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Windows 10 Release Date: July 29th
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).
To make it easy on everyone else: On windows 7 uninstall update - KB3035583 http://microsoft-news.com/how-... You literally have to remove a window update to get rid of it - I love how the update when you install it gave you no indication what it actually was going to do. I seriously hate how updates work with windows. I look forward to the hundreds of stories on how no one wants to move off windows 7, and how windows 7 is still present in huge numbers in the year 2025. I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't realize that I don't want my desktop to look and operate like my phone.
But how much does the downgrade cost?
The upgrade will be free for one year after the release. But what after that year? What will it cost? Can I download the upgrade and use it later (after one year) and than still use it for free?
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
Does it have WMC? I use this computer as a home theater system.
"Some apps sold separately; vary by market."
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
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.”
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*
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
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.
With Classic Shell 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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
But just because some dude at MSFT said "Win 10 is the only version we are working on ATM" the sites jumped to this "last version of Windows EVAR" subscription crap when in reality land the prices have already been leaked and its no different than every other release, you'll have retail and OEM, Home and Pro, its business as usual. I'm sure in a year and a half you'll see retail 10.1, maybe even 10.2, and then you'll see the hypetrain for Windows 11, probably hosted by Spinal Tap, coming to a tech site near you.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
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"?
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.
Windows X: We finally moved to UNIX like everyone else.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
These "folks" - Yeah the first OS i've used was in fact win95 - sorry but I'm late generation it seems. 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. You spin your own web and live in the world you can neatly categorize. You say its different, yet don't even realize what different means. Different can mean hundreds of hours reconfiguring and migrating applications. Different means hundreds or thousands of dollars in migration costs. How naive are you to think you know what's best for everyone else?
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.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere