Author Topic: Windows 10 Announced (Read 1,207,036 times)

4wd · « **Reply #275 on:** June 17, 2015, 11:59 PM »

Considering mine left the factory with Linpus installed, it's done fine running both XP and 8.1 Pro. Might try cramming 7HP on it now just to see if it'll upgrade to 10, (it's back on XP since I wanted the 8.1 licence to use elsewhere).

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #276 on:** June 18, 2015, 12:16 AM »

Quote from: Innuendo on June 17, 2015, 05:23 PM

Quote from: Deozaan on June 15, 2015, 08:32 PM
I tried that and it still wouldn't show up on my Netbook. Now I'm even more certain that it doesn't meet the minimum requirements.

Netbooks are dastardly creations that are the bane of every person everywhere who has to support one of them. One of the criteria of manufacturing a netbook seemed to be to make it barely adequate to run the current Microsoft OS of the time and sometimes they didn't even do that.

I wouldn't have any sort of expectations that your netbook will be able to ever run anything except for the OS it left the factory with.

In a weird case of "exactly what it says on the tin", (see tv tropes!), that's exactly what it is! Well, that and struggling to run a browser to "check the net".

Because if it were a real computer? They'd call it a laptop computer!

Arizona Hot · « **Reply #277 on:** June 18, 2015, 06:13 PM »

Quote from: 4wd on June 17, 2015, 11:59 PM

Considering mine left the factory with Linpus installed, it's done fine running both XP and 8.1 Pro. Might try cramming 7HP on it now just to see if it'll upgrade to 10, (it's back on XP since I wanted the 8.1 licence to use elsewhere).

What a sick OS!

4wd · « **Reply #278 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:26 AM »

Via arstechnica which references this MS blog post.

Quote

The Insider program for Windows 10 is changing in the run up to the first stable release. Currently, preview builds are all automatically opted in to the Insider Program (obviously; that's the only way to even get them). When Windows 10 is launched, that changes: at that point, the Insider Program becomes opt-in. To opt in, users will have to have a Microsoft account that's registered with the Insider Program, and they'll have to use that Microsoft account with their PC. This change will take effect in the next public build: without a suitably registered Microsoft account, that build will be upgradable to the final release on July 29, and from there on out be restricted to regular, stable builds.

This does, of course, impose some limitations on the "free" install process. In particular, it's unlikely that build 10130 or the other pre-release will be installable and activatable forever, so the window for getting onto the train is limited.

Apparently, even if you have Vista or XP now, you have the chance to upgrade to 10 for free provided you're a member of the Windows Insider program and install the latest Preview build before the deadline, (so possibly ~1 month to opt in).

Deozaan · « **Reply #279 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:32 AM »

None of that makes sense to me.

The Insider Program is already opt-in.

4wd · « **Reply #280 on:** June 20, 2015, 08:09 AM »

Quote from: Deozaan on June 20, 2015, 07:32 AM

None of that makes sense to me.

The Insider Program is already opt-in.

From what arstechnica and other sites are saying, those who had XP/Vista and installed the Preview (with Insider account) now get the stable retail version on July 29 and get to keep it, so you can opt out of the Insider Program at that point but still retain the full licensed version of 10.

What I can see here is it seems like a ridiculously easy way to get from the crippled non-Pro versions of XP/Vista to 10 Pro possibly. Anyway, I'm going to install it on the netbook just for laughs and will see what'll happen on July 30

Innuendo · « **Reply #281 on:** June 20, 2015, 03:37 PM »

Quote from: 4wd on June 20, 2015, 08:09 AM

What I can see here is it seems like a ridiculously easy way to get from the crippled non-Pro versions of XP/Vista to 10 Pro possibly. Anyway, I'm going to install it on the netbook just for laughs and will see what'll happen on July 30

You may have a pretty good shot of it working what with MS trying their best to write Windows 10 so it will not only work on desktops and laptops, but tablets as well.

I have a feeling it will all depend upon your netbook. Some netbook manufacturers put the equivalent of a basic laptop inside a netbook shell. Other manufacturers took....cheaper routes and went with more basic components.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #282 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:03 PM »

Quote from: Innuendo on June 20, 2015, 03:37 PM

You may have a pretty good shot of it working what with MS trying their best to write Windows 10 so it will not only work on desktops and laptops, but tablets as well.

I have a feeling it will all depend upon your netbook. Some netbook manufacturers put the equivalent of a basic laptop inside a netbook shell. Other manufacturers took....cheaper routes and went with more basic components.

My comp is "decent but older", so I was really hoping MS would take some time to try to really drill down and tune Win10 to run clean.

I'm just nervous about this whole upgrade thing - I've been pondering a dual boot with a full install so I'll have to ask some of y'all if any of you do that route in a couple of months.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #283 on:** June 20, 2015, 07:51 PM »

FWIW I finally got a Windows 10 Reservation prompt, on my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop (It's a trash can rescue). It's currently running (acceptably) Windows 8.1 with 3GB of RAM and a Celeron 2.2GHz (1 core) CPU.

If I was sure I could upgrade it now and still get/have/qualify for the final...I'd make the jump today. I haven't seen anything in 10's behavior that made me think it'll use/need any more resources than 8.1.

Deozaan · « **Reply #284 on:** June 20, 2015, 08:36 PM »

Quote from: 4wd on June 20, 2015, 08:09 AM

Anyway, I'm going to install it on the netbook just for laughs and will see what'll happen on July 30

Ooh! I never thought to try installing the preview image on my netbook! Thanks for the idea!

Now I just need to download the latest disc image I can burn. I've just been updating my VM via Windows Update, so my image is a bit out of date.

Maybe Arizona Hot can add a link to the preview-iso download page to the first post to make it easy to find in the future?

Innuendo · « **Reply #285 on:** June 20, 2015, 08:43 PM »

I read some Microsoft blog where one of their programmers talked about how they have been really working on trimming the fat from Windows due to the fact that they are trying to get the resource usage down because Windows 10 is going to be their 'unified OS for all devices'.

I think if your device can run Windows 7 or 8.x comfortably, it should be able to run Windows 10 at least as well. Microsoft has really 'drilled down and tune' the OS to run 'clean' because Microsoft's master plan is to have some iteration of this OS run on every Windows device that isn't a phone.

4wd · « **Reply #286 on:** June 21, 2015, 03:43 AM »

Quote from: Innuendo on June 20, 2015, 03:37 PM

Quote from: 4wd on June 20, 2015, 08:09 AM
Anyway, I'm going to install it on the netbook just for laughs and will see what'll happen on July 30

You may have a pretty good shot of it working what with MS trying their best to write Windows 10 so it will not only work on desktops and laptops, but tablets as well.

Not having much luck so far, which is strange since 8.1 pro installed on it OK. So far tried two different flash drives and a Zalman VE300 with the ISO mounted. Tried both installing with XP still installed and with a formatted drive, just sits at the initial screen with the balls whizzing round and round.

System (1.6GHz, 1.5GB, 60GB) exceeds the minimum specs (1.0GHz, 1GB, 16GB) so I'm wondering if it's down to a driver issue ... might reinstall 8/8.1 and then see if 10 will install over it.

Anyone know of a debug mode for the install so I can see what is or isn't happening?

Deozaan · « **Reply #287 on:** June 21, 2015, 06:04 AM »

I'm currently at 49%, upgrading from Windows 7. (~1.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB SSD, so barely meets/exceeds minimum specs.)

I ran the installer from within Windows 7 (as opposed to booting from the ISO and installing from there).

I haven't been monitoring it very closely. Every once in a while I wiggle the mouse (touch the touchpad) and see it booted into Linux. So I reboot and select Windows 7 from the boot options and it continues the installation from where it left off.

4wd · « **Reply #288 on:** June 21, 2015, 07:06 AM »

Quote from: Deozaan on June 21, 2015, 06:04 AM

I'm currently at 49%, upgrading from Windows 7. (~1.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB SSD, so barely meets/exceeds minimum specs.)

I ran the installer from within Windows 7 (as opposed to booting from the ISO and installing from there).

Yep, I ended up installing 8.1 Pro (which only took ~30 minutes from flash) and have started the W10 installer from a flash drive, currently at about 20%.

I've still got no idea why it wouldn't install from a clean boot but it might have something to do with what the Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor mentioned about NX not being enabled. The 8.1 install might have put it into the right frame of mind to accept the 10 install.

Deozaan · « **Reply #289 on:** June 21, 2015, 07:22 AM »

It finished installing!

On first boot, it took a looooong time to do the initial setup stuff. It said something like "Hi. Please wait while we set up your apps & settings." then after a while it said "Just a few tweaks left." then after a while longer it said "Unfortunately, this is taking longer than usual." That message displayed for a looooong time. Just when I was almost certain it was stuck, it showed the desktop!

When I finally got to the desktop, I was greeted by a critical error. "Oops, something is wrong with Windows installation. We'll try to fix it the next time you sign in. If signing out and back in doesn't help, you may need to reinstall Windows." Thankfully, signing out and back in seemed to fix it.

I haven't had to sign in with my Microsoft account. I guess that's due to it being an upgrade from an existing Windows 7 installation. The default color scheme for the taskbar is poor. The task bar is dark, and the font color of text is black, so it's very difficult to read. I'm not sure if that's default for the preview or if it's a problem due to upgrading from Windows 7. I tried Right Click -> Personalize and it opened a Settings window, but then before anything actually showed up in the window I got a BSOD.

After a reboot, the settings window seems to work now. Well, sort of. I opened it up and played around with a few things. I got it to change the color of the taskbar based on my background (which somehow changed from some tulips to a blank blue screen since my last reboot). That's kind of cool. Especially if you have your backgrounds/wallpapers on a slideshow to change every so often. After changing that, I was looking at other settings when the window just randomly closed.

It seems pretty unstable, but I guess that's to be expected in a preview build. Every native Windows 10 app seems to crash/close randomly the first couple of times I run it before I can do anything with it. But I've probably explored Windows 10 more in just the past hour or so on my netbook than I have in my VM over the past several months. I discovered (or re-discovered?) that Windows 10 supports multiple desktops natively. That's cool.

Other than things closing/crashing randomly, it seems to run as good or better than Windows 7 did. (Which wasn't very good on this decrepit machine.) But I really haven't done anything to push its limits yet, and it's not an objective observation and could be wrong.

I've been playing around and experimenting somewhat as I type this, and I just found the old Windows Vista/7 style theme customization window, and I selected the default Windows Technical Preview theme and the colors are better, so I guess it was just a bad theme upgrade.

I like the new task manager. It seems to have more useful/detailed information.

I'm thinking I'll like Windows 10 once it's stable.

4wd · « **Reply #290 on:** June 21, 2015, 07:48 AM »

Quote from: Deozaan on June 21, 2015, 07:22 AM

It finished installing!

You're lucky, first time mine rebooted during install it's gone back to the initial 4 panes and whizzing balls screen and just sits there - no disc activity, nothing. Have to boot off of a PE disc and see if I can find the setup log.

AFAIK, the apps need at least a 1024x768 screen, for the old 1024x600 netbooks you need to enable downscaling.

Deozaan · « **Reply #291 on:** June 21, 2015, 07:53 AM »

Cool! I just found a "Go back to Windows 7" option in the Update & Security -> Recovery section of Settings. You have 30 days to revert back to Windows 7 after upgrading to Windows 10. I imagine the option exists for upgrades from other versions of Windows as well.

Quote from: 4wd on June 21, 2015, 07:48 AM

AFAIK, the apps need at least a 1024x768 screen, for the old 1024x600 netbooks you need to enable downscaling.

Yeah, mine's a 1024x600. Most apps seem to work OK (after crashing the first couple of times) if I maximize them.

4wd · « **Reply #292 on:** June 21, 2015, 08:18 AM »

In a bid to isolate what's going on, what CPU is in yours? Or what's the netbook model?

Deozaan · « **Reply #293 on:** June 21, 2015, 08:31 AM »

It's an MSI Wind U120.

According to dxdiag, the CPU is an Intel Atom N270 @ ~1.6Ghz, which is higher than I thought. DxDiag also says the system model is MS-N031, which I do see in small print on the sticker underneath, nearby the much larger U120 printed on the same sticker.

P.S. This post was made from Windows 10 on my netbook, using the Microsoft Edge (aka Project Spartan) browser.

4wd · « **Reply #294 on:** June 21, 2015, 09:50 AM »

Pretty much identical to my Acer Aspire One ZG5 except I'm using a ZIF PATA drive because it was the first model only available with Linpus on an 8GB ZIF SSD, (AOA110).

Maybe it's time to hack in a SATA interface and shoehorn a SSD in.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #295 on:** June 21, 2015, 12:28 PM »

Quote from: Deozaan on June 21, 2015, 07:22 AM

I haven't had to sign in with my Microsoft account. I guess that's due to it being an upgrade from an existing Windows 7 installation.

For a clean install if you want to use local accounts. You have to select the Company Owned Computer option ... Then it's the same game as Win8.x. If you select the It's My Computer option it's MS Live accounts only (during the OOBE).

Deozaan · « **Reply #296 on:** June 21, 2015, 05:43 PM »

Quote from: 4wd on June 21, 2015, 09:50 AM

Pretty much identical to my Acer Aspire One ZG5 except I'm using a ZIF PATA drive because it was the first model only available with Linpus on an 8GB ZIF SSD, (AOA110).

My netbook originally came with a choice of HDDs, but within the past year I needed an HDD to use as external storage for my WiiU, so I bought an SSD to swap with the netbook's HDD, hoping it would help speed it up and keep it cooler.

Anyway, the point is that the SSD is a recent addition to the netbook. It (the netbook) came with a proprietary SATA -> ??? adapter that plugs onto the end of the drive and connects it to the motherboard/internals, which worked perfectly with the new SSD.

Jibz · « **Reply #297 on:** June 24, 2015, 05:22 AM »

The upgrade notification icon has disappeared from my tray. After a little poking around I found there is an option to reserve your copy in Windows Update instead.

Curt · « **Reply #298 on:** June 24, 2015, 08:01 AM »

I have reserved a copy of Win 10, but am still on Win 7. However, right now I am having a fit, because of this "You must create a Microsoft Account: One login to everything". I trust it's not planned to be misused any time soon, but at the same time I know, it's an evil route, this "you must login" (> Log in, so we can know everything about you <)!

But before I go completely insane, I should ASK if (on Win 10) I will have to login, just to open my PC and fiddle with my locally stored pictures, ebooks and such? Mind you, I am on Win 7, and even though I have a license key for Win 8 Pro, I have never even tried Win 8, mainly because I was told I would have to create a Microsoft Account and log in to it!

But maybe I misunderstood what it is. Maybe my fear of Big Brother made me overreact? So maybe I should first ask 'you' what this "log in to you account" is (or isn't)? Why MUST I have this "account" (I have not yet created such)? Was it not enough that Google knows eveything about me, now Microsoft wants to know even more?!! The pages about the subject tells a lot about what it is, but not about what it isn't. And I am scared of these Big Brother wannabes; they never know what they really are doing! Is the demand to login only if I want to use an online service, or is it also when I just want to use my personal computer (the one that used to be private)? Am I being taken hostage? Is this "login" an enemy in disguise?

4wd · « **Reply #299 on:** June 24, 2015, 09:38 AM »

A Microsoft account is only required if you want to use Microsoft's services, eg. OneDrive, Windows App Store, etc

Otherwise you need only create a local account just like you did for Windows 7.