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Microsoft Temporarily Suspends Availability of Windows 10 Builds

Mark Wilson writes: If you haven't already downloaded Windows 10 build 10162 or 10166, you're now too late. Microsoft has suspended the availability of these two builds — previously available on the Slow and Fast rings respectively — in the run up to the big launch day in a couple of weeks' time. As we edge closer and closer to the RTM build of Windows 10, Microsoft is now asking Windows Insiders to stick with the build they currently have installed for the time being. Anyone who hasn't upgraded to these latest preview builds is out of luck. As well as disabling upgrading through Windows Update, Microsoft is also suspending ISOs and activation.

18 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Dammit by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I botched up my disk drive's EFI partition while trying to install Windows 10. By the time I resolve all my problems, I may not be able to activate the damn install!

    --
    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    1. Re:Dammit by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I botched up my disk drive's EFI partition while trying to install Windows 10. By the time I resolve all my problems, I may not be able to activate the damn install!

      Fortunately you weren't trying out a beta on your production machine, so the two weeks without Win10 won't matter, right?

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    2. Re:Dammit by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Funny

      "My head hurts!"

      "Try smashing a toe with a hammer!"

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    3. Re:Dammit by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think everyone reading this is has been in that boat sometime or another.

      Nah, in my case, it was my own damn fault. I should have been more familiar with EFI/UEFI issues before starting. I've been a long time linuxer, so I was counting on my outdated MBR/dualbooting and ntfsclone dumps to get me through. The first snag was that Windows 10 would not install on my secondary drive for some reason, because it already had an EFI partition, which somehow made it unsuitable for booting. (I know this may sound incorrect to some; I'm just relating my first hand experience.) It was the relative sluggishness of the Windows install menu that made me accidentally delete a partition important to my OS drive and then hilarity ensued...

      wbadmin backup? You're talking 8.1, right? Nope, windows 7 here at home. Yeah, I've been able to mount all my intact partitions, so I haven't lost data, but I'm working on repairing EFI partitions and restoring the relevant hidden system drive dump to the correct partition. Actually, I was doing the book learning I should have done before attempting anything, and then Microsoft now "mentions" they're shutting down the preview activations.

      Well, I've mentioned elsewhere that I was able to get my 10162 build installed & activated today (different machine), so one day soon I'll be back to square one.

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    4. Re:Dammit by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      Should have did like I did and grab a cheapo SSD to test Win 10 on. I fired it up, played with it for a few hours and then found out one of my favorite games don't work (War Thunder, no sound, a common issue with certain gaming boards it turns out) so all I had to do was pop off the side and swap SSDs. I was back up and running inside of 5 minutes like it never happened and once they have the game updated so it works with Win 10 I can always pop it back in, no risk.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM build.. by mlts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the past, there were last minute "gotchas" which MS tossed in right before a build went RTM. In the antediluvian past, it was removing direct MS-DOS access in Windows ME, with XP, it was the Secure Audio Path (which was a DRM stack which required all audio drivers to be signed, in order to prevent programs like TuneBite from existing.)

    I wonder what is going to be tossed in at the last minute. Hopefully nothing too headache-forming.

  3. Reading Is FUNdamental... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The summary is quite wrong.

    Microsoft is asking people to receive the next update via the same channel that they'll eventually use (in a few weeks) to push the operating system to retail users. They didn't say that there would not be more builds (in fact, they explicitly said that there would be). The whole point is to test out the new distribution channel.

    1. Re:Reading Is FUNdamental... by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 2

      Then why cease validating build 10162? Immediately shutdown downloading the test ISOs, and warn that they'll stop validating any "old" windows 10 releases in three days.

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  4. Re:Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM buil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Any other examples from 15 years ago?

    When I was 10, I was rude to my parents. I wonder if I'll call my Dad a bastard tomorrow?

  5. Re:Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM buil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you fire all of your QA, you don't plan to test anyway. So, what's the difference?

  6. Re:Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM buil by mlts · · Score: 2

    I hope this is the case, and I'm proven brain-dead wrong. MS hasn't really pulled any real "fast ones" recently. W10 looks like it will be the next Windows 7 or XP.

    As for OS releases, MS's real interesting OS release will be Server 2016. I'm guessing MS is going to wait and see what bugs pop up with W10, get them fixed before WS2016 goes out the door (which is a wise move.)

    WS2016 is (for me that is) the one to watch, especially the added virtualization and container capabilities. I wonder how many places will be using the Docker capabilities once that gets out onto servers.

  7. Downloading 10162 right now?? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

    My hunch is MS does not want piracy.

    Since I am grandfathered in with the insider program I can download. I am doing this now so I have a free VM image for my labs as MS made it clear it is a free upgrade for registered as well as beta fresh installs as a thank you for the insider program.

    I can't wait until it updates to RTM and I can finally get RSAT tools to make it useful as a virtual joined computer. In the meantime I am stuck with time bombed versions of 8.1 for the labs. 10 being light and EFI means very light resources and fast boot times :-)

  8. Re:Lost track of Sequence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Let's see: Windows 3.1 was ok. Win95 sucked. Win98 good. WinME sucked. WinXP great. WinVista sucked. Win7 good. Win8...yeah what about Win8? And what happened to Win9? And now Win10? WTF??!!!

    Let me correct you a bit..

    Windows 3 (3.1, workgroups) = Great OS for the Time
    Windows 95 (a, b, c) = A huge leap forward but very buggy
    Windows 98 (rel, SE) = Great but buggy
    Windows ME = Useless
    Windows 2000 = Excellent OS for the time.
    Windows XP = Great
    Windows Vista = Great if you had decent driver support.. (the OS was great, was communicability/driver issues people had.)
    Windows 7 = Best release to date
    Windows 8 (rel, 8.1) = A lesson learned on not listening to the community.
    Windows 10 = Good, it's what windows 8 should have been.

    As for windows 9, it's been stated several times they would not name of for various 3rd party code comparability reasons.

    if(version.StartsWith("Windows 9"))
    { /* 95 and 98 */
    } else {

  9. Re:10162 available here by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 2

    1) Its probably not available. If its available, it won't be soon.

    2) I already had a copy of build 10162. The problem is that the Insider blog mentioned that Microsoft would NOT be activating 10162 builds anymore.

    3) It still activated for me today. But the experience was odd. When I ran the initial install, it hung at "Please wait for a moment". I was certain that it was hung because Microsoft was not validating build 10162 anymore (sic). Of course, I waited for 30 minutes, and then rebooted. It then displayed a "login" (activation, whatever you want to call it), asking for my "insider" account (which is basically linked to your Windows Outlook account, provided you had already successfully applied for an insider account). The install appears to be complete, and working as expected.

    If you care about having a working copy of Windows 10 (beta) for the next two weeks, install/activate 10162 now. I doubt it will work if you're not already registered with the Windows Insider program. I don't know if it (build 10162) will activate if you try installation tomorrow.

    --
    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  10. Anybody else diapointed with the "start menu"? by denis-The-menace · · Score: 2

    I saw it on a coworkers machine and we were both disappointed.

    The whole endless list menu is way too long.
    Love the Single Letters too to make it longer still. /S

    If this was a tablet Ok fine but this is gonna cause training issues.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  11. yes, ISO download still works, for now by quenda · · Score: 3, Informative

    Works for me too, and outside the browser, so no cookies needed.

    wget http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink...

    Windows 10 Insider Preview (x64) - Build 10162
      Download (3.86 GB)
    SHA-1 hash: C1C08D22876F45444880275D26CB5ECB8347620B

    http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

  12. Re: Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM bui by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Informative

    It really is in a lot of ways.

    1. They still have two separate control panels: The windows vista era one, and the one that uses that butt-ugly 'modern UI' that looks and works like something thrown together on linux 15 years ago, complete with badly rendered fonts. They didn't even try to consolidate them either. Fucking idiotic.

    2. The new scheme follows office2013/16's 'all white' mantra, making it hard on the eyes. Like windows vista and up, this is not easily editable. Window metrics are fixed and unchangeable without hacks, like win 8.1.

    3. The start menu is usable again, but still isn't as flexible as previous ones. Startisback++ exists and works fine, but still.

    4. They totally hosed ddraw fullscreen support which breaks a lot of backward compatibility. There's no reason for this either. Hacks that existed for win 8.1 no longer work (disabledwm.exe).

    5. More pointless 'metro' apps that also look like shitty linux X11 from 15 years ago. What's worse is that some of these have replaced traditional windows utilities like calculator.

    These are the issues I've noticed. This list is not meant to be all encompassing.

  13. Re: Wonder what MS might be adding for the RTM bui by ihtoit · · Score: 2

    One major issue which for me means I'll be disabling Windows Update when they EOL 7: NO MEDIA CENTER IN 10.

    Fuck that. I'm sticking with 7.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel