Matt Taylor, via Google Plus:
Why am I a Mac user? Because it should not take 6 hours to wipe and update a computer. My daughter asked me to completely wipe this Acer laptop, running windows 8.1, and set it back to factory default, install windows 10 and set it up for her. I have forgotten how horrible the user experience is on a windows machine. I am not inept with computers, or even windows, but I could have accomplished this task on my MacBook Pro in a fraction of the time with no headaches, no failures, and it would be completely bug free. But not with this machine, oh no. Windows won’t even accept its own updates. This. This is why I switched, and this is why I will never switch back. I don’t need to tinker. I just want my machine to do what I need it to, when I need it. /rant
Yup.
“I don’t need to tinker.”
Concur.
This is not difficult to do right from the installation media.
The important thing is to not use Express Settings when setting up the first time.
I have already erased and installed Windows 10 on 2 machines and the process wasn’t difficult at all.
But that sounds counter-intuitive to me. “Express Settings” should mean it’s faster and with less hassle. Not “Express except it could make you jump through a bunch of hoops and maybe spend more time than usual depending on the make of your computer.”
That being said, I’ve used express settings on Windows 8 setups without any noticeable difference. The writer may have been running into machine-specific issues, similar to those systems that used to (do they still?) need a little partition of manufacturer specific stuff or they won’t even run, even if you’re wiping to install Linux.
“RTFM.”
I am in the exact same boat. I’m on Day 4 (of after work effort) of trying to do clean install Windows 7 to get the free Windows 10 upgrade. I had the same update failure (wiping out almost 192 attempted updates). I also had to sequentially check for updates after the previous ones completeld at least a dozen times. Then when I was finally caught up on updates, I had no “Get Windows 10” icon. I ran a troubleshooter app specificially designed for this problem and got this: https://twitter.com/JeffChausse/status/629104888719536128
Could not be more true. For me it was the endless driver conflicts with Windows Media Center. Update a video driver, lose all the carefully tuned settings. Install an update to the DVD player, video driver stops working, and on and on and on. Life’s too short to run Windows.
as an ex gamer I’ve spent far too much of my life reinstalling windows instances over the years. done. went Mac and never looked back, do my .net work in VMWare.
Yup.. FOREVER!