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Features That Windows 10 Will Deprecate

Posted by samzenpus on from the so-long dept.

jones_supa writes: Microsoft announced that a Windows 10 upgrade will be free for users running Windows 7 and 8.1, but there will be a number of features that will no longer work after that upgrade. The features that will no longer work are listed on the official specifications page on Microsoft's website. Some of the deprecated features include: Media Center, out-of-the-box DVD playback and USB floppy support, desktop gadgets, deferring updates (Home edition), old versions of Windows games, and Windows Live Essentials version of OneDrive.

18 of 468 comments (clear)

  1. You Mean...? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean someone uses Windows built-in DVD playback? The first thing I've done on a new computer for the last five or six years is install VLC.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:You Mean...? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Informative

      I tried to do that two days ago after I de-regioned my PC's DVD player so I could actually play the DVDs I had paid for.

      I could not get the windows 8 to play the DVD. I found no program that could do it. Media player certainly couldn't.

      I downloaded VLC.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    2. Re:You Mean...? by ihtoit · · Score: 4, Informative

      in most cases you're looking at a firmware upgrade. Go here: http://www.doom9.org/index.htm...

      HTH.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    3. Re:You Mean...? by meglon · · Score: 4, Informative

      PC dvd players used to (and still do?) allow you to change the region 5 times before locking it permanently to the last one selected.... so your region 1 dvd player could be changed to play region 2 dvd's (but no longer region 1 ones). Good for a couple movies you want to watch once. VLC is a vastly better choice.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    4. Re:You Mean...? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 5, Informative

      "VLC doesn't let you play through a region locked DVD. At least it didn't for me and my DVD drive."

      There is a pretty succinct explanation of why you had trouble here.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    5. Re:You Mean...? by PRMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      You forgot to install AnyDVD. In fact, if you install AnyDVD, you probably don't need to change the firmware either.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  2. Re:Really, USB floppy? by AMDinator · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTFA: You can still get the driver from Windows Update. It's just not shipping with the driver on the system image.

  3. Re:No media center? Windows 10 is DEAD to me... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Direct from MS:
    "Windows Media Center is not part of Windows 10 and won’t be available after upgrading to Windows 10. If you use Windows Media Center, we will alert you during upgrade that Windows Media Center is not available on Windows 10. We know that some users use Windows Media Center to play DVDs, and we are providing a free DVD playback app in Windows 10 for Windows Media Center users."

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

  4. Re:How to get rid of the free upgrade icon? by TypoNAM · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's an article that lists what Windows updates to remove to do just that. It's primarily KB3035583 that's responsible for the nag screen. However there's several other updates that are suspect to be causing performance and spying/'telemetry' that wasn't occurring until fairly recently.

    --
    This space is not for rent.
  5. Re:How to get rid of the free upgrade icon? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Informative

    To remove:
    http://microsoft-news.com/how-to-remove-windows-10-upgrade-notification-on-windows-7-and-windows-8/


    And Win 10 will not be a subscription model.

  6. Re:How to get rid of the free upgrade icon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/01/how-to-block-the-windows-10-update-notification-in-earlier-versions-of-windows/

    1.Tap on the Windows-key on the keyboard, type programs and features, and hit enter. This opens the list of software installed on the system.
    2.Switch to "view installed updates" on the left side of the window.
    3.If you are using Windows 7, locate the following updates: 3035583, 2952664, 3021917
    4.If you are using Windows 8, locate the following updates: 3035583, 2976978
    5.Right-click one update after the other and select uninstall from the context menu.
    6.Select Restart Later when the prompt appears and remove all updates first from the system.
    7.Once done, restart the computer to complete the process.

    To block these updates, do the following:
    1.Tap on the Windows-key, type Windows Update, and hit enter.
    2.This should open the Windows Update dialog.
    3.Select "check for updates" to find new updates to install on the system. Windows should find the updates listed above again.
    4.Click on the "important update is available" link.
    5.Right-click each of the listed updates above that are listed on the page and select hide update from the context menu.
    6.This blocks the update from being installed on the system.

  7. Not quite dead. by westlake · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some of the deprecated features include: Media Center, out-of-the-box DVD playback and USB floppy support, desktop gadgets, deferring updates (Home edition), old versions of Windows games, and Windows Live Essentials version of OneDrive.

    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.

    Windows 10 Specifications: Feature deprecation section

    In a separate FAQ, Microsoft says it is ''providing a free DVD playback app in Windows 10 for Windows Media Center users.''

    Here Are the Features Windows 10 Will Remove When You Upgrade, Windows 10 Q&A: Will Windows Media Center be available in Windows 10?

  8. One huge reason by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Informative

    VLC has a real audio compressor plugin. No longer am I subjected to whisper quiet dialog and action scenes that cause hearing damage. No compression is not the same as normalizing either. Loud passages are toned down and quiet ones are amplified, like how movies used to be.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:One huge reason by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Informative

      Its already part of VLC. Click on Tools > Effects and filters > Compressor tab.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    2. Re:One huge reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a bit old but lifehacker had a story on it a while ago:

      http://lifehacker.com/5920290/how-to-fix-movies-that-are-really-quiet-then-really-loud

    3. Re:One huge reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Compressor settings will vary dependent on source material (for optimal experience). It's simple enough to get your head round once you have it explained though. Attack is the time for the compressor to kick in (think of it as a delay before gain change). Release is the time until the compressor stops compressing once triggered. OK so then you have ratio which correlates to the amount of gain change once compression is occurring, higher the ratio the more the volume will be modified. Threshold is the volume level at which to apply compression. Knee don't worry too much about and make up gain is useful when you really have to squash something but then result in a much lower overall signal.

      Some starting settings might be:

      Attack: 12ms (To allow the transients through to give definition)
      Release: 20ms or so but if there are lots of huge explosions you might want to move out to around 50 ish
      Threshold: Fiddle till happy but -10db seems a good a starting point as any
      Ratio: 2-3 ish (higher ratios will lead to more pronounced "ducking" or "pumping")
      Make Up Gain: Fiddle till happy

      That is the best I can remember it anyway, its been a while since I played with one in any kind of professional setting :)

  9. Re:How to get rid of the free upgrade icon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    not with the subscription model they seem to be moving to

    Its amazing that people are still confused about the free upgrade. They are not going to charge you next year when the free upgrade offer ends. They aren't going be moving windows 10 to a sub model. You'll still be buying oem or retail copies of windows 10 when you are building a new machine - you can do so RIGHT NOW on newegg if you really wanted to. They've explicitly stated this.

  10. Re:It's just weird. WHY? by damnbunni · · Score: 3, Informative

    Money saving. DVD playback software has to be licensed, and that's an extra cost.

    Since not many people used the built in software for it, MS stopped including it in 8. Most PCs that ship with DVD players come with PowerDVD or some other third party DVD player tool anyway.

    Solitaire is now part of a free download from the Windows store, and has been since Windows 8. Putting it there gets people to create a Windows account and check out the store.

    I'll be updating to 10 just to get DirectX 12. Games aren't using it yet, but they will be.