Windows 10: Can you perform an offline upgrade of Windows 10 1709 to 1809 without formatting the drive?

I can't seem to find an official 1809 image as the Media Creation tool goes right to 2004 now. Is there a way to upgrade an offline PC from Win10 1709 to 1809 without formatting the drive/no data loss? And is there a way to obtain an official upgrade/image file through Microsoft? Would need to be able to do this right through a flash drive, the PC cannot touch the network.


Thanks in advance.

:)

 

Windows 10 formatting ?

Hello all
I have 3 hard drives
1 sata 1 tb with Windows 10
2 older drives that are ide that I use for apps and data and not clutter my main drive.

I will be replacing the 2 older drives with a 2 tb data drive

I am thinking of formatting my main drive and starting all new and reloading everything.

My problem is that I was on Windows 7 pro 64 bit and got Windows 10 pro 64 bit upgrade free.
So don't have Windows 10 CD or a code for it. So if I format will I be able to get Windows 10 for free
Or I'll I have to buy the CD.
Don't really want to spend 200.00 bucks right now.

Have not formatted in a while what's the best way now a days ?

Thanks Ruben

 

Windows 10 upgrade rant..

The free space shouldn't prevent you from upgrading to built 1607. I manually upgraded my own laptop which had only 9gigs free space left on the system drive.

I unzipped the Windows 10 Pro anniversary edition ISO on my D drive, and started the upgrade process from there. At one point the installer complained about not having enough free space on the main drive, i just had to point it to the D drive to proceed to the next step. Now the rollback installation is stored there and doesn't clog up the C drive anymore.

In your case you could insert a large sdcard to act as the required rollback drive, i'm pretty sure it would do the trick.

Oh and by the way, if you want to further compress your System files:

• do a search Command Prompt, right-click it, and select Run as administrator.
• Type COMPACT.EXE /CompactOS:always and hit Enter.

You'll will gain anything from 2 to 4 gigs free space after it's done.

 

Microsoft enables offline play for Windows 10 games

Most Windows 10 games will support offline play, but you'll have to work at it.





"Larry Hryb, the man known to the world as Major Nelson, announced on Twittertoday that Microsoft has "made some backend updates to improve your experience playing @Windows 10 games offline." Basically, if you're going to be somewhere that lacks online coverage—on a submarine, for instance—it will still be possible to play your games. But there are some restrictions.

"Most games available in the Store on your Windows 10 device support offline play, but check the details of the game to make sure yours is supported by searching for your game at http://www.xbox.com," the Xbox support site says. "Most games with a campaign mode will be playable offline, but games with network co-op or multiplayer features will not work while you’re offline. While playing offline, some features, such as the ability to purchase additional items from the Windows Store, will not be available. Additionally, any leaderboards will be unavailable while you're offline."

Obviously, online features like buying stuff from in-game stores won't be available when you're offline, but the bit about "games with network co-op or multplayer features" not working while offline really isn't clear. We tested with Gears of War 4 and confirmed that the offline features like campaign and LAN multiplayer worked just fine when disconnected.

There are more caveats, though. You're limited to just one "designated offline device" at a time, and you can only change your designated offline device three times per year. Switching into offline mode isn't all that easy, either. First, you'll need to set your designated offline device:

• Make sure that you’re online.
• Check that your device has the latest Windows updates: Go to Start,Settings, Update and security, and then Windows Update and see if any relevant updates are available.
• Open the Store. You’ll be prompted to sign in if you haven’t already.
• Select the Me icon (this is your profile picture).
• Select Settings, and then under Offline Permissions, make sure that the toggle is set to On.

After that, you'll have to "prepare" your games by launching each one that you want to play offline while you're still online, and logging into your Xbox Live account. This is a bit like launching Steam into Offline mode while you still have an internet connection... but you'll have to prepare each individual Xbox game this way before going offline.

Once you've logged into the game while you're online, you can exit at any time and you'll be set. Of course, if you change your mind and want to play something you haven't properly prepared, you're out of luck.

The upside is that this only affects Windows 10 games, but it still seems wildly complicated and restrictive to me. Worse, while improved functionality is always welcome, I can't see how this does anything but beg for unflattering comparisons with Steam: When I want to play my Steam games offline, I set Steam offline, restart it, and I'm on my way—and I can do it as often as I want. Microsoft's implementation of offline play is an improvement, but only because it wasn't available at all previously. As a step toward becoming more competitive with Steam, though, it falls woefully short."

Microsoft enables offline play for Windows 10 games | PC Gamer