So this means booting up my Windows machine (currently turned off and unplugged due to summer thunderstorms and lightning). Sure enough, when I turn it on, it wants to spend a bunch of time installing updates. And I have not yet installed Garmin Express on this machine (I have Basecamp and MapInstall).
Garmin has a download page for Garmin Express. I tell it I have Windows 10 and click the download button. Some windows security popup says it is blocking it because it "might harm my computer". Apparently this is some stupid policy in the Chrome browser. I try Microsoft "Edge", but it has the same blockage and it isn't clear how or if it is possible to tell it to just do it. I could use my linux machine to do the download and then copy the file to my windows machine. The other option would be to download yet a third browser (such as Firefox) and try that.
So I use Chrome on my Linux machine. It doesn't ask me about my Windows version, but it quite happily downloads GarminExpress.exe which is a 127M file. Now I have to get this to my Windows machine. If I put the file on /u1/share, it will appear in the Z: drive on my windows machine.
Now on the windows machine, I click on Z:GarminExpress.exe. It warns me that it cannot verify who created the file and offer me a dialog that includes a run button, but using that gets another permission warning from Windows about running such a thing. I drag and drop, copying it from Z: to downloads. Now I can run it without warnings -- the Garmin install gets the usual popup asking for my admin password.
It installs version 7.7.10 and tells me it is from Garmin International. The install takes a surprisingly long time, but seems to succeed. I see a new Icon on my desktop and it offers to "launch" Garmin Express upon the seas of computing. I decline, as I prefer to use the icon and be sure that it functions as it should.
Now it tells me I need a Garmin Connect account to go any further. I think I have one, so let's try to sign in. This works. Now it wants to set up a Wifi network. Heaven knows why, given we have the device connected via USB and it just found the device and told me about it. There seems to be no other option, so I let it scan my network and I give it the password for my Wifi.
Now it tells me there are updates available, which is the very reason for doing all of this. It also tells me that it will take about 3 hours to do the updates. I click the "Install All" button at 11:39 AM and away we go. We shouldn't have a risk of severe storms until later in the afternoon, so this all should be just fine.
I'll note that it doesn't tell me much about the update (nor do I see any kind of bundle of files get deposited on my computer that comprises the update). It doesn't even tell me that it is installing version 8.1 of the firmware, at least not anywhere I can see. It finishes at 12:25 -- so it actually took about an hour, not the 3 predicted. It also tells me it has updated to version 8.50
I disconnect the 66i and power it on. It is spending a long time "loading maps" with a progress bar. Now it says "new software found" and wants to know if I want to update. I say yes and it seems to restart and shortly is up and running. The next restart is quick. I go to System -- About and it says it is running version 8.5
All done (for now!)
Tom's backpacking pages / tom@mmto.org