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Windows 10 experiences on cMP

hfg said:
Just for a bit of closure and to avoid hijacking this thread ...

The Windows 10 #1511 update issues on a 5K iMac is resolved. I WinCloned my external Windows 10 SSD over to the iMac internal SSD and performed the update there to completion. Now I need to decide if I should just call it a day and simply leave it internal ... or tempt fate and again WinClone it back to the external SSD (to avoid using fast SSD space, have 2x the space for Windows, and to keep it totally separate from the OS X disk).

Now ... per this thread ... my Windows 10 update seems to be running fine in my 5.1 Mac Pro as installed on a "external" SSD on a Velocity DUO in the PCI slot. :)
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I wish my Sonnet Tempo Pro supported booting Windows but it doesn't, regardless of Sonnet's mixed information on their site. But it loads stupidly fast on SATA2 anyway.
 

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hfg said:
Yeah ... even on the real PC, I had to unplug the unnecessary SATA drives before the original Windows 10 upgrade would work with a Solo 1 hosted SSD in a PCI slot. For the Mac Pro I removed all the drives and put the Windows SSD in a drive tray for the first Win 10 upgrade, then moved it back to the Velocity DUO where it normally resides. For this upgrade however, I didn't have to do anything special ... the Win 10 upgrade simply worked.
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Great suggestions! My Windows 8.1 got borked -trying the upgrade to Windows 10 - so now I'm repairing Windows 8.1 and will follow your workaround, removing all non-MS stuff and move my SSD from DUO x2. BTW do I need to pull out the DUO too on which my OS X SSD is? Thanks.

Cheers
 
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I would at least leave the DUO card, even if empty, installed so that Windows will load the driver for it which it will need when you move the Windows SSD back to the DUO card when you are done.
 
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hfg said:
I would at least leave the DUO card, even if empty, installed so that Windows will load the driver for it which it will need when you move the Windows SSD back to the DUO card when you are done.
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Of course, noted! A sloppy slip on fo my mind ;-)

Cheers
 
Well this sucks, my Parallels VM of Windows 10 has deactivated. My Boot Camp volume is fine.
I'm leaning toward the November Update being the culprit.
 
howiest said:
Well this sucks, my Parallels VM of Windows 10 has deactivated. My Boot Camp volume is fine.
I'm leaning toward the November Update being the culprit.
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Try going back and forth between them, activating each time ... it may recover. Also, it sometimes takes a few tries, or some time to reach the Microsoft activation servers ... they may be really busy
 
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I assume you are using your VM with your BootCamp installation. Go back to the bootable version and check your activation there ... you may have to re-activate at this time. Then, return to OS X and your VM and try to activate again. I usually end up with another button "Activate" on that screen, and sometimes it takes several tries for success, or I have to give it some time and then try again.

Once your hardware is registered with the Microsoft Activation Servers, you should be able to re-activate either instance at any time (subject to server availability). Sometimes a few attempts are required.

I just now finished creating a new Fusion VM for my BootCamp as the one I was using developed some problems (such as not being able to open the Windows Explorer application). Took a couple of tries to activate including a reboot to BootCamp, but it is again activated and appears to be running fine.

Good luck with yours ...
 
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The error I posted above in #335 is persisting. MS made changes to authentication in the November update where it is possible to install Windows 10 directly and activate it by entering a Windows 7 or 8.1 key. That seems to have changed the game somewhat for virtual installations.

I currently have 2 choices... change the product key, or, buy a licence. I'm reluctant to change the product key because I don't want to mess with my activated Boot Camp volume which is running well.

These activation issues are alive and well on the Parallels forum.
 
howiest said:
The error I posted above in #335 is persisting. MS made changes to authentication in the November update where it is possible to install Windows 10 directly and activate it by entering a Windows 7 or 8.1 key. That seems to have changed the game somewhat for virtual installations.

I currently have 2 choices... change the product key, or, buy a licence. I'm reluctant to change the product key because I don't want to mess with my activated Boot Camp volume which is running well.

These activation issues are alive and well on the Parallels forum.
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Yeah ... there is another member here having the same issue with Parallels VM activation using the BootCamp installation. From the little I have read here, it seems that VMware Fusion has somehow solved the issue with Windows 10, whereas Parallels has a problem. Hopefully Parallels will release a fix for the users (I should probably carefully read the full license agreement before getting too carried away with that thought ... it may be specifically addressed there).
 
hfg said:
Yeah ... there is another member here having the same issue with Parallels VM activation using the BootCamp installation. From the little I have read here, it seems that VMware Fusion has somehow solved the issue with Windows 10, whereas Parallels has a problem. Hopefully Parallels will release a fix for the users (I should probably carefully read the full license agreement before getting too carried away with that thought ... it may be specifically addressed there).
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Windows Activation has been a problem with VM software for many years, ever since the feature to use the bootcamp installation as the VM was introduced. The problem is that Microsoft activation makes a hardware fingerprint of the computer and ties that to the activation. The hardware fingerprint is almost completely different when Windows fires up again in the VM, so activation is lost. The fix has always been to just push through and reactivate multiple times when you boot one way or another until Microsoft activation is satisfied and working on both.

Honestly, I don't see how this is a bug that VMWare could have fixed on their own. I think any fix would have to be a collaborative effort with Microsoft.
 
The original solution was to create a new, temporary VM and do the whole 7->10 upgrade process on it, which would register the VM "hardware" with MS's activation servers and thus stay activated in both environments. The temp VM could then be deleted after. Not sure if that changed with the 10586 build. There are a few guides on Reddit for this trick.

I can tell you that buying an OEM product key fixes all these headaches and lets you do the internet + phone dual activation trick if you don't mind coughing up $120. The peace of mind and time + frustration saved was worth it to me.
 
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I dunno, I think I'd rather invest that $120.00 into a PC gaming rig or console (since 90% of my Boot Camp use is for gaming), and just kiss Boot Camp farewell.

But who knows, maybe Parallels will find a solution. :rolleyes:

I do regret the November Update though. Everything was working fine before that "new" digital entitlement procedure was introduced by MS.
 
Has anybody tried updating a Windows 7-64 BootCamp on a cMP 1,1 or 2,1?

Does it update to the newer graphics drivers? I have an HD-5790 stuck with a 2011 driver that I would like to take to Crimson.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
There is no Crimson support for HD series. AMD says they can't squeeze any more performance out of them.

http://wccftech.com/amd-ends-support-non-gcn-graphic-cards-series-hd-7600-8400/
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The Radeon installer "radeon-crimson-15.11-ni-eg-64bit-with-dotnet45-win10-win8.1-win7" supports HD-7970, which I run in my 5,1.
For older product, the quote on the driver page is: "AMD Radeon™ HD 8000 Series (HD 8400 and below), Radeon™ HD 7000 Series (HD 7600 and below), Radeon™ HD 6000 Series, and Radeon™ HD 5000 Series Graphics products have reached peak performance optimization as of November 24th, 2015."

There is a Radeon beta driver for older product: "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta 15.11.1 Update." I suspect, it is a tweak of the earlier Catalyst drivers, but with the new Crimson support app.

Catalyst is at 15.7.1, the Apple drivers are from 4/19/2011 and versioned as 8.850.0.0.
 
haralds said:
The Radeon installer "radeon-crimson-15.11-ni-eg-64bit-with-dotnet45-win10-win8.1-win7" supports HD-7970, which I run in my 5,1.
For older product, the quote on the driver page is: "AMD Radeon™ HD 8000 Series (HD 8400 and below), Radeon™ HD 7000 Series (HD 7600 and below), Radeon™ HD 6000 Series, and Radeon™ HD 5000 Series Graphics products have reached peak performance optimization as of November 24th, 2015."

There is a Radeon beta driver for older product: "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta 15.11.1 Update." I suspect, it is a tweak of the earlier Catalyst drivers, but with the new Crimson support app.

Catalyst is at 15.7.1, the Apple drivers are from 4/19/2011 and versioned as 8.850.0.0.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah you can forget about Apple's graphics drivers. Windows 10 automatically installs the last good driver for your GPU.
 
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