I have done 8 win 10 installs (mostly free "upgrades"). Only one went well, and that was on a newly installed win 7, with nothing else installed.
Some tricks:
Early in the install sequence, they offer to set up a lot of settings for you. There is an obvious NEXT button, and an almost invisible "Customize" link. Select Customize, and turn off everything that even hints that it will send data to Microsoft (or anybody else).
When it comes time to make a user and password, DO NOT connect to Microsoft's cloud. Use a local ID and password. This will prevent a few things from working, but not enough to make it worthwhile selling your soul to Microsoft (you can change your mind later, but be sure that you understand what it does).
After you get the whole thing installed, go through ALL of the settings panels, and turn OFF anything that even stinks of sending data to anybody. When you find the panel that shows programs that run in the background, turn most (or all) of them OFF.
Some things that I found:
Turn off forced updates
If you're anything like us, you set up previous Windows releases so that
they wouldn't install updates automatically - one forced reboot is one
too many. To be fair to Microsoft, Windows 10 handles post-update
reboots much more elegantly, but we'd still rather be in control from
the outset.
There is a workaround for users running Windows 10 Pro: from the Start
Menu, search for 'gpedit' and run the Group Policy Editor. Expand
Computer Configuration in the left-hand pane, and navigate to
Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update. Double-click
Configure Automatic Updates in the list, select the Enabled radio
button, and in the left-hand box select 2 - Notify for download and
notify for install. Now click OK, and you'll be notified whenever there
are updates - unfortunately, they'll be a daily irritation if you're
using Windows Defender.
The Group Policy Editor isn't available on Windows 10 Home, but we'd
recommend you at least open Windows Update, click Advanced options and
select Notify to schedule restart from the Choose how updates are
installed list. While you're here, all Windows 10 users might want to
click Choose how updates are delivered, and ensure that Updates from
more than one place is either off, or set to PCs on my local network.
Where's Safe Mode when you need it?
Nothing gets you out of Windows trouble like Safe Mode, which is why
it's inexplicable that you can no longer enter it by pressing F8 or
Shift+F8 at boot. Although it's still available in Windows 10, you have
to boot into Windows first, then either restart holding the left Shift
key or via an option within Update & Security in the Settings app.
Neither method is helpful if your PC can't boot into Windows in the
first place.
You can't get around this, which is why it's helpful to create a boot
time Safe Mode option before trouble arrives. Hit Win+x and select
Command Prompt (Admin), then type bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10
Safe Mode" and hit Enter. From the Start Menu type msconfig, run System
Configuration in the results, and navigate to the Boot tab. Highlight
the Windows 10 Safe Mode option you just created, tick Safe boot and
select Minimal under Boot options and - if necessary - reduce the
Timeout value so you won't be inconvenienced - the minimum is three
seconds. Tick Make all boot settings permanent (in fact you can simply
return here to delete the Safe Mode entry) and click OK.
Enable System Restore
Another inexplicable choice in Windows 10 is that System Restore isn't
enabled by default; we wouldn't hesitate to turn it on. Search for
'Create a restore point' in the Start Menu and select it in the results,
then highlight the system drive, click the Configure button and select
Turn on system protection. Use the slider to set an appropriate amount
of maximum disk space - about 5GB ought to be enough. Note that,
annoyingly, the upgrade to Windows 10 version 10586 turns this off again
- you'll need to turn it back on.
Fix slow boot times
Like Windows 8 before it, Windows 10 uses a hybrid boot to enable fast
boot times. When you shut the system down, apps and app processes are
terminated, but the Windows kernel itself is hibernated to allow for a
faster restart. In theory it's great, but it seems to still be very slow
for some Windows 10 users.
Disable it by searching for Power Options in the Start Menu and running
the matching Control Panel applet, then in the left-hand pane click
Choose what the power buttons do. Click Change settings that are
currently unavailable, scroll down and un-tick Turn on fast start-up,
then click Save changes. This should prevent very slow starts on
affected PCs. Some users report that if they subsequently reboot,
re-trace their steps and re-enable fast start-up the problem remains cured.
If you're dual-booting between Windows 10 and Windows 7, switching fast
start-up off will also fix the problem where Windows 7 checks the disks
each time you boot it: With fast start-up enabled, the earlier operating
system doesn't recognise that the disks have been properly shut down by
Windows 10.
The lock screen gets in the way
Return to a locked Windows 10 device and you'll see a pretty picture.
That's nice, but it's a needless obstacle in the way of logging in. If
you're as impatient as we are, disable the lock screen by searching the
Start Menu for regedit, and running the Registry editor.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows. If
you don't already see a key named 'Personalization', select the Windows
key, right-click it, choose New>Key and rename this new key to
Personalization (sic). Right-click the Personalization key, choose New
again then select DWORD (32-bit) Value. Select New Value #1 in the
right-hand pane and use F2 to rename it NoLockScreen, then double-click
it, change the value data to 1 and click OK. After a reboot, the lock
screen will be gone.
There are many more tips out there, but doing all of this seems to make win 10 work almost as well as win 7 does, and it keeps your data on your own machine. Especially important when sharing a FAT32 drive between win 10 and OS/2 (eCS), is to turn OFF Fast start.