Announcing Windows ... 10?

[dZeus]

Windows 10 RTM will be July 29th. 6 weeks away.

MS website says available on July 29. I suppose RTM will be much sooner...

Which is slightly surprising, as there are still quite a few people complaining about some bugs (such as network connectivity) in build 10130.

What's the rush for?

[UtwigMU]

Windows Phone hovering around 3% and XP having higher share than 8.

Unless they get something out they think people like, their plans of store, apps, windows phones and tablets are doomed.

[Jammrock]

What's the rush for?

Back to school shopping. August is when US schools are back in session. It's a huge PC selling month.

[Jammrock]

Which is slightly surprising, as there are still quite a few people complaining about some bugs (such as network connectivity) in build 10130.

I found out something interesting the day. Windows 10 has a new unified driver model.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn941239%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

The program is designed to unify all the driver APIs to make it easier for companies to develop stable, quality drivers for the entire Win10 platform with a single binary. So build one driver, works on every Win10 device (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, server) running that device. A lot of the build headaches are coming from Microsoft getting bugs out of driver convergence and OEM's building WDI drivers.

I suspect there will be some driver headaches for a few more months, but should stabilize pretty fast. I had a ton of 10130 issues until a new AMD video driver was pushed. Still have some jump list issues, but otherwise it's been pretty stable.



Win10 will continue being service pack-less, using the roll-up model of Win8[.1]. There will be smaller monthly updates pushing out non-security, non-critical updates that fix small quirks that may affect Win10 stability, perf and compatibility. Which is how Win8/8.1 went from rough start to stable in a couple months.

I suspect the same will be true of Win10. The start may be a little rough but I suspect it will be stable quickly.

[dZeus]

that's interesting indeed.

Another possible explanation I read is that Microsoft got rid of a lot of the testers (sources: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl...7&cid=49953857 and https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoft/c...in_next_phase/ ) and loading those tasks onto the devs.
I hope that doesn't impact the stability too much of Windows 10. Might want to hold out a bit longer on Windows 8.1 before upgrading, to see what the consensus on the initial quality is.

[Jammrock]

10 will likely be like 8 and 8.1. Some small issues the first 2-3 months until the roll-ups get all the early adopter jitters cleaned up.

Gabe Aul announced that Win10 Insiders will get a free license once it hits launch date.

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/06/19/upcoming-changes-to-windows-10-insider-preview-builds/

[VJ]

How is a Win10 Insider defined? I have an account, but my Win10 installation does not use my Live login, just a normal username. Does that installation count to get the free license?
(if not, I would reinstall it with a login using my live account)

[Marshmallowman]

I installed with a local account, but "converted" it to a live account by going the to the store and installing vlc player.
The store will get you to verify your live ID etc, it became effective after a reboot or 2...my understanding is you need to be logged in with your live account to get the freebie

[Jammrock]

How is a Win10 Insider defined? I have an account, but my Win10 installation does not use my Live login, just a normal username. Does that installation count to get the free license?
(if not, I would reinstall it with a login using my live account)

How I understand it... if you are signed up for Insider (through the website) and use that same MSA (Microsoft Service Account) with an active Windows 10 build you will go directly to Win10 RTM on July 29th. After that you will continue to get Insider builds and can reinstall Win10 from ISO. Your license will be associated with your MSA. You will (likely) not get an actual license key...unless you do some reg hacking... I don't know about that part.

If you don't want to continue in the Insider program you need to have a license of Win7+ license to do a normal Win10 upgrade.

At least that's how I interpret the blog post. I could be wrong on some of this. You may be able to stop Insider after July 29 and keep your license...the blog is not entirely clear.

[VJ]

MMM: I also got converted once from my username, and did not like it... it made the original username no longer usable, which made some network things more complicated.

I could reinstall it using the MSA, and then add a local user... The MSA user would just be there for activation of things, the local user would be the one I use normally. Perhaps worth doing this now... :-)

[Marshmallowman]

yeah, that bugged me, but rename your live associated user to something else, and recreate the orig user...that got my network shares etc back to usable

[VJ]

Perhaps it was because I did it on an early preview, but I could not recreate the user, as it says that the username was taken. But at the same time, I could no longer log in with that username. I sent it as feedback, but haven't checked on later builds if it still behaved like that. Looks like they changed it.

Guess I'll reinstall the latest build, make an account using my live account and then make the account I want...

[Jammrock]

Looks like you can keep using Win10 for free, without an existing Win install, as long as you stay in the Insider program. If you want to drop out you need a valid Win7+ license.

[UtwigMU]

Does anyone else have language bar missing from taskbar on 10130? It's major annoyance as floating language bar obscures fullscreen video and tabs in browser.

[VJ]

In 10130, my taskbar stays visible in full screen mode. I also had occasional lag on the mouse and 10130 did not solve it. I'll reinstall 10130 from scratch.