Windows 8.1 or 10 as an upgrade for Vista?

deadite_9

deadite_9

time for go to bed
Built my teenage nephews a gaming PC out of spare parts nearly a year ago. It's nothing special (Asus P5E/Q9550/8GB/GTX 470), but it gets the job done. Anyway, I had to use Vista when I built it since that was the only spare license I had at the time (and I was already footing the bill on some extra necessities like mouse/KB/monitor/speakers, etc.).

I knew that Vista support was ending next April, but I've been noticing a lot more programs are starting to cut support for the OS lately, with Chrome being among the most recent. It's also a bit of a handicap when it comes to games, since a lot of newer games only support Win7 and above (assuming that the hardware will actually run them).

So I'm looking to upgrade the OS in the near future. Current options are obviously 8.1 and 10. I'm hesitant to go straight to 10 since I really don't want it to muck with their drivers, though I know if I go with 8.1 the PC will be eligible (i.e., my nephews will be harassed) to upgrade to 10 anyway.

Is the driver kerfuffle still a thing, or was it just some edge-case scenario to begin with? I still use Win7 myself, so I don't very much personal experience with Win10 (and none when it comes to a gaming PC).

Opinions?
 
I'm not informed enough on drivers shenanigans, but Win 10 is freaking snappy on every computer I've put it on. Granted, the oldest I've installed it on was more recent than your nephew, but I'm sure it'll be much faster than Vista.

Tell you what, I have a similar PC here (P5E, Q9450, 8600GT) and a load of Win10 licences, I'll try it out for you :) I'll install it on a WD Black 500 GB.

You may want to invest in a 256 GB SSD (if he doesn't game on many games at the same time, he'll be fine space-wise).
 
Seems like the hardware with the most driver problems were audio (especially Realtek) and wifi cards, from what I've heard. I've got Realtek audio on my motherboard, and it works fine now.
 
MangaSpawn64 said:
I'm not informed enough on drivers shenanigans, but Win 10 is freaking snappy on every computer I've put it on. Granted, the oldest I've installed it on was more recent than your nephew, but I'm sure it'll be much faster than Vista.

Tell you what, I have a similar PC here (P5E, Q9450, 8600GT) and a load of Win10 licences, I'll try it out for you :) I'll install it on a WD Black 500 GB.

You may want to invest in a 256 GB SSD (if he doesn't game on many games at the same time, he'll be fine space-wise).
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Cool, thanks!

They've already got a WD Black 1TB. I actually have no complaints with this Vista install; it performs much better than I ever imagined it would. I'm just not wanting to leave them twisting in the wind when Vista finally gives up the ghost.

As for the shenanigans, there were reports (at least initially) that Win10 would forcefully update hardware drivers along with the security updates that are pushed to users. I'm personally a stickler for leaving driver installs alone unless there is a pressing need to update one. If it works, I'd rather leave it alone... and I definitely don't want MS fixing it for me if it isn't broken to begin with (especially when I'm the tech support for this particular computer).

That's the only real reason I'm gun-shy about updating them to 10. And it's likely that it's a total non-issue anyway.
 
wazman said:
Seems like the hardware with the most driver problems were audio (especially Realtek) and wifi cards, from what I've heard. I've got Realtek audio on my motherboard, and it works fine now.
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They're using an old X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro for audio (PCI). Creative has a driver listed for Win10. The WiFi adapter is a TP-Link WDN4800, which doesn't have a Win10 driver listed on the TP-Link site... it would be an actual showstopper if that didn't work.

Anybody know if this WiFi adapter actually works? Newegg reviews seem to imply it's a bit hit-or-miss.
 
My Intel NIC and my Echo Audio PCI card do not have modern drivers, and certainly not Win10. Both work great with Win10.

If at all possible, skip Win8.

YMMV.
 
Installed in about 20 minutes, the only unavailable driver was ATK1011001101-something which installed automatically when I clicked on upgrade driver. The Geforce gave an error as well, updating right now...
 
Just recently upgraded from Vista64 to Win10, no other changes.

No issues yet, all works well but I do notice the PC is not as snappy as with Vista. Not horribly slower but noticeable to a PC hobbyist like myself.
 
Everything's peachy... sound works fine without any drivers installed, I installed the geforce driver and everything's as snappy as I expect from a pc that old :up:
 
MangaSpawn64 said:
Installed in about 20 minutes, the only unavailable driver was ATK1011001101-something which installed automatically when I clicked on upgrade driver. The Geforce gave an error as well, updating right now...
Click to expand...

Thanks for testing that out for me, and for doing it so soon, too.

I have the file for the Asus ATK Utility saved anyway (I think it was actually installed by the Ai Suite, which I never used).

But it's certainly good to know it finds drivers for pretty much everything.

What's the general consensus on chipset drivers for Win10? I normally install the latest working drivers from Intel, but I'm usually not needing to update such an old chipset (the P5E uses the X38). I generally wouldn't leave the default MS drivers installed, but may need to if I upgrade this particular PC to Win10.

Destroy said:
Just recently upgraded from Vista64 to Win10, no other changes.

No issues yet, all works well but I do notice the PC is not as snappy as with Vista. Not horribly slower but noticeable to a PC hobbyist like myself.
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This is interesting to note. Like I said, I was impressed by how well it runs with Vista. I'm sure it wouldn't run 10 as well as a newer machine, but I'd hate to make it "feel" worse by updating it to the latest and greatest.

Decisions, decisions...
 
deadite_9 said:
This is interesting to note. Like I said, I was impressed by how well it runs with Vista. I'm sure it wouldn't run 10 as well as a newer machine, but I'd hate to make it "feel" worse by updating it to the latest and greatest.

Decisions, decisions...
Click to expand...

Turning off the Windows Defender anti-malware helped tons, was VERY slow with that turned on. Now with it permanently turned off via registry edit, it is only slightly slower.

Note, I had/have both Windows versions set to Performance.
 
Destroy said:
Turning off the Windows Defender anti-malware helped tons, was VERY slow with that turned on. Now with it permanently turned off via registry edit, it is only slightly slower.

Note, I had/have both Windows versions set to Performance.
Click to expand...

Good to know. But I have to have something in the way of anti-malware installed. They're good kids, but they're also teenage boys, and they will eventually get into something they shouldn't be seeing. That's just how the internet works. :p

I'm curious... did you replace it with something else, or are you running commando?

I know Defender isn't the best, but it's certainly the easiest to set-and-forget since I know Windows will keep it updated. I'll also have MBAE installed since it'll keep itself updated. MBAM will be there, too, but it won't run resident since I don't have a license for the pro version.

I'm hesitant to install anything else in place of Defender, though, since I'm not sure that the boys can be bothered to make sure it stays updated. They're usually too busy playing Gmod or BL2 to worry about much of anything else. ;)*
 
I didn't have to do anything with Windows Defender, and my system is very responsive. The only time I have to wait for anything is when I'm loading games from my hard drive.

As far as chipset drivers, I haven't had any trouble there either. Of course, I'm using an Intel motherboard, so I would be very surprised if I did.
 
Destroy said:
Commando with smart script browsing and proactive email management.
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Unfortunately, that's just not gonna be an option in this case. It would be fine if it were me, but I don't want to leave my nephews' security entirely up to them. Seems weird that Defender would be crippling your machine like that.

The test run that Manga tried sounds very promising, though. (Thanks again, BTW!)

@wazman
How old is your hardware, though? The newest bit of tech in the PC I'm talking about is nearly 6 years old. The majority of it is nearly eight years old (everything was bought between 2007 and 2010). It runs great on Vista, and they use it primarily for Steam.
 
deadite_9 said:
Unfortunately, that's just not gonna be an option in this case. It would be fine if it were me, but I don't want to leave my nephews' security entirely up to them. Seems weird that Defender would be crippling your machine like that.

The test run that Manga tried sounds very promising, though. (Thanks again, BTW!)

@wazman
How old is your hardware, though? The newest bit of tech in the PC I'm talking about is nearly 6 years old. The majority of it is nearly eight years old (everything was bought between 2007 and 2010). It runs great on Vista, and they use it primarily for Steam.
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My motherboard is an Intel DH55TC board, which reached its end of support in December 2012, and from what I can tell on the internet, it came out some time in 2010. So roughly six years. The graphics card I was using until last year was from 2009, and it worked fine. I've run Windows 7, 8, and 10 on this system, and it's run just as smoothly in 10 as it did in 7. Of course, it is an Intel board, so it's not surprising it runs well, but I don't have any weird hardware or software running on it, and it's working fine.
 
GanjaStar said:
vista being smoother than win10 is an anomaly not a general consensus, so I wouldn't make a choice based on just Destroy's experience.

I've actually never heard anyone say that except for him :)

and even if defender is not something you need. it can be easily turned off via the group policy editor.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5918-windows-defender-turn-off-windows-10-a.html#option1
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Nah, I know Vista gets ragged for good reason. But the hardware in that PC runs it very well. (It also ran Win7 very well, but I don't have a spare license and I'm not about to plunk down cash for an OEM version when the PC might just up and die any day now.)

And I was planning on leaving Defender running because it should mean fewer headaches for me when stuff has to be updated, etc.-- especially when you consider that all that my nephews want to do is load up Steam.

I've pretty much decided on Win10 since the full version of Home is only $120 (and it's pretty much the only full version you can buy for a reasonable price right now anyway). Also, if the hardware dies and has to be replaced, there should be no license tomfoolery to deal with if it's not OEM.
 
wazman said:
My motherboard is an Intel DH55TC board, which reached its end of support in December 2012, and from what I can tell on the internet, it came out some time in 2010. So roughly six years. The graphics card I was using until last year was from 2009, and it worked fine. I've run Windows 7, 8, and 10 on this system, and it's run just as smoothly in 10 as it did in 7. Of course, it is an Intel board, so it's not surprising it runs well, but I don't have any weird hardware or software running on it, and it's working fine.
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Okay, so it sounds like we're roughly in the same ballpark. I bought the P5E in early 2008, and used it for roughly three years until I finally moved to an X58 board. The Q9550 is a little newer than the board, but only by about a year. The graphics card is a GTX 470, with a GTX 460 for PhysX (one of my nephews play a lot of Borderlands 2, so it made sense to throw it in there). Both of those are from mid-2010.
 
win 10

win 10

I bought a dvd disc from New egg. it says windows 10 home for oem software.
here's my questioin what if I buy another motherboard I should be able to do a fresh intall right?, maybe just call up micosoft etc.it does have a license on the win 10 package for the dvd inside.:hmm:
 
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