So I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Windows 10 on my observatory machines. After the tremendous headaches I had on my main machine when I migrated from the pre-release Windows Insider version to the final released version, I wasn’t anxious to update all my other machines, but needed to do so before the one year “free upgrade” period was over. The Microsoft tech who finally addressed the licensing and activation problem I was having on my main machine actually recommended I wait for a few months to update anything that I didn’t have to. I wholeheartedly agreed!
Given I was already running Windows 8 that I didn’t care for, and using Classic Shell as a desktop replacement to make in usable (and actually even better UI that Windows 7) there was no reason NOT to do the Windows 10 update, other than the fear of things going wrong. The biggest concern there was in being able to use some of the unsigned drivers I’m using to control various older pieces of equipment. I also wanted the option to easily go back if needed, which meant imaging the drives and either setting up for dual boot or just swapping drives, as in the case of my laptop. That actually ended up being a bigger pain than expected to get dual bootable images, but I eventually got there and performed the update to Windows 10 on one of the images. As expected, I ended up losing all my drivers as Windows tried to use the latest incompatible versions. On most I was able to just tell it to downgrade to the older driver, but did have to go through the rigmarole to get one unsigned version of an FTDI driver in place to get my focus motor working again.
At any rate, after re-installing Classic Shell and a few other things, I’m up and running with no real difficulties (other than the one Blue Screen of Death that killed one of my PCs with the roof open, forcing a trip to go reset everything). Only time will tell if there are any long term issues that I’ll see.
