Win10: Fresh install vs upgrade from 8.1

[Greg W]

I've been running the Win10 preview on my 928 and unfortunately it has it's issues. So, this got me wondering...

Does a clean install of Win10 perform better than an upgrade from 8.1? I know it's true of desktop, perhaps the same is true of mobile? Though, I wonder if I could do a clean install but still transfer my SMS messages?

Any thoughts, anyone experience a difference between these two scenarios?

These are the issues I'm having with Win10, is it just me?

• Sometimes when I go to messaging I get the "Resuming..." message and sometimes for quite a while.
• Dismissing emails and texts from the lockscreen does not clear the notifications from the respective tiles.
• Locks screen performance is inconsistent.
• Speakerphone option is sometimes delayed quite a bit, or I have to toggle it twice to get it to work.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[GMJeff]

My experience in the matter is as follows.

I first upgraded my 1520 from 8.1 to windows 10 and restored a backup. My phone had a plethora of issues. From apps just not working, to frequent device lockups.

I had reinstalled windows 10 twice, both times restoring the backup made previously. I then read on these forums that things went better when installing and not restoring a backup. Not sure why this is, unless the restore from backup carries over some older OS bits which could be causing incompatibility problems.

Since I completed that step after my first windows 10 upgrade, most of my issues went away, barring what I was getting from the new OS in general.

Since then, I have just performed a general upgrade whenever a new OS build becomes available and have not had any real issues since.

 

[Greg W]

Thank you Jeff! I don't have a lot of options left so I think I'm going to give it a shot. If I choose to not restore from a backup I assume I can still restore my text messages? I currently have the backup option enabled for messaging. I'm also curious, if your Outlook tile indicates X number of unread emails and you clear them from the lockscreen, does your Outlook tile update accordingly?

 

[Captain_Eric]

What do mean by "clean install" of W10M? Since the phone needs some sort of operating system to function, isn't your only choice to roll back to 8.1, wait for the "production build" of WM10, and update from 8.1 to WM10? That is the "cleanest" install I can think of. Or am I missing something?

 

[Greg W]

What I was referring to by "clean install" is not restoring from a backup which GMJeff indicated seemed more stable. My fear is that the my previous backups could be containing some legacy settings, configurations, etc which may be introducing instability into Win10. So, to restore WM10 and then not choose to restore from a backup is like a factory reset without any legacy content coming over from a previous backup.

 

[EspHack]

I've been running the Win10 preview on my 928 and unfortunately it has it's issues. So, this got me wondering...

Does a clean install of Win10 perform better than an upgrade from 8.1? I know it's true of desktop, perhaps the same is true of mobile? Though, I wonder if I could do a clean install but still transfer my SMS messages?

Any thoughts, anyone experience a difference between these two scenarios?

These are the issues I'm having with Win10, is it just me?

• Sometimes when I go to messaging I get the "Resuming..." message and sometimes for quite a while.
• Dismissing emails and texts from the lockscreen does not clear the notifications from the respective tiles.
• Locks screen performance is inconsistent.
• Speakerphone option is sometimes delayed quite a bit, or I have to toggle it twice to get it to work.

Thanks,
Greg

that's standard w10m operation my friend, since I disabled that same messaging+skype app from running in background my 928 is back to 8.1 battery life & performance levels, even with no resuming-loading at all

so here goes:

*that app is a damn useless mess, nothing can be done there
*that's how it is on w10m, we had similar problems back in 8.1 but now even official apps(mail etc) aren't acting accordingly
*again, lockscreen is just a mess, nothing you can do here
*same, new flashlight toggle seems to behave the same way, delayed response for no apparent reason

in my opinion hard resetting to solve such problems is just a painful loss of time, this OS CANT run properly, time to accept that fact I guess, there might be times you fix something but whats stopping you from repeating the same actions that led to it before? or better yet, finding new problems-bugs, no worth the time and/or hassle

its the same history as these people who format windows every time their pc stops showing some random icon or takes 5 more seconds to login, they get used to it, of course it fixes everything, for the first few days at least...

 

[GMJeff]

I never "just got used to it". After doing as I said, which worked for me, my 950 XL is more stable and the battery life is better since I had the device on day one.

Yes, some of the apps are still slightly buggy. Some I see on a regular basis are the Groove music app, the Outlook mail app, Camera app and messaging app. A quick soft reset usually helps when the apps seem to have issues. The OS is still somewhat beta, as most people that use it know.

I believe it is because of Microsoft's vision of separating all of the vital services, which are normally baked into the OS, so as to allow for updating without having to release a full OS update for one service. The issues now in the OS are that it seems the departments writing the code seem to think that the apps are perfectly fine to release, or they are succumbing to deadlines and putting out an unfinished or unpolished build, hence bugs.

Another problem is that when these apps are tested by people, they may not find the bugs due to the wide variances of hardware and also the types of use the apps will get. Some users may not use certain functionality of a particular app, while others will.

As far as the messaging using lots of battery, this happens when it is syncing older messages after first install. This is a known bug as well and well discussed here in the forums. Some people can get their backed up messages within minutes while most have to wait days to get all of their messages to finally sync up. This causes the app to run up the processor and burn through battery quickly. My wife went through this when I upgraded her phone from a 830 to a new 950. It took her 950 two days to fully sync all of her past text messages.

I also don't think you realize that hard resets are actually a legitimate way to repair an OS install. Working on computers for over 30 years now, has taught me that an OS install can be somewhat problematic and cause some bugs. I cannot believe that a phone OS install will always be clean and perfect as well. They may be time consuming and a PITA, but sometimes they are necessary, if only to rule out any possibility of a faulty install which is the ground layer of software that allows the other apps to interact with the phone's hardware.

 

[EspHack]

^you know the worst part is, that those apps groove mail etc, they seem to be great in general, but somehow I think it is the OS itself making them unreliable and buggy, groove for example seems like a nice upgrade over xbox music and overall well made, but the music controls OS-wide are buggy as hell and skipping a bunch of tracks will result in crashing the app a third of the time

 

[Greg W]

Grove is great, for sure, though I agree it still needs work. Given my current subscription which expires later this year, it's hard to switch to another platform where Grove is even worse. The Messaging and Phone apps aren't much better. These are native MS apps on an MS platform, core applications.

I really do love WM and would rather not transition to something else, but I'm struggling with the progress MS is making. I feel that with WM10 there is too much shoehorning, a lot of effort just trying to make Windows 10 work on a mobile platform. As a result, it's dragging the whole process and experience downward. At least with WM8.1 and previous versions the experience was more fluid and stable. WM10 simply requires a bit more work before it's a stable OS.

This is no longer a beta OS, phones are being sold with this OS pre-installed. Sorry, it's just all a bit exhausting for me having been with WM since v7. I suppose I've just grown tired of trudging through 3 OS maturation processes; first 7, then 8, and now 10. Also, MS seems to have a history of flaunting their products well before their ready for primetime and I feel the same is now true of WM10. I don't know why I'm holding out at this point. I was reluctantly considering a move to android (despite my disdain for it) and then maybe in a year or so come back to WM10 and see where it's at. As a last ditch effort I was going to do a "clean install", or rather, not do a restore from a backup. I'm reluctant and I know clean installs are typically better on the desktop so I figured perhaps the same was true in the mobile space.

Let's just hope that "OneCore to rule them all" solves more headaches than it creates. I'm sure it will. I just need to shut up and be patient I suppose.