Windows 10: Will Free Windows 10 "Upgrade" work with Clean Install (CMPXCHG16b)?

Your plan sounds very feasible.

 

According to this:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../dn798752.aspx

Also, according to this article, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that support for these processors was deliberately removed for security reasons.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/som...ndows-8-1.html

Maybe you should just upgrade to a CPU that supports the instructions.

 

I'm back in the confusion zone again.............
Enterprise is a different breed of cat???

He has full retail version of Win7???

 

If this is true, it may be that this behaviour in the Preview is unintentional and Microsoft might 'fix' this for the final version -in a way which doesn't support your CPU in 64-bit. If so, the issue of whether you can download a clean install becomes less relevant.

I don't think we know enough about how Microsoft are planning to do the free upgrades. For instance they may allow you to claim a new Product Key (they did something like this for Windows 8 Media Center) which you could then use to download an ISO. They also have the Windows 8.1 Media Creation tool these days which lets users of some (but not all) windows 8.1 versions download an ISO for reinstallation/repair. So I'm hopeful we'll be able to et ISOs to do clean installs. But we don't really know enough yet.

 

I would be very surprised if this was any different for any other version of Windows. They only specify Enterprise there because that's the version that is the download page for that version.

 

Yes, I have the full retail version of Windows 7 (Home Premium 64-bit). What's so incredibly earth-shattering about that?

 

Nothing earth-shattering but there is a great deal of difference between the two versions.
You purchased the retail version and that's a smart move in my mind.
With the Retail version you get a Product Key to register your install.
Buy a new computer and you can move your Retail version to the new computer and re-register it. Not true with other versions or editions of Windows.

That's the simple explanation! I would suggest that you research Windows Editions or Windows Versions to get a fuller understanding. There are only about 55 million hits on those subjects so maybe that could be called earth-shattering!

I don't buy into the idea that you won't be able to do a clean install of Win10 on your machine. The machine runs Win8 so I'm confident that it will run Win10 with a "clean install" of the appropriate ISO from a DVD or a USB drive.
The registration of the free Win10 requires that you own a copy or Win7 or Win8 and are willing to swap your system for the new one. Details to follow!
I don't think MS has released anything in that regard yet??

If you are a new user as intimated above I would recommend that you make Google your BFF. Google has the answers to your questions with the greatest challenge being how to frame your question.
Enterprise vs Home vs Pro?
Windows versions
Windows editions
These all produce an abundance of information.
Wikipedia also answers these questions...........

 

DavidY seems to be the only one here who truly understands the issue, and his summary is cogent and right to the point: He says he doesn't know. Fair enough.

We simply don't know how Microsoft is finally going to handle this "upgrade" policy, with regard to clean installations, how their licensing schema will work, and whether this CMPXCHG16b instruction nonsense will continue.

My additional takeaway (plus a bit of editorializing):

Also unknown is whether Microsoft will continue to drop Windows 10 x64 support for "old", 2005-vintage (but otherwise perfectly fine) CPUs, such as my 2.2 GHz AMD X2 4400+ dual core processor, but will continue to claim that Windows 8.X and Windows 10 can run perfectly fine on 1 GHz single-core processors - the first of which became available around March of 2000, which is now 15 years ago.

I don't get it. Does Microsoft believe that the year 2005 is older than the year 2000? I guess when it comes to supporting certain AMD processors on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 x64, they do.

 

I think post 15 explained it. It's time for some new hardware.

 

Microsoft apparently doesn't think that it's time for new hardware if it's from the year 2000, if it's single core, and if it runs at 1 GHz. But if it's from the year 2005, if it's dual core, and if it runs at 2.2 GHz, then Microsoft *does* think that it's time for new hardware. Yeah, that makes sense.

 

It runs Windows 8, but not 8.1. 10 is based on 8.1.

8.1 had an internal change that removed the CMPXCHG16b software emulation patch, apparently for security reasons according to at least one blog entry which claimed to have an official Microsoft Spokesperson behind it.

Windows 8 had special code that emulated this instruction. That's why it works with Windows 8, but no in 8.1 and not in 10.

And the differences between Enterprise and Standard/Pro would have nothing to do with this emulation is my point.

 

With my previous PC I was able to run Win7Pro(64bit) without a hitch. But when I used Win8/WIn8.1 I would run into issues with the chip-set on the motherboard made by Intel. There were no upgrades to make the older motherboard compatible with the newer OS(Win8/Win8.1). While the PS would run fine the problem came in when I had to shut it down for any prolonged period of time and when I went to restart it I would encounter a lot of errors resulting in my need to reinstall Win8.1.

That's why I spent the money and got new hardware so I could use Win8.1 and Win10 properly when it came out. Nothing lasts forever and some upgrades should be expected.

Just my 2c.. YMMV..

 

I still don't see the problem.........

from Wikipedia..............
"Older implementations[edit]

• Early AMD64 processors lacked the CMPXCHG16B instruction, which is an extension of the CMPXCHG8B instruction present on most post-80486 processors. Similar to CMPXCHG8B, CMPXCHG16B allows for atomic operations on octal words. This is useful for parallel algorithms that use compare and swap on data larger than the size of a pointer, common in lock-free and wait-free algorithms. Without CMPXCHG16B one must use workarounds, such as a critical section or alternative lock-free approaches.[41] Its absence also prevents 64-bit Windows prior to Windows 8.1 from having a user-mode address space larger than 8 terabytes.[42] The 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 requires the instruction.[43]
• Early AMD64 and Intel 64 CPUs lacked LAHF and SAHF instructions in 64-bit mode. AMD introduced these instructions (also in 64-bit mode) with their Athlon 64, Opteron and Turion 64 revision D processors in March 2005[44][45][46] while Intel introduced the instructions with the Pentium 4 G1 stepping in December 2005. The 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 requires this feature.[43]
• Early Intel CPUs with Intel 64 also lack the NX bit of the AMD64 architecture. This feature is required by all versions of Windows 8.x.
• Early Intel 64 implementations only allowed access to 64 GB of physical memory while original AMD64 implementations allowed access to 1 TB of physical memory. Recent AMD64 implementations provide 256 TB of physical address space (and AMD plans an expansion to 4 PB),[citation needed] while some Intel 64 implementations could address up to 64 TB.[47] Physical memory capacities of this size are appropriate for large-scale applications (such as large databases), and high-performance computing (centrally oriented applications and scientific computing)."

and still contend that your machine will run Win10 from a clean install!

Are you anticipating a problem with getting the media and doing a clean install?

Do you feel that an upgrade is better than a clean install?

There's something here that I don't understand?

Maybe the procedure of installing an OS from media to a wiped drive is a concern?
Not to worry! We all do it all the time!

Tell us something besides it won't work, you're sure it won't work, and it ain't no damn good!

 

Roger, your own quote explains the problem *Wink

 

*Redface

For what it's worth, I'm pretty confident that Mystere understands the issue better than I do.