Windows 10 (aka Windows AE)

Found this yesterday:

Quote:

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.

When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

The latest "hard" rumor is that Win10 will be released to manufacturers (RTM) this July.

I need to finish setting up the new laptop just as I want it, pay for Start8, and finish my short story. But I may take the chance to get and see the latest Win10 preview release on the old laptop this weekend.

It's official: Win10 launches on July 29th.

You can reserve it now, meaning the update will be automatic and free if you do, eventually (not necessarily on Jul 29th.) You're supposed to get a notification about it, presumably through Windows update. More details as I get them.

Ok. In the notifications area in Win7 you will soon get a Win10 icon which enables you to "reserve" your upgrade. I got one yesterday.

If you don't see it soon, chances are you either:

are running an enterprise OS, which is not eligible for a free upgrade
have a non-genuine copy of Windows
don't have updates set up right.

I think from bits I've read and seen that Win10 won't download in one piece, but rather than over the next few weeks Windows Update will be downloading it in pieces. I'm not certain of it, but it would make the most sense.

Anyway, when July 29th comes around, or thereabouts, you'll be prompted to upgrade. It will wait until it's a good time for you.

If you get the Get Win10 icon, you can check your PCs compatibility. The report tells you whether Win10 will run on your PC (but not how well), and which installed apps and devices may either not work, not work well, or not work in certain aspects.

As regards my home PC, it claims the various Bluetooth things I don't ever use won't work or won't work well. Good riddance. I've yet to try it on the laptop, but as it runs Win8.1(Update) already, I foresee no problems. The older laptop already runs the preview, though I have to update it and see whether I can then get the final release for free or not.

I also still have my old Vista PC. I've been thinking of either converting it to Linux or, big "or," to Windows XP (I've an OEM CD). Either choice will have to wait.

I read yesterday about features from Win7 and Win8(.1) which won't be in Win10. I don't recall the whole list, but it did leave me saying "meh."

Two things I recall, Windows Media Center is out, and you'll need third-party software to play DVDs. I've never used the former, and for the latter I don't recall using a PC ever.

A more important note abut Windows 10 concerns updates. For the consumer version, updates will be automated and the user won't have any say about them. Currently you can install or not any of the updates in Win7. I assume the only choice given by Win10 will be to install now or at a latter time, but not which updates go in or not.

I don't mind this much because I always install the recommended updates, which mostly deal with security and functionality. But I rarely install the optional updates, which are often fluff or things I don't use.

We'll see. if it gets too troublesome, you can upgrade your free Win10 to Win10 Pro, which gives you control on updates.

I tend to use my laptop seldom when at home. Last week I downloaded a ton of updates on it, yet it refused to display the Win 10 icon. Saturday I looked up help online, and wound up running a script from MS. After it ran, doing who knows what, the icon appeared. Diagnostics says there will be no issues.

All that's left is to check where the older laptop, which I used to test Win10, stands now. I hope to have some time over the weekend.

Here's how to make sure you get the Win10 release if you're running the preview:

http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/how-turn-your-windows-10-insider-preview-windows-10-rtm

That will come in handy. My old laptop ran Vista. I reformatted the drive and installed the Win10 preview, though I'm lagging well behind in updates. I'll have to take care of that this weekend, if I don't forget.

Caveat for a preview upgrade: you have to agree to install/test future previews (I assume of updates/upgrades, as MS has been hyping Win10 as the last ever Windows release).

Oh, well. If all else fails, I have the XP OEM CD

Or I may just pull the plug on it. A c. 2007-08 laptop with too little RAM isn't exactly a keeper.

30 days and counting.

I think I'll make a recovery disk for the Win7 desktop and the Win8.1(Update(1)) laptop, then wait at least a couple of weeks for major issues to appear.