Just been given an old Samsung laptop, Windows 7. Keen to use it only for Spotify and web in my workshop, but with W7 it keeps stalling/freezing. What would I look to update it to for above usage?
Cheers
I just updated my desktop at home with Windows 10 for free, it's like a new PC now. Should've done it ages ago.
Freezing could be anything, but I doubt it's going to be fixed by upgrading the OS.
Unless it already has one, I'd be upgrading to a cheap SSD.
This one is just £20
This using a USB Flash drive download win 10 from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
And install it, it will likely activate from the existing Win 7 license.
Without knowing the hardware I couldn't promise it will work, an SSD generally works wonders, but there's a load of XP / Vista era stuff laying around that just about made the upgrade to Win7.
Thanks to the good people of STW I did the exact same thing a few weeks ago.
You can update it to W10 for free, just go to the MS website and create a USB stick installer for Windows 10.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15088/windows-10-create-installation-media
Your laptop has the product key stored in the BIOS and will allow a free upgrade. Works much better than W7.
My 11yo laptop HDD died last week, I've bought a new whizz bang one, but I think I might try and do the above SSD upgrade and W10:reinstall (that's the bit where I decided to buy new, as I've tried Linux installs on comps before and it all went Pete tong), see if I can prelong it's life. It's already had new screen, keyboard, 2 X fans.
One possible stumbling block is it was originally bought with vista and a free upgrade to W7 (then was upgraded to W10). If the reinstall recognises it as a vista product key then it might not install W10.
OK, thanks all ... sounds good.
But, I tried doing a W10 download which got stuck on verifying download. I now have a full blue screen with a small dove and leaf on it(?!), no icons, no way of pulling up a menu ... and system restore is just taking me back to this. Have I goofed up?
Download the Windows 10 installation files using an existing Win 10 PC, and get it onto a USB stick.
This is the best way.
Once installed, you can get free cloning software to clone your HD to a new SSD. The thinq will fly then.
create a USB installation disk from this link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Install over the existing Win7 installation to have it automatically activated. Then install an SSD and reinstall from scratch.