How nice to see some life on this board - thanks, folk.

I finally gave it a go. Two of the old relics (Thinkpad T61s) had no trouble at all. An old Toshiba Satellite U300, on the other hand, just can't hack it.

Infuriatingly, it fails every time just as it's supposed to be finishing - some mysterious fault involving data migration. I suspect this might be something to do with it not liking my partition set-up, with data folders having been set up on a separate partition during installation.

One can't help wishing that the installer would check for potential difficulties BEFORE starting the long process.

All part of the fun, though, and I'll give it a couple more tries. I've increased the size of the system partition, and converted the data partition from a logical to a primary partition. Since I suspect the problem lies with the data being linked (simlinks?) to C: drive during installation, I'm not hugely optimistic - and have no idea how to shift the data folders to C: The internet hasn't helped so far!

A quick side-note - I tried the MiniTool Partition Wizard during my efforts. Very impressive - easy to use, fast and didn't even need a restart. Best of all, the free version was able to convert a logical to a primary partition. Probably of no interest to normal folk, but for those who enjoy messing about without too much expertise, it's a useful addition to one's Windows programs. More gen here, if anyone's interested:

https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/minitool-partition-wizard.htm

As far as the need to move off Windows 7 is concerned, I'm sure CD's concerns echo those of lots of users:

"Up to a point, aren't some of the "warnings" a bit of scaremongering to get people to either pay for Win 10 or a new PC?

Reason for asking is because some people are still using XP or Vista without problems. Perhaps they're OK because they don't visit dodgy sites or attract unwelcome attention from troublemakers?"

I honestly don't know.

Generally, reputable sites and writers seem agreed that using outdated and unsupported software is a Bad Thing. Bear in mind that even Windows 10 uses bits of code dating back to XP and Vista. The baddies don't even need to reverse-engineer the unsupported operating systems. They simply need to reverse-engineer Microsoft's updates to see what bits of code can be exploited - and if those bits are in XP/Vista/W7, then those systems are suddenly very vulnerable.

One of my concerns about W10 is that it changes so fast that older computers might find themselves unable to run it before too long. At least it gives them a little protection for a while longer, though.

(And the Toshiba is just "Undoing changes made to your computer" for the fourth time. Grrr.)

Interesting experience on rell's part - 200 items of adware - Yuk! Useful comments about Edge. I think I'll stick to Firefox, but haven't tried it yet.

Good advice from Snowdrop, I thought. Trouble is, companies like eBay and Paypal have trained so many users to rely on the convenience of clicking on links in e-mails... Apologies if they no longer do that, of course.

Mouse, I hope it works OK. I used Macrium Reflect to make backup images of W7 before I started on this, but you DO get some time (10 days? a month?) to revert to W7 if you so wish.

I think.

Now to see whether I can log in without the Captcha stuff driving me doolally first.

(I did. Just. A real pain writing posts out first on a text editor, in case taking too long over them boots me out and leaves me having to log back in. How i DESPISE ReCaptcha. As for those responsible - to quote from an old comic - may their ducks sink.)