Reinstalling Windows

[skotl]

Just for balance... I know I'm the one who says that Windows is great, Windows 10 is greater than great, and you have nothing to fear from Microsoft.

(I still stand by the last bit but) I've been living with Windows 10 Home Edition on my work laptop since I started the new job back in November 2018. Never had any reason to look at Windows 10 Pro and then suddenly...

1. I needed to install Docker, which needs Hyper-V, which isn't supported on Home Edition
2. We moved our main active directory to AWS hosted AD, and the management tools (RSAT) won't install on Home Edition

So at 09:10 this morning I decided to update my work laptop from Home to Pro. How hard can it be? How much can we laugh at those Linux and Macos peeps? Turns out a) very and b) not so much.
Finally got it going about an hour ago.

Seems like Microsoft have tightened up a lot of the tricks that we just took for granted, not least plugging in a Pro licence key and letting Windows take care of the rest of it.
I ended up giving up and doing a fresh install from a USB stick, hampered for many hours by the sodding HP laptop having a Home Edition Licence Key embedded in the firmware that caused each install to revert to Home Edition.

Got there in the end but it was nowhere near the "it'll take an hour or so" that I thought it would.

Cue why every-other-operating-system-is-better-than-windows-10

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I wish I understood half of what you had to do.
And even if you explained it, I'm not sure I'd get it....

 

[skotl]

I wish I understood half of what you had to do.
And even if you explained it, I'm not sure I'd get it....

The sad thing is that if I'd left it to my IT team (who report into me) I'd have been without the laptop for a week!

 

[eSCHEn]

Yeah it's a pain when you realise that Home doesn't do the things you need it to. You of course only know that when you realise a year after the install, not five mins later when there's not much installed

I find the licensing of Microsoft tiresome at the best of times and getting someone who actually knows how it works is a miracle (MS or otherwise).

Why aren't you PowerShelling into the remote machine to administrate? Or did you need the RSAT tooling for the docker container?

Also, AD in AWS - an interesting choice (and I do mean interesting, not a gibe). How come you went that route rather than AAD or native AD in Azure? Company using AWS for everything else and didn't want another invoice coming in?

 

[Craig-SM]

I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro a year or so ago and sure I followed a win Zara that guided me through the process. Only stumbling block to had was that the home version that I got as part of their free download I hadn’t registered on my MS account, once that was done it was a breeze.
As for the battle of operating systems I use Macs and Windows. I love the integration of the iPhone, iPad and Mac done through your Apple account but it’s still annoying the number of updates and crashes. If I need to get work done I find that I’m on a Windows machine and Windows 10 functionality and reliability is leaps ahead of Apple. As for Linux, I tried them early on and had better things to do with my time than find work arounds.

 

[optima21]

slightly off topic, but I like netbooks (small laptops with screens less that 13") and got one with 32gb of drivespace a couple of years ago, as you could install Windows 10 on 16gb of drivespace. now with just chrome, printer driver and a couple of other things installed, it cant install the latest update (not enough drivespace). so Ive been looking for another one, but they don't do them with 128gb of drive space (unless you want to pay silly money for microsoft surface pro's etc.

in the end I got a version of my old one with 64gb of drivespace, and Im happy with this just for general browsing, and the battery life is pretty good too so it'll do me for £150.

https://ao.com/product/e203mafd017ts-asus-laptop-grey-64837-251.aspx

ohh and can I have a little rant now.....this screen annoys me.

its not complete, if it was I wouldn't have to be waiting arround to turn it off would I?

so with my new netbook (only delivered on Thursday) with just windows 10 installed and google chrome, the install is 21GB, so should be fine for the near future, but to install windows updates in the past Ive needed upto 8gb of drivespace spare, shame windows doesnt just let you use a USB stick or sd card for this.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

slightly off topic, but I like netbooks (small laptops with screens less that 13") and got one with 32gb of drivespace a couple of years ago, as you could install Windows 10 on 16gb of drivespace. now with just chrome, printer driver and a couple of other things installed, it cant install the latest update (not enough drivespace). so Ive been looking for another one, but they don't do them with 128gb of drive space (unless you want to pay silly money for microsoft surface pro's etc.

in the end I got a version of my old one with 64gb of drivespace, and Im happy with this just for general browsing, and the battery life is pretty good too so it'll do me for £150.

https://ao.com/product/e203mafd017ts-asus-laptop-grey-64837-251.aspx

ohh and can I have a little rant now.....this screen annoys me.

View attachment 194440

its not complete, if it was I wouldn't have to be waiting arround to turn it off would I?

so with my new netbook (only delivered on Thursday) with just windows 10 installed and google chrome, the install is 21GB, so should be fine for the near future, but to install windows updates in the past Ive needed upto 8gb of drivespace spare, shame windows doesnt just let you use a USB stick or sd card for this.

Could you not have popped a new drive in to increase storage?

 

[Seadog]

I know I'm the one who says that Windows is great, Windows 10 is greater than great, and you have nothing to fear from Microsoft.

You're not alone Skotl

 

[skotl]

Yeah it's a pain when you realise that Home doesn't do the things you need it to. You of course only know that when you realise a year after the install, not five mins later when there's not much installed

I find the licensing of Microsoft tiresome at the best of times and getting someone who actually knows how it works is a miracle (MS or otherwise).

Why aren't you PowerShelling into the remote machine to administrate? Or did you need the RSAT tooling for the docker container?

Primarily because I'm not always on the VPN and able to RDP into, but RSAT supports https access so I can get to it from home.

Also, AD in AWS - an interesting choice (and I do mean interesting, not a gibe). How come you went that route rather than AAD or native AD in Azure? Company using AWS for everything else and didn't want another invoice coming in?

We use Azure AD / Office 365 AD for all of the permanent workers but there's a contact centre element to the business that needs to survive having no internet access, so needs an on-prem AD server.
MS' quote for a copy of Windows Server Standard for ~800 users was £10k a year, but AWS AD offer the same (don't ask me how!) for around £40 a month with the option to have an onsite instance included in that price.

So we effectively have AWS AD as the master, which syncs to the Azure AD. It's a bit of a pain in that new users and password resets need to be actioned against AWS AD (hence my need for RSAT) and then they replicate to the Azure AD.

It also makes my cloud ops guys more comfortable cos they a) love AWS and b) hate Microsoft

Edit: Oh and it's one click to do IAM with AWS AD to AWS resources

 

[Migmac]

The sad thing is that if I'd left it to my IT team (who report into me) I'd have been without the laptop for a week!

A week, our IT team have had over three years to get our systems set up. They still haven’t got it right.

 

[eSCHEn]

Primarily because I'm not always on the VPN and able to RDP into, but RSAT supports https access so I can get to it from home.

Enter-PsSession foobar.fqdn -UseSSL

We use Azure AD / Office 365 AD for all of the permanent workers but there's a contact centre element to the business that needs to survive having no internet access, so needs an on-prem AD server.
MS' quote for a copy of Windows Server Standard for ~800 users was £10k a year, but AWS AD offer the same (don't ask me how!) for around £40 a month with the option to have an onsite instance included in that price.

So we effectively have AWS AD as the master, which syncs to the Azure AD. It's a bit of a pain in that new users and password resets need to be actioned against AWS AD (hence my need for RSAT) and then they replicate to the Azure AD.

It also makes my cloud ops guys more comfortable cos they a) love AWS and b) hate Microsoft

Edit: Oh and it's one click to do IAM with AWS AD to AWS resources

Ugh yes the need for on-prem AD So how does a cloud service work offline if the site has no internet access?

 

[zx9]

Seems like Microsoft have tightened up a lot of the tricks that we just took for granted, not least plugging in a Pro licence key and letting Windows take care of the rest of it.
I ended up giving up and doing a fresh install from a USB stick, hampered for many hours by the sodding HP laptop having a Home Edition Licence Key embedded in the firmware that caused each install to revert to Home Edition.

I originally installed a home licence on a NUC just to try a few things out, upgrading to Pro was as you say plug in the key and off it toddled to MS, job done. That was early this year but the NUC did not have any OEM OS so that may the difference.

As for the battle of operating systems I use Macs and Windows. I love the integration of the iPhone, iPad and Mac done through your Apple account but it’s still annoying the number of updates and crashes. If I need to get work done I find that I’m on a Windows machine and Windows 10 functionality and reliability is leaps ahead of Apple.

Interesting I've mostly used PCs but recently had to get a Mac Book for testing at an ad agency we look after, now using a MBP on site with bootcamp Win 10 as all the proprietary soft ware needed to set up the boxes are PC only.

slightly off topic, but I like netbooks (small laptops with screens less that 13") and got one with 32gb of drivespace a couple of years ago, as you could install Windows 10 on 16gb of drivespace.

Kind of what I have been using the 13" MBP for, very expensive for a net book but very fast with a 1/2 Tb SSD and a 4K output for testing screens. Importantly much smaller and lighter that the laptop I used to use, every little helps when you have to take hand tools and a laptop around London by public transport.

 

[gaz1]

Just for balance... I know I'm the one who says that Windows is great, Windows 10 is greater than great, and you have nothing to fear from Microsoft.
(I still stand by the last bit but) I've been living with Windows 10 Home Edition on my work laptop since I started the new job back in November 2018. Never had any reason to look at Windows 10 Pro and then suddenly...
So at 09:10 this morning I decided to update my work laptop from Home to Pro. How hard can it be? How much can we laugh at those Linux and Macos peeps? Turns out a) very and b) not so much.
Seems like Microsoft have tightened up a lot of the tricks that we just took for granted, not least plugging in a Pro licence key and letting Windows take care of the rest of it.
I ended up giving up and doing a fresh install from a USB stick, hampered for many hours by the sodding HP laptop having a Home Edition Licence Key embedded in the firmware that caused each install to revert to Home Edition.

Cue why every-other-operating-system-is-better-than-windows-10

well at least Ive had a nice chuckle this morning

I wish I understood half of what you had to do.
And even if you explained it, I'm not sure I'd get it....

embeded key means its a git to upgrade its license to pro

every upgrade to windows pro wouldnt work as only home would get installed on the laptop as thats the embeded key installed onto the laptop so would only install a home version on the laptop

ive backwards compatible on my laptop so know it will work with windows 8 I havent tried windows 7 yet but from reading i dont think it will go that low to windows 7

 

[Kayos]

I understood all the words in points 1 and 2, just not necessarily in that order.

Other than a wobble a few weeks ago I've been happy with 10, bought a second hand Thinkpad and put the Win7 pro licence key into a fresh install of 10 and it worked perfectly

 

[skotl]

...Ugh yes the need for on-prem AD So how does a cloud service work offline if the site has no internet access?

Well you raise an excellent point. The short answer is that "because it's in the contract", although that had more value when we had a traditional PBX. Now that we have IP telephony the call centre couldn't take calls anyway, so being logged in doesn't help much.

That said, multiple resilient internet feeds, etc. etc... That said x 2, so we shouldn't need an on-prem ADC. "...but the contract says..."

 

[eSCHEn]

Well you raise an excellent point. The short answer is that "because it's in the contract", although that had more value when we had a traditional PBX. Now that we have IP telephony the call centre couldn't take calls anyway, so being logged in doesn't help much.

That said, multiple resilient internet feeds, etc. etc... That said x 2, so we shouldn't need an on-prem ADC. "...but the contract says..."

Aye it's such a fundamental thing having a reliable and adequately sized pipe that if you don't have it (looking at you backhoe operators) then you're so stuffed that no AD to log in to is kinda a moot point I suppose.

I do love those contracts when they've promised you something and you think "Well how on earth are they going to so that?" before quickly shrugging and moving on to a more important task this is your problem to deal with

 

[optima21]

Could you not have popped a new drive in to increase storage?

no the "drive" is soldered to the motherboard, so its not really an option

 

[Maker]

slightly off topic, but I like netbooks (small laptops with screens less that 13") and got one with 32gb of drivespace a couple of years ago, as you could install Windows 10 on 16gb of drivespace. now with just chrome, printer driver and a couple of other things installed, it cant install the latest update (not enough drivespace). so Ive been looking for another one, but they don't do them with 128gb of drive space (unless you want to pay silly money for microsoft surface pro's etc.

in the end I got a version of my old one with 64gb of drivespace, and Im happy with this just for general browsing, and the battery life is pretty good too so it'll do me for £150.

https://ao.com/product/e203mafd017ts-asus-laptop-grey-64837-251.aspx

ohh and can I have a little rant now.....this screen annoys me.

View attachment 194440

its not complete, if it was I wouldn't have to be waiting arround to turn it off would I?

so with my new netbook (only delivered on Thursday) with just windows 10 installed and google chrome, the install is 21GB, so should be fine for the near future, but to install windows updates in the past Ive needed upto 8gb of drivespace spare, shame windows doesnt just let you use a USB stick or sd card for this.

My old laptop (Ideapad 100s, 32Gb hard drive) kept running out of storage, I eventually deleted absolutely everything I had saved and found windows taking up 28Gb . Made it useless for everything but web browsing really.

 

[dobbslc]

I have to admit I scrolled through this in a few seconds as I was expecting something interesting to read about installing windows!

 

[eSCHEn]

no the "drive" is soldered to the motherboard, so its not really an option

If you've still got it about and you can add extra storage (like an SD card etc) then you might be able to junction the extra space as a replacement to where it is the now.

Junction (used to be mklink) is the command to construct and manipulate symlinks. This might allow you to make your extra drive (or part of) a new place where the space is needed (normally %WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution\Download - this is where the update files are stored until installed). Should work and give you the space you need.