Upgrading Your 8 GB Tablet to Windows 10

Even though Microsoft developed Windows 10 with the intention of making a truly cross-platform operating system, owners of small tablets will find that their devices must meet certain requirements for an upgrade.

Those affordable Android tablets you can find at discount stores these days will probably not be able to handle a Windows 10 upgrade. First of all, inexpensive Android tablets are likely powered by an ARM processor, which lacks the architecture to support a modern Windows operating system; second, what makes these devices so affordable is that they don”t offer a lot of memory. You can find the best deals at price comparison websites like shop smart.

With the above in mind, it is important to remember that Windows 10 installations are more likely to be upgrades from tablets powered by previous Windows versions.

Windows 10 is a powerful operating system. Microsoft recommends 32 GB of storage for a Windows 10 upgrade; however, recent build versions of the operating system allow installations and upgrades for devices with just 8 GB of internal memory.

The first step in upgrading to Windows 10 is to choose a recent build; this means that the earliest version should be Fast Ring 10162. As of March 2016, the latest build was 14279.

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The second step of the upgrade process is the most important, and it involves choosing an external storage device that has enough memory to create a system backup file. Ideally, this would be an external hard drive, USB drive or SD card.

Windows 10 will require a substantial amount of free space during the installation process as well as enough room to create a Windows.old file in case users need to revert to the previous installation. If you need to make more room, you can always move videos, MP3s, photos, games, documents, and other personal files to external devices or to the cloud.

If the Windows 10 installer informs you that more space is needed to upgrade your Windows 8.1 device, you will need to download the Media Creation Tool, which itself requires 4 GB to operate; however, it can be saved to, and run from, an external storage device.

The Windows Media Creation Tool is a very useful Microsoft application that aims to create a compatible platform for a Windows 10 upgrade. The tool takes users through the steps that must be followed to create enough space on tablets with low memory constraints. Aside from running the Disk Cleanup utility, the Media Creation Tool reminds users that they can also uninstall old software and other files such as language packs that may be hogging your memory.

When the Windows 10 setup gives you the green light to install, the process should be smooth. You may not have a lot of storage left; however, this can be alleviated after you test the Windows 10 upgrade and feel that it is operating without any issues. At this point, you can run the Clean Device Manager utility to delete that Windows.old file you no longer need.