Are you happy with Windows 10 Pro?

Steakster, assuming as I would expect that Windows 10 has a task manager function (which is taskmgr.exe in Windows 7), open it and under the "processes" tab see what process or processes have high CPU utilization percentages indicated. If the fan is running full speed all the time chances are it means that some process is imposing a heavy workload on the CPU.

Regarding doing a clean install of Windows 10, until the feature described in the "Device Activation Improvements" paragraph which appears about 2/3 of the way down on this page is officially released (which I don't think has happened yet) Windows 7 activation keys will not work for purposes of activating Windows 10. Although, apparently, once the free upgrade from 7 to 10 is performed on a given computer, and 10 is activated on that computer over the Internet, 10 can THEN be cleanly installed on that computer, and it will activate with no key required.

Also, after upgrading be sure to go through the privacy-related settings in 10, and change the default settings as described in many articles that can be found on the web. A lot of those settings are, um, objectionable, including one which allows Microsoft to use your computer to distribute patches and updates to other computers via the Internet.

Regards,
-- Al

ZD, good point, but I believe that clean installation media can be created by downloading Windows 10 via this page. And if 7 has already been upgraded to 10 and 10 has been activated on the particular machine, per my comments above installing from that medium should make possible a true clean install.

At least, I think so :-)

Best regards,
-- Al

P.S: See the section toward the bottom of this page entitled "How to perform a clean installation of Windows," which appears to confirm my previous comments. See particularly the note below item 5.

Regards,
-- Al

ZD, thanks very much for the nice words, and for providing the link. It reinforces the feelings I've had that in my case, at least, there's no reason to "upgrade" from Windows 7 to 10. (To put that into context, I should add that I don't use computers for audio).

If I do eventually decide to give 10 a try, though, I'll probably multiboot it with 7. I use the Terabyte Unlimited programs for multibooting as well as for disk imaging, which have worked very well for me. In contrast to the dual boot provisions that have been built into some Microsoft OS's, the Terabyte Unlimited boot manager allows multiple OS's to be completely independent of each other, and to be hidden from each other.

Best regards,
-- Al

Pete (Ptss), i7, i5, and also i3 refer to different series of Intel CPU chips. Various versions of each series have existed since around 2010 for laptop applications, and since slightly before that for desktop applications. Each series has evolved through several progressively more powerful generations during those years, the latest generation being referred to as "Skylake," or as "6th generation core processors." (I believe, though, that large scale introduction of Skylake-based laptops may still be a few months off).

While within each of the three series a number of different speed ratings and other parameter differences exist, as a general rule of thumb the i7's tend to be more powerful than the i5's, which in turn tend to be more powerful than the i3's. Although in general faster speeds and greater computing power correspond (within a given generation) to more heat being generated, which can rule out the use of many high powered CPUs in a small laptop, and to shorter battery run-times.

Regarding the issues Steakster reported in his last post, my guess is that the problems are driver-related. It's not uncommon for HP and other manufacturers to not release driver updates that would make older computers compatible with new versions of Windows. As well as for the drivers that are built into a new version of Windows to not be compatible with older computers. In the case of laptops, I've found both situations to be particularly true when it comes to graphics/video drivers.

Regards,
-- Al