Windows 10

[SciFiFan]

I plan on doing the same as Maj. I am, however, going to upgrade my kid's desktop from Vista to Win7 this weekend. It needs a thorough cleanup anyways. Once this is done, every computer in my house will be on 7.

I was unable to upgrade my kids' desktop. It was running Vista 32 bit and I had bought Win7 64 bit. It will not install as an upgrade and the 32 bit key obviously wont work as a fresh install. So, I just did the clean install which was good as it got rid of a bunch of junk.

I wanted to upgrade my laptop to 7 but it took a crap after I put a larger HD in it. I think the graphics card went out.

 

[Hellkite]

Sorry to hear that SciFiFan

Murphy's Law is one of the immutable factors in life

 

[SonicJordan]

I'm using Windows 10 now.

 

[OpetJa]

I was satisfied with 7, bought new laptop last summer with 8.1, and now comes 10, and I won't upgrade for two reasons...First, I finaly got used on 8/8.1 and second I finally run Armada on 8.1 too...

And I never understood why there's no 9 >.<

 

[CABAL]

Might as well keep using this for Win10 news. Microsoft is finally making it so that you can use Cortana without converting your local account into a Microsoft Account. You'll still need to log into one in the Cortana settings, but this will be on an app by app basis like all of the other MS Account enabled programs. It was intended to be included in Build 10547, released to the Insider Fast Ring September 18th, but was accidentally left out and will be in the next Insider build.

Build 10547 also includes a new feature to customize the Start menu. You will be able to pick between the current six tile width and a new eight tile width setting for the tile columns. This will allow users to use two wide tiles side by side.

My laptop is on the Slow Ring and my desktop is at the standard consumer ring (not an official term, but it makes sense) so I'll also be able to give updates for when builds hit those.

The original post is here:
http://blogs.windows.com/windowsexp...ncing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10547/

If anyone likes OSX, they might make a similar news thread. I'm considering one for Ubuntu, too. Maybe @Terra_Inc could help with that?

 

[Terra_Inc]

If anyone likes OSX, they might make a similar news thread. I'm considering one for Ubuntu, too. Maybe @Terra_Inc could help with that?

Yeah, sure. I can do that.

 

[CABAL]

The 1511 update was released yesterday. It's a big one, and requires that you go through one of those long things where your computer restarts a few times while you stare at a loading ring. Anyway, on to the features.

One new feature is that you can now set the columns of tiles at Start to be eight across instead of six. This allows you to put two wide or large tiles side by side. The context menu for tiles has also been improved; the size selection now shows a preview of how big the tile will be. You can also use more tiles (up to 2048), if you managed to hit the 512 item limit before.


If you missed colorful title bars, you can now enable them. The toggle 'Show color on Start, taskbar, and action center' has been expanded to 'Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar'. I'd rather it be a separate toggle, but it's there. Only the active window will show color and the Metro style apps will always have pale grey title bars.


Now, when you have two windows side by side you can drag a divider between them to adjust their shared edge. This may be familiar if you had 8 before. I think pics may work better than my description.

That bar in the second pick is caused by a mouse over. And yes, GIMP is probably overkill just for some screenshots.

Context menus now look a bit snazzier as well.


There are supposed to be a ton of Cortana improvements, but it still requires that you convert you local account to a MS account, so I didn't mess with it. You can sign into Cortana separately in the Insider builds, though, so that is coming.

The Enterprise edition now allows users to disable all data collection. Some of you may find that a worthwhile reason to shell out the cash for the Enterprise edition.

There are also some new system icons. Regedit and the Eject Device icon, for instance.

Other than some general bug fixes, that's pretty much it. This is basically a big patch, so there's not much else to get excited about. You can update to it via the standard Windows Update system. Distributed ISOs are now at this version so if you want to install Win10 on a new system you can get this version directly. If you haven't upgraded from 7 or 8, the Get Windows 10 program should download this version for installation should you decide you want it.

 

[CABAL]

Microsoft is currently running a promotion to encourage people to upgrade to Win10. A ton of things in the Windows 10 Store are currently on sale for 10 US cents. This includes a variety of games, apps, music, and movie rentals. I'm pretty sure that the exact items up for sale will vary day by day. The promotion ends on November 29th.

 

[LordChicken]

I have officially given up on Windows 10 and reinstalled 7 on all of my machines. Changing my file permissions and uninstalling LEGALLY obtained software claiming it was not compatible (even though it is and worked without problems) after that big update a few weeks ago is what did it for me.

Edit: Did not even prompt me or warn me it was going to uninstall anything. Just a pop up for like 2 seconds in the bottom right of the screen stating it was uninstalled.

 

[SciFiFan]

Just going to put out there that Microsoft will cease the free upgrade to Windows 10 on July 29th. After that day, it will be $119 USD.

 

[marsneedswomen2008]

Funny I have it on my new desktop, but I haven't updated it at all. Meh, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[CABAL]

If you've taken the Anniversary Update and have an Nvidia card, then you should know that the 3D Settings and PhysX settings have been reverted to default. In the case of 3D Settings, this includes both global changes and changes made to individual games. Probably best to poke around and see if anything else changed for you.

 

[CABAL]

Not sure if anybody still pays attention to this thread, but I've got some more stuff.

You can still get Win10 free if you have a 7 or 8 install. Just go here and click the button. You don't actually need to use things like the screen reader or the magnifier, they just want as many people as possible on 10.

I also got an email from the Insider program, since I signed up during the pre-release beta, haven't removed myself, and haven't logged on since the beta. It looks like there are some new features coming to Windows 10, specifically:

• A new Paint 3D program. It sounds like it will be to 3D modelling what Paint is to 2D art. Not sure how I feel about that.
• Cortana is getting some new voice commands, including the ability to put the computer to sleep or wake it up, much like the Xbox One.
• New features for Edge, including bookmark importing, which should finally mean it has the same standard feature set as IE, Chrome, and Firefox. A new Edge only feature that lets you preview a tab by mousing over it, much like how you can preview a window by mousing over the icon on the taskbar.
• The start menu tile array will support sub-folders. It sounds like if you click on a folder tile the main tile array will be hidden and the tiles within the folder will be displayed instead. Useful if you want to separate work and play, or if you just want more tile space without scrolling.

Additionally, a new Game Mode feature is being added. Game Mode is enabled on a program-by-program basis and will prioritize that program as much as possible, likely even suspending system operations that are not critical or directly related to running the game. It should allow almost console-like performance for the hardware rather than needing twice the processing power and four times the memory to get comparable performance. It won't be perfect, of course, since console games are very specifically designed to optimize performance on that specific hardware set in a way that can't be done for PC games, but it will be better.

 

[Rifraf]

So I wanted to ask overall how you like 10 for gaming? Many issues with getting games working without much fiddling? More for older games I guess.

 

[CABAL]

So I wanted to ask overall how you like 10 for gaming? Many issues with getting games working without much fiddling? More for older games I guess.

Morrowind crashes even more than usual, but it seems that it was the most stable in XP and only gets less stable with each new iteration of Windows. Other than that, I have had no more problems than I did with 7. Fleet Ops, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Neverwinter Nights all run great. Even my old C&C disks worked out of the box, though I've since switched to the CnCNet versions. More modern games, like Skyrim and Skyrim SE, Bioshock Infinite, and Doom 2016 all run perfectly. I don't have anything with DX12 support, though, so I can't comment on how that works.

 

[Rifraf]

I'm going to be building a new computer and wondered what kind of hassles I'd run into with 10. I know each new version get more fiddly, but nice to know in advance. I appreciate the info. Is yours Home or Pro?

 

[CABAL]

I have the Home version.

 

[SciFiFan]

I too have Win10 Home. I do not have any issues with any of the games I currently have installed. Of course, I do not have any older games installed ATM. If I do, I will let y'all know if I have any issues.