[Closed] Windows 10

I'm tempted. I'd like to know what specs are needed to get the best of it. I have a Win7 laptop, about 5 years old. Reliable, but a bit slow, It meets the minimum spec and then some, might not get any benefit if it's resource hungry.

Subscription?
First year free but not after that?

Same here. C'mon then, who's going to be the avalanche poodle? 😉

The upgrade to Windows 10 is free, however it's not out until the end of July.

I've had a little play with the Preview. Upgrading from 8 to 10 is a no-brainer IMHO. Coming from W7, I'm less convinced.

It's just to kind of register so it downloads when released isn't it?

edit: what he ^ said

Subscription?
First year free but not after that?

No. It's a free upgrade, you just have a year to claim it before the offer expires.

Upgrading from 8 to 10 is a no-brainer IMHO.

Any particular reason? I've got 8.1 at home and it seems fine.

Any particular reason? I've got 8.1 at home and it seems fine.

10 is finer.

It fixes a lot of the embuggerances with W8, such as the leaping in and out of Metro which drove a lot of people to install third party hacks like Classic Shell. 10 is to 8 as 7 is to Vista, I suppose.

Playing with Win 7 and 8.1 alongside it and I'm pleased that 8.1 still feels like 7 but a bit dumbed down. Wonder if I could try 10 with a backup before and after so I have both.

Saw the initial rumors of the sub stuff which seemed to link with the push for a free upgrade.

is there any more overhead to 10 over 7 or 8 Cougar?

[i]Any particular reason? I've got 8.1 at home and it seems fine.[/i]

According to out IT expert it's because no one likes W8 manufacturers included as they find it very difficult to sell units with it installed.

No idea if my crumbling old home PC* is up to it, but I do want to upgrade because I want to have a play with the [url= https://www.raspberrypi.org/windows-10-for-iot/ ]Windows 10 IoT edition on Raspberry Pi[/url] and apparently you need a Win10 install to do that from.

*(I'm actually still on Vista, but I have Win7 still in a box somewhere).

Worth buying Windows 8 now is its about £40 and then ghet the free upgrade to 10 as I bet 10 wont be as cheap as that.

[quote=coolhandluke ]Worth buying Windows 8 now is its about £40 and then ghet the free upgrade to 10 as I bet 10 wont be as cheap as that.

I thought the upgrade was free regardless of the provenance of your existing copy of windows?

is there any more overhead to 10 over 7 or 8 Cougar?

I've not really been in a position to tell I'm afraid, I installed it in a VM so I've nothing to compare it to.

I thought the upgrade was free regardless of the provenance of your existing copy of windows?

Windows 7 and above.

Still on 7 here (well actually Fedora at the moment mainly) - have actually spent more time with 10 than 8 or 8.1, as I've got 10 Preview installed on a VM, so interested to hear about the differences! It certainly works with a low spec - VM has 1GB and I've had it running on a single core of a Core 2 "server" (though we run W7 VMs with 512MB and it does seem to need a bit more than W7).

Not day one, no, not even slightly - in fact I'm just about to draft an e-mail to our clients / 500 or so end users begging them not to upgrade to 10 just yet.

I suspect it will be good, it will take the bits of 8 that adopters like and merge it with the bits of 7 the Win8 haters like - the ****ing start button no doubt.

But it will almost certainly not work well day one, if it arrives in Sept as planned we're asking clients to hold off until Jan.

I wish you could upgrade to Windows 7. I've got 8.1 and I hate it.

[quote=P-Jay ]But it will almost certainly not work well day one, if it arrives in Sept as planned we're asking clients to hold off until Jan.

Preview works surprisingly well now. If you're in the business of advising users on this sort of thing then I'd have thought it well worth your while installing that on something to try (if only a VM like me and Cougar). I certainly plan on having more of a play with it to see whether it would work for us - though currently in the process of rolling out W7 as an upgrade from XP (for users who still use software from last century so need compatibility).

System requirements

Basically, if your PC can run Windows 8.1, you’re good to go. If you're not sure, don't worry—Windows will check your system to make sure it can install the preview.

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Free hard disk space: 16 GB

Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

A Microsoft account and Internet access

Actually I'm going to try it with 512MB, see what happens 😉

aracer - Member

P-Jay » But it will almost certainly not work well day one, if it arrives in Sept as planned we're asking clients to hold off until Jan.

Preview works surprisingly well now. If you're in the business of advising users on this sort of thing then I'd have thought it well worth your while installing that on something to try (if only a VM like me and Cougar). I certainly plan on having more of a play with it to see whether it would work for us - though currently in the process of rolling out W7 as an upgrade from XP (for users who still use software from last century so need compatibility).

Absolutely, a couple of the Tech Guys have got it runs on something in 'The Lab' - I have to admit I haven't looked at it yet, but they're the guys who asked me to try to minimise the number of people making the switch straight away.

Running win 8.1 with Classic shell 4, (Win 7 GUI), anyone know if Classic shell 4 will work with Win 10??

Can't wait myself to get rid of Window 8.1.....grrr hate it!

According to out IT expert it's because no one likes W8 manufacturers included as they find it very difficult to sell units with it installed.

I get the feeling that W8, like Vista before it, has been so tarnished by the initial release that people have an unthinking hatred of them. I had Vista on a machine at home for a couple of years (until I got bored of it and installed Ubuntu) and it was fine. W7 was better, but as a home PC it was perfectly adequate.

I loathed windows 8 (and 8.1) and run 7 of both pc's now. For anyone who has played with the beta, is 10 a better version for windows 8 haters?

Better than what, 7 or 8?

I had Vista on a machine at home for a couple of years... and it was fine. W7 was better, but as a home PC it was perfectly adequate.

You know, it had a few annoyances but I quite liked Vista. I'd use it over bloody XP any day of the week.

I also had good experiences with Vista - was far better than XP.

Re system specs - I think that Windows has been getting more efficient and better on low spec hardware since Vista, hasn't it?

Oh. This is interesting,

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-microsoft-china-idUSKBN0ME06A20150318

Terry Myerson, who runs Microsoft's operating systems unit, announced the plan at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China.

"We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

It's not clear whether that's worldwide or just China, but free OS upgrades for pirated copies is a pretty radical step for MS. They must [i]really [/i]want everyone on W10.

I've tried the latest build on a Surface Pro 3. IMHO there is no chance that this will be "consumer ready" in two months.

The new start menu is unreliable at best and doesn't allow non-appy programs to be pinned; continuum only works about 25% of the time; Spartan (Edge?) is painfully slow; the action centre doesn't work at all; the settings page is this god-awful mashup of the Windows 8.1 settings page and control panel (and just to make it even more confusing, control panel is still there); I don't know what half the gestures do; multiple desktops are confusing me; Cortana doesn't work; voice recognition doesn't work; half the Windows 8 apps don't work because swipe-in-from-top-or-bottom has been removed; and I don't like the default desktop background.

And let's not forget that it lacked the drivers for both the built-in Intel video chip and wireless network on a clean install on the Surface Pro 3. The flagship device. (Oh yes, and you can only develop apps for Windows 10 using a release candidate of Visual Studio 2015... on Windows 10. Which is mind-numbingly slow.

I'm a big Windows fan but Windows 10 has crash-and-burn written all over it.

Yep Cougar, the Sub deal might not be on but the tech could be in there, the ability to throw a kill switch could be in the guts of it.

Cortana doesn't work; voice recognition doesn't work

That could be down to accent settings, I wouldn't be surprised if they've only got the US version in the preview. It works excellently on Windows Phone, provided you have the right accent installed.

Windows 7 and above.

I think jam bo is inferring that the Win 7 --> 10 upgrade is free regardless of whether your Win 7 copy is legitimate or not.
EDIT: that applies globally, not just to China...

So the cheapest way to get to Win 10 is to skip buying 8.1 for £40 and just get a pirated Win7 iso and upgrade it. Morally dubious ofc!

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/03/18/windows-10-upgrade-free-to-pirated-windows-users

EDIT: And that's what I get for not refreshing before posting! 😀

Better than what, 7 or 8?

Is it better than 7? I can't imagine if would be hard to be better than windows 8, possibly the shittiest version of windows ever.

possibly the shittiest version of windows ever.

You remember win 3.1? ME?

I did say possibly. Anyway, it up there with the worst windows has ever put out. I even preferred vista, which was also shite compared to xp

There should be two versions of Windows. A plain unadorned one for those who just want to run programs, and the nice fluffy version for those who want their lifestyle managed and integrated across devices and voice activated assistants for their social media etc etc.

I even preferred vista, which was also shite compared to xp

I never understood that hatred. As I said, I still have Vista installed despite having a sealed Win7 box on the shelf. I just haven't felt the need to upgrade. And it is way better than XP, especially XP x64 which was a constant battle.

I never understood that hatred. As I said, I still have Vista installed despite having a sealed Win7 box on the shelf. I just haven't felt the need to upgrade.

I never understood that hatred

Same here. I think it was oversold, and people installed in on older hardware, so it didn't work that well. On up to date systems, I think it was fine. I had it at work as well as home and didn't have any issues.

Yep Cougar, the Sub deal might not be on but the tech could be in there, the ability to throw a kill switch could be in the guts of it.

I really can't envisage Microsoft having a massive push to get people onto a common infrastructure, including giving out loads of free software to millions of software pirates, just to go "gotcha, that'll be a hundred quid please" in a year's time. Aside from being a PR disaster, it'd be the antithesis of what they seem to be trying to achieve.

you tried 7?

Of course. Sat at work in front of 7 right now, with a second copy running in a VM.

It's really not very different from Vista to be honest. Only immediate thing I can think of is the window docking which is sometimes handy.

people installed in on older hardware, so it didn't work that well.

That's actually a very good point. Vista was diabolically slow on RAM-starved machines.

Interesting theme here amongst the "professionals" on this thread - I also had Vista running quite happily until the laptop it was on finally died (my other laptop had 7 until that died, hence Fedora and Windows VMs at the moment). Though as I hinted up there we also still had XP running until last week, and I found nothing wrong with that either - we're still in 32 bit land though, and I wouldn't touch XP x64.

It's only an OS at the end of the day - like molgrips, and I suspect the others happily using Vista, I'd rather it got in the way as little as possible. Those machines we were running XP on were also running Centos 6, but you'd never know (just as you'd never know that bit switched to Fedora 21 with the W7 upgrade - decided not to go with 22 as I'd not had time to test the release version).

I really can't envisage Microsoft having a massive push to get people onto a common infrastructure, including giving out loads of free software....

Agreed - Microsoft seem to be evolving to the new reality of free software everywhere and constant upgrades rather than big retail boxed versions.

The move towards supporting C#/.Net on Linux, as open source, and pushing into the Internet of Things arena shows a new direction for them.

Those machines we were running XP on were also running Centos

Funnily enough, that's what I have in the other VM.

Does the upgrade require you to reinstall all your software or have they finally worked out how to keep your installation and replace only the OS?

i think MS dropped such an enormous bollock with 8 that they have to get everyone on side with 10. hardly anyone in industrial ( manufacturing ) use has gone to 8 IME.

Cortana doesn't work; voice recognition doesn't work

That could be down to accent settings, I wouldn't be surprised if they've only got the US version in the preview.

we'll have to do a 'please don't update yet' PIB to our Customers too.

[quote=GrahamS ]Agreed - Microsoft seem to be evolving to the new reality of free software everywhere and constant upgrades rather than big retail boxed versions.

They've said as much in their press releases - for those who've missed it 10 will be the last "version" of Windows before they go to rolling upgrades.

Does the upgrade require you to reinstall all your software or have they finally worked out how to keep your installation and replace only the OS?

I've been running Windows 10 as my main OS for a few months on a desktop and a laptop. A lot of the stuff that's been added is geared towards power users e.g. better command prompt, virtual desktops, etc.

Vista got more bearable once the service packs were released but the original version was dreadful. I pulled an old 8 year old desktop out of the attic (single core, 2GB RAM, Vista) to try Windows 10 and it seems OK.

Cortana is working fine now on the British English version too. You need to downloaded the latest ISO and perform a clean install for it to work though...

I think MS are trying to get as many people to run it as possible to try and get them developing for their App Store...

Does the upgrade require you to reinstall all your software or have they finally worked out how to keep your installation and replace only the OS?

It's been a reliable process for the last ten years and at least possible for the last twenty, so I'd say that's likely.

[quote=Del ]colleague ran the upgrade on a system with 7. doesn't look a lot different ( looks different to the preview i installed clean ).

Interesting - not tried doing an upgrade install. It looks like it should be very easy http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/02/02/windows-10-automatic-install/

Vista ... the original version was dreadful. .. (single core, 2GB RAM, Vista)

No wonder you thought it was dreadful! Even my ancient home desktop is dual-core and has 4GB in it.

gotcha, that'll be a hundred quid please

Hmmm, wondering if it'll be more like a tenner/yr for security upgrades though. Also wondering if with 10 there'll be tighter integration with other devices which might be their way of getting more people onto Window phones. I like my Windows phone so kinda hoping.

I do wonder whether they're just not arsed about consumer sales any more beyond getting the product out there, and are making their money from corporates instead.

I can't see them charging consumers for updates; then consumers don't pay, OSes get out of date, viruses and trojans and wah wah Windows is shit. I can absolutely see a subscription model for Enterprise customers though, we're halfway there already with Volume Licensing and Office 365.

[quote=GrahamS ]

Vista ... the original version was dreadful. .. (single core, 2GB RAM, Vista)

Though W7 would probably work fine on that - as mentioned above we're running VMs with a single core and 512MB. Vista was fine as long as you had a good enough system - it got the (partly deserved) bad rep because people were trying to run it on low spec machines which worked fine with XP, something which does in general work with 7. I did actually run it for quite a while with only 2GB, and whilst it was OK, it was a lot worse than with 4GB.

[quote=Cougar ]I do wonder whether they're just not arsed about consumer sales any more beyond getting the product out there, and are making their money from corporates instead.

Hopefully this. It works well enough for RedHat etc. (admittedly much smaller scale). The big question for me is how they'll view the educational market - currently it's cheaper than the home market, but I can see them wanting to charge something even if home use becomes free, as education will in general pay if they have to. Interesting times - I'm wondering whether the license terms will allow us to legitimately upgrade pirated licenses for use in education 😈

IMHO Windows upgrades will stay free. Apple have changed the game with their free updates.

I think Microsoft's main consumer strategy is to nudge people towards the paid subscriptions of OneDrive, office 365 etc. and worry less about selling the OS.

I never had a problem with Vista and now much prefer 8.1 over 7. Quickly bash the windows key and start typing what it is you want in Metro to open it. Far faster than the older search tools or clicking through the start menus.

Gnome 3 is one of my favorite desktops environments now, it has some of the best bits of Win 8.1 and OSX. The less I actually have to use the mouse the better. Hopefully Windows 10 will be a bit like that, I've not bothered with the previews yet.

I do wonder whether they're just not arsed about consumer sales any more beyond getting the product out there, and are making their money from corporates instead.

I haven't seen any figures but I doubt whether consumer upgrades has been a huge market since the days of Win95 hype (remember those news reports of people queuing outside shops?) - I suspect OEMs and corporates are where the money is to be made. I recall some years ago having a conversation with Microsoft about this - the desktop OS our users were clambering for at work was the one they had at home, so there's some merit in driving the home market to upgrade in the hope that corporates are pressured to follow. And of course that also helps corporates when they overcome the inertia of their IT people and upgrade as the user shock is less; they've already trained themselves on the new OS at home.

Apple have changed the game with their free updates.

much prefer 8.1 over 7. Quickly bash the windows key and start typing what it is you want in Metro to open it.

Exactly what you do in W7 (only without the full-screen shenanigans).

the desktop OS our users were clambering for at work was the one they had at home,

Having seen a workplace that was totally MS, it was quite impressive. The social media/calendar stuff transfers very well to workplace collaboration. Having your appointments, threads and such on screen savers and on live tiles looked great. And the workplace stuff like Lync /Outlook looked impressive.

I reckon it makes far more sense for work - there's hardly anything in my home calendar, but lots in my work one, which is logical when you think about it.

Still don't get the hate for W8, it pretty much works the same way as w7 and even XP tbh.

Can't say i have any problem with it whatsoever. the metro/tablet thing is a bit shite and clearly just a transition stage, but you can ignore than and never have to see it.

I reckon the hate is just rumour that's grown legs and people just automatically hate because that's the general consensus.

I guess W10 will be decent, but as always with these things, I'll wait for 6 months or so after release before I install it.

I reckon the hate is just rumour that's grown legs and people just automatically hate because that's the general consensus.

Yeah, that's social media for you. Encourages herd behaviour 🙂

I guess Win 8 would be fine if you hadn't used an O/S before, most coming from previous versions got confused.

Or if you were able to learn and adapt quickly.

i used to hate windows 8 until I got a touchscreen laptop. I quite like it now.

Can't say I've had a problem with 8.1 either - the GUI is a bit odd but it's just a matter of getting used to a new set of inconsistencies, and it's been rock solid - I can only recall one blue-screen since I've been using it and even that turned out to be related to a hardware problem.

I installed 8.1 on my Vaio P. There weren't any 8 drivers for the GMA500 graphics, so I installed the 7 ones which work fine but appear not to have 2D acceleration, so it's all rather slow.

Odd but that's what happend with old hardware.

Problem with 8 is it was designed for touch screen primarily and they haven't taken off in a big way for laptop / desktop that MS possibly though they would. Still 8.1 is fine albeit a bit clunky flipping between Metro and Classic. Everything from Vistas (with Service Packs) on has been very stable IME, which is what I want from an OS primarily.

Surely the drive by MS to get everyone on Win10 is then to make money off Xbox, WinPhone, Office, App Store etc. kind of the way Apple does, but MS with Xbox and the like can make a bigger impact if done correctly. Unfortunately MS don't have a good record on doing it correctly.

[quote=molgrips ]I installed 8.1 on my Vaio P. There weren't any 8 drivers for the GMA500 graphics, so I installed the 7 ones which work fine but appear not to have 2D acceleration, so it's all rather slow.
Odd but that's what happend with old hardware.

Isn't it 8.1 rather than 8 which needs different drivers? W7 drivers certainly didn't work with my W10 install, but W8.1 drivers did (unfortunately the 8.1 drivers are messy beta - not old hardware, just Spice stuff for VMs).

That's interesting. I tried W8 on the P when it was a release preview, and it seemed snappy - so perhaps something has changed. In any case, I'm trying Ubuntu with some bastard hellish driver hack thing on it now, and if I get fed up I'll be putting W7 back on.

I'm a teacher (currently doing an OU computer science degree) and I believe MS are shitting themselves as Apple take over education. If you have a generation using Macs at school, you're not going to win them back later in life. They're thinking long term. Our school (admittedly a private one), will require* students to have a Mac from year 6 onwards.

I have a dodgy copy of Win 8.1 on a PC and a legitimate 7 on another. I was surprised to see the upgrade notice on both machines. FWIW, I quite like 8.1 although I can't remember the last time I used the Metro aspect. I'll be installing and playingnwith 10 when it's available.

*as near as makes no odds

Our school (admittedly a private one), will require* students to have a Mac from year 6 onwards.

That's frankly outrageous.

The only reason for doing that is to make themselves look posh. Like having school trips skiing in Provence. Boils my piss, that does. Built-in exclusivity.

I kind of like win 8. I must be in the minority though.

To be fair there are state schools paying well over the odds for ipads when there are cheaper alternatives.

The pupils will have a shock when the go to work and find the bulk of companies are running MS.

makecoldplayhistory - Member
Our school (admittedly a private one), will require* students to have a Mac from year 6 onwards.