Windows 10: No GWX by choice, should I install it?

On my Windows 8.1 laptop I have avoided all the GWX updates pushed over the last year. I have hidden the KBs as they were offered and reoffered. I have no GWX icon or any other prompt to get Windows 10.

Now is the time for me to install Win 10 on this laptop. I think the major thing I am missing by not having GWX is the compatibility checker. While the laptop is only a few years old (originally Win 8 upgraded to 8.1) and I am confident it is able to run Win 10 I wonder if I should make sure? AFAICT I would have to have the GWX tool to run the compatibility checker. I have found ways to manually run the checker but I believe I still would need the GWX tool for it to work. Or should I just go ahead and upgrade without first getting the GWX? I am thinking this is probably not the best idea.

Hopefully I have made sense in what I am asking and am interested in hearing your thoughts.

:)

 

upgrade to win 10 from win 8.1 single language with bing

Specifically the problem is that GWX update is installed, but it claims that it installed incorrectly, i've got GWX files on my hard drive, but i can't find GWX icon on taskbar, it doesn't appear. Maybe i should reinstall my windows 8.1 and start from
the beginning?

 

I can't get Windows 10 to download at all and can someone explain why the screen for the upgrade app is white?

My update failed 8 times until i removed the GWX app and installed through windows update. Take ownership of C:\windows\system32\gwx folder and delete it should work after that.

 

AFAIK, all Windows 8 produced machines are Win 10 compatible.
Current Win 10 updates' driver array is quite impressive.
My suggestion would be backup your current system, then do an upgrade or clean install from an ISO.
I'm not too keen on anything related to GWX myself, TBH.

 

I agree with Superfly. That's what I would do.

 

OK I will skip GWX. Thanks to you both for the advice.

I hate to start going in a different direction but in creating a system image I was thinking of using Macrium. One potential problem is that this laptop does not have a disk drive and from my cursory look at the program it creates a recovery CD that is used to restore the saved image. Or am I wrong? I will do some additional reading but maybe someone could let me know if I am right or wrong in my thinking that I wouldn't be able to use Macrium in my situation. Perhaps I should just use the built in Windows System Image tool with an external HDD. This laptop is bare bones and I have already backed up the few files I keep on it to a thumb drive so the system image will be pretty small.

 

Once you insert a thumb drive you can create a Macrium Rescue USB.. or just create the ISO from the DVD option and create the bootable USB from that with Rufus.

DVD's are definitely not required.