Got That Windows 10 Notification in Bootcamp - Do I Dare?

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

This has definitely been covered before, but it HAS been some time since Windows 10 was released, and it's safe to say that many have already tested it on older Macs.

I currently have Windows 7 on my 4,1 Mac Pro. Any sense in upgrading to Windows 10? This partition is mostly for my Windows-only games, so if it improves performance, I might be interested. Some say they have had Windows 10 work fine on their machines; however, I am hesitant because others have had absolutely horrible issues with it.

Is it worth upgrading (and getting rid of that "not genuine" badge I was presented with), or should I not try and fix what ain't broke?

 

[Fancuku]

I like W10 and have upgraded all my Windows machines.
You decide for yourself. If you are satisfied with W7 and everything works, the I suggest you stay with it.

 

[h9826790]

I will prefer to go for Win 10, which makes me ready for DX12 games.

 

[howiest]

If you use Parallels Desktop you should know that the licensing scheme (digital entitlement) has changed in Win10, and for many it has caused problems. In a nutshell, you can have Win10 activated in Boot Camp, but it won't activate in the Parallels Virtual Machine. There's a huge thread about this on the Parallels Support Forum. Some have resorted to buying a second license to activate the VM.

Outside of that, I have no significant complaints with Win10. But I really only use it for gaming in Boot Camp.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Windows 7 works nicely, especially now that I have 32GB of RAM. I was thinking that Windows 10 would be even lighter weight, but maybe I'll just stick with 7: It does the job and it runs okay. Oddly enough, I'm getting better web-browsing performance under Windows 7 than with El Cap. If you have enough RAM for Chrome on Windows, it's a fast browser.

 

[haralds]

If you use Parallels Desktop you should know that the licensing scheme (digital entitlement) has changed in Win10, and for many it has caused problems. In a nutshell, you can have Win10 activated in Boot Camp, but it won't activate in the Parallels Virtual Machine. There's a huge thread about this on the Parallels Support Forum. Some have resorted to buying a second license to activate the VM.

Outside of that, I have no significant complaints with Win10. But I really only use it for gaming in Boot Camp.

Activation works under VMWare. But Windows 10 tends to frequently show not being activated in the Systems panel. I have learnt to ignore it and it usually fixes itself.

I upgraded my 2,1 and 5,1 plus MacBook Pro and MacBook Air from Win 7 or 8.1 to get access to the latest graphics drivers. It has worked pretty well. However, I tend to keep WinClone backup images of the system, so I can go back or fix things any time.

WinClone, CarbonCopy, TimeMachine are my friends.

 

[AidenShaw]

Activation works under VMWare. But Windows 10 tends to frequently show not being activated in the Systems panel. I have learnt to ignore it and it usually fixes itself.

I upgraded my 2,1 and 5,1 plus MacBook Pro and MacBook Air from Win 7 or 8.1 to get access to the latest graphics drivers. It has worked pretty well. However, I tend to keep WinClone backup images of the system, so I can go back or fix things any time.

WinClone, CarbonCopy, TimeMachine are my friends.

I assume that for a Fusion VM you simple clone (in VMware) or copy (at the host level) the VM directory to make a backup.

 

[crjackson2134]

I use my Win10 native drive as both the VM and the stand-alone. VMWare sets it all up easily. My only issue is that MS Office 2013 complains when in a VM, and wants to be activated. I just ignore it, booting back into the bootcamp partition seems to keep it calm. I don't use windows personally, and keep it around for the just in case scenario. If I used it all the time, I'd activate it in both the VM and bootcamp.