Windows 10?

[Rick Danger]

A while ago I posted an article concerning IDC's prediction of weak PC sales for 2016. Apparently IDC has revised their weak market projections downwards.

I don't know who lies more - the US Presidental candidates or Microsoft. They are busy celebrating a claimed 300M Windows 10 installations, and claim that they are well on track to the target of 1 billion Windows 10 devices by 2017. But now this. Just like cackling Hillary or blustering "The Donald", I have begun to tune all of this noise out.


The RegisterUK.com

PC market sinking even faster than first thought, thanks to Windows 10
IDC knocks another two per cent off its sales predictions

by Simon Sharwood
10 Jun 2016 at 04:01

The abacus-shufflers of analyst firm IDC have revised their 2016 PC sales forecasts downwards.

The firm now says PC shipments “... are forecast to decline by 7.3% year over year”. That's “roughly two per cent below earlier projections as conditions have been weaker than expected.” The firm names “weak currencies, depressed commodity prices, political uncertainty, and delayed projects” as the weaker conditions impacting sales.

Windows 10 isn't helping matters either, because lots of people are availing themselves of free Windows 10 upgrades rather than buying a new PC. The firm also says that “while a large share of enterprises are evaluating Windows 10, the pace of new PC purchases has not yet stabilized commercial PC shipments.” Which sounds like plenty of organisations just aren't pulling the upgrade trigger fast enough to give the PC market a kick.

IDC also blames Windows 10 for slowing workstation sales. Earlier this week the firm reported EMEA workstation shipment numbers, reporting sales of 1,170,000 in the region during 2015, down from 2014's 1,194,000 shipments. "It looks like Windows 10 migration has been the priority in enterprise infrastructure budgets this year," said Mohamed Hefny, program manager in the Virtualization, Systems, and Infrastructure Solutions department of IDC CEMA.

Workstations sales are expected to climb 0.9 per cent in 2016, which is welcome news for the channel because workstation buyers tend to be big IT shops with lots of other requirements. Jamming a door open with workstation sales is a grand way to get other stuff done.

Back to the global PC market, IDC now predicts just 255.6m machines will ship in 2016, of which 103.3m will be desktops. The firm reckons we'll see “... progressively smaller declines through 2017 followed by stable volume in 2018.” ®

[VintageFan89]

Oh boy Microsoft is planning a big upgrade to Windows 10 this August...I can hardly wait. Although I don't use the "tools" that will be upgraded, I'm concerned that we will once again be used as guinea pigs to work out the bugs.

Microsoft is giving Windows 10 a big upgrade.

The free "anniversary update" on August 2 will give users a slew of updated tools for browsing, gaming and security.
-- Microsoft Edge: The browser will be updated to use less memory and power. There will also be better features for people with disabilities, such as a high-contrast mode and screen readers. And for the first time ever, users can also use biometrics through Windows Hello to authentic their identities on certain websites.
-- Xbox One: Buy a game once and play it on a console or Windows 10 computer with shared game progress. Students can also save $300 if they buy an Xbox One and a Surface together before August 14. Strategically, Microsoft has timed its new smaller Xbox One S to launch in August, starting at $300.
-- Cortana: The virtual assistant is getting smarter, according to Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30), with features that help the program save, recall and synchronize data across devices, including, for the first time, the Xbox.
-- Windows Defender: Users will have the ability to schedule automatic and periodic anti-malware scans of their computers, and receive reports about threats.
Related: Microsoft calls new Xbox a 6 teraflop 'monster'
Microsoft says Windows 10 is the company's most successful version of Windows and it now runs on more than 350 million devices.
A free upgrade to Windows 10 is still available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices until July 29.
The new version got its first huge update a few months after launching last year.
Related: Microsoft unveils its new vision for Windows
Windows 10 is the end of the line for the operating system. Microsoft has no plans to build a "Windows 11."
That's actually a good thing because users will get steady upgrades like this instead of waiting years for a new version.
-- David Goldman contributed to this story.
CNNMoney (New York) First published June 29, 2016: 10:18 AM ET

[Rick Danger]

If the scenario painted by the author of this article comes to pass I wonder how many Windows fans who bit on the Windows 10 upgrade will have cause to regret their decision................

Computerworld.com
Home Operating Systems Windows 10

Opinion by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Would you subscribe to Windows?
Instead of buying Windows, you may soon be subscribing to it — that's how much Microsoft wants you off Windows 7

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Jul 5, 2016 9:09 AM PT

Microsoft apologists insist that the company wasn't really trying to push Windows 10 on users when it recently did stealth OS updates on their PCs. There's only one problem with this: Users disagreed. Now, as the clock runs out on Microsoft's offer of free Windows 10 "upgrades," it appears the company is readying another approach to get you to move from older versions of Windows: subscriptions.

Surprise!

Ed Bott, a longtime Windows writer and observer, for years swore that Microsoft would never introduce a subscription model for Windows. He argued that "Windows upgrades have never been a major source of revenue for Microsoft," less than 0.8%, and therefore Microsoft wouldn't do this.

I'd argue that since Microsoft is moving to a subscription and service model across vast areas of its products and also wants Windows users to move as fast as possible to Windows 10, moving Windows upgrades to this model is a natural extension of its emerging strategy. Last year it was Office for Windows 10 that Microsoft tied to an Office 365 subscription. Why shouldn't we expect Windows to be next?

And then there's this: Bott just found a file named "UpgradeSubscription.exe" in the latest Windows 10, Build 14376.

I am shocked, shocked to find subscription software in Windows 10!

Some will say that Windows is just too small a part of Microsoft's business these days for the company to care so much. And, yes, Windows accounts for only 10% of all of Microsoft's revenue these days. But need I point out that even 0.0001% of Microsoft revenue is serious money? Besides, there's more than just cash flow going on here.

We can all agree that Microsoft really, really wants you to abandon earlier editions of Windows for Windows 10. Why else would it trick users into it with misleading notifications, where clicking the "this has always in my experience closed this sort of box". X instead authorizes an upgrade? And it wants to make it seem to users that they are lonely in their resistance. Microsoft claims there are now 350 million Windows 10 users. But its count includes Xbox One game consoles, tablets and a handful of smartphones.

Color me less than impressed.

StatCounter estimates Windows 10 was on 23% of global desktops as of June 2016. While Windows 10 is gaining on Windows 7, which is at 45%, it's still a long way from being the dominant desktop operating system. I think Gartner has it about right. It expects that Windows 10 won't be the top business desktop operating system until 2018.

In addition, after long being accused of forcing users — whether they want to or not — to upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft just lost a lawsuit to an unhappy customer. California travel agent Teri Goldstein sued Microsoft for causing her PC to upgrade to Windows 10 without her explicit permission, and won $10,000. Rather than appeal, Microsoft paid up.

Almost immediately afterwards, Microsoft announced that it would change that sneaky upgrade notification. Clicking the red X will no longer be interpreted as approving the upgrade. I wonder what bright dolt ever thought that was a good idea?

Microsoft is hoping to avoid any more lawsuits. Good luck with that, guys.

True, Microsoft's latest end-user license agreement (EULA) forbids consumers from filing a class-action lawsuit, but I doubt that would hold up in court. Yes, for those of you who know a bit of law, the AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion decision could get in the way. But — probably in penance for my sins — I know many class-action lawyers. They universally regard such clauses as unenforceable.

So what could Microsoft do to 1) promote its latest operating system, 2) keep everyone up to date, and 3) avoid lawsuits?

The answer: Finally get Windows in line with the rest of its services and make it subscription-only.

Oh, did you notice what I did there? I called Windows a service. That's coming too.

With Windows as a subscribed service, Microsoft solves its legal problems and the difficulties of trying to maintain multiple out-of-date operating systems.

But what about you? Do you want a subscription instead of sort of, kind of owning your operating system? I don't have any trouble with it myself. Well, so long as Microsoft doesn't charge me $50 a year for it, anyway.

Besides, I've long known that I don't own Windows. The EULA is a license to use Windows; you never really owned it. If you want to own your desktop operating system, to make your own decisions about when or if you’ll update, you want Linux, not Windows.

Linux, no matter what you may have heard, works just fine on the desktop. I use it every day. And, unlike Windows, it's under your control, not Microsoft's or any other corporation's, and there are no subscriptions involved.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting-edge PC operating system, 300bps was a fast Internet connection, WordStar was the state-of-the-art word processor, and we liked it!

[Rick Danger]

Home Windows

You can dual-boot Windows 7 with Windows 10, but there's a catch
If you upgraded to Windows 10, your old Windows 7 is gone.

Lincoln Spector
Contributing Editor, PCWorld
Apr 25, 2016 3:00 AM

Anudeep Gunda wants to install Windows 7 on his Windows 10 PC with a dual boot.

It's relatively easy to install Windows 7 on a Windows 10 PC, so that you can boot from either operating system. But it won't be free. You'll need a copy of Windows 7, and the one you already own probably won't work.

You might also need an optical drive.

If you upgraded your current PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10, your Windows 7 license expired 31 days after the upgrade. (Note: Microsoft defines the Windows 10 rollback period as "a month" in much of its documentation, and some support sites say 30 days, but we confirmed with Microsoft that it's 31.) An update version of Windows 7 won't work either. You need a retail or OEM version that hasn't been used—or has been thoroughly removed from another computer.

Although Microsoft no longer sells Windows 7, you can still buy a copy easily enough. Just do a Google shopping search for Windows 7.

Whatever you buy will almost certainly come with a DVD, requiring an optical drive.

Here's an alternative method that I've seen both work and fail: This Microsoft webpage will help you download and prepare the Windows 7 installation program on either a DVD or a flash drive (both are bootable). When you're asked for the product key, use one on the copy of Windows 7 you just bought.

If that doesn't work, you'll have to buy an external optical drive. It's money well-spent. They can be occasionally useful.

Once you've got a bootable installation tool, prepare a new partition in Windows 10:

Right-click the Start button and select Disk Management.
In the resulting Disk Management program, right-click the C: partition and select Shrink Volume.



In the Shrink C: dialog box, chose how much you want to shrink this partition. I suggest something around 128GB (131072 MB).
Right-click the Unallocated section between partitions and select New Simple Partition. Follow the wizard.

You don't have to actually boot the Windows 7 DVD or flash drive. Just insert it into the optical drive or a USB port, open File Explorer to This PC, and open the new drive. This will start the installation process.

As you go through the installation wizard, there are two options you need to pay attention to:

Which type of installation do you want? Select Custom (advanced).



Where do you want to install Windows? Select the new partition you just created.



For the rest of the installation, just pick the options you think are best.

Afterwards, every time you boot, your computer will ask if you want Windows 7 or Windows 10.


Freelance journalist (and sometimes humorist) Lincoln Spector has been writing about tech longer than he would care to admit. A passionate cinephile, he also writes the Bayflicks.net movie blog.

[Isegrim]

Originally Posted by VintageFan89

... Windows 10 is the end of the line for the operating system. Microsoft has no plans to build a "Windows 11." ...

Really? So Microsoft has finally found a possibility to prevent further evolution in computer technology? How - installing some kind of new Holy Inquisition?

I doubt we can take this for serious. Probably they are just finally renouncing their claim to produce operating (!) systems .

With all the new electronic toys around the new product wil need a less business like specification, maybe 'Integrated User Interface for Electronic Devices' or something alike. And the name should be a little more spiritual, 'NIRVANA 1.0' maybe .

Or, if I am allowed to make a proposal to Microsoft: purchase the rights from Stanley Kubrick and name it 'HAL 9000'. Then we all know what we get ...

[Ernesto75]

Originally Posted by Isegrim

Or, if I am allowed to make a proposal to Microsoft: purchase the rights from Stanley Kubrick and name it 'HAL 9000'. Then we all know what we get ...

That's very good.

[Ernesto75]

According to an article on SiliconBeat (www.siliconbeat.com):

Extract:

"Microsoft has heard the complaints about the tactics it’s using to push Windows 10 on users, and it’s finally doing something about them.

Later this week, the company plans to roll out an update for Windows 7 and 8 that that will change the alerts it has been using to promote Windows 10.
Unlike before, the alerts will now offer users a clear choice to decline Windows 10.
And if users click on the red “x” button to dismiss the alert, Windows will no longer consider that a confirmation that users want to upgrade to Windows 10.

After hearing from customers that the alert boxes were “confusing,” Microsoft decided to change them, said Lisa Gurry, Microsoft’s senior director for Windows.

“We’re working really hard to address it,” she said. “We’re working hard to deliver a Windows that everyone will really love.”

In addition to changing how the Windows upgrade prompts work, Microsoft is offering free tech support to all customers who are having trouble with Windows 10, Gurry said.
If users whose PCs were upgraded to Windows 10 want to return them to their previous operating system, Microsoft’s customer support staff will walk them through the process
free of charge, she said.
... "

Like Helen of Troy, who was wary of Greek's gifts, I am wary of Microsoft's
announcements.
There risk to be a snag.
We'll see...

[Isegrim]

The trick to creating a Windows 7/Windows 10 Dual Boot system by Rick Danger
(tried to quote it but did not work)
'Although Microsoft no longer sells Windows 7, you can still buy a copy easily enough. Just do a Google shopping search for Windows 7.
Whatever you buy will almost certainly come with a DVD...'

If you only buy the product key this is usually much cheaper. Microsoft doesn't like it but at least in Germany it is fully legal (don't know about your countries, of course).
Free copies of Windows 7 versions (iso) you will find via Google (got mine via torrent).
If you take Windows 7 Ultimate you can also boot it from a virtual hard disk, if your Windows 10 Edition allows this feature ...

[Isegrim]

Originally Posted by Ernesto75

That's very good.

You know, HAL stands really for IBM (one step forward for every letter in the name) and Microsoft started up with an operating system for IBM machines so it were somehow 'back to the roots' ...

[Ernesto75]

Originally Posted by Isegrim

The trick to creating a Windows 7/Windows 10 Dual Boot system by Rick Danger
(tried to quote it but did not work)
'Although Microsoft no longer sells Windows 7, you can still buy a copy easily enough. Just do a Google shopping search for Windows 7.
Whatever you buy will almost certainly come with a DVD...'

If you only buy the product key this is usually much cheaper. Microsoft doesn't like it but at least in Germany it is fully legal (don't know about your countries, of course).
Free copies of Windows 7 versions (iso) you will find via Google (got mine via torrent).
If you take Windows 7 Ultimate you can also boot it from a virtual hard disk, if your Windows 10 Edition allows this feature ...

I recently bought a copy of Windows 7 Professionnal through Amazon for a relatively reasonable price.
I got an iso file + a Microsoft key.

I still have to use it, but when I checked the iso file, I was prompted for the Microsoft key.