 is working ok for me too. The only issue I have is that loading times for games and apps seem a little slower. This might be that the driver for my SATA3 chip is not great though, my motherboard is five years old.... In game performance seems at least as good as it was under windows 7, so a thumbs up from me, particularly if directx12 can offer a boost over 9/10/11 performance.
I am very happy with Win10 and my loading times are faster than win7. Also any of my drivers that are not Win10 certified, the win8.1 works perfectly. What I love about this OS so far is on the outside you see new win10 but right click and you have win7 like options available. Con for me is that it is very sensitive to overclocking hardware, but with fine tuning it is still possible. Another con, which also turns out to be a pro, is that you do need a fresh install after the upgrade. It is a must. A big thumbs up from me then
I have now another problem and although it's not stopping me to play RaceRoom, it's a weird inconvenience. I fixed the previous problem I had by verifying the intergrity cache of the game and all was fine then two days later I load the game and get an nvidia crashing issue, takes me to desktop and the game essentially crashes but this fixed by again verifying the game cache and it happend again earlier today so as I said it's a fixable problem for me but it's every few days this problem occurs and I have to wait some 20 minutes for the verifying to me complete. Would like to know how to cure this so I never have to keep verifying it over and over.
In the meantime I installed Win 10 on my gaming machine myself. And by now I have additional information about the licensing handling when doing the free upgrade. My guess that with the upgrade process the license of the old Windows is being transferred to Win 10 seems to have been wrong. But here's the story... At first I did the upgrade process which went all OK. Win 10 was working quite well. Still I wanted to do a clean install. I already had downloaded an ISO file of which I created a bootable USB-stick using the tool Rufus. I didn't use the media creation tool from MS because it wanted to download Win 10 completely again instead of giving me the possibility to create it from the ISO I already had. This process would be quite time consuming since my internet connection is not the fastest around. Installation was going very quickly. During the process I was asked to enter the product key three times(!). Since I expected the license of my Win 7 to have been transferred to Win 10, I tried to enter the key of my Win 7 disc. I tried at least twice, checking for typos, but the key wasn't accepted. But as I had the possibility to skip the entering of the key, I did so and wanted to see how it will go on without it. The installation finished without any other problems. The first thing I checked was of course the activation status of my freshly installed Win 10. To my surprise it really was activated already. I've been reading deeper into this matter and found out that this behaviour is normal. So if you have made the free upgrade, a hardware ID is saved on the MS activation servers. So a Win 10 installation on the same hardware is being activated succesfully and automatically without any key. But: If you want to install Win 10 on a completely new set of hardware, you will have to install your old Windows at first, activate it and do the upgrade process again to have the new hardware ID stored on the activation server. After you did so you can do a clean install on the new hardware again. Now, that's annoying...but at least there is a way... This brings up new questions. If the old license is not just transferred to Win 10 with the upgrade and you have to go through the upgrade process again with new hardware, what will happen once the free upgrade period is over? MS said that the free upgrade offer will last for one year. How will you be able to install the free Win 10 on a new set of hardware after that period? For the majority of Windows users this is no problem I think. Most people buy complete computers anyway which usually come with a new Windows preinstalled. So for them new hardware also means new Windows. But especially gaming rigs like ours are, in many cases, built by hand with carefully chosen hardware. I personally wouldn't want this fun part taken away from me. I like building my gaming PC from the ground up and upgrade it from time to time. At this point it looks to me like the free upgrade is not really a free upgrade. The possibility to install on a new set of hardware seems to disappear after the one year period, unless MS have anything up their sleeves they don't tell us about. So the transferred license will not really be the same as the old one. But at least as far as I learned the old Windows license is not affected in any way. So the possibility to install your old Windows and have it activated successfully like you are used to will not be affected. At least I hope this is true. I will try to find out more about this issue.
As far as I read, you have to call the MS-Support after the installation if you want to install Win10 on a new system. They will check your old License and if it is capable for an install on another system, they activate your Win10 on the new hardware.
That's interesting. Do you have a source for this information? By the way: I got my info from my own experience and the c't magazine (well known computer magazine here in germany).
I haven't found the source where I've found it last time, but I think the MS-Forum isn't that bad... here the last sentence in the answer from Vinod Archak.
Good hint. I have not directly found the one you're talking about, but this (sorry, it's german). I'll try to translate: Q: What happens when the hardware of my Windows 10 device changes? A: When the hardware configuration of your Windows 10 device changes (for example after a change of the mainboard), Windows has to be activated again. This is the same procedure like with the previous operating systems too. The free upgrade offer does not apply for the activation of Windows 10 in scenarios when a change of hardware resets the activation. This looks to me as if a change of hardware is not possible anymore after the free upgrade offer period. I still might be wrong, but this is my interpretation.