Windows 10 Preview on Surface Pro 3

[sharpuser]

Here's what I did:

- Make sure OneDrive has all your stuff.
- Skip most driver installs as you can.
- Install Windows 10.
- After it comes up and you can run programs, do a "Refresh".

Now comes the long part. The "Refresh" includes all you need to start the proper installation of software and firmware, except patience. You must supply that.

 

[GTiceman]

I think I found the culprit on mine for the latest crashes. Seems one of my apps was not getting along well with the OS

Update: That seems to have done it for now, however my Pen isn't launching OneNote or taking screenshots anymore. Anyone else having this issue?

 

[B'midbar]

From scratch:

1. 30 minutes to do a fall Macrium Reflect of my existing 8.1 partitions, OS, apps and data to an external 3TB Western Digital over USB 3.0. I was able to simultaneously uninstall all my 8.1 apps that like to phone home (Adobe Acrobat), keep track of license count installs (MS Office 2013 and Visio Premium 2010) and authorize (iTunes) while the image backup ran. In fact, pretty much uninstalled all apps in that half hour.
2. 30 minutes to extract the 9926 .ISO to a 32GB, class 10 SanDisk MicroSDHC in a microSD adapter on the SP3's USB port. Used Rufus to make the USB bootable.
   
3. 22 minutes from jump drive boot to Win10 TP desktop with two re-boots at 8 and 16 minutes in respectively.
4. Another 15 minutes for the January 27th updates, it stayed on 95% complete a good long while on that reboot.
5. Now laying down Visio 2010 Premium and Office Pro 2013 because once Windows Update sees those guys there I know there will be about a gigabyte of service packs and security updates.

This go 'round it's looking a lot "peppier" than the in-place 8.1 > 10 upgrade. I always construct a custom .jpg or .png from Control Panel > Programs and Features of what I have installed on a machine so I probably have another 2-3 hrs of re-installing another two and a half dozen apps, but all in all not too bad.

One thing I have noticed on my SP3 under 8.1 or Win10 TP is it takes a solid 2-3 minutes after a warm or cold re-boot for the bluetooth mouse and keyboard to be seen and work consistently.

Flip side though is I've got 150% scaling at 2160x1440 on the SP3 and 100% on my external AOC 2963 at 2560 x 1080 so this is a BIG improvement. Thanks to @jnjroach and others who've pointed out where that setting is.

Cheers, B

 

[hughlle]

So encountered a slight bug today.

 

[GTiceman]

well thats interesting

 

[surferpro3]

Did you guys install this in a New partition or over the existing OS?

IF partitioned, can I do this without ruining my system files? I did partition a HDD(not SSD) With files on it and it got corrupted.

 

[GTiceman]

Do not partition an SSD

 

[surferpro3]

Do not partition an SSD

okey lol im not going to install it at all i think. Unless i can install it painfree and keep all my programfiles etc. And then migrate to the full Version of Windows 10.

Edit: i do have it on a Vm but its so slow to run VM on surface. Is it possible to install w10 preview and then switch to full W10 later?

 

[bluegrass]

I thought it was very easy. I just went to the Insider site (https://insider.windows.com/) and signed up, downloaded and installed it. I lost the ability to go back to 8.1 but it kept all my programs and data without a hitch.

 

[hughlle]

I thought it was very easy. I just went to the Insider site (https://insider.windows.com/) and signed up, downloaded and installed it. I lost the ability to go back to 8.1 but it kept all my programs and data without a hitch.

Same here. Would have nice to be able to revert like michivii has been able to do. Made me wonder as to the logic of having a 25gb windows.old folder if you can't revert to it.

 

[hughlle]

well thats interesting

Yeah, was a result of having a second monitor plugged in. I was movin the task bar and accidentlly dragged into the second display, and windows said nuh uh, and just duplicated. As you can see, one is the taskbar from a second display, hence no volume, network, battery controls etc. Had to do a restart to get rid of it.

Stil trying to work out how to pin "this pc" to the start menu, or ideally, the taskbar, for some reason my new install only has the file explorer icon on the takbar, and nothing i do can get this pc up there.

 

[bvone21]

okey lol im not going to install it at all i think. Unless i can install it painfree and keep all my programfiles etc. And then migrate to the full Version of Windows 10.

Edit: i do have it on a Vm but its so slow to run VM on surface. Is it possible to install w10 preview and then switch to full W10 later?

I posted something similar in this thread somewhere...Like yourself, I didn't like the performance in a VM but wanted to install it in the least disruptive way to my current 8.1 install. You can install to a VHD and dual boot from this VHD. There's no risk to your 8.1 install, and to remove, you just delete the VHD and boot record from msconfig. I spend 95% of my time in 8.1...so this works well for me...

You do need to turn off bitlocker to use this method. Google the topic of installing windows 10 to a VHD and you should get a bunch of hits for different ways to get it done.