Windows 10?
 

Any thought on upcoming Windows 10 for desktop?
Today I reserved a free copy invite. I'm currently on Windows 7 and haven't heard much of Windows 8. Would hate to get involved with another Vista trap.
Thanks!

Windows 8 was Micorsoft's first real attempt at developing a cross-platform operating system. You know, something akin to Google Chrome and Apple OS/iOS ecosystems. So, Windows 8 was more like Vista. From what I understand and from what I've seen, Windows 10 should be pretty stable and user friendly. I certainly hope so.

I'm actually not going to update my PC to the new operating system. I've had my PC for about 3 years now and it's getting a bit long in the tooth, so I'm probably going to reformat it to Peppermint OS6 (Linux). I'll just get Windows 10 preloaded on a PC designed to run it.

Best of luck when the update pushes through. Every system needs it first adopters, I just don't want to be one of them. :)

reserved my free upgrade age's ago not very often you get a deal like this
no strings attached.

Thanks Aphex,
I basically fell out of the loop when XP went to Vista. Had a friend who got W7 via the same route offer that I got with W10. I was leary of W7 so I missed out on a free W7 O/S. Got W7 with my new comp and found that I somewhat like it.
During Vista's trial...Folks found it impossible to revert back to XP.
I'd hate to get stuck in that rut. I'm sure they'd offer the capability of reverting back....But I'm sure you know that song and dance as well.
Guessing that's why it's a free offer.
I hate these decisions. :(

Edit*
Hear's a link that states that you can reserve a free copy for those how might be interestd. I think you have to click "yes" on the very first pop up. I didn't and got nowhere...Anyhow...
http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/windo...ows-10-upgrade

BLS,

Interesting timing. I've been BETA testing it for the last day and it seems pretty good so far. It seems faster but that could be because I installed it on a new SSD. So that could be the reason as the SSD I have Win 7 on isn't all that good.

Have only had a few minor problems of no consequence so far. The picture viewer is a bit weird but need to play with it a bit more. Seems a bit overly complicated and could be simplified. Haven't played with the new Mail app much but, so far, can't say as I like it much. Too simplistic but I need to play more with it.

Install wasn't much of a problem. Had to go out and get a 32 Gb thumb drive but it was only about $15! Making it bootable was no big deal. Install was a bit confusing as it reinstalled at the first reboot and wanted to on the third. But, being the suspicious sort, I shut down, pulled the thumb drive and restarted. Seemed to work fine.

Only one app (Zone Alarm) would not install. Win 10 said it was incompatible. So I installed Comodo but not sure how well its working so far. Malwarebytes went in just fine.

So far, it seems pretty good. If you decide to try it the only real suggestion I would make is to go out and get a new SSD and stick it on that. That way, if you don't like it, you can easily go back to your previous OS. If anything of interest shows up I'll let you know.

No bothered about Windows 10 in the slightest.

XP was good Vista was erm... well er... Anyway moving on to Windows 7 that works pretty well for what I use a pc for which is pretty much a smart word processor, but not much else apart from connecting to the internet, so my internet connection is more important for me and I can store things to disc to save space on the hard drive.

I've never used Windows 8.

So I guess it depends on what you use your pc for at the end of the day, but if your operating system is working fine I wouldn't worry about an upgrade until my old computer wasn't working.

Thanks for the input 987...
Getting first hand is much more than I expected, so that really helps. Did you happen to notice if it had the option for dual O/S install like XP once did? When Vista came out...The option was no longer available as far as I know.

Thanks Doodle....Just simple stuff on this comp. Some old games and of course...Too much porn. ;)
But you did make me remember about all my old XP directory rewrites that I had to do when going to W7...Game versions and expansion packs. If possible to do on W10 (Which I think it will be) is gonna take a few days....But I'm willing.

Thanks guys.

I have Windows 7 on my Dell Vostro laptop, and Windows 8.1 on my Dell XPS 28.

Windows 8 was a disaster as it assumed everyone would want to use touch screen technology, and it totally frustrated those of us that still like to "mouse" on the standard Windows desktop.

Windows 8.1 is great so far; both for those in my family that like the touch screen, and for old school types like me who use the desktop view.

I will wait 6 months to see what happens with Windows 10. Everything I have read suggests that Microsoft is taking great care to ensure that it does not have a repeat of the Vista and 8.0 experience.

BLS.

I've BETA tested going back to Vista (and maybe earlier) and am pretty sure you've been able to dual boot with all of them. But I think the last time I did that was with XP and Linux or Vista (can't remember). I really wouldn't do it today for several reasons with a beta. First, SSDs are really pretty darn inexpensive today. I put Win 10 on a 120 Gb SSD which I payed around $60 for. Pretty hard to beat that.

Also, I wouldn't dual boot with a BETA. I learned that a while ago when something went wrong with the BETA and it trashed the file system. Had to reinstall both OS's. Pretty simple nowadays on my Dell laptop to just swap out the hard drives. One with 7 and the other with 10. Maybe sometime down the road I'd dual boot but not this early in the process.

I thought the rule for Windows was "Only use the odd numbered releases"? :confused:

I have a very smart client who works for MSFT. Her advice was to wait until Service Pack 1 came out for Win 10 and, in the mean time, pay close attention to user experiences.

All my PC's run Win 7 (I am basically forced to use PC's due to my work - if not I would have gone over to Mac years ago). Win 7 works fine. So, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I jumped in to using Vista years ago and it was a mini disaster. I learned my lesson and I will not be doing any more free beta testing for Microsoft.

BTW I have SSD drives in some of my PC's and they are amazingly fast and getting cheaper every day. The days of hard drives with moving parts are numbered.

Wow...Thanks guys...I'm really glad I asked.

a435...You confirmed a lot of my fears. I was just checking onto this "Subscription issue" as I logged on here. Thought it was a small rumor until I searched...Truly have too say I was a bit shocked how much of an issue it is. Yes...Totally made me cautious.
XP I knew. Spent so much time removing "updates" that were useless and a burden to the system. I know W7 has them, but haven't found the need for the battle of digging and removing (Some with impossible results).
Awhile back I got hit with the Real Player Cloud. All I wanted was to just update my Real Player, but just had no way of disabling the online cloud part. Spent half the day just trying to remove all of those app files. (Still have a few lingering around, but stopped it from getting online to my comp). Think we all know the value of data mining regardless of terms and conditions. Advertising...Yes, I think we could see that possibility as well.
I was wise to pass up on Vista back then. Missed out on a free W7 due to my caution on it's release. But got it when I only paid $300 for this comp. I like W7 but with XP I had better control of it.
Yes...No free lunches.
Thanks for the icon removal link...I'm keeping it close by.
For now I'm thinking the wisest thing to do is to let this thing play out before partaking regardless of "free".
Thanks again guys.

a435843,

Have to agree with most everything you've suggested. Except, so far, for one thing:

To this point, I have swapped hard drive's once back to Win 7 and had no problems booting up. Win 7 booted normally and I noticed no glitches. But I don't have a UEFI Bios. I'm using an older (maybe 5 or 6 years) Dell Latitude E series which has been a pretty good machine so far. So, at least to this point, someone can go back to Win 7 with no problems (at least if they have an older machine).

A couple of other things I've noticed while playing with 10 today. So far, the new Mail app sucks. Set it up and jeez is it plain jane. Sent an email to myself and it worked but it brought none of my other emails in. Still not sure why. I then downloaded the newest version of Thunderbird and it looked and worked just fine. MS has a lot of work to do here.

The new browser "Project Spartan or MS Edge" seems OK. Looks like Google's browser and seems a bit faster than Pale Moon. But I haven't really played with it much and probably won't until I better understand its security capabilities. Pale Moon (thus Firefox) seems to be working just fine. All of the security extensions went right in except for Ghostery which installed ackwardly but seems to be working OK now.

Installed Adobe CS2 with no problems at all. Which was really surprising. Only total rejection by Win 10 so far has been Zone Alarm. All the rest of my security apps, internet apps and utilities have gone in with no problem. I should say that I did download the newest versions of each so that probably helped. But also haven't found a single app which says its safe for Win 10.

It did have all my drivers except for 3. I think I know what two of them are but not sure of the third. Just haven't had time to mess with them yet.

One minor problem which is really annoying is creating shortcuts on the desktop. You can't just drag and drop an icon from the start menu to the desktop. As I understand things, you have to go into Explorer, find the executable on the C:\program files\ directories and then right click and drag the program executable onto the desktop. Then select to create a shortcut. Really a stupid and dangerous way to do things which needs to be fixed ASAP. Somebody is going to left click and drag the executable, not know what they've done, and trash their program. There may be another way to do it but thats the only way I've found so far.

Enough for now. Still finding it OK but there are problems. But no BSODs as of yet.

Haven't messed with Cortana yet although they keep offering it once in a while. I'll get to it eventually.

Agree about the nagware but not about beta testing. Personally, I've not had many bad experiences doing it and actually find it kind of fun. You get some idea of where things are headed and a pretty good idea of "state of the art". And with 10, MS has made it pretty simple to tell them what you like and don't.

I guess I should explain at this point that as a BETA tester, telling MS (or some other company) how things are going is really your job. They want to know what you like and what you don't. They also carefully monitor how things are going with the machine. They need to know now what problems there are and how to fix them. At least for now, I don't mind that. But, depending on how things go, I'll probably go back to 7. But time will tell.

This alone makes me think, "Oh hell NO". I'm running file searches at least every month or two trying to find some file I need. What kind of idiot takes away a search function? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot :confused:

Much of the rest of it is just We Are Big Brother male bovine digestive end product. :mad:

Was reading up on it a little just now and they do have "file explorer" in Win 10 which apparently carries over from Win 8. They say you can still search local files with it from what I see.

Microsoft skipped the name Windows 9 due to compatibility issues with older Windows 95 and 97 (not sure why) and called the release Windows 10.

So I guess from now on we'll be using the even numbered releases.

Great comments, all. Now I'll weigh in.

First, I've been using and supporting Windows since 3.1. I take a very text book view of an operating system: I want it to efficiently startup and shutdown my system, be modest in terms of overhead (memory/disk/processor), manage hardware and software resources well, and be as steady as a Navy pier. All the other "junK" are nice to haves. If the core underpinnings are bad, it's like building a beautiful mansion on a foundation of sand.

Windows XP, with the exception of the occasional BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) was a solid, reliable operating system. Vista was an ABORTION, plain and simple. Vista was for Microsoft what the IBM PC/AT was for IBM: it was the product that got people to think there was something better. For those of you who aren't that OLD, the IBM PC/AT was the first Intel 80286 based PC to hit the market. It was way faster than the original IBM PC or PC/XT, had "tons" of memory (up to 256K on the motherboard !), and a huge hard disk (30Mb or 60Mb). WOW. This was the PC that was going to be able to run multitasking and make Local Area Networks a reality. OK, a bit over promised ! Problem was one of IBM's suppliers for hard drives and disk controllers was having QA problems. PC/ATs with this particular company's drives were failing at a 60% rate. Rather than admit to the problem and offer remediation IBM denied there was a problem. That allowed a little company in Houston, Texas named COMPAQ to market their 286 based machine with the advertising slogan "It Just Works Better". And it did. RESULT: IBM lost control of the market they helped invent.

The original public release magazine on Vista stated it would run with 512Mb of RAM. I bought a new laptop with 1Gb of RAM and Vista Basic and the OS ate about 60% of the memory and the machine periodically crashed. Recall that Vista Basic was supposedly a "bare bones" version of Vista without the "aero glass" user interface and the big ticket features. Still, it was an overblown monstrosity. Ever wonder why we never saw Vista on portable devices like the kinds that ran Windows CE ? After a memory upgrade, two rebuilds, hacking out of some of the features and two months effort I finally had a workable machine. Before my Vista machine was fried by a huge power spike during Superstorm Sandy I was running Ubuntu on it.

My niece bought a premium HP laptop with Vista and after about three months she trashed it and bought a Mac Book. She has never looked back. Sounds like an Apple commercial I once saw !

I know that individuals who built their machines from the ground up with fast graphics boards and tons of RAM overall have good things to say about Vista. I don't. I spoke to alot of businesses and institutions that kept using XP and passed on any mass rollout of Vista.

Windows 7 was an improvement over Vista, but truth to tell, ANYTHING would be. I only used it regularly at my former employer. I found it to be adequate but with some nagging hardware and software compatibility problems.

I am currently using Windows 8.1. Again, it ain't Vista. But again, it has quirks. I think most people hate it for it's "Live Tile" user interface. I've actually read blog entries where people hate the Live Tiles so much, they'd rather use Vista. I have found the tiles to be not 100% functional, so I just bypass them all together.

After Microsoft claimed on it's website that Office XP Professional was not Windows 8 compatible I was able to install it and use it with no problems. However, the last service pack for Office XP (SP 3) will not install. That basically tells me that certain keys were not written into the registry upon installation that the service pack needs to be able to install. This smells of "forced obsolescence". (FYI, look out, Office 2016 is on the way !). I also have a version 2.0 copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements running as well. Hey, call me cheap but the last few years have been rough financially.

I bought a Hewlett-Packard D110a printer/copier/scanner. It features wireless networking, photo quality printing as well as Internet printing and was an outstanding value at under $70 retail. My laptop was running Windows 8.0 when I bought the printer, and the printer and the supporting software suite installed with no problem. At some point after upgrading to Windows 8.1 the support software failed to function. Forced deinstallation (using an HP supplied tool) as well as cleaning the registry and attempting reinstallation multiple times has not resolved the problem. Fortunately, the printer has on-board applications that allow me to connect to it via a web browser and utilize the functions that I need.

Third, the CD File System (CDFS) support was dropped. Apparently some rocket scientist assumed that we are all using iPods or MP3 players in our cars and no one needs to burn music CDs anymore ! Sure, if we all are driving cars from 2006 or later. I'm not. Delightfully Microsoft makes no mention of the lack of CDFS support or how to fix it. I found this out from an independent tech support web site. I am currently experimenting with the free version of the AShampoo CD Burning app to see if I can work around this problem.

Concerning Windows 10, I note with alarm that Microsoft has not published a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), as has been the standard practice for all versions of Windows as far back as I can remember. Therefore, there is no affirmative way for me to know if my printers and other hardware will function fully (or at all !) under Windows 10, short of a "try and die". I am also not seeing much traffic concerning software compatibility either. Microsoft claims on it's Windows 10 web page that 10 is designed to be compatible with most current hardware and software. Yeah, sure...... and Vista ran with 512Mb of RAM................

I am not all that interested in Cortana. I think products like Siri or Cortana are great for mobile devices like phones or tablets, but not as useful for laptops and desktops. I am interested in the new browser from a purely clinical point of view. Internet Explorer has well documented vulnerabilities dating from IE 6 to the current version. This is not to be confused with the well publicized "Zero Day" vulnerability that made global headlines in April 2014. I will be curious to see if Microsoft has finally routed out these problems. This is the primary reason why in the Windows XP discussion thread I recommended anyone still using XP to stop using IE since Microsoft will not be supplying any security patches to XP machines. I will look to continue to use Firefox with various add-ins that "harden" it against various web based threats. Thanks to Greenman for recommending some great add-ins.

SO, I plan to obtain my copy of Windows 10 and park it until I see some critical mass of documented experiences and SOLUTIONS start to build up. History shows that the advice that Spicoli offered concerning waiting until Windows 10 Service Pack 1 is available is very sound. Also 9876543210 work with Win 10 on a bootable thumb drive also makes complete sense.

I absolutely HATE the blog style "social" support. Most of the time I get the distinct impression that the people responding to the questions really don't have a clue what the solution is and are just throwing out suggestions how to fix things. I've seen too many blogs where the writers contradict each other or where the original problem is never resolved and there is NO follow up. And frankly the last time I was on with Microsoft Support they could not resolve my problem. After breaking off the session I reasoned it out and fixed it myself !

If you are running XP, Vista, or Win 7, I would highly recommend that you get ahold of the Window Annoyances series by David A. Karp (O'Reilly Books). The knowledge in these books will help you keep your machine humming along. Worth their weight in gold !

http://thumbnails108.imagebam.com/41...7415214529.jpghttp://thumbnails105.imagebam.com/41...9415214524.jpghttp://thumbnails105.imagebam.com/41...6415214526.jpg

That's it ! That's enough !

I am an old guy with very limited computer knowledge. Please keep us informed after Windows 10 comes out.

I'm no Spring chicken either (58). The "Annoyances" books I find are that unique paradox of being easy to read but with technical insights that only a Microsoft Engineer would bring to the table.

I frankly am hoping that I'll be in the position to just buy a new Windows 10 machine, and that I won't have to upgrade a perfectly (?) good machine and go on the "bleeding edge". There were enough warnings about the test candidate of Windows 10 that I elected to pass being one of the "millions" Microsoft claims were involved in the testing.

I'm so pissed off about not being able to burn music CDs for friends and family that I might try and find an old Windows XP machine, or engineer a bootable XP thumb drive. I am not too worried about potential security exposures of having an unsupported operating system. Also, I understand from a blogger involved with the Windows 10 beta that Windows Media Player does not work after a Win 10 upgrade is installed. I would enjoy hearing from any of the contributors to this thread how the replacement for WMP works. I sure as hell don't want to spend time rebuilding my music and video library.

I can't wait to see what Redmond has DROPPED from Windows 10.

My analogy concerning IBM and the PC/AT debacle and Microsoft's ham-fisted rollouts of Vista and Win 8 can be summarized as this: at some point, it seems that "technology" companies wind up becoming nothing more than "marketing" companies selling this year's flavor of snake oil at prices that make you yearn "for the good ol' days". IBM blundered with the AT, then with the PS/2 and it's proprietary Microchannel Architecture, then with OS/2. With these brilliant moves it's no wonder IBM had to sell off it's PC and printer divisions. Microsoft has missteped with Windows, Windows Phone, a bad Xbox launch a few years ago, the Zune media player, and now continues to try and ram it's web services down our throats. The Surface tablet looks OK, but once again Microsoft is late to the party with the technology that consumers really want.

Microsoft is selling snake oil while companies like Apple and Google are selling technology. Don't be surprised if the boys and girls in Redmond pull some amazing tactical blunder that causes Microsoft to nose dive and wind up the next IBM selling consulting services or the subject of a Chinese or Russian business takeover.

DTravel,

Don't think anybody answered this yesterday so I'll try. In actuality, Win 10 is Win 9. So it should be halfway decent. But you are correct. Win 95, 98, XP and 7 were all pretty good. But ME, Vista and 8/8.1 were crap.

So, hopefully, 9/10 should be OK. Don't know why MS is skipping the 9 designation altogether.

a435843,

Still haven't had time to play with it.

I have used Explorer a lot and haven't had any problems with it. But it looks almost identical to 7 with a bunch of useless folders I'll never use (pictures, videos, downloads, etc.). I'll probably never use those as I have a second HD in the laptop which stores all my files. It may be possible to point those folders to my D:\ drive but I haven't had the time to do that yet.

Is MS recording all of my Explorer searches? Don't know and I certainly hope not. But if they are they've probably been doing it for a long time (at least since Vista IIRC).

I've heard the same rumor about the Home version. I'm using the "Pro" version so I don't think that applies. But who knows at the moment.

I agree, this is nowhere near ready for release to the general public. If for no less than their Email, browser and shortcuts are pretty much nightmares for them. An average user would not be happy with things as they are now.

Hah! Agreed! I think something must be up with them as they've really made sending them feedback really simple. I don't remember that from earlier testing.

Yeah, really hard to beat Thunderbird. MS has a long way to go to break even with it.

justme21,

Just my opinion, but as someone with limited computer experience, don't even think about playing with 10 until the first service pack comes out. And thats at least a year or two down the road. Maybe longer.

If you have Win 7 right now, stick with it (I'll probably go back to it). Its pretty stable with not a lot of problems. In playing around with 10 right now I'm seeing at least 2 or 3 or 4 "glitches" daily. But still no BSODs.

a435843,

Haven't played with the tabs a whole lot but they do point out one big problem for me. With Win 7 they has an icon to create a new folder right out front and easily clicked. Its now buried under the Home tab. I really don't like that as its more difficult to create a new folder.

And they've instituted a new section called Quick Access which I'm not impressed with unless it can be trained and tamed. We'll see.

Rick Danger,

I've pulled the CD/DVD writer out of my machine in order to stick a 2nd HD in my laptop. So I don't know if thats true. But I'll see what I can find.

And as far as finding an old XP or Win 7 machine is concerned, do check Craigslist. You should be able to find a good one on the cheap.

First, I didn't go the upgrade route. Probably not a good idea with a BETA. If you don't like it, its a real pain going back to a previous OS. Probably have to reformat and reinstall everything.

Don't have a lot of music but I just checked and MPC is still available. For now. Don't know if that will change.

I do have 7 so I will be patient. Thanks for the info everyone

When you get into your 70s you can tell me about it :)

They had to skip 9 because 7 8 it.

:)

I'm also an old guy, but unlike JustMe21 I have a lot of computer knowledge (computer user since 1983, net user since 1993, worked in software for 30-odd years). I'm also both cynical and realistic. Microsoft = bad software, good hardware. Apple = good software, bad hardware.

Why Windows 10, not 9? Well, they finally got Windows to look and feel like a Mac, so they're matching Mac OS X. Personally, I've got Windows 10 installed on a VirtualBox VM. Windows 7 is good for a few more years till Microsoft pull the plug on it and stop issuing security updates. That's the time to move.

Honestly, it looks like a screen shot posted by someone having problems with their web browser who gets told he has too many add-ons running.

I suspect M$ is skipping 9 because of that "only odd number releases" meme.

BondJmsBond,

:) Very clever.

Thanks for the link. Having downloaded and read through it, the conclusion is that it is very MS centric and could have been published by them. There is little or no critical evaluation and everything about Win 10 is positive.

For an old desktop user, there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to change from Win 7. Win 10 (like 8 and 8.1) seem to assume that we want to be connected all the time, use a touch screen, spend our time on social media, share everything with MS, etc.
Sorry, that is not my profile and this product was not created for me.

I don't remember what making love to a woman is like. Does that count ? (LOL !)

Misrule,

Having used 10 for a few days now, I've pretty much come to the same conclusion. So far, I don't see enough to keep me interested and I do see a lot I'm not interested in.

One real irritant revolves around the game Mahjong, which I like to play once in a while. It was a nice little time waster in 7. But it doesn't come by default with 10. You have to go to the Windows store and get it for free. I understand they want people to get used to going to the store but please?

Another problem is that every time you want to play the game, the game tries to sign you into the XBox website (I don't have an XBox and aren't planning on getting one) and then opens a webpage asking more about the XBox (not really sure what its asking for as the page is blocked by my security software).

So yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The OS might be good for teens and youngsters interested in the social media stuff, but if your not, there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest here.

Still no BSODs though. At least thats good. But there are a bunch of little problems. MS still has a way to go before this is ready for prime time.

windows 8 is a complete dud thats why they went to 10 i have HEARD its very good but be
safe with the icon windows 7 wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After I overviewed the Windows 10 Primer that a435843 so generously provided (thank you again !), I am very much underwhelmed by Windows 10.

First and foremost if you are totally in bed with Microsoft products (Windows Phone, Xbox, cloud services) then you are probably doing cartwheels right about now. But for those of us with Android or iOS phones, Playstations, Google Apps, iPad etc. not so much. So all the additional "features" designed to make your Microsoft based life more integrated just sound like BLOATWARE to me since I frankly don't use any of these products and am highly unlikely to be swayed by smooth talk into buying them.

Secondly, it occurs to me that in order to provide a homogenous operating system environment Microsoft likely applied a "least common denominator" principle; i.e.,the Windows 10 features and performance on PCs will be sacrificed to insure that it runs smoothly on other platforms like Windows Phone and Xbox, instead of the other way round. This is borne out by a435843 comments concerning Spartan, the removal of the Control Panel and Devices features, and the rollout of Universal Apps.

I agree with Misrule that this document was no doubt commissioned by Microsoft, in much the same way the aforementioned "first look" document for Vista was no doubt also Redmond's handiwork. I have no doubt that as with the Vista rollout Microsoft will start hammering the hardware OEMs to stop making Windows 7 and 8 available to consumers in favor of 10. I remember with ire how during the "Vista Wars" Microsoft was loudly proclaiming it as "the best selling Windows ever", slickly ignoring the fact that they were counting not actual consumer purchases but new units shipped. Meanwhile the OEMs quietly broke ranks and continued offering consumers Windows XP as an option.

Microsoft's vision of the corporate environment to me is so flawed that I got a neck pain shaking my head. First, the idea that corporations have unlimited support resources to allow a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) plutocracy is absolutely crazy. With media reports of security breaches both large and small an almost daily event, security administrations will be cutting off any potential risks. It's bad enough when a corporate executive has a secured, data encrypted laptop with company data stolen at an airport. Can you imagine a personal PC brought into the office, connected to corporate datashares, then taken home loaded with trade secrets ? How many home users have PCs that are actually 100% secure ? Yes, your Microsoft Windows and apps may be secure and up-to-date. But what about your Adobe Reader or Shockwave Player ? What about your copy of Oracle JavaScript ? Your non-Microsoft browsers ? Have you deinstalled apps you don't use anymore and probably haven't updated ?

At the pharmaceutical company I worked at we had our own "App Store" - TEN YEARS AGO ! Again, Microsoft comes to the table a day late and a dollar short. Our access to apps was controlled by strict permissions. If you needed a particular app to do your job and your department was willing to pay for the license you were given permission to install it. If the application was validated you might actually have to attend training before you were allowed this access.

Finally, if Microsoft's Single Sign On (SSO) model includes any backend connections to their cloud services, again I would be saying "Thanks, but NO THANKS" if I were a security administrator.

What I find comical about all of this is that Microsoft and other cloud service providers tout business continuity as a strong point on why you should use their services. In other words, by using the facilities of the cloud service provider all or in part you are more likely to avoid an interruption to business activities caused by a loss of computing and database services. But Microsoft's "vision" of a modern office computing environment seems to run counter to this logic. But of course it provides the foundation for buying MORE Microsoft products and services to manage the chaos that they are actually promoting.

Again, at the corporate level this is typical Microsoft: buy all our products and services and you'll have a smooth running, totally integrated computing environment. Yeah, sure. The same promises that IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and so many others made in the past. Looks like a new generation of suckers are falling for this whale s- - t all over again.

Ken Olsen, the founder, president and chairman of long defunct DEC once declared that "open systems" were irrelevant. I could understand his point: if you were using a single source for all your technology needs, chances are you didn't need open systems. Problem was then, as it is now, the technology world is not homogenous. The first big wave of change was when the world turned away from proprietary networking (so favored by the big technology companies of the day) and went to IP (TCP/IP) based "open standards" networking. The growth of the Internet would never have happened without this fundamental change. Companies that took stock of this change survived and prospered. Those that did not, like DEC were swept away. If Microsoft blunders with Windows by making it into a even more proprietary mis-mosh, then a real move to open standards based operating systems (read that Unix derived) may be in the offing. If I were Microsoft, I'd be working on porting Windows to work on top of a Unix based core OS.

The lesson is clear: give the people what they want, NOT what you're prepared to give them. The executives at DEC failed to learn this. Will Microsoft join them on the scrapheap ?

"May you live in interesting times......."

I'm sticking with Windows 7 until they pry it from my cold dead hands.

I was curious how Microsoft's other strategic product lines were doing, since Windows 10 cross-platform integration is their stated direction.

Amazing. Microsoft's strategy appears to tie the Windows franchise to two product lines (Windows Phone and Surface) that are underperforming the market while the third, the Xbox line is at least viable.

In a well researched Wikipedia article on Smartphones, statistics for sales and market share by operating system are quoted from Gartner Research:
Concerning the heavily marketed Surface and Surface Pro tablet offerings:
While sales of the Surface line rose sharply in 2013, they dropped again in the first quarter of 2014. To be fair, the 1Q14 slump was probably a reset after brisk holiday sales, and it impacted other tablet brands across the board. But apparently Microsoft does not report Surface sales by units sold, only overall revenue for the line; a rather cute accounting trick. I will have to find some more recent data on how the Surface is trending.

According to the Wikipedia article, while the Surface hardware gains praise, the software leaves much to be desired. No doubt these comments are driving the strategy to have Windows 10 integrate Microsoft's various products:

Again, to be fair, no doubt Microsoft may have made progress with the Surface product line. But again, they obviously face an uphill battle in appealing to the consumer when compared to established Android or iOS products. The failed Zune media player should have been an object lesson that Redmond took to heart. So hitching Windows 10 to struggling Windows Phone and Surface products smells of desperation.

While the Xbox platform lags behind Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Wii, it has a solid niche and appears to be well respected. Interestingly with the Xbox One product Microsoft has moved away from the dedicated Xbox OS to Windows 8 (and soon Win 10). I will research if this move has impacted the experience of Xbox users.

Could a three legged horse win the Kentucky Derby ?

a435843,

Had to go back to the 7 drive this a.m. so I'm still using it atm. But I'll stick it back in in a little while and let you know where the site is trying to go. I'm pretty sure its some xbox advertisement.

Agreed on this signing up for common stuff crap. If they keep that up they will lose a lot of customers.

Only one other observation from the last few days. And I guess its to be expected from MS. Can only think of one example off hand (the new, buried, location of the New Folder button in Explorer) but they (MS) don't seem to be making things easier. They seem to be making things harder to find. Why? What possible sense does that make?

Another example. Why in the world get rid of the Control Panel? Actually, its still there but its now called Settings and is available in a minimum of two clicks (Start button and then Settings). But why rename it now? Its been around since when? Win 3 or 3.1?

Are they thinking the shorter name is preferable? And people won't mind? Typical MS.

a435843,

Finally put the 10 drive back in last night and checked the site windows want to go to every time I want to play Mahjong. Its going to an XBox website:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/

I probably misspoke about my security software blocking it. Probably just got tired of clicking out of it.

Not much else to report as I only played with it a bit last night and just got back on this evening. But there is one thing..... and its pretty important. Just after sticking the Win 10 HD back in the laptop the machine booted OK. But maybe a bit slower. Went to click the Start button and no go. It doesn't work. WTF! Start looking for a fix and discover lots of people are having the same problem. It just quits for no reason. Found an MS forum trying to help people and tried fixes on the first two pages. No luck. There were 8 or 10 more pages to go so maybe I'll try it again.

Or maybe not.