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Windows 10 Announced
MilesAhead:
The new build, 9860 is out there to play with. No iso direct from MS though. They want you to do the update process. But on tenforums you can find tutorials how to extract an iso once you have the update download files.
From what I've seen it's a step backwards afa stability. When you close a window it uses the animation API that's been there at least since Vista to shrink disappear the window.
If you try the update the fastest way is to turn off everything Update such as "automatically update drivers and apps" unless you are into apps. Otherwise there's like 5 count ups to 100% during the install and config instead of 1 or 2. I tried to update and it hung on Almost Ready. My VM would boot and it said 9860 evaluation in the corner of the desktop, but I couldn't run anything to clean it up and defrag. So I made an iso and did a clean install. To me it looks like W8 with a bit different Start Menu.
Edit: Even with a clean install to get stuff to work a bit better you may have to delete that $Winxxxsomething hidden folder directly under C: and defrag. For some reason the iso extraction still has that hidden folder taking up about 340 MB.
mikiem:
Microsoft's primary responsibility is to its investors -- considering how many stock options they've handed out over the years, & that exec pay & longevity are tied to stock prices, there's a lot of self-serving interest there too. Don't know that we'll ever know if Ballmer & co. really thought that they could emulate Apple, or were conning Wall St., but win10 is the attempt to better define the boarders that MS can get away with & still maintain + grow customer revenues while keeping Wall St. appeased, or better yet, happy. As such, I think you'll find a lot about win10 that's not clearly defined -- it'll be a continual process over the tech & then customer previews.
That said, setup files for the 2nd released build follow somewhat the move from 8 -> 8.1 -- lots of the tools developed for that seem to work with 10 as well. One oddity is that you can't perform the update with win10 installed & booting from VHD -- there's an error message that it's not permitted.
Another oddity some of the devs might be interested in was that Bitdefender would only install via the command line with the silent flag. Same app that downloads the bits & performs the install, but it stalls with nothing displayed on screen without the silent flag. Not sure what's different there but something that'll hit some other software too I imagine.
Far as the ISOs & such, & purely FWIW, what I've been doing for a few years is capturing the partition image before setup's 1st re-boot -- kill the VM, mount the VHD & go from there. Restoring a backup as raw data is faster than expanding & then writing files/folders in my experience. After the update install there's a $Windows.~BT folder with the install.esd -- I'm working on/with that at the moment. Otherwise note that setup leaves several GB of trash behind [several just for the logs], that you'll want to get rid of via disk cleanup. If you've done the update in a VM with an expanding VHD you'll also want to compact your VHD -- mine doubled, then shrank to ~1/2.
I never liked win8's boot setup because it didn't work as well with XP Pro [I need it], so I reverted to win7's via EasyBCD. This also worked in some new installs when/where I left off the system reserved partition intentionally. Win10 is a bit different in that respect. The initial preview release worked well with 8.1's c:\ bootmgr -- this 2nd release requires it's own, yet broke win7's that had been installed & working fine, so I had to repair it with EasyBCD [works in win10 TP 64 BTW].
Really, REALLY FWIW, found win10's optional theme, & wallpaper image of a shipwreck underwater, to be surprisingly appropriate at times. :)
mikiem:
I tried it with the 32-bit ISO and it warned me about needing to enable PAE, so I enabled it and got to the setup screen. Then I mounted the 64-bit ISO and rebooted my VM and it worked. So maybe I needed to enable PAE to get it to work?
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From what I've read that is a requirement -- the only change from win7's requirements AFAIK.
Heh. The Admin on W9 Forums had to scramble to change everything to Windows 10.
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From what I've read win9 was how it was referred to internally. I've read polished PR type statements on why 10, but what makes sense to me is a rumored leaked statement that said with the 9 in there lots of software recognized it as 98.
Interesting to note that Google (perhaps a competitor MS should keep an eye on) goes out of its way to stress that it has no intention of forcing the merging of its desktop and mobile operating systems:
Don't Expect Android and Chrome to Merge Soon, Says Google Exec
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But under the hood aren't they moving more in that exact direction?
Well, I don't plan to mess with pre-release versions, but I'll exactly be trying a dual boot (with lots of help!) on the final version of Win 10 next year.
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If you're in 7 you can put it on a VHD & boot to it to give a look, check compatibility etc. I mentioned in my other post that I liked to capture the partition image before setup reboots for the 1st time. I created/mounted a VHD, restored that backup to that VHD, ran EasyBCD to add it to the boot menu -- couldn't have been easier. Restarted the PC, selected the win10 TP, & setup finished just fine.
Then came the bad news as it wouldn't let me update builds with win10 installed to a VHD, though it should work to get your feet wet & make sure everything worked OK for you. If it doesn't you just need to delete the VHD file & reset your boot menu, as opposed to creating a new partition & all. When I found out it wouldn't update builds I did another partition image backup, restoring it to a partition on a HDD, adjusting the menu in EasyBCD & it booted as if nothing had changed. IOW if you try it on a VHD, & like it, your work is not wasted at all.
fredemeister:
The acid test will be when somebody who has used only Win XP or 7 installs it or gets a machine with it new and tries it out.
-Arizona Hot (October 02, 2014, 07:35 PM)
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I started in computers with banking data in the '70s, then PCs in the late 80s. Unix to DOS, then Windows 2.0 through XP. Retired May 2014, but continue archival intranet coding for various groups. Surprisingly an interesting task that produces a lot of satisfaction and unusual challenges from time to time.
My thoughts on W10
-------------------
Intro: I realise it's unfinished software, and buggy.
1. It's not that intuitive - whatever that means - I've been running XP since it came out, as well as Mint. Never tried Vista 7 or 8. W10's "Libraries" are complicated, and I don't like the "everything in one spot" approach, so am seriously thinking of setting up custom menus and toolbars as I have in XP.
2. The start menu is full of rubbish, and that takes time to cleanup.
3. And the process for sticking stuff on the taskbar means it often has to be stuck to the start menu first. ????
4. Firefox 32/33 crashes regularly for no apparent reason.
5. Since MS updated the build to 9860, the OS takes ages to boot to a usable state.
6. A lot of stuff is managed by the Windows Store, requiring a MS account and the cloud. Didn't Apple bashers complain about being tied into that infrastructure? Wonder how the same argument applies now that MS is doing similar.
7. Hate the "tile" icons. Even I could make better than those, and I'm not a coder or graphics person.
8. In File Explorer there's no horizontal scrollbar on the left pane folder view. Apparently when the mouse moves to the right-side of that pane the border moves? Nope!
There's some nice stuff - like these things:
1. The way windows disappear/close - only since the build update.
2. Snapping Windows.
3. God Mode.
4. Clickable path links in the address bar - like breadcrumbs in a browser.
5. Tiles are "Windowed" and not full screen.
6. OS is fast response and snappy, very little lag. Nice.
<rant>
However ... all I want to do is "USE" my pc, not reconfigure it completely to how I had it before. Security's supposed to be much improved ... yep, but my gripe is that a pc is a TOOL, not a &^%*$ lifestyle. Keep user stuff simple, allow me to pick up the new bits and pices without having to enrol in University to learn to use the thing; and keep stuff outa my face. Microsoft, are you listening? Nope. I've got over the initial "where is this hiding", and "oh %$##, how do I do this", scare; like a lot of W10, but I might stick with Mint and XP when the Preview expires - unless MS gives a good incentive to dump XP and Mint.
W10 doesn't allow me to do my job any better, easier, or more efficiently. It may well be more secure, and have less overhead for "obsolete" equipment - supposedly anything older that yesterday; but I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time learning how to use it. It doesn't make me feel more comfortable, happier, satisfied or even more secure. Just makes me angry.
</rant>
PC Stats:
Pentium Dual-Core E5300 @ 2.60GHz 64-bit, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA FeForce GT610, 3xIDE HDDs and 3xSATA1 HDDs, 2x19" Samsung SyncMaster monitors, Win XP SP3, W10 Linux Mint16 loaded on 3 separate hdds.
dr_andus:
Interesting to note that Google (perhaps a competitor MS should keep an eye on) goes out of its way to stress that it has no intention of forcing the merging of its desktop and mobile operating systems:
Don't Expect Android and Chrome to Merge Soon, Says Google Exec
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But under the hood aren't they moving more in that exact direction?
-mikiem (October 26, 2014, 01:13 PM)
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Yes, but they seem to be a lot cleverer about it. While MS tried to ram Win8/Metro down everyone's throat, whether you had a touch screen, a tablet, or not, Google is doing it one step at a time, and it almost wants to be begged into it by the users. It's possible now to run some Android apps on your Chromebook, but Google is not forcing anyone to use them or even to try them.
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