Windows 10?

[9876543210]

DTravel,

Originally Posted by DTravel

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

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.

[9876543210]

a435843,

Originally Posted by a435843

A couple of quick comments:

The crippled Cortana search was reported by InfoWorld from an earlier beta, but their "NO" response was in a slightly smaller font. Furthermore, they had reported that the kludgey way of searching your files was via a forced upload backup of said files to MS's servers (Azure services), and that Bing would then be nice enough to index those files, and search for them from the f*%#^!g cloud, via Cortana. My response was not merely just "Hell No."

Still haven't had time to play with it.

I'm glad they've come to their senses on this, and kept the Explorer local/network drive search function, if not local optional indexing, as well. My Explorer searches better not be reported back to MS, though.

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).

Another rumor is about service packs...with 10, there won't be anymore big updates, or even monthly updates, it will just be this Chinese Water Torture of drip, drip, drip, constant updates, endless nags to reboot, and so on. That won't work either, and will contribute to a horrible user experience, if you cannot control that flow of updates in the "Home" version.

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.

It sounds as though 9..., that you've just hit some usual beta stuff, but clearly, it doesn't sound ready for release in several weeks. The early reviews of Spartan I've seen are in line with yours, but with no add-on infrastructure, and unknown security & privacy functionality, I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. My question for you is, is Spartan full-screen only, like an app, or is there availability for it to run as a Windowed application? I've only seen it run as an app.

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.

And beta testing is an important part of the process, but nagging me to do it is not. I hope MS takes the feedback you and others give them to heart. My experience, even back in the old days, when I was responsible for buying licenses for 3,000 PC's, was that MS didn't give any feces about your opinion, but times for them are more desperate 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.

And I definitely agree with you on Thunderbird, as a Mail application, an archiver, and a PIM, I enjoy that program.

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

[9876543210]

justme21,

Originally Posted by justme21

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

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.

[9876543210]

a435843,

Originally Posted by a435843

InfoWorld just released some screen shots of some last-minute bug fixing on 10, and it shows a screen shot of Windows Explorer. It includes an Explorer window with tabs, which evidently won't be kept in the final product, at least for now. However, it does show a local file search box that looks to be on course for the release (see orange box below), so good news on that front.

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.

[9876543210]

Rick Danger,

Originally Posted by Rick Danger

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'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.

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.

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.

[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.

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

I'm no Spring chicken either (58)

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

[BondJmsBond]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

Don't know why MS is skipping the 9 designation altogether.

They had to skip 9 because 7 8 it.

[The Old Hacker]

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.

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by a435843

InfoWorld just released some screen shots of some last-minute bug fixing on 10, and it shows a screen shot of Windows Explorer. It includes an Explorer window with tabs, which evidently won't be kept in the final product, at least for now. However, it does show a local file search box that looks to be on course for the release (see orange box below), so good news on that front.

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.

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

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.

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