Windows 10 Release Date: July 29th 374
Ammalgam writes with news that Windows 10 will be released worldwide on July 29th, 2015. It'll be immediately available for PCs and tablets — their announcement doesn't mention smartphones. The upgrade will be free (within one year of launch) for users running legitimate copies of Windows 7 and 8.1. Another reader notes that users of those two operating systems are now being prompted to upgrade by a message in their notification area (system tray).
I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag icon (Score:5, Informative)
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Yeah, I need a GPO to block this from Win7 computers where users are local Admins. Yeah yeah, they shouldn't be, but some apps they use require elevated privilege.
Do your clients not update from a local WSUS server? It isn't available at all there, and would only bee seen if the user clicks the "check Microsoft for updates" link.
How many PCs before WSUS? (Score:3)
Do your clients not update from a local WSUS server?
Our business currently does not. How many Windows PCs would a small business normally be expected to have in operation before purchasing a Windows Server on which to run WSUS?
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Our business currently does not. How many Windows PCs would a small business normally be expected to have in operation before purchasing a Windows Server on which to run WSUS?
Small companies don't need to run it on a separate server. It can be running on virtually any other server. It doesn't use a lot of resources, especially in small networks. It's basically free at that point.
Mine is dedicated, but I also have a Windows Server Datacenter license that lets me run unlimited VM.
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Yeah, I need a GPO to block this from Win7 computers where users are local Admins. Yeah yeah, they shouldn't be, but some apps they use require elevated privilege.
Most users who need to be admins are software engineers who are the least likely to update the OS. They need admin rights to install and sometimes run dev tool esoterica, the kind of tools that are the first to break in a new OS.
This neglects high liability areas like embedded medical or vehicles or military, where tools must be re-qualified on each new major OS release.
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Most users who need to be admins are software engineers
Or want to configure a new printer.
Or disable/enable a wireless adapter.
Or defrag their hard disk.
Re:I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag ico (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't realize that I don't want my desktop to look and operate like my phone.
So you'll be a fan of Windows 10 then. Oh what you weren't paying attention to the development cycle? The bit where the desktop mode will now be default, the metro menu is gone, the few metro apps that ship with the OS will work within a desktop window?
What is it you're complaining about again? Why not reinstall your "nag icon" and give it a go before you complain that no one understands you.
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I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't realize that I don't want my desktop to look and operate like my phone.
So you'll be a fan of Windows 10 then.
There's more to it than making the screen look like a desktop... Not being a Windows 10 beta-testing type, an honest question or two: have they finally gotten rid of all of the 'admin-by-easter-egg' bullshit (e.g. the Charms Bar)? Is the UI actually usable without a touch-screen, or will that still require a few of the workarounds that Windows 8/8.1/9 did?
Why not reinstall your "nag icon" and give it a go before you complain that no one understands you.
...because in an enterprise environment, that nag icon is a bullshit equivalent to spamming (e.g. wasting folks' time with a sales pitch). No other OS bot
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...because in an enterprise environment, that nag icon is a bullshit equivalent to spamming (e.g. wasting folks' time with a sales pitch). No other OS bothers the user with 'OMG update your shit because we need the money!' nags every time someone logs into it.
First off, this is a FREE upgrade; so MS isn't directly benefitting (yet) monetarily from having users upgrade to W10.
Second, when Apple upgraded from Mavericks (10.9) to Yosemite (10.10) (also for Free), I had to beat the "Upgrade" Notifications off with a stick. I can't remember if I finally got annoyed enough to set them to stop (at least you CAN), or if it finally gave up; but there for awhile, it would pop-up a Notification Bubble every 10 minutes or so, telling me "Updates are Available"...
So, I
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Yes. The charms bar and all that crap is gone. I hate all that nonsense in Windows 8 and I refuse to use it. I love Windows 10.
Yes. The UI works just like Windows 7. No workarounds are required. It boots to Desktop. I have a Start Menu. I can find everything easily. Hasn't been a problem like Windows 8 was.
Enterprise environments won't see it because: 1. Domain-joined computers will not be nagged. 2. Enterprise users can already upgrade for free whenever they want.
Re:I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag ico (Score:4, Interesting)
The start menu still uses tile-like buttons, and the windows are "Metro" style. I don't particularly care for the look. The "flat" looks with 16 colors are a step backwards, trendy or not, and I include Apple with this. It looks like some sort of accessibility mode has been enabled for people with poor eyesight.
I've been in favor of every Windows upgrade (aside from ME) since WFW 3.1.
95 gave us a native TCP/IP stack and DirectX. XP looked a little too "Playskool," but the NT kernel tradeoff was so worth it.
Vista was a nice visual upgrade and provided fully-baked 64-bit support. The driver issues were largely overblown and non-issues after a few months anyway. The sidebar was useful for displaying hardware usage. My biggest critique was the price and SKU explosion; the introduction of crippleware at the OS level. Market segmentation might be a good business practice, but insulting knowledgeable customers in the process generally is not. Meanwhile, "Ultimate Extras" proved to be a code name for language packs that were useless to many, many people. Still, these were not criticisms of the core OS itself, just the business practices surrounding it.
Win7 refined the Vista UI and added stability, booted significantly faster, search indexing was improved, and revised UAC (which I had previously disabled) made the feature more acceptable.
Meanwhile I get nothing in Windows 10 other than an interface I don't care for. If XP had been nothing more than a re-skinned Windows 95 with all the same features, I wouldn't have upgraded then either. I'll stick with 7 until they EOL it or introduce a compelling reason to upgrade. I suspect that they've run out of compelling features to add. It would require a sea change in core hardware that we're unlikely to see in the near future -- 128 bit processors, or quantum computing. The feature set of OSes seems to be mature at this point, much like the core controls of vehicles. At this point it's just change for the sake of change, which is a waste of resources.
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And if you happen to live in Australia or any of 100+ other countries, you wont even get Cortana.
Re:I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag ico (Score:4, Interesting)
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The complaint is that I don't want to change my OS if I don't want to, and that should be my choice - plain and simple.
It is your choice... plain and simple...
However, if you wish to remain connected to the Internet, at some point you're going to have to upgrade if you have any sense.
No amount of "safe surfing" is going to make up for the fact that XP is EOL and 7 will be EOL in 2020.
So don't upgrade, keep using whatever you're using, but be mindful of the consequences.
In my experience, most people overrate their own abilities and skills and underrate the threat. I've cleaned too many infected PCs to be ignorant of the th
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Heh, yeah, yet another reason why I don't like Windows: the automatic upgrades that always seem to turn up when they are inconvenient and require a reboot. I mean, when I go home, I don't want to leave my PC running, so I have to stay while it does - what, exactly? So, I only start Windows in a VM and I just pull the (virtual) cable.
Apart from that, it is not uncommon to deliberately avoid upgrading, certainly in the UNIX world. Like for example if your business consists in developing software; as vendor yo
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Apart from that, it is not uncommon to deliberately avoid upgrading, certainly in the UNIX world.
Well, of course, if it ain't broke why bother fixing it? Especially since "not broke" is kind of a rare condition for Microsoft software? Plenty of people have been burned by upgrading a perfectly good version of the OS to the latest and greatest. With Microsoft, this has definitely been the case of "fool me once, shame on you...Fool me 4, 5, 6 times, shame on me."
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Heh, yeah, yet another reason why I don't like Windows: the automatic upgrades that always seem to turn up when they are inconvenient and require a reboot. I mean, when I go home, I don't want to leave my PC running, so I have to stay while it does - what, exactly? So, I only start Windows in a VM and I just pull the (virtual) cable.
Yeah, I HATE that, too! I shuttle my work laptop back and forth from home every day, and it is MOST inconvenient to have that Update notice come up when I am trying to shutdown and go home!
I think MS still thinks that everyone still has a desktop computer, and that it's no problem to just "leave it on" and go home.
So instead, I get to wait while it does a System Restore Point (the majority of the time it takes), then do the install and Reboot (goodbye 30-45 minutes), or "suicide" my laptop by holding th
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So instead, I get to wait while it does a System Restore Point (the majority of the time it takes), then do the install and Reboot (goodbye 30-45 minutes), or "suicide" my laptop by holding the power button, then, the next time I Startup, suffer the bitching and moaning about "Windows was not shut down properly", and then the "Windows needs to Restart" (which pops up when it pleases, and simply HAPPENS if you aren't there to DEFER it, then ANOTHER Reboot (which results in ANOTHER 1/2 hour of virus-scanning), right in the middle of the workday.
Or you could just change Windows Update settings so it doesn't do that any more, ever again.
Re:I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag ico (Score:5, Informative)
There are two tasks under TaskScheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Application Experience, "Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser" and "ProgramDataUpdater", that will continue to contact telemetry servers even if telemetry is disabled. These tasks run and phone home even if CEIP is opted-out of. Reproduce (on Win7 Pro) by:
1) Opt out of CEIP.
2) Remove patches 3021917, 3035583, and 3022345.
3) Set up your IDS to block/report rundll32.exe overnight, and observe logs.
4) Wait a day or two. You will see (failed, if you've blocked rundll32.exe from talking to the interwebs) DNS lookups to settings.data.microsoft.com and telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com in both the IDS and in the Event Log.
The two scheduled tasks will continue phone home even if the above mentioned patches are uninstalled. You must manually disable the tasks "Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser" and "ProgramDataUpdater" in order to stop the phoning-home behavior.
Just ignore all non-security Windows updates... (Score:2)
Interesting, thanks.
It turns out that I don't have several of those patches installed anyway. Some time ago, I switched my default policy to only applying security updates, ignoring anything else in Windows Update even if Microsoft marks it "important". They have abused that mechanism so many times now to try to install junk that is in no way necessary or in my interests that I simply don't trust them any more and only install non-security updates if I have a specific reason for doing so. So far, this has c
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FUD, not a single source working for MSFT has said a damned thing about a subscription model, THAT bit of FUD was started by a gossip site "El Reg" IIRC that is known for pulling "facts" out of their ass.
The ONLY thing that has been said is they won't have the old service packs anymore, instead you'll have a point release, like 8 to 8.1. This makes it easier for regular folks to know WTF is going on as its easier to know that X.1 is the current version as all the sites treat it as a separate OS, while nobody talks about "Win 7 SP1" they simply call it Win 7.
10.1, 10.2, ... - I get the impression that they have their naming scheme copied from somewhere else... The use of "10" signifies the X in OS X, the X refering to UNIX and BSD. I wonder how Microsoft is going to market this...
Re:I've already uninstalled the windows 10 nag ico (Score:5, Funny)
Windows X: We finally moved to UNIX like everyone else.
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Why the fuck would any sane person want to move to UNIX in 2015? OSX and Linux have had to constantly patch the shitty UNIX architecture for years.
And Apple has been doing such a bad job of patching that there hasn't been a serious, self-replicating exploit in the wild for OS X in, well, ever.
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Or there are those of us who don't give a flying fig who is spreading the FUD...we disagree with anyone spreading FUD regardless of the source.
Not everyone is on a particular side of the Microsoft / Linux holy war.
You can't excuse bad behavior by pointing to other people's bad behavior. Most of us learned in kindergarten that "But Johnny was doing it too!" is no
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I found it rather amusing, especially the part where they among the listed "benefits" of upgrading is how Windows 10 enables you to "multitask like a master - with the ability to snap up to four things on the screen, at once". I literally lol:ed.
Snap? Is that supposed to mean something? As far as multitasking, 4 sounds like a downgrade. I have 25 applications open on my Windows 7 system at this moment in time.
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Free Upgrade (Score:5, Funny)
But how much does the downgrade cost?
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What after one year? (Score:4, Insightful)
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If you DO upgrade within the first year for free, it is free forever.
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$109.. if you can believe Neweggs *already up* "Windows 10 Home"... http://www.newegg.com/Product/... [newegg.com] .. If MS is gonna give it away free to Win7/8 current users, *why* is NewEgg thinking people are going to pay *them* $109 for it... oh wait.. I think somebody famous once said "A sucker is born every minute".... Guess that answers THAT question...
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Because that isn't the upgrade version. That's a new license and someone building a new machine from parts they bought on NewEgg still needs to buy a valid Windows license.
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As already stated in the comments a few times, it will be free "forever" after you upgrade, since you already had a license. You still keep downgrade rights to the version you upgraded from. New PCs, if you wait longer than a year, and rebuilds where you don't have a license anymore, etc. will have to pay for a full license when it is out.
Re:What after one year? (Score:5, Interesting)
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The upgrade will be free for one year after the release. But what after that year?
After that, you'll have to free-upgrade to Windows 11.
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And what's the cost for XP or new Windows users? Not everyone already has Windows 7 or 8.
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is it still valid for Microsoft to ask 100$+ for their OS?
Define "valid."
Windows Media Center (Score:4)
Does it have WMC? I use this computer as a home theater system.
"Some apps sold separately; vary by market."
Re:Windows Media Center (Score:5, Informative)
To answer my own question:
"Feature deprecation section
If you have Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, or Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center and you install Windows 10, Windows Media Center will be removed.
Watching DVDs requires separate playback software
Windows 7 desktop gadgets will be removed as part of installing Windows 10.
Windows 10 Home users will have updates from Windows Update automatically available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.
Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts Games that come pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released our version of Solitaire and Minesweeper called the “Microsoft Solitaire Collection” and “Microsoft Minesweeper.”
If you have a USB floppy drive, you will need to download the latest driver from Windows Update or from the manufacturer's website.
If you have Windows Live Essentials installed on your system, the OneDrive application is removed and replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive."
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Be warned though, the new Microsoft Minesweeper is a POS. It only runs full screen, so you can't have a sly game while pretending to work. It's no replacement for the classic.
Personally I'll keep a Windows 7 VM around just for Minesweeper.
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Windows 10 Home users will have updates from Windows Update automatically available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.
So Windows 10 only gives you the "install ALL updates automatically" option. Wow. Great. What an improvement! Especially with Microsoft's flawless update history.
Re:Windows Media Center (Score:5, Informative)
Media Centre is gone, it sucked anyway. I suggest XMBC as a replacement.
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They rebranded as Kodi a while ago Kodi. [kodi.tv]
If you're still using a media center PC I would suggest getting an Amazon Fire or other small Arm box. Ours handles everything just fine.
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O RLY? How, pray tell, does an Amazon Fire or whatever run my TV tuner cards (which is the primary purpose of an HTPC)?
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Well. You could get a Networked tuner card like those from SiliconDust. [silicondust.com]
Or you could do away with them. Rather than fiddling with tuning cards and editing of commercials it's much easier to just use SickBeard [sickbeard.com]/SickRage
My FreeNAS server downloads them in the background and they just show up. As much fun as fiddling with TV Tuner cards sounds I'd just get the 720p rip from a group that does this all the time.
HTPC
The primary purpose of a Home Theater Personal Computer is to run a home theater.
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It looks like it should work pretty well if you use the upcoming HDHomeRUN DVR software. You do need to use one of their tuners but you might already be using one. If not you can get an OTA or cablecard 3-tuner for $90-95.
Support is being added to NAS boxes, so you could switch out a power hungry PC for a low powered NAS drive, and then watch live or recorded TV on a Amazon FireTV, Roku, Smart Phone, Tablet, etc.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1275320038/hdhomerun-dvr-the-dvr-re-imagined [kickstarter.com]
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I found XBMC doesn't handle live TV nearly as well as Media Center. That's the big reason I like it. That and the interface is really clean. I haven't found a good skin on XMBC either.
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Why does one need a PC sitting next to the TV to watch TV? My TV has a tuner.
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Use PLEX. It's free (with some premium features) and works like a charm.
It's an "alternate release", so I'll bite (Score:3)
It's an "alternate" release, so I'll bite and install Windows 10. Historically, pretty much every second release of Windows was worth the effort of installing, with the "in between" release being a total screw up that never got deployed anywhere except for being pre-installed on devices.
Do you know of anyone who voluntarily ran Windows 8? Or paid for it as an upgrade?
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8.1 was a fluffed up service pack.
Free.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I dunno, I like to be in control of the situation and this freebie sounds sketchy, do we get to keep the upgrade for offline install?
My history of windows use has always reinforced the idea of "clean install" over upgrade, not sure if that's still true but I imagine it is still the better route.
The price of the Win10 pro is absurd, $250, or $149 for OEM if you can handle your own support *snicker*
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I dunno, I like to be in control of the situation and this freebie sounds sketchy, do we get to keep the upgrade for offline install? My history of windows use has always reinforced the idea of "clean install" over upgrade, not sure if that's still true but I imagine it is still the better route.
The price of the Win10 pro is absurd, $250, or $149 for OEM if you can handle your own support *snicker*
$250 is absurd? Since when?
I can still find Windows 7 Pro selling for that much. Seems to be the usual price for a full version, and their "free" offerings are about as zero-cost as others turn out to be.
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$250 is absurd? Since when?
$250 for an operating system is insane when you can buy a decent tablet or a low-end PC for less than that. And, guess what? You get a free operating system, thrown in!
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Agree on this one ... there have been lots of "you can buy this upgrade for your current" which haven't always worked, and then you end up without proper install media for the version you're running.
I won't run a version of Windows for which I don't own the install media for. Because it basically leaves you at the mercy of hoping nothing ever goes wrong.
And that, in my experience, is a dumb idea with any software.
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You get a .iso that you can install again as many times as you like, indefinitely. You also get a license code that you can use, according to Microsoft, for the lifetime of Windows 10.
$149 for OEM Pro is the standard price that Windows has been forever. The only people who get it cheaper are OEMs with special deals. Anyone selling it cheaper has bankrupt stock or something like that.
I ask again, ... does anyone know. (Score:4, Interesting)
How does it all work?
If I install Windows 10 on my personal desktop, with valid key.
Then trash the machine, re-install from a brand new original Windows 10 media DVD. Does the Windows 7 key work for Windows 10?
Even if another user signs in?
Is the Windows 7 key tied to my "Windows account" (they seem to be pushing accounts / logins now.... my Windows 10 test machine I literally login with my Microsoft live account) or what was once called live...
I own at least 3 machines with genuine Windows 7 keys but I administer / work on / help with at least 30. I do NOT want to have 30 unique Windows 10 "accounts" with MS.
So is it literally a flag in the DB "this key is now Windows 10 and Windows 7"?
Windows 8.2? (Score:3)
I still don't really get what 10 is bringing to the table. It seems like such a minor upgrade - skipping two version numbers is such a farce. The video on that page that highlights 10's new features is such a laugh. It flashes to the same start screen like 8 times with a mouse icon just about to click on a microsoft word icon (brace yourselves!). I can tell from the flashy music that this windows 10 experience must be intense, but saw no objective evidence that it does anything new whatsoever.
I actually want to see microsoft do well - I think the Surface is an incredible piece of hardware, and it would be great to see the OS and the app store catch up, but 10 just looks like a skin package for win8.
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skipping two version numbers is such a farce
Back in the days of Windows 9x some installation packages used the long OS name to detect what version was running. So looking for Windows 9* would return true with Windows 9 which would cause applications to think they are running Windows 9x. That's bad practices but MS prides itself on being as backward compatible friendly as possible. There's also the whole marketing side of things. There's really no harm in skipping the version. I just hope they stick to the numbering method from now on.
but saw no objective evidence that it does anything new whatsoever
That video does
So, does my Windows 7 Starter Edition qualify? (Score:2)
Seriously, it exists [cnet.com]. Not that I actually used it, I basically booted it up once after purchase to be sure it worked (I didn't go through the setup crap), turned it off, upgraded the RAM and immediately put Kubuntu on it (now replaced with Netrunner).
Starter edition - the (rightfully) forgotten Windows 7.
....and MS throws IE under the bus. Heh! (Score:2)
Admittedly, getting stuff done online with IE could be painful. Glad they saw the light.
"You'll experience problems with your display" (Score:3)
Click the menu icon in the top left of the upgrade reservation thing, then pick Check your PC. On my VERY new Sony VAIO Flip 15, which came with Windows 8, I get the message "These devices aren't fully compatible with Windows 10" -> Intel(R) HD Graphics Family -> You'll experience problems with your display.
So what does this mean? If I let the upgrade happen on July 29, my screen goes black after that? How can such a new video "card" be unsupported? (It's the built-in display on the Core i7-4500U this thing has). Is it because I also have the Nvidia GeForce GT 735M on here, with that GPU-switching technology (Optimus?) that so many new laptops have now?
Whoah! Did you see this? (Score:3)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us... [microsoft.com]
I quote:
Device Guard requires:
UEFI Secure Boot with 3rd party UEFI CA removed from the UEFI database
Note the part that I bolded.
No more dual booting. The next step in the "destroy all others" is being taken. You will not be able to dual boot, even with the distros that tried to play along with the TPM shenanigans.
If you want control over your computing environment, it is paramount that you not upgrade to Windows 10. "Right to Read" will mostly likely come to pass, but the longer we delay it, the more chances we have to prevent it.
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Windows 2000 was pretty good.
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From Wilipedia: "It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0... During development, Windows 2000 was known as Windows NT 5.0"
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From Wilipedia: "It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0... During development, Windows 2000 was known as Windows NT 5.0"
By that logic, Windows 10 is, in fact, Windows 9. So we're good.
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Is that the one where Spock dies?
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Things can be mangled in many ways to make it look like the even/odd rule applies.
I'd simply summarize that Windows 2000, Windows 7 and Windows 10 have been the rock solid releases.
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It would have been 9 if it hadn't of been for lazy-assed programmers checking for Windows versions by comparing "9*" for 95, 98, 98SE.
Re:Subscription or no? (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/microsoft-clarifies-who-gets-free-windows-10-114730456889.html
After a year? Still free
Woodman clarified for me that if you upgrade your PC to Windows 10 with the free offer, you won’t be socked with a payment demand after some arbitrary period. Windows 10 isn’t “freemium.” It won’t convert from a free upgrade to a paid or subscription-supported operating system. He told me, clearly, “Once you’re on Windows 10, you’re on Windows 10, and there will be no additional charge.”
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That link doesn't say anything about the inevitable updates for Windows 10 being free.
Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but this IS microsoft we're talking about here.
There has to be something here which is screwing over users, we just have to figure out what it is.
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No that all makes too much sense, it must be something much more nefarious.
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It could very well be that Microsoft has decided to give something away without expecting anything in return.
Given their track record, it seems somewhat unlikely.
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They will get something in return. Windows has an app store now. Like mobile operating systems that are generally free, they can monetize it other ways.
Microsoft already gives Windows away for free. OEMs making devices with screens under 13" can get a free copy of Windows 8. That's the only reason you can get a cheap Windows 8 tablet now, otherwise it would still be a 100% Android market.
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It could very well be that Microsoft has decided to give something away without expecting anything in return.
Of course they get something in return. They get everybody on the WinRT APIs so that they get 30% of all software sales for Windows. That's worth way more than a windows license.
They also get OneDrive subscriptions to increase your storage and Microsoft Office subscriptions and they get you searching Bing and they get you buying Skype minutes and they get you buying Surface Tablets and they get you buying movies and music and they get you buying Music Subscriptions and they get you subscribing to Xbox Liv
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What's in it for Microsoft, when the upgrades are free? They've had six years to make improvements that users might pay for and they're just going to hand them over for free. Why? They're not making profit on the hardware the way Apple does, selling software is their core business. Part of getting a new machine is also getting the latest OS, if you already have Win10 on your 2.8 GHz i7-860 w/DDR3 and 16x PCIe 2.0 and add a new graphics card and some more RAM you have a pretty solid platform to play with. It
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What's in it for Microsoft, when the upgrades are free?
As AmiMoJo says above [slashdot.org]. The Windows Store. The more people running Windows 10, the more people using the Windows Store, the more people using the Windows Store, the more money for Microsoft there.
Similar to how the console manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and when they were making hardware, Sega) sell their console at a LOSS because they may up for it in selling games.
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That link doesn't say anything about the inevitable updates for Windows 10 being free.
In some ways, I wish Microsoft would charge for ongoing security and compatibility updates after a reasonable period, but in a transparent way.
Useful lifetimes for PCs are increasing (forced obsolescence aside) and it's not a viable business model to expect MS to sell a copy of an OS one day and then support the same OS indefinitely with no extra revenues. However, clearly a lot of people are happy with what they've got and don't feel the newer versions of the OS getting pumped out to try to increase those
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My daughter (13) has been my test subject for the windows 10 release so far and she's been initially satisfied with the OS, but unsatisfied with the performance. Based on her use, I'm surprised that they are releasing it at this time. it's been buggy, crash prone, and generally lackluster in performance. Now, it may be that the preview candidates are missing some key optimization features, and I realize that most of her drivers aren't optimized. From a User Interface, if you are used to windows 8.1 you'll p
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So Windows 10 takes Windows 8.1 and spends almost all of its development resources on keyboard and mouse... but you aren't going to upgrade from *Windows 8.1* which is worse with mouse and keyboard because you are afraid that Windows 10, Microsoft's return to the Mouse and Keyboard paradigm is too touch oriented?
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect that as well.
Apart from some tweaks here and there, we're still mostly dealing with the NT6 core (even when the kernel version was bumped to 10).
Pretty much all changes have been on the shell, and the Modern app engine has been introduced.
Re:Looking forward to it (Score:4, Informative)
With Classic Shell [classicshell.net] you can add the start button back to Windows 8.1. I highly recommend it.
With some tweaking, you can turn a Windows 8.1 desktop into something which pretty much looks like the classic Windows desktop, and ignore the mobile eye candy and app-crap entirely.
After which, Windows 8.1 becomes a fairly decent platform.
I think what Microsoft fails to realize is the things they think are cool and innovative are useful for some people, but utterly fail for people who need a traditional desktop.
I don't use a single feature on my desktop Windows 8.1 machine which Microsoft had configured as the GUI by default -- but once I got rid of their "innovative" crap, the OS itself is pretty nice.
Re: (Score:2)
go to task scheduler library/Microsoft/windows/setup/gwx disable the tasks then end the process gwx.exe.