Windows 7 - is this the end?

[Breelander]

...I have a W7 machine that is low end, and it did successfully upgrade to W10. But then it says it can no longer apply updates due to a lack of disk space. ...

64GB is the bare minimum drive size Microsoft now insist on before MS will allow OEMs to build a machine to be supplied with Windows 10 pre-installed. 120GB should be plenty, providing you don't fill it up with your own user files.

The first and most effective thing to do if updates are complaining of insufficient space is to clean up system files, in particular the windows update backups. Open Disk Clean up, click the 'Clean up system files' button, then tick any 'windows update' or 'previous windows ...' you find there. Take care, these days your Downloads folder is included in the Disk Clean up (you may want to untick that one!) The second thing to do is to delete all system restore points.


Between them, these two actions can potentially release tens of GB (particularly if a clean up has never been done before).

[Lootman]

...I have a W7 machine that is low end, and it did successfully upgrade to W10. But then it says it can no longer apply updates due to a lack of disk space. ...

64GB is the bare minimum drive size Microsoft now insist on before MS will allow OEMs to build a machine to be supplied with Windows 10 pre-installed. 120GB should be plenty, providing you don't fill it up with your own user files.

The first and most effective thing to do if updates are complaining of insufficient space is to clean up system files, in particular the windows update backups. Open Disk Clean up, click the 'Clean up system files' button, then tick any 'windows update' or 'previous windows ...' you find there. Take care, these days your Downloads folder is included in the Disk Clean up (you may want to untick that one!) The second thing to do is to delete all system restore points.

Between them, these two actions can potentially release tens of GB (particularly if a clean up has never been done before).

Thanks, that's helpful. I did do a clean up when this first happened, but was conservative about which files to delete because there were so many that I didn't know what they were or how important they were. I'll take your advice and try again with those ideas.

[Infrasonic]

...I have a W7 machine that is low end, and it did successfully upgrade to W10. But then it says it can no longer apply updates due to a lack of disk space. ...

64GB is the bare minimum drive size Microsoft now insist on before MS will allow OEMs to build a machine to be supplied with Windows 10 pre-installed. 120GB should be plenty, providing you don't fill it up with your own user files.

I bought a new Pixel 3a phone (Android 10) the other week, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage and that is already at 22GB just with OS/files and a bare minimum of Play Store apps.

Yesterday I picked up a very cheap Lenovo S340-14 Chromebook (£179 @ Currys currently), Celeron N4000/4GB/64GB, and that is at 18GB already before I've really put anything else on it.

The days of 32 GB storage being adequate for anything recent are long gone I think...

[JonE]

both [links] seem to refer to the tool you can use to check if your PC can run Windows 10.

It appears that things have changed and the downloadable exe no longer does what the file of that name once did. One is now apparently expected to use a checklist and keep fingers crossed.

Cheers!

[Breelander]

...I did do a clean up when this first happened, but was conservative about which files to delete because there were so many that I didn't know what they were or how important they were...

When cleaning up system files, I tick everything except Downloads. If you select each listed item in turn it tells you what it is for in the information below.

You may be surprised horrified to see just how much space system restore points can take up. Click Start, type 'create a restore point' and open it. Click the 'Configure...' button. There you can see the space taken up by your restore points (and delete then all).

[xeny]

But my point is that I have been running it on out-of-date software for about 8 months, and it hasn't misbehaved yet. It is secured by Window Security and McAffee - nothing else.

I'd agree - I've come across sites where Windows update had been broken on every machine for around a year, and nothing had collapsed - it's the luck of the draw. The problem is that if something nasty ends up running, it'll go through them all like an imported infection through the American population when the European settlers arrived.

With your machine, I'd be tempted to get rid of McAffee and see if you get enough space back to get some updates installed.

[Infrasonic]

As well as Bree's suggestions for space saving, try using portable apps from external storage sources (SD card/flash/SSD) as much as possible rather than installing to the internal C drive...https://portableapps.com/

There are also tutorials out there for slimming W10 down even more, removing native apps. you don't use and preventing them from repopulating on Feature Updates.
(I've not experimented with that one, I try and keep W10 as vanilla as possible to minimise potential update issues...)

[swill453]

If space is an issue I think it's always worthwhile seeing exactly what is using up your disk. You can spend ages faffing around cleaning up round the edges without realising there's an elephant in the room, like that 20gb video file you downloaded years ago and forgot about, or all those backups of the iPad you stopped using in 2015.

A visual tool makes this easy, I use Windirstat, others are available.

Scott.

[Infrasonic]

On the latest version(s?) of W10 (I'm on 1903) if you type 'storage' into the search box you'll get 8 system storage options, a few have detailed breakdowns of system/apps/files/music/video with GB/MB that can be drilled down further.

The first option 'Storage Settings' (system settings) will offer 'storage sense' (an automated cleaning option) as well as other system storage menu options.

[Breelander]

A visual tool makes this easy, I use Windirstat, others are available.

I prefer TreeSize Free. I've found in the past that WinDirStat won't show the contents of 'System Volume Information' (where the restore points are stored) while TreeSize does, if run as administrator.

TreeSize Free is available as a Portable App: https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities ... e-portable
(so is WinDirStat).

[terminal7]

JonE wrote:

It appears that things have changed and the downloadable exe no longer does what the file of that name once did. One is now apparently expected to use a checklist and keep fingers crossed

Hopefully we can get back on track!

[panamagold]

Hopefully we can get back on track!

I don't know if this will help, but having read your op at the weekend I decide to hit my 12 year old Dell Inspiron with Win10 Pro.

The spec is:

Processer: Intel(R)Core(TM) Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz
RAM: 4Gb
HDD: 150Gb
Graphics: 1280 x 800

The m/c was originally shipped with WinXP Home which after 5 years I upgraded to Win7 Pro. Sometime during 2015, following discussions here, I downloaded a Win10 ISO to DVD even though a Dell scan reported this piece of kit was not upgradable to Win10. The disc basically just sat there gathering dust as I was perfectly satisfied that Win7 satisfied my needs, I was comfortable using it and that eventually I would just buy another m/c.

However, being the tight wad that I am, on Monday I decided to whirl-up the ISO disk and see what would happen (I do love a challenge).

Moving on, the installation got as far as configuring Win10 and failed as windows was unable to update a 'base level driver'. Inspecting Device Manager there was the yellow warning triangle against an unknown driver for an unknown item which I just uninstalled.

Second attempt also ended in the same result meaning the driver/item uninstall had failed. Then I had the moment. When I originally upgraded to Win7, I encountered a problem with a base level driver missing. Researching, I found I needed to find a Ricoh Media driver for a games contoller. Sorted. Device Manager now has a clean bill of health and Win7 is operating normally.

Moving forward a few years I decided to clean up the m/c and did a reinstall of Win7 which resulted in the same Ricoh base level driver being required. As I don't 'game' I decided to give it a miss as the m/c was working satisfactorily without it.

It now became obvious that to complete the Win10 upgrade I would now need to download the Ricoh driver again to Win7 to enable it to be healthy enough to upgrade to Win10. Also, I downloaded a fresh copy of Win10 ISO to be on the safe side.

Problem solved. Win10 installed and working (rather bizzare GUI though, after the simplicity of all previous Win versions).

Is that it? No.

As I was obviously connected to the internet to carry out the upgrade a connection problem didn't manifest itself until I returned the m/c from 'sleep mode'. No internet connection and a globe type icon in the sys tray as opposed to transmission type icon there should be.

After several attempts to resolve the issue I ran the 'troubleshooter' task which did ultimately fix the problem. That is until the m/c was placed in 'sleep mode' again and reawoken. Bingo! No internet connection.

To cut another long short, I opened Device Manager, opened Intel(R) Pro Wireless Network Connector - Change Settings - Power Management and and did similar with the Broadcom 440x Integrated Controller and there it was. Microsoft had decided to default 'Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power'. Err, no. I'll decide what shuts down and what stays on thank you very much. So a quick untick and now it is onwards and upwards.

Finally, I've unticked all the privacy policies, added a folder to the registry to stop Cortana in its tracks, as I have been unable to unistall it and deleted the majority of the desktop apps.

Hope that above tome helps you or someone else who is still undecided. Remember anything is achievable and good luck.

[terminal7]

Thanks panamagold.

Frankly I do not have the expertise (or the courage) to try to download Win10 to my system. As noted earlier the previous programme to check that existing hardware could handle Win10 is no longer available. It seems to me that the most efficient way for me to proceed is to purchase a new processor with Win10 installed.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, but I do not feel like jumping in the deep end.

T7

[production100]

After several attempts to resolve the issue I ran the 'troubleshooter' task which did ultimately fix the problem. That is until the m/c was placed in 'sleep mode' again and reawoken. Bingo! No internet connection.

Please excuse the diversion but Panamagold you may well find that it does it again. I guess you are connected with ethernet. With some PC's even on a completely new clean installation Windows 10 seems to want to set up two networks, one of which has internet connection and the other does not. There appears to be nothing that can be done about this. Even when you delete the second one in the registry it subsequently re-creates it.

The answer when it happens is to disable the ethernet adaptor and enable it again as many times as needed for it to select the correct network with internet access. In my case I have Network and Network 1. Network has internet access, Network 1 does not (and nothing I do can will make it have internet access).

Chris

[BobGe]

The end? I've not even gotten around to upgrading to W7 yet!

[Infrasonic]

No internet connection and a globe type icon in the sys tray as opposed to transmission type icon there should be.

After several attempts to resolve the issue I ran the 'troubleshooter' task which did ultimately fix the problem. That is until the m/c was placed in 'sleep mode' again and reawoken. Bingo! No internet connection.

To cut another long short, I opened Device Manager, opened Intel(R) Pro Wireless Network Connector - Change Settings - Power Management and and did similar with the Broadcom 440x Integrated Controller and there it was. Microsoft had decided to default 'Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power'. Err, no. I'll decide what shuts down and what stays on thank you very much. So a quick untick and now it is onwards and upwards.

WOW Recently, I have been suffering seemingly random loss of WiFi on my Win 10 laptop that had always been very reliable on WiFi connections. I went into device manager and opened the two Realtek devices I found there. Sure enough, that box was ticked. Unticked them both and now I have to see if my unexplained loss of WiFi has been solved. Thank you for posting.

RVF

Most battery powered smart devices will have options around Bluetooth/WiFi/Hotspots and sleep et al to save power. As screens get ever brighter with higher resolution (4K) then making power savings were ever possible becomes paramount. Keeping the hardware design and OS tightly coordinated helps here, hence why Apple have traditionally done so well on battery life and have slowly been caught by MS as they developed their own hardware ranges like the Surface/Pro/Book.

My Pixel 3a has a 'turn hotspot off if no devices connected' setting, unfortunately it doesn't turn it back on again automatically (I was hoping it could be linked with whitelisted secure locations).
I noticed my new Chromebook has a keep WiFi on during sleep option, which I have on currently. Not A/B'ed it with WiFi off yet to see what exact differences it makes.

[Infrasonic]

Perhaps should have mentioned, the laptop never, ever runs unplugged from the mains. But none the less, it recently developed the habit of dropping it's WiFi seemingly randomly and requiring me to manually reconnect it.
RVF.

You might want to look at setting up a 'high performance' profile in power settings options and then go through the advanced settings to set everything there to stay 'on' that is on timers or off in sleep/hibernate. There are quite a few options there, beyond just WiFi. On a laptop maxing it all out might cause thermal throttling issues, depending on the spec and cooling efficiency.


Search / power and sleep / related settings - additional power settings / High Performance - change plan settings / change advanced power settings.