New computer/laptop advice thread

[seepage]

For the Windows 8 license, it looks like you should be able to look up your windows 10 key on your PC 

ShowKeyPlus seems to now only retrieve the generic Windows 10 key, not the original Windows 7/8 key. If you know of another utility that can retrieve the original 7/8 key I'd be very grateful

[seepage]

I need a new laptop, current one is on the fritz (after only 3yrs as well). Was never happy with this one as it only has 8gb of memory - useless. Any recs for someone who likes gaming but isn't necessarily bothered about top of the range graphics or whatever? I just want to be able to play Civ VI and XCOM 2.

I think Civ VI only needs 4GB RAM & XCOM 2 8GB. It would be nice to have 32GB for future-proofing but it should be easy upgrading the memory at a later date. Any 'gaming' laptop with a Core i5 processor should be OK (I no nothing about AMD processors)

[falafel]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

So I follow those instructions there, install that onto a thumb drive then plug the thumb drive into the new machine and that will install Windows 10? Says in my settings that Windows 10 Pro is activated with a digital license linked to my Microsoft account, so I just sign in with my Microsoft account and I'm good to go and ready to upgrade to Windows 11?

Errr, I think so[/]

This guide is a little bit more in depth than the official Microsoft one and explains the ins and outs in a way that is a little bit more relevant for your situation - ie a totally new PC, rather than a hardware upgrade. It is more or less the same process though.

Microsoft don't really seem to care as much as they used to about this sort of stuff, it was much harder for win 7 and 8 as I recall but they have maybe realised it doesn't really dent their revenue so not worth the faff.

[BeardFaceMan]

Last question (hopefully), I want to get a USB3 hub (4 ports should do it), do I need a powered one?

[falafel]

I can't answer that one but sorry also that I seem to have totally fucked my reply formatting and also not pasted the link. And now I can't tell what guide I used.
Edit: here you go https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/transfer-windows-license-to-new-pc

[BeardFaceMan]

I can't answer that one but sorry also that I seem to have totally fucked my reply formatting and also not pasted the link. And now I can't tell what guide I used.
Edit: here you go https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/transfer-windows-license-to-new-pc

I can see how resetting Windows deactivates my license on the old computer so I can sign in with my license on the new PC but it also says just formatting the hard drive will work but that worries me in case anything goes wrong, I'll have 2 PC's with no OS. Should I stick with the resetting method linked to in that article (this one - https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/factory-reset-windows-11-or-10)?

[falafel]

I can't guarantee because it's been a long time since I transferred a license in this way (my new laptop had windows pre-installed this time around).

My first approach, personally, would be to try just going through a clean install on the new PC without doing anything to the old one, and seeing if you can just do the "I changed my hardware" thing off the bat. That is, without bothering to reset or format the old one. I'm not saying that's what you should do, but it's probably what I'd try first to avoid too much faffing.

[BeardFaceMan]

I can't guarantee because it's been a long time since I transferred a license in this way (my new laptop had windows pre-installed this time around).

My first approach, personally, would be to try just going through a clean install on the new PC without doing anything to the old one, and seeing if you can just do the "I changed my hardware" thing off the bat. That is, without bothering to reset or format the old one. I'm not saying that's what you should do, but it's probably what I'd try first to avoid too much faffing.

I just contacted Microsoft support cos I don't want to fuck this up and they basically suggested that method of yours -

"To transfer your Windows 10 Pro license from your old PC to your new PC, you can follow these steps:

1. On your old PC, make sure you are signed in with your Microsoft account. This will help ensure that your license is linked to your account.

2. On your new PC, sign in with the same Microsoft account that you used on your old PC.

3. Go to the "Activation" settings on your new PC. You can do this by going to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Activation.

4. In the Activation settings, select "Troubleshoot" and then choose the option to "I changed hardware on this device recently".

5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the activation process. Windows will detect that you have transferred your license from your old PC and will activate Windows 10 Pro on your new PC.

Once you have successfully transferred your Windows 10 Pro license to your new PC, you can proceed with upgrading to Windows 11. Please note that the upgrade to Windows 11 may have additional system requirements, so make sure your new PC meets the necessary criteria."


And when I asked if I needed to reinstall windows or format the drive or anything on my old pc, I got -

"You do not have to do anything on your old PC, rest assured"

So we'll see how that goes. Thanks again for the help.

[BeardFaceMan]

So my PC is nearly here, it's currently in quality control. What I want to know is, is there anything that I need to do when doing a clean install, are there are any settings or files I want to take with me? For instance, are all my game saves for Steam in the cloud and tied to my account or do I need to copy my game saves over to the new PC? Are there any files in my C:\Users\BeardFaceMan folder that I should be copying over? Like, all my playlist settings for MusicBee are in the \Music folder so I want those, anything else obvious along those lines that I'm missing? Anything in the \AppData folder I should be transferring over?

[seepage]

Browser favourites?

By default Steam saves are synced to the cloud but so far I've had 50% success rate in them being accessible from a different PC. For one game the saves were visible from my NAS but I didn't save on the NAS so don't know if would have been visible on main PC. For another game, on the ROG Ally only saves under 'profile 1' were visible. After deleting the old profiles the latest became visible, but then subsequent saves on the Ally were not visible on the main PC so I had to create a share and copy them over manually

[Mr Trumpet]

Still looking for an acceptable gaming laptop under a grand. Dell G15 or Acer Nitro 5 seem to be the likeliest candidates. Any suggestions?

[seepage]

Tom's Guide recommend the MSI Cyborg 15

The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor in the ASUS Ally is faster than the i5-11600K in my desktop, but the Ally is a handheld rather than a laptop

[El Unicornio, mang]

Still looking for an acceptable gaming laptop under a grand. Dell G15 or Acer Nitro 5 seem to be the likeliest candidates. Any suggestions?

Yeah I'd go for the G15.

I was using an Alienware 51m with RTX2080, 17.3" screen, good for gaming and can be had for under a grand on ebay occasionally. Had to upgrade recently for work stuff but still keep that one around as a backup and for gaming.

[seepage]

The G15 appears to only have 8GB of memory, so you'd probably have to whack that up to 16GB or preferably 32GB

[El Unicornio, mang]

Yeah, modern graphics stuff can be a massive memory drain. I had to bump mine up to 64GB to have it not crash all the time.