it's the same link posted previously, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench

choose windows 10. note that w10 pro and home is in the same iso. as long as you have sufficient space, you can do an upgrade. if possible, it's better to do a clean install, to prevent any potential issues.

the current build number has become 10586.11 (due to patches via windows updates after 10586.3, the build number of w10 1511)

it's the same (there are slight differences but the outcome is the same). if you downloaded the iso the obvious advantage is that you don't need to download it again. (when there comes the time you need to do a clean install, you're ready as well) as for drivers, it's better to download all latest drivers into your computer or an external storage before upgrade.

like i said before, it's always better to prepare yourself for the worst. download the iso and necessary drivers; back up data; make system image; etc. so that you can recover from unforeseen system issues after upgrade.

a lot of people whined about this and that because they themselves make the upgrade a one-way trip. tbh i'm not really sure what points they are trying to make.


This post has been edited by horns: Nov 22 2015, 10:34 AM

1. plug in an external storage. it's better to have a newly formatted one.
2. run windows power shell at administrator prviledge, and run the command: wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:<backup.destination>: -include:C: -allCritical -quiet

the above command will back up only your c: partition and necessary system partitions to restore the os and make it runs as usual. replace <backup.destination> with the driver letter of your external drive.

alternatively, you can use 'backup and restore (windows 7)' in control panel.

yes, i do that. i can live with a slightly longer boot time.

yes the generated system image set was incomplete. for stock windows installation (afaik for uefi mode), usually you should have at least 3 vhdx files.

i never tried this before, but if you have a windows version that can run vhdx via disk management (e.g. pro, enterprise), you can try attach the vhdx as a virtual disk, then make a clone image of that virtual disk with a third party tool. finally apply the clone image to the correct partition of your drive. or, you can just clone it directly to the partition. or, look for third party tools to see if they support conversion of vhdx directly to their native format, so that you can use it to apply to the partition.

after cloning, you might need to check and repair boot settings if necessary.

as for media feature pack, i think you missed the part that ms has released a new one for w10 1511, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3099229 . i'm not sure about that usb mtp thing.

Great

er.. is this an external storage? the mass storage controller is usually being called automatically when necessary. there is no driver to be installed afaik.

i have such things going on too, but rare. usually i just unplug it and plug it in again and it will work.

yes but i thought you already installed those? are you using a card reader?

oh ok. i think you need to check out the card reader driver. in the device manager you should be able to grab its hardware id. use that to check if there are newer drivers available.

in terms of os updates, the only thing that i don't really get it is the way ms pushes updates. at first when i read about it, i thought it's like delta updates, found in oss os like linux, i.e. only codes that changed get downloaded. they are much smaller in size, and hence the method is relatively bandwidth saving. tbh that's more practical when you deliver an os as a service. i hope one day ms will do that. it will solve the current bottlenecks of most users with limited internet bandwidth.

yes, mct does provide latest build of w10 (1511, 10586). previously, it was reverted to old build due to identified bugs (news can be found online). after a day or two, bugs were rectified, and ms restored the new build for users to download.

a lot of users only read the first part of the story and didn't follow up for updates, hence the confusions.

afaik the main differences between isos from mct and techbench are:
1. mct only provides downloads for w10 and w10-n, while techbench provides w10 single language also. (this is for those whose stock os is a single language version)
2. mct provides install.esd, while techbench provides install.wim. for normal users, this is not important. the difference is minimal.

sure, like ngkm said. there is no significant difference between mct and techbench in terms of installation.

from that link, it appears that it doesn't impact system stability in general. imo this is a chicken and egg thing. at one side, ms tries to enforce system integration checks on everything, including drivers, to ensure better system stability. on the other hand, this system checks are kind of hard to implement for things like drivers, especially that are always in active development-release cycles.

for now i think you can safely ignore it.

i think there must be some sort of logs that tells you what happened.

i personally never install spendid in my old g55. the machine and software works fine without it.

usually this is not necessary, but you can try update all drivers in your computer first. check out the support webpage for your laptop and find out if they posted updated bios/drivers.

i'm running local user account, and i have no problem with locking.

i'm not sure how you set your computer up, but i think you should check out those system optimization guides online and see if they helped.

weird stuff. maybe you should wait for others to see if they have tips for you, or just go look it up with search engines.

for 1511 installation, you should be able to use w7/w8.1 key. if it doesn't work, there is small link on the same page that says, 'i don't have a product key'. click on that and you can proceed. you will reach another page that ask for the key somewhere at the end of the installation, skip it too. once the freshly installed os is connected to internet it's activated automatically.

i just did a clean install (skipping all the places that asked for key) after the previous 1511 update.

w8 or w8.1?

maybe try call ms support for help. first make sure the right version of windows for that product key is installed. at administrative command prompt, type slui 4. select country, then call the toll-free numbers.

By right your friend have 2 options. If the previous w10 was activated successfully, and no hardware changes were done, your friend should be able to do a clean install of w10 and get it activated automatically online. MS server should have collected the information about his computer and hence the online activation should be working. I can confirm this one works because i just did a clean install on my computer yesterday and it got activated when it was online. Automatically.

Another one is to revert to old os, and call ms directly for help.

Like i said before, recovery options depend on what you have done to prepare for the worst. The more efforts you put in, the more choices you have. If you don't do it at all, your options are limited.

it's a suggestion. i don't have a clue how your friend set his computer up, so he should adjust what he should do to his computer accordingly. for instance, he try system reset, then try activate it online. if it failed, he can also format the os partition and related system partitions, and reinstall w10. worst comes to worst, use diskpart > clean to get rid of everything, and do a clean install.

all in all, please at least make a full data backup. if the data drive is a separate disk, just unplug it physically from the computer to avoid potential tragedies, like deleting wrong partitions/drives/etc. during the process.

i'm not familiar with how msa works in w10, so i am not able to help. (msa, as of now, is not so useful to me) alternatively, if you don't use features that depend on internet connectivity, i think it's better for you to switch to local user account.

by now, we should all realize that not all w10 upgrades are seamless. this almost always means your computer performance will be affected after upgrade, and eventually your experience with it. imo the better practice is that once you have confirmed that your new os is activated successfully (i.e. marked as qualified for digital entitlement by ms server), wait for a week or two, then do a clean install of w10 and start over.