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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.
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.
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
"My head hurts!"
"Try smashing a toe with a hammer!"
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
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 I've been a long time linuxer, so I was counting on my outdated MBR/dualbooting and ntfsclone dumps to get me through.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.
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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...
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.