Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Upgrade Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 With Custom .iso

Last summer, summer 2015, an older Microsoft Windows 8.1 machine was receiving the mild prompts to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 10. The prompts stopped, and upon investigation the upgrade process would not allow the typical Windows 10 in-place upgrade. The upgrade process consisted of burning a custom .iso CD. Upon booting the .iso CD, it instructed to restart into Windows 8.1 then insert the .iso CD. Upon doing this, the upgrade process started from the CD.

An upgrade tip for multi-monitor users is to go to just one monitor during the upgrade. The monitor settings can be changed after the upgrade completes.

After the Windows 10 upgrade, several small annoyances included changing previous file type and program associations. For example, the previous graphic file program was changed. Text files and Open Document file associations were changed. Also, Microsoft Edge web browser took over .pdf files.
Another annoyance is the preferred placement for Task Manager had been on monitor two. Now the Task Manager always starts on monitor one, without remembering where it was the last time it ran.
Also, a few printer settings did not transfer correctly.

The PC is running local logon accounts (not on the Microsoft network) and the privacy-leaking options have been turned off. Overall, I am pleased with the upgrade to Windows 10.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

nVidia Driver Update Causing Problems

Microsoft Windows 8.1 offered a nVidia driver update a week ago.  The driver update specifies the nVidia GeForce FT 610, a relatively older video card.



The system quickly started glitching by displaying black windows, and then started crashing the operating system with DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION.  The driver was removed using Microsoft Windows System Restore to a restore point prior to the driver installation.

The next check for updates found the driver update ready to be installed.  Remember to right-click on the name of the update to access the context-sensitive menu.  This will allow the update to be hidden.