ASRock's Motherboards Are Windows® 10 Compatible

KT12121 wrote: What about for those of us on Z68? What should we be doing?

Windows 10 should install and work fine with its native drivers and software on any PC hardware that is able to run Windows 7. I say should because I'm not Microsoft and don't provide support for them either.

My point is based on the fact that MS is offering Win 10 as a free update on any PC that is running Windows 7/8/8.1. Imagine all the older hardware that is running Win 7 since it was introduced. Your Z68 board is more modern than a lot of PC hardware still in use.

If the thought of generic Win 10 drivers (which may be newer than some you are using now... just sayin') is distasteful to you (I understand), then you can do your own driver harvesting. You can use ASRock's download pages for any newer Intel boards, or Intel's download source.

But you are referring to the situation where the INF installation Readme does not include your board's chipset, or the drivers you might find, correct?

Don't forget that any drivers or system software you install will be replacing the Win 10 driver or system software that was already installed to make your PC function. If you cannot replace something with a non-MS sourced driver or software, the PC will still work.

You can also get drivers, etc, via Windows Update, which become available as time passes. Or you can use Windows 8/8.1 drivers that many people like myself have used with the Win 10 Technical Preview releases. I'm sure at least some Windows 7 drivers will work the Windows 10 too.

My only concern would be if you have your board's BIOS/UEFI update(s) for Windows 8. In your case that is the one Beta BIOS/UEFI available on your board's download page.

What BIOS and OS are you using now?

ASRock has ten Z68 boards that I can find, so we need to narrow it down better than a "Z68" board before we can determine where you are at with the BIOS version. Meaning the exact model number.

Also, the CPU you are using would be nice to know.

Ok, good, assuming you have BIOS/UEFI 2.20 which has the Windows 8 update normally seen for ASRock boards, you should be fine for Windows 10.

There is a Beta BIOS/UEFI, version L2.23A, in the Beta Zone on your board's download page that has additional Win 8 updates. Don't be afraid to apply a Beta BIOS/UEFI update on your board from ASRock, I've used their Beta versions several times and never had any problems. That is, in contrast to another mother board manufacture whose Beta BIOS updates tend to add or fix one thing and remove or break other things...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z68%20Professional%20Gen3/?cat=Beta

The BIOS/UEFI update is NOT needed for Windows 8 or 10 to work in general, but for certain features to work correctly. I recommend that this BIOS/UEFI update be applied on your board regardless.

Just do what I wrote above, try drivers, etc, provided for other Intel chipset mother boards. Some of the new Intel driver installation programs will check the chipset generation on the board, and stop the installation if it decides the chipset is not compatible. The range of "incompatible" chipsets tends to be artificially large, some are not included seemingly arbitrarily due to Intel's hyper-conservative nature, or to motivate us to update our PCs. In other cases older chipsets like the pre-PCH North and Southbridge chipset types can be incompatible with new features. Your Z68 board is a single chipset PCH type. Just an FYI in case a driver installation you try does not complete.

So far I don't see any Win 10 drivers on your board's download page yet.

Newer AMD boards are now getting Windows 10 drivers, which might be compatible with your board's chipset.

I'm referring to the AMD "All in one" driver, version 15.20.1060, which I am seeing included with AMD boards with the 990 chipset, 970, and all of the FM2 boards.

The Realtek RTL8111E network chip is used in many ASRock boards. there must be a Win 8.1 driver for that chip that can be used with Win 10 until Realtek provides a Win 10 driver.

                                               ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION

For anyone looking for Windows 10 Driver and UEFI/BIOS updates, ASRock has posted a web page with their current list of AMD and Intel mother boards that have been updated for Windows 10.

Find that page here: http://www.asrock.com/microsite/Win10/