6/1/15 7:02 PM

shipped with win81, updated with classic-shell to make it livable for a dinosaur like me.

today a "come hither" icon has appeared in my tray offering a win10 upgrade.

it's like, a brand-new (pre?) release, i'm inclined to sit on the sidelines.

anyone take the plunge yet?

Last edited by walter on 6/1/15 7:31 PM; edited 1 time in total

6/1/15 7:27 PM

Went to Microsoft for a sanity check. There it was, first thing over the fold on home. (Note the newspaper reference?)

Looks like it will be a beta until July 29 release

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Now, to answer your question.

Yes, I will upgrade.

I like my Windows phone
I like the old style start menu more than the v.8 jarring jump away style

Looking at the MS home page, the start menu seems to combine the familiar button with the phone tiles.

Stability is important to MS, thanks to Apple competition (with Android/Linux insurgency not far behind!) So I doubt there will be Millenium/Vista issues. Any way, the Vista issue had more to do with lack of third party 64 bit drivers than anything else. Everyone bought new stuff since then (or because of Vista.)

As for the inner workings, the admin tools, network sharing, etc, I expect they will be an extension of the tool interfaces just like they've evolved since XP.

I also expect there will be some hope and disappointment, like "Homegroup" was. Then again maybe they'll fix homegroup so the automatic part will work with the controls of network neighborhood and filesystem permissions. Then again that will probably step on domain toes.

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Inside scuttlebutt says the upgrade licensing is going to be VERY liberal. Apparently MS is more concerned with getting the user base on the same version than they are about nit-picking licenses. I want to find out whether I should upgrade this castrated Home edition 8.1 laptop to Pro 8.1 for $99.99 or if v10 will cover that too. When I find out, I'll post.

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After all that, I really doubt I will upgrade until September just to be safe and aware of hazards. Waiting for 10.1 probably won't be a bad idea, but if it's not free maybe less of a good idea.

Last edited by daddy-o on 6/1/15 7:35 PM; edited 1 time in total

6/1/15 7:34 PM

...for the summer release.

<img src="https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/t31.0-8/1425270_10206011927089136_8345180666384695013_o.jpg">

6/1/15 7:37 PM

Those with a good memory will recall the issues I'm having with my "network card" in my laptop. I'm getting a new machine but will hold off until probably October to give W10 some time to sort out teething issues. I've heard official release in July but hadn't seen the July 29 date before.

What I've heard is that upgrades to W10 will be free to W7 & W8 owners. The idea is to get rid of legacy operating systems so they don't have to go through the XP "discontinuation fever" thing again. Whether that is true, I do not know.

6/1/15 10:27 PM

I've been running 8.1 with Classic Shell also. IIRC, the free upgrade is for the first year after Win 10 release. I'll probably wait 6-9 months to get some of the early bugs out. If it's less than a year, the upgrade will be pulled closer accordingly.

6/2/15 5:18 AM

...but it will depend on hardware compatibility. Specifically, I have a Minolta color laser printer that I'm not going to trash in order to upgrade my OS. I tried running the "Check your PC" utility on the upgrade menu, but all it does is quickly flash a "Please wait" message, then nothing. Friggin' Microsoft!

6/2/15 6:40 AM

I get an alert that I will have problems with my video, and since I'm using a notebook, that could be a problem. It depends on how severe the problems are--I may do a complete system backup first, so I can see how bad things are and still get back if I need to.

I've been impressed with the under-the-hood work that Microsoft has been doing, even if I'm not crazy about the phone interface on my PC (I do use a Windows phone, and there it works well).

6/2/15 2:18 PM

We have several machines that should qualify for the free upgrade, but seeing that the free offer is valid for a year, I'll sit on my hands for a few months so that most of the bugs in the upgrade are discovered and fixed. I already have a beta of Windows 10 running in a Virtualbox VM, and it doesn't seem to have any features that I urgently need...

6/18/15 1:27 PM

Here are some caveats and information from Microsoft about their current-user upgrade offer for the upcoming OS.

The 'Windows 10' pull down on that page is helpful too.
You might find some objectionable changes, see notes and deprecation. They probably are inevitable when you adopt the OS despite any path.

I was checking to find out whether I should upgrade my current non-pro 8.1 laptop to pro before the upgrade or to wait. I have a network rights issue that can only be addressed with 'professional.' --The answer is on that link, yes, upgrade to professional because home/pro is a distinction maintained in Win Ten.

6/18/15 10:56 PM

An old friend of mine who runs a computer servicing company for small businesses, and whose expertise I respect, recently posted on Facebook after spending a week evaluating windows 10. He unreservedly praised it, saying they seem to have done a better job than ever before. His recommendation was for 8.1 users to upgrade immediately, but that 7 users not do so, unless they are sure their hardware will support it, which is not always the case.

6/19/15 9:22 AM

I'm going to set things up so I can restore to 8.1 if I have the video problems that are predicted. However, I have heard very good things about 10, and I'm looking forward to playing with it.

6/19/15 10:02 AM

I think I will try it out on my 8.1 lap top. I hope it does not fubar my computrainer software ability to run.

6/21/15 10:59 AM

Well, my 8.1 was 8.0. I have not used it for more than The CT since the x-mas crash/recovery. So I had to do all the 8.1 upgrade before the 'reserve 10' task icon showed up. So I am reserved and will get it when it is good for gettin I guess.

I have to admit I am curious and looking forward to seeing where MS has gone.

6/23/15 5:58 AM

I no longer get a message about possible video problems when I check on the upcoming Win10 install. I suspect Microsoft is working to nail down as many hardware problems as they can.

But I'm still going to have a reinstall of 8.1 waiting in the wings..

6/23/15 6:07 PM

Any favorite (free) disk imaging software, anyone? It's a Dell disk so it needs to be able to handle their utility partition too. And the disk is TINY, not even half a terabyte!

I bought the 8.1 Pro upgrade so this is basically a dry run for the Win 10 upgrade.

7/3/15 12:05 PM

Anyone get the upgrade happening yet?

Still waiting. app sez when it is ready I will know...

7/3/15 12:54 PM

Patience, my Padawan.

July 29 is the date that Win10 will *start* rolling out, if all goes according to plan.

7/3/15 2:08 PM

My mistake, I thought it was 6/29...

7/3/15 10:20 PM

you can do it all with a bootable CD-ROM of ubuntu, for instance. using DD and GZIP you can make images of individual partitions or an entire drive. and the utils do not care what OS is installed on the drive or partition.

example of imaging a drive (e.g., all partitions on /dev/sda at once):

sudo dd if=/dev/sda conv=sync bs=1024k | gzip -c > /path-to-backup-image/sda-drive-image.gz

example of imaging a particular partition (e.g., /dev/sda1):

sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 conv=sync bs=1024k | gzip -c > /path-to-backup-image/sda1-partition-image.gz

edit: those are command-line utils, you will probably be better off using clonezilla -- a GUI front-end, more user friendly.

Last edited by walter on 7/4/15 1:27 PM; edited 1 time in total

7/4/15 12:34 PM

Excellent, thanks Walter.

Funny thing, Clonezilla is a front end for *nix commands, a very friendly environment for them. You can open multiple terminals in it with alt_F1, F2 etc. If you've ever used the UCSD Secure Erase it behaves like that too. I've even taught some command line jockey to talented coworkers with them.

7/8/15 3:24 AM

Just reinforces my view, from having played with the latest release candidates in a VM, that I'll be sticking with Win8.1 and the Start8 start menu for the time being:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/07/windows_10_for_windows_8_and_7_users/

7/29/15 5:54 PM

OK, so did the upgrade today.

So far, so good. Took about 1/2 hour to download and install, maybe 45 minutes.

Had log in issues with my home WiFi as I could not remember the damned password. Not sure why it needed to ask.

Then had issues with the laptop touchpad scroll not working, downloaded a new driver from Lenovo, turned on a switch and all good.

It looks and functions much like Win7, with Win 8 flourishes in it's tile system, which is not intrusive. As I've gone thru the whole family - 95'98/2000/ME/XP and 7, this is just as easy to figure out, easier actually, with changes but they're easy to figure out. Supposed to have much improved security and in general it's a nice OS so far, with no issues in applications that are important. Will certainly do my home desktop and work machine.

7/30/15 8:25 AM

I ran the install yesterday, and I've got to say I was impressed. My ThinkPad generally uses a number of "different" drivers, and they were there from the start (pardon the pun). I played around with Cortana for a bit. Things like that aren't as useful as they are on a phone--notebooks (at least as of last year) for the most part do not incorporate location awareness, so without GPS, maps and "where do I get good pizza around here" are less useful features than they might be.

Battery life appears to be down a little...

The Edge browser works well.

The new start menu is fine, though it might need a locking function (currently it's like an unlocked taskbar, which can get messy).

Overall, it's very nice.

7/30/15 9:21 AM

I did it overnight. Don't know how long the download took -- it was done automatically sometime yesterday (I had put in the reservation). I started the installation after midnight, and went to bed. It was up and running this morning. Login normal, everything I've tried seems to work, though I haven't tested everything. I haven't looked at the new browser; I use Chrome, and it opened normally, restoring all my tabs. My wordprocessor (Open Office) and email client (thunderbird) appear to be functioning normally.

The machine seems to be running faster, but that may be just because OS install wiped a lot of junk off. Which prompts a question for you experts (or anyone with an opinion): What do you recommend for virus/malware protection? Doesn't have to be free; I don't mind paying reasonable subscription fee for something good.

Anyway, so far, so good.

quote:

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The new start menu is fine, though it might need a locking function (currently it's like an unlocked taskbar, which can get messy).

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7/30/15 12:35 PM

The right side of the start menu (tiles) isn't locked down, so if you click on a tile and hold, you can (accidentally) slide the tile somewhere new if you're not careful. It works the way WP 8.1 works, but on the phone, you have to hold a tile for a moment before it becomes movable. In Win10, it's instant. That's something I'd like to see change, and expect to see change.