Microsoft is annoying me again

[YedZed]

Hey everyone, (first post, yayyy)

So I currently share an Optiplex 760 with my family (I'm a teen), and i think its a pretty sick gaming rig.

BwahahahaHahahahhahahhaha sorry couldn't keep a straight face. But Im planning on an upgrade once i save up the money.

Anyway, originally when Windows 10 was released, I didn't get the tab thing in the lower right corner to tell me that I could get Win 10 for free. So I figured it was not compatible. 

But then, one day, it shows up on my bar. So I figured, hey, they must have developed drivers for it finally. So just for kicks, I decide to upgrade. I did not bother checking if Intel had developed drivers for the Optiplex 760. It seemed obvious.

So then two things happened. First, Microsoft Office breaks. My sister had to get a report done and was going to kill me for it. Then, Minecraft, (which didn't run all that well before) decided to just not work because the graphics driver was broken. So my brothers were going to eat my head as well.

I chat with Intel for their word. They say they haven't, and never will, develop drivers for Win 10. So I call up Microsoft, and they basically tell me I'm wrong for thinking it was compatible, and they are "so sorry". I had to revert.

This was extremely irritating, but at least I was able to revert to Win 7 Pro. I think Microsoft should be a little more clear, and maybe not offer people Windows 10 as if its perfectly fine when the machine does not have support.

But maybe I'm just stupid. 

[BrinkGG]

6 minutes ago, YedZed said:

Hey everyone, (first post, yayyy)

So I currently share an Optiplex 760 with my family (I'm a teen), and i think its a pretty sick gaming rig.

BwahahahaHahahahhahahhaha sorry couldn't keep a straight face. But Im planning on an upgrade once i save up the money.

Anyway, originally when Windows 10 was released, I didn't get the tab thing in the lower right corner to tell me that I could get Win 10 for free. So I figured it was not compatible. 

But then, one day, it shows up on my bar. So I figured, hey, they must have developed drivers for it finally. So just for kicks, I decide to upgrade. I did not bother checking if Intel had developed drivers for the Optiplex 760. It seemed obvious.

So then two things happened. First, Microsoft Office breaks. My sister had to get a report done and was going to kill me for it. Then, Minecraft, (which didn't run all that well before) decided to just not work because the graphics driver was broken. So my brothers were going to eat my head as well.

I chat with Intel for their word. They say they haven't, and never will, develop drivers for Win 10. So I call up Microsoft, and they basically tell me I'm wrong for thinking it was compatible, and they are "so sorry". I had to revert.

This was extremely irritating, but at least I was able to revert to Win 7 Pro. I think Microsoft should be a little more clear, and maybe not offer people Windows 10 as if its perfectly fine when the machine does not have support.

But maybe I'm just stupid. 

The problem isn't really the OS. Its the software drivers for everything on top of the OS. 

The windows 10 upgrade tool will tell you if your computer is not compatible with it. Pretty simple, but I do understand the frustration. 

[swordsman247]

2 minutes ago, YedZed said:

quote

Well the line between "compatible" and it will actually work well and be supported is very hit and miss with older systems.

For an oem like dell they didn't even bother checking with most of the windows 7  or older line up.

But to be fair they probably don't have any to test at this point.

Also all oem pc's microsoft/intel will probably not help you with at all, at least I've never had any luck.

 

The 760's will run 10 fine but require a fresh install and manual driver installation to run well,

and as you found out you will not be getting help from intel, or microsoft with that.

The good news is your system should be licensed to windows 10 if you decide to put it back on in the future.

[YedZed]

Oh I get that its a driver thing. I wasn't expecting it to go down smoothly, as i was a bit suspicious. 

And as for that Windows 10 upgrade Tool... IT LIES. It only checks hardware requirements, not driver development, unfortunately.Maybe they should add that.

[swordsman247]

1 minute ago, YedZed said:

Oh I get that its a driver thing. I wasn't expecting it to go down smoothly, as i was a bit suspicious. 

And as for that Windows 10 upgrade Tool... IT LIES. It only checks hardware requirements, not driver development, unfortunately.Maybe they should add that.

yeah it's like getting ready for a drag race and only checking to see if the car has tires....

[YedZed]

1 minute ago, swordsman247 said:

Well the line between "compatible" and it will actually work well and be supported is very hit and miss with older systems.

For an oem like dell they didn't even bother checking with most of the windows 7  or older line up.

But to be fair they probably don't have any to test at this point.

Also all oem pc's microsoft/intel will probably not help you with at all, at least I've never had any luck.

 

The 760's will run 10 fine but require a fresh install and manual driver installation to run well,

and as you found out you will not be getting help from intel, or microsoft with that.

The good news is your system should be licensed to windows 10 if you decide to put it back on in the future.

Yeah, I've seen some on eBay with Win 10. But they did clean installs. Unfortunately that is not an option for me. My family would murder me if i messed with their files.

Also, I switched out the CPU( and disk drive). 

i'm fairly certain the PC is a refurb model. 

[YedZed]

3 minutes ago, swordsman247 said:

yeah it's like getting ready for a drag race and only checking to see if the car has tires....

True true

 

[swordsman247]

2 minutes ago, YedZed said:

Yeah, I've seen some on eBay with Win 10. But they did clean installs. Unfortunately that is not an option for me. My family would murder me if i messed with their files.

Also, I switched out the CPU( and disk drive). 

i'm fairly certain the PC is a refurb model. 

Yeah I redid a bunch of older dell workstations this year with 10. They had all come with xp or vista but had been upgraded to 7 by the previous owner. It just takes some tlc(and a full wipe after the initial activation).

[Gikero]

20 minutes ago, YedZed said:

So then two things happened. First, Microsoft Office breaks. My sister had to get a report done and was going to kill me for it.

If you were using Office 2010 Starter it is incompatible with Windows 8/10. FYI. If you were using a full featured version of Office 2010, it should work after you do a fresh install of the operating system. Make sure you have a copy of your Office license before proceeding.

[GoodBytes]

As mentioned, you are looking at a clean install, if you want Windows 10. It seems that a graphics card is all you need to solve this problem.

I had a similar problem with my mothers system, when I build a her a computer out of old system with Windows 8. I got her the least expensive support graphics card I could find (had to be small form factor, and fanless). In this case it was a GeForce 730 that was on special once. So yes, the system is now running Windows 10. If you wonder, it was an old Lenovo Core 2 Duo system. I put some old DDR2 memory I had laying around and now she is 8GB (overkill, of course, but its that... or the RAM collecting dust in a box),  and I got her an inexpensive SSD (which really make the system fast and responsive, and keep my sanity when doing support). She has a nice fast system now. I mean you cant' game on it... but handles Office, playing music (of course), web surfing, and Skype just fine. Boots fast, fast and responsive, and does the trick. Note that when I say "fast", I don't mean a Core i7 6th generation CPU fast, of course not. Program do take time to load, installing software can take time, and so on. But you are not pulling your hair out slow, which I would probably be doing if it has an HDD. I mean it won't help anything (in fact, the original system had a 5400RPM HDD, so... even worse).

 

[RazerFX]

Windows 10 has some really bad drivers, the sound drivers are trash, and so are the keyboard drivers. Just revert to windows 7 and wait for windows 10 to fix its problems.

[dalekphalm]

3 hours ago, YedZed said:

Hey everyone, (first post, yayyy)

So I currently share an Optiplex 760 with my family (I'm a teen), and i think its a pretty sick gaming rig.

BwahahahaHahahahhahahhaha sorry couldn't keep a straight face. But Im planning on an upgrade once i save up the money.

Anyway, originally when Windows 10 was released, I didn't get the tab thing in the lower right corner to tell me that I could get Win 10 for free. So I figured it was not compatible. 

But then, one day, it shows up on my bar. So I figured, hey, they must have developed drivers for it finally. So just for kicks, I decide to upgrade. I did not bother checking if Intel had developed drivers for the Optiplex 760. It seemed obvious.

So then two things happened. First, Microsoft Office breaks. My sister had to get a report done and was going to kill me for it. Then, Minecraft, (which didn't run all that well before) decided to just not work because the graphics driver was broken. So my brothers were going to eat my head as well.

I chat with Intel for their word. They say they haven't, and never will, develop drivers for Win 10. So I call up Microsoft, and they basically tell me I'm wrong for thinking it was compatible, and they are "so sorry". I had to revert.

This was extremely irritating, but at least I was able to revert to Win 7 Pro. I think Microsoft should be a little more clear, and maybe not offer people Windows 10 as if its perfectly fine when the machine does not have support.

But maybe I'm just stupid. 

We have many (Like 150+) Dell OptiPlex systems at work. The Dell Website will tell you if the computer is "officially" supported under Windows 10. All you need to do is go to:

Dell.com -> Support by Product -> Enter in your Service Tag (Or let it auto-detect). Once it has your service tag, it'll show up right away if Windows 10 is supported or not.

 

FYI, Basically the ENTIRE OptiPlex 7xx series is not supported. We have OptiPlex 745's and 755's (Ancient XP machines - don't even support Windows 7 well), 380's, 780's, and 790's. These all run Windows 7 natively. These specific models WILL upgrade to Windows 10, but some drivers may be missing, and will require manual install, or even require installing OLD drivers (Eg: Windows 7 or Windows 8 drivers) to get the computer working. Dell officially doesn't support any of them on Windows 10.

 

The oldest OptiPlex machines we have that officially support Windows 10 are the OptiPlex 7010's, which are quite a bit newer than even the newest from the 7xx series.

 

It can still work, but it's definitely not a smooth process for the older machines.

[YedZed]

3 hours ago, Gikero said:

If you were using Office 2010 Starter it is incompatible with Windows 8/10. FYI. If you were using a full featured version of Office 2010, it should work after you do a fresh install of the operating system. Make sure you have a copy of your Office license before proceeding.

Yeah, i knew it was a known problem. unfortunately we did not have the license key just lying around, which was another compelling reason to revert.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, YedZed said:

Yeah, i knew it was a known problem. unfortunately we did not have the license key just lying around, which was another compelling reason to revert.

You can easily discover the Key using a Key retrieval program such as Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder.

[YedZed]

Let me explain in detail my system: 

When my fathers laptop that we used to use broke (the process of which is a whole other story), my father decided to get us a desktop as a present. It was a refurb Optiplex 760, with a core 2 duo, 8gb of ram, a 500gb hard drive, and a media card reader. I've seen 760s that didnt have some of those, so I think was upgraded. For a long time we had it in the most ridiculously backbreaking position, until we got it set up "normally", then reset up to true normalcy. Then the optical drive broke, giving me my first chance at upgrading it. Small upgrade, but i still get a kick out of it. Then, for fun, I replaced the Core 2 Duo wth a 15$ eBay Core 2 Quad, which was fun and improved something, although i can't tell what.  It obviously can't game, but it plays Minecraft at 20-30 fps, playable by our rock-bottom standards. i decided not to upgrade it any further and just to save for a new system build.

So that's what Iu am stuck with for now.

[YedZed]

7 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You can easily discover the Key using a Key retrieval program such as Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder.

Really? I'll keep that in mind next time I need a key! Thanks!

[YedZed]

3 hours ago, swordsman247 said:

Yeah I redid a bunch of older dell workstations this year with 10. They had all come with xp or vista but had been upgraded to 7 by the previous owner. It just takes some tlc(and a full wipe after the initial activation).

Does Win 10 run well on them? i always thought there might be a graphics bottleneck.

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, YedZed said:

Let me explain in detail my system: 

When my fathers laptop that we used to use broke (the process of which is a whole other story), my father decided to get us a desktop as a present. It was a refurb Optiplex 760, with a core 2 duo, 8gb of ram, a 500gb hard drive, and a media card reader. I've seen 760s that didnt have some of those, so I think was upgraded. For a long time we had it in the most ridiculously backbreaking position, until we got it set up "normally", then reset up to true normalcy. Then the optical drive broke, giving me my first chance at upgrading it. Small upgrade, but i still get a kick out of it. Then, for fun, I replaced the Core 2 Duo wth a 15$ eBay Core 2 Quad, which was fun and improved something, although i can't tell what.  It obviously can't game, but it plays Minecraft at 20-30 fps, playable by our rock-bottom standards. i decided not to upgrade it any further and just to save for a new system build.

So that's what Iu am stuck with for now.

You would be able to do BASIC gaming on it by adding in a Half Height PCIe graphics card. The PSU's on those units are pretty low wattage, but getting a GPU that is powered off the PCIe lane would work, like a GTX 750 or something. That, plus your Core 2 Quad would be decent low graphics gaming.

[YedZed]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You would be able to do BASIC gaming on it by adding in a Half Height PCIe graphics card. The PSU's on those units are pretty low wattage, but getting a GPU that is powered off the PCIe lane would work, like a GTX 750 or something. That, plus your Core 2 Quad would be decent low graphics gaming.

Well when i put in that processor i was hoping to see a noticeable improvement in Minecraft, pretty much our only 3D game (lol), but i couldn't see that much of a difference. PerformanceTest told me there was a theoretical improvement there, but not anything so evident. 

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

What more do you expect from Microsoft: They were caught forcing Internet Explorer onto the old OS's to knock out Netscape, and they put spyware in windows 10.

[YedZed]

Just now, ♠FlamieMeister♠ said:

What more do you expect from Microsoft: They were caught forcing Internet Explorer onto the old OS's to knock out Netscape, and they put spyware in windows 10.

Yup. That's Microsoft all right.

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

I would recommend Micomsoft. They are a legit company

[YedZed]

56 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

We have many (Like 150+) Dell OptiPlex systems at work. The Dell Website will tell you if the computer is "officially" supported under Windows 10. All you need to do is go to:

Dell.com -> Support by Product -> Enter in your Service Tag (Or let it auto-detect). Once it has your service tag, it'll show up right away if Windows 10 is supported or not.

 

FYI, Basically the ENTIRE OptiPlex 7xx series is not supported. We have OptiPlex 745's and 755's (Ancient XP machines - don't even support Windows 7 well), 380's, 780's, and 790's. These all run Windows 7 natively. These specific models WILL upgrade to Windows 10, but some drivers may be missing, and will require manual install, or even require installing OLD drivers (Eg: Windows 7 or Windows 8 drivers) to get the computer working. Dell officially doesn't support any of them on Windows 10.

 

The oldest OptiPlex machines we have that officially support Windows 10 are the OptiPlex 7010's, which are quite a bit newer than even the newest from the 7xx series.

 

It can still work, but it's definitely not a smooth process for the older machines.

Yeah, well I didn't think to check with them first. Oops.

[YedZed]

1 minute ago, ♠FlamieMeister♠ said:

I would recommend Micomsoft. They are a legit company

Of course, but they have their downsides.

[swordsman247]

23 minutes ago, YedZed said:

Does Win 10 run well on them? i always thought there might be a graphics bottleneck.

Most of the ones I did were Optiplex gtx520's. For basic web stuff and even some lower res YouTube/netflix they do fine, the hard drives are what really slow them down the most, I tested them with xp, 7, and 10. Xp was the best on hard drive and 10 did the best on the ssd. 7 failed the worst for speed and responsiveness overall.

 

But with 4gb ddr2 800 and a ssd they pop right along on 10. However I didn't put an ssd in all of them just the one for testing. But I sold over half of them so far and they are fine for most office needs. Also you don't have much room for multitasking but the ssd helps somewhat.

 

But they were always intended to be workstations, and you can get them really cheap now because they lack some of the 'media' features desired now by most(i.e. hd vid streaming). A cheap add in graphics card will bring them up to 1080p streaming able but you won't be doing much else with it at the same time.