My "New" Desktop Computer

Who has downloaded Windows 10 recently? I must admit that I have been rather curious to find out what the new system is like.  So since the weather has been rather hot and humid, I decided to spend a bit of time indoors recently and try my luck at downloading Microsoft Windows 10 software for my relatively old desktop computer. The price was right at $0. I know it's been available for a while now and the free download will expire towards the end of July, so looking at the calendar, it was about time that I took the plunge. 

To be direct about it all, I did not expect a big problem. My family has downloaded it on their computers already.  The only negative about it that I saw was how big the download was and I was not exactly certain how long that would be but expected it to take several hours or more.

Things started to get a little bit funny. I thought that I had already downloaded the large size of the software even though I had not yet tried to install it, but the website that I went to told me to download it again.  I wondered why this was done, but I decided to start the download all over again.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly as the software was being downloaded and after I think it was all downloaded, a number of other new tasks had to be done to finalize the updates.

Strangely, everything went perfectly until right to the end of all the tasks.  It just seemed to stop at 99% completion. That seemed very bizarre to me. Oh well, I was not particularly upset, although annoyed, because that had happened before in other downloads. So naturally, I had to start it all over again and wait the numerous hours for it to be successfully completed.

Of course, or else I would not be writing this article, that did not happen. It failed again in almost the exact same manner. 99% downloaded and then froze for no reason that I knew of. Accordingly, I started looking around various websites to see what others might be saying about this issue. A lot of people seemed to have the same problem that I had with the download freezing. After reading some trouble-shooting articles, a number of people were successful! Regretfully, none of the things that they did worked for me. I had decided instead to call Microsoft.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. There was a rather large issue that I found for my computer. Here's what HP said that was rather important because that is the brand that my computer was in its time-period of when it was built:

"Upgrade to Windows 10

HP has not tested your PC model for upgrade to Windows 10.

If your Windows 7 or 8 PC was manufactured before August 2013 or is running Windows XP or Windows Vista, HP cannot confirm it can be upgraded to Windows 10."

My computer was purchased in 2011/2012!

This was completely outrageous to me because I had never seen anything that suggested that a name brand computer with Windows 7 on it, as mine had, would have any kind of a problem at all especially a major one so that it could not be used to download Windows 10.

I called Microsoft to find out if this issue had been resolved.  The calls were taken in India by a group that Microsoft had set up to solve problems. Fortunately, no one had to pay long-distance calls to those people or else I am so sure that very few would and Microsoft would have major issues.

The first call was the strangest of all of the ones that I had subsequently. I spoke with the technician for several minutes about the problem and then the entire call was cut off with a busy signal. I no longer had anyone to speak with.

I tried again and while this time I was not cut off, again, nothing happened and I disconnected. Accordingly, and I was getting more angry, I tried for the 3rd time. This time I was able to speak with the technician who told me that my problem could not be solved, so that I should go out and buy a new computer if I wanted Windows 10. Again, I got extremely angry when I heard this because there was nothing that Microsoft suggested was a problem for any major computer system while this fellow told me that it was common knowledge that there were lots of issues for different computers, especially if they were older ones with Windows on them. That was the end our conversation.

I was not satisfied with this response, so I contacted HP to find out what they knew about downloading the new Windows 10 product on their computer. Without going into a long conversation about it, they told me that they would be quite willing to try to help me resolve the problem. The fee for them to do so was $100 or I could buy a contract for a one-year maintenance agreement with the cost of around $50 for the first month and then an additional charge of approximately $15-$20 per month. No way! This seemed like an easy money-grab that was not worth it for such an old computer like mine. 

Feeling frustrated yet still determined to find an answer, I called back Microsoft. Accordingly, I went back to speaking to another one of their Indian tech workers, but this time I asked to speak to a supervisor. Then another supervisor and another...and another. You'd think I was a glutton for punishment!

The last supervisor I spoke with was quite polite but really had nothing to offer me, as far as solutions go. He said that the HP system and software I was using was not workable at all, so that there was nothing they can do to help me. He explained to me that even though the Microsoft system had told everyone in general that this software was completely acceptable to them, it was not. Their message really did not deal with the computer itself but whether or not the software involved could be downloaded on some computer similar to mine. The gentleman admitted that there are many pieces of hardware built around my time that suffered from this issue. He really did not apologize for Microsoft not telling me that my computer could not download Windows 10 and that I had wasted so much time trying to do so.

In any event, we hung up and like the trooper I am, I tried one more time to download their software. Interestingly though, something new happened for my computer. It seemed now that all of the Windows 10 software had been downloaded without any problems. In fact, my computer was having the new software installed in it. It did not stop where it did before. Until, another 99% supposed freeze-up once again. It stopped at 99% of what it was supposed to do once again, but this time at a different section.

I was pretty much resolved that nothing could ever happen to improve this computer. I was just hoping that the computer had not now been totally messed up from how many times I had to re-download the software. I was very disappointed in the service from Microsoft and HP.

In my final attempt, I was watching the page which had arrived at the dreaded 99% mark. I sipped a glass of water and sighed, as I pretty much knew I would be back to square one. This time though...the screen said complete! Was I dreaming?? NO, it downloaded everything! Just a short wait after that, the rest of the updates were ready and Hallelujah, I am now happy to say that I have Windows 10 on my computer and it works well! 

Now please excuse me so that I can ask my personal assistant "Cortana" (Windows 10 new feature)  if she can help me search for a few recipes online!