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Successful Windows 10 Upgrade, 2011 iMac 27", Anyone Else?

Just a data point for everyone out there who is considering an upgrade to Windows 10. How many others who have had a smooth transition are out there?

I have a mid-2011 iMac, 27", running OS X 10.10.4 (Yosemite) and I recently reinstalled Windows 7 after the previous Windows 7 installation, which was about four years old, became unstable and crashed. I'm also running BCA 5.1.4, and when I reinstalled Windows 7 I had a USB drive with the most recent Apple drivers for Windows (just downloaded for the Windows 7 reinstall) plugged into the machine, so presumably I am running the most recent drivers for this machine.

Regarding the Windows 10 upgrade, normally I am not an early adopter of anything; in this case, my intent was to download the installer and wait until Apple released El Capitan. I figured the possibility of avoiding a future purchase of Windows 10 made it worth attempting. However, when I clicked "Yes" on the "Try Windows 10" popup that I kept getting, I had no idea they would be delivering this upgrade via Windows Update, and there would be no easy way of stopping it. Even hiding the update would not prevent it from downloading, and their promise that I could download and install later really amounted to anytime in the next two days. There was no other option presented.

Since the reinstall of Windows 7 wasn't totally done, I figured I would take a chance, instead of possibly paying $119 or whatever W10 down the road. So I allowed W10 to be installed.

I'm happy to report the upgrade appears to have went off without a hitch. It wasn't a clean install, but rather an upgrade from W7. I was quite surprised at how painless it was, actually. When I had completed the installation, I was momentarily speechless to find that all my software appeared to be intact, and it seems that I can basically pick up where I left off with my W7 reinstallation. It's the first time that's ever happened in my experience; in the past when I have upgraded Windows, I've reinstalled everything.

In any case, they promised I'd get a free copy of W10 Home Edition, but I was upgrading from W7 Ultimate, and it says I now have W10 Pro. So far, so good; I'm posting this from my new W10 installation.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 8, 2015 3:45 PM

Top-ranking reply

sorl

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 5:45 PM

I also have the same model and upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 without too many issues initially. I only had to reinstall the drivers for my keyboard to get the volume keys to work again. I was also pleased to find that my gpu drivers had been updated from 14.3 to 15.something – one week older than the 15.7.1 currently available. I was able to further update to 15.7.1 by manually updating the drivers by downloading the file then going to device manager -> display adapter -> update driver using files on computer.

However yesterday while using Edge – and later Chrome – to download some large files Windows kept crashing; I'm using Wifi to connect to the Internet. Files of 256MB were fine but 500MB resulted in IRQL_Unexpected_Value crash (not sure of where the exact cut off point is between the two file sizes). Up until then I didn't notice any internet issues as my Steam and Origin games updated themselves and I played online. Either everything was being broken down into smaller packets – which is likely – or something broke in the last few days. After spending several hours trying to figure out how to open and read the memory dump files from the crash it appeared to be an issue with the Qualcomm Atheros drivers which were still dated from 2010. I then spent several more hours trying to find official site for updates, but apparently Qualcomm can't be bothered with that. I had to finally settle on https://www.atheros.cz/ as my source of drivers for the AR938x and updated to version 10.0.0.308. As of now downloading large files appears to work.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has run into the same issue.

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86 replies

Oct 7, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

Just a brief update, after two months of W10 and a week of El Capitan (10.11):

Everything has been quite smooth with W10 for two months. There have been a couple of minor hiccups, but nothing worth complaining about. W10 seems to me-- a layman, with a very low level of knowledge when it comes to Windows savvy-- to be quite smooth in comparison to W7.

Regarding the upgrade to El Capitan, which I did about a week ago, I have noticed no difference on the Windows side of things. If there were changes made below the surface, I haven't noticed anything. I confess, I have not bothered to look to see if Bootcamp was updated; I'm just doing my thing, and if it ain't broke, I'm not going to be fixing something.

Future readers, in case you're wondering, I am running W10 on 2011 27" iMac with 12GB of RAM and a hard-wired keyboard/mouse.

jndupuis1

Level 2

462 points

Oct 7, 2015 9:41 PM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

As well, I have had success on my Mac Mini (late 2012). I feel my transition from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro in Boot Camp went more smoothly than my transition to El Capitan from Yosemite. Windows 10 Pro really is impressive on the Intel/Nvidia Chipset Mac.

I'm running the Mac Mini (late 2012) 16 GB RAM, Apple USB Full Keyboard, Apple Magic Trackpad, Apple USB SuperDrive, Asus PA248q Monitor, 1 TB My Passport for Mac USB HD and a 1 TB LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt external HD.

Cheers!!

Oct 28, 2015 7:15 AM in response to jndupuis1

I updated my Macbook late 2011 to Windows 10, 12 hours ago. Works perfectly. the only thing I had to do was downloading the drivers for the volume button, the dimmer button and installed them again. You can find those drivers from the previous Bootcamp 5.6 i believe.

ytsentas

Level 1

4 points

Nov 10, 2015 2:11 AM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

How to Install Windows 10 from iso on old MacBook running El Capitan

http://tsentas.net/install-windows-10-from-iso-on-old-macbook-running-el-capitan /

Nov 10, 2015 3:25 AM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

I have the Mac pro 2010, and although apple tells me "not possible, not supported", i have win 10 running perfectly.

Installed Win 7 for testing on a dedicated extra disk, installed the bootcamp supplementary, made the update to 10 via gwx / media creation tool. Works perfect.

The only negative aspect is running the win 10 bootcamp session both under bootcamp AND vmware or parallels.

Then under bootcamp windows 10 tells me it is activated, running it as a virtual machine it asks for re-activation. Back to bootcamp it is activated again.

No solution yet, neither from vmware nor parallels.

greetings from germany

Chris

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 10, 2015 4:01 AM in response to Christian Stueben

The VMware activation should be required only once. If you are being asked for it every time you run Windows in a VM, then it may be a different problem.

Nov 10, 2015 5:44 AM in response to Loner T

Yes, that is clear. Activatin is required only once. But in this case, as all postings on vmware, parallels, and microsoft forums say, win 10 is activated for the virtual machine, and bootcamp itself tells it is not activated and requires activation. This is with a retail win 10. The updated win 10 has license only for the original machine, so a second activation for another machine is not possible. And bootcamp and virtual session are two different machines for windows.

Or do you have newer and better information?

greetings from germany

Chris

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 10, 2015 5:49 AM in response to Christian Stueben

The order of activation should be Bootcamp install/upgrade/activate first and second VMware (or any other VM tools). If you do it in reverse, the M$ servers register the virtual HW footprint first and think the BC installation is a different HW signature machine and will not allow it.

Nov 10, 2015 6:11 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner,

are your sure? I ask again because EVERY posting on vmware, parallels, AND in the microsoft forums said that a double activation for win 10 will not be possible, because the activation mechanism in win 10 is different to win 7, and a win 10 that is upgraded from win 7/8 does NOT allow a reactivation for different hardware footprint at all.

Do you have reports that it will work for win 10 in the order you spoke? Did you test this yourself? is it Apple intenal information? Or from where is your information?

greetings from germany

Chris

yes, i admit, my win 10 installation is especially for testing this, but because install win 7, update more than 200 fixes, update to win 10 takes more than one day, so i don´t want to ruin this test installation without being sure 😉

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 10, 2015 7:22 AM in response to Christian Stueben

Win10 after a BC install registers the HW signatures with M$ servers. In my testing, I have always activated W10/BC first and then re-activation works under Fusion. I normally do not use Parallels.

Do you have a link when Fusion and W10 are involved and VMware re-activation is unsuccessful?

Nov 10, 2015 7:43 AM in response to Loner T

Ok, i gave your activation order a try.

Win 10 told me it cannot be activated, Fehlercode: 0xC004C003 (cannot be activated because activation server has detected the product key is locked.

As i said, the updated version cannot be activated a second time.

greetings from germany

Chris

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 10, 2015 7:47 AM in response to Christian Stueben

Is this from the VM or Bootcamp? Has the W10 installation activated been at least once? If yes, was that from BC or Fusion? If Fusion did it first, this will not work. Your key is now tied to the virtual HW signature. You will need to call M$ so BC is the activated/registered HW signature first.

Nov 10, 2015 8:06 AM in response to Loner T

This message is from the vmware fusion session.

Initially, when i did the test installation under bootcamp (w7, fixes, gwx/media creation tool, w10), windows 10 has been automatically been activated.

Then i did many reboots under bootcamp and fusion. Bootcamp always said activated, fusion always "please activate me". Then after many many reboots BOTH said "please reactivate me". Maybee there is something like a counter. So i did a manual activation under bootcamp. Yes, bootcamp is the first hardware i activated manually. Worked without problem. After this bootcamp again activated and fusion "please activate".

Did you test the dual boot setup with an update version or an retail version of win 10?

greetings from germany

Chris

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Nov 10, 2015 8:15 AM in response to Christian Stueben

My W10 ISO came from the Microsoft servers and was used for both upgrade from W8.1 to W10 and a W10 clean installation. Fusion was used to import the BC partition after the clean install, not after the initial W8.1->W10 upgrade. My VMware version is 5.0.4.

Nov 10, 2015 8:33 AM in response to Loner T

Hmm, i didnt use the iso, but gwx / media creation tool to make a fast update from 7 to 10.

Maybee i should another try with the iso too, but this will be next week or later. I am afraid it still will be a long way to go. Until then my "productive bootcamp w7" will not be updated (three separate discs, one osx, one w7, one for the test installation w7->w10).

Ahem, one last question ... when you look at you win 10 bootcamp settings, compatibility, what is the hardware version you have set? For my productive win 7 i have set hardware version 11, the w7->w10 test installation has hardware version 12. Could this be the reason?

greetings from germany

Chris

Successful Windows 10 Upgrade, 2011 iMac 27", Anyone Else?