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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.

32 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 Tailhook · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You mean someone uses Windows built-in DVD playback?

      Yes. The codec in Windows 7 (ultimate) and its integration with Media Player produces smoother playback with less system load than VLC. The difference grows (up to a point) when other activity competes for resources while playing DVD or Blu-ray video.

      You may not realize that, and it may not even occur for your particular collection of hardware. I didn't pick up on it for a long time, but at some point I noticed the difference and since then I've used Media Player. And I'm not some crazy 'phile that obsesses over imaginary minutia; I spend less than average on media gear and I'm not particularly sensitive to minor phenomena. But I can tell the difference between VLC and Media Player, and I can measure the difference in system load.

      So yeah, it kinda sucks that the DVD codec Microsoft provides is going away. Will I care enough to not just use VLC? We'll see. I also use VLC frequently; it's better when coping with with random media and does a lot of tricks WMP won't. I have no problem with VLC at all. But if I can get better results with something else then I just might do that instead.

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    6. Re:You Mean...? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is also a fairly niche issue(given that most people shoving DVDs into computers either want them to Just Play, or want to rip the to some format that means never dealing with DVDs); but I'd assume that the MS codec that is being killed is a DirectShow filter; while everything in VLC's bag of tricks is specific to VLC(though some programs do specifically use VLC for various things).

      In practice, the words 'DirectShow Filter Graph' typically mean that somebody just opened an industrial sized box of incomprehensible pain; but the theory is noble: it's Microsoft's stab at a modular media handling system that allows a given application to painlessly 'inherit' codecs, effects, demuxing steps, and assorted other operations provided by other software without having to be built with them in mind. If the application uses DirectShow, and there is a set of filters that will get you from the item you are attempting to play to the format the sink requires, things are supposed to work.

      There are some atrocious complications(shitty 'codec packs' registering themselves as the most preferred codec for every possible situation, even ones they are horribly broken at, seemed to be a favorite), and much of the time the theoretical elegance of the system was excessive to the actual need, while the complexity was always lurking; but there probably are a few users who will find the announcement painful for this reason. VLC, ffmpeg, etc. are very good at what they do; but just as OSX-native applications expect Quicktime to handle media, and anything that isn't a quicktime plugin will remain isolated solely in the one playback program that it came with, Windows native applications expect Directshow, and if some piece of software is demanding a set of directshow filters that can take a DVD and do something useful, all the VLC in the world will not save them. Not VLC's problem; but one of the reasons why some users are going to be unhappy.

    7. Re:You Mean...? by networkzombie · · Score: 5, Interesting

      people still have optical drives on their computers?

      I use my Blu-ray burner all the time. Verbatim 25 GBs for about 30 cents each. Nice backup option compared to thumb drives, plus I don't accidently leave a Blu-ray disc in my pants pocket and have it go through the wash.

    8. 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...
    9. Re:You Mean...? by Puls4r · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yep. That's how I rate my apps too. I have a gay scale of 1 to 10, scientifically calibrated from 0 (Chuck Norris), to 10 (Richard Simmons). Your post is coming in at a 9. Do you work out to "Sweatin to the Oldies"?

    10. Re:You Mean...? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      And then what happened? I need closure on this anecdote!

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    11. Re:You Mean...? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

      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.

      And then what happened? I need closure on this anecdote!

      I posted on Slashdot

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. No media center? Windows 10 is DEAD to me... by bobbied · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope, not going to migrate up to 10 from 7 anytime soon if it means media center goes away...

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  3. Really, USB floppy? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's rare that I need to read an old floppy, but if I do it's surely going to be on a USB device - I haven't had a 'real' floppy drive in a decade.

    I guess that driver was a such a bear to maintain. Oh, right, nevermind - I've got a linux box where the driver support is better. Oh, hai, 2015.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. 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.

  4. Let's be realistic... by JMJimmy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    First thing is install a new browser, second thing is install adblock plus, the third is to install VLC.

    1. Re:Let's be realistic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I skip VLC and go straight for CCCP for Media Player Classic.

      Maybe it was a bad couple of years when I stopped using VLC, but I've had little reason to look back after ignoring it.

  5. How to get rid of the free upgrade icon? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a win7 home machine. Suddenly this icon "free upgrade to Win 10" has popped up next to the clock in the notification area. It pops open a window that says, " it is not a trial version. It is the real deal. Click now and we will download and upgrade you to win 10 when it is released". There is no way to dismiss the icon and stop it. I am not going to upgrade, not with the subscription model they seem to be moving to. How do you get rid of this icon? Worried my better half might click ok by mistake thinking it is a good deal.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. 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.
    2. 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.

    3. 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.

  6. What an upgrade! by RazorJ_2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Upgrade? Sounds like a downgrade to me.
    Seriously, what's the benefit to upgrade to a downgraded OS? Sounds like XP to Vista all over again.

    --
    pi=sigma{n:0-infinity}[(1/16)^n][(4/(8n+1))-(2/(8n +4))-(1/ (8n+5))-(1/(8n+6))]
  7. deferring updates (Home edition) by phorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That one kinda sucks. As it is it's a bit of a pisser when I'm in the middle of something, have deferred an update, and the next deferral times out causing it to reboot my PC on me....

    1. Re:deferring updates (Home edition) by WryCoder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What do you mean, "my PC"?

  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 JMJimmy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Any recommended settings? It's not exactly intuitive for a non-audio guy.

    3. 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

  9. Solitaire by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know a whole bunch of people who are going to be upset about Solitaire going away. I work for a retirement community, and the second-most-used application on the computers in the activity center (after "The Internet") is Solitaire. We're going to have to install a substitute on these machines (or their replacements) when we switch to WinX, or we'll never hear the end of the complaints.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  10. In Soviet Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    CCCP Media plays you!

  11. Backups by Brianwa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If 10 is anything like 8.1, the upgrade will silently stop your backups and remove your ability to access any backups made in the Windows 7 backup utility. I discovered that one the fun way.

  12. Re:Loud then quit by Zaelath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ^ that's complete bullshit.

    Surround is tuned for theatres, and you don't care that it's loud when the music/explosions are going off and quiet for dialogue because you don't have a child sleeping in the next room in the theatre. It's not that the music/explosions are painfully loud at home, it's that they're still too damn loud for night viewing with children/neighbours/etc.