Are you curious whether your hardware and software will be compatible with Windows 10? As a general rule, if something is compatible with Windows 7, it should also work well with Windows 10. When it comes to software running only on 7, it will probably also work on Windows 10 Professional or Ultimate. All doubts should, however, be dispelled by the new Microsoft Windows 10 Compatibility Center website. Both individual clients and business partners will be able to familiarize themselves with the product database and check which of them are compatible with the latest Microsoft system.
Check for Windows 10 Compatibility
If your computer does not meet the system requirements or contains incompatible hardware, you cannot upgrade your computer to Windows 10. However, if you have made changes to your computer, you must manually run the Windows 10 conformity assessment tool to immediately check your system.
Most users choose to upgrade to the new system from Windows Vista/XP/7/8. However, many Windows update problems happen. One of the reasons is that your machine is not compatible with Windows 10. The software, apps, and drivers on your device don’t work for the system. In particular, a bad driver can wreak havoc your system.
So, you need to first perform a Windows 10 compatibility check before a system update. This mainly aims to avoid troubles of downloading the OS and running the setup tool only to figure out whether obvious compatibility problems exist.
Besides, Windows 10 compatibility test can give you a choice to consider solutions before upgrading to Windows 10 when some compatibility issues are found.
Check Windows 10 System Requirements
Microsoft officially states some minimum requirements for Windows 10 on its website so that you can make sure if your computer can run the new operating system, as shown below.
Microsoft officially states some minimum requirements for Windows 10 on its website so that you can make sure if your computer can run the new operating system, as shown below.
- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
- RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit, 2 GB for 64-bit
- Hard drive space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS / 32 GB for 64-bit OS
- Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
- Display: 800×600
Although these are the minimum requirements, it's best to always exceed these values to avoid any obstacle when using the upgraded system in the future.
Most of these requirements mentioned above are simple, but for the graphics card, it requires the DirectX version. So, firstly you need to know which graphics card you are using so as to know if it satisfies DirectX.
Check Which Graphics Card You Are Using
Step 1: Open the Run box by hitting Win + R keys.
Step 2: Input dxdiag and click OK.
Step 3: Go to the Display tab and you can see much information about your graphics card.
Step 4: Go to the Internet and check if the specifications of your graphics card support DirectX9 or later.
Go Beyond System Requirements to Ensure Windows 10 Compatibility
In addition to system requirements, you should also check software compatibility and driver compatibility. This is very important. If you don’t do the checks, once you start the upgrade, the Windows 10 installation process will be stopped when some errors and compatibility issues are found.
To avoid trouble, check the software and driver compatibility now.
Check Software Compatibility Check Hardware Specifications and Driver Compatibility Run Windows 10 Compatibility Checker
When referring to Windows 10 compatibility check, you may be wondering about the answer to this question “is my computer compatible with Windows 10”. You can choose to use a tool to directly know if you can run Windows 10 on the computer. The following are some options for you.
Option 1: Use Windows 10 Compatibility Appraiser Manually
Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser can scan Windows 7/8/8.1 app files on your computer to assess the compatibility with Windows 10 if you perform an upgrade.
Option 2: Use Windows Update Assistant
You can run Windows Update Assistant on your machine and check if it meets the system requirements of Windows 10. After launching this tool, you need to accept the license terms, and then this tool will check device compatibility. After a few seconds, a result will be shown to you.
Option 3: Run Media Creation Tool
In addition, you can download Media Creation Tool offered by Microsoft. If the app detects that your PC is too old to run Windows 10, it will give you a notification and stop right here. If no notification is sent to you, this means the system is compatible and you can perform a Windows 10 update.
After finishing Windows 10 compatibility check, you know clearly if you can run Windows 10 on your machine. What to do next if the machine meets all the requirements? Upgrade the old version of the Windows operating system to Windows 10 now.
Upgrade Your PC to Windows 10
Windows Update Assistant and Media Creation Tool can work on some of your machines and help you perform the in-place upgrade without damaging your files. However, sometimes you fail to use these two tools to finish the update along with some errors although your machine meets system requirements and hardware requirements.
Besides, some older operating systems like Vista cannot support Update Assistant and Media Creation Tool. To successfully update your device to Windows 10, performing a clean install is recommendable no matter you are using Windows XP/Vista/7/8. This can avoid many troubles.
Back up Files
To back up your files within simple clicks, you can use a piece of professional data backup software. Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker is worth trying. This backup program is compatible with many operating systems, for example, Windows 7/8/10, etc. It can be used to back up your data easily via two modes – imaging backup and file sync.
Now, download MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition and install it to the computer that needs to upgrade to Windows 10.
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MiniTool Solution Category: Data Recovery Services Profile: MiniTool Solution Ltd. is a software development company based in Canada. As a dedicated software development company, MiniTool Solution Ltd. provides customers with complete business software solutions in the data recovery and partition management industry.
