Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[kacir]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

I disagree. I've been running FreeBSD as my main OS for over a decade, and I have never taken extraordinary care with the hardware. I'll admit that my use of Nvidia cards probably helped. I've used other video cards though and never had any problems. (I understand kms took a long time in FreeBSD which probably messed up a lot of people.)

I have run FreeBSD for quite a few years as my main desktop at home. Loved the system.
At one moment the new release started to fail on my hardware combination and the problem persisted over several releases. It was a kernel bug that I reported and that was acknowledged. It still took a long time to be patched. Several releases, if my memory serves me right.
So I started to use Mint Linux (it was Celena at that time). I still look at FreeBSD from time to time - my friend is running it as his main system at work - but it ain't the same system as 4.8 era releases used to be ... sigh.
Three years ago I got rid of my Windows partition at home and stopped dual-booting, as I was using it less and less over the years and almost never in the last few.

[fjtorres]

Getting back to Windows 10:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microso...tag=TRE17cfd61

Windows 10 isn't the only Redmond-based product that got a big update in the past few weeks. Microsoft recently revised its global Privacy Statement, with a few minor changes and some significant additions aimed at cooling overheated privacy concerns.

In addition, the new statement includes multiple sections that distinguish between personal Microsoft accounts and "work or school" accounts, where an organization controls access to services and may impose its own rules.

But several sections of the new Privacy Statement are clearly intended to answer critics who insist that the company is "spying" on users.

The new document is, by necessity, even longer than its predecessors. Here's a summary of what's inside.

CONTENT
The Content section adds two examples to emphasize that personal data is only collected in connection with the provision of online services you request,

DEVICE ENCRYPTION
Several critics have fretted over Microsoft's practice of automatically backing up BitLocker encryption keys to OneDrive to allow recovery on personal devices. The new statement adds this sentence: "Microsoft doesn't use your individual recovery keys for any purpose."

DISCLOSING PERSONAL FILES
The most extreme allegation based on misreading of the original privacy statement is that Microsoft is scanning personal files on local hard disks running Windows 10. The revised version adds a qualifier that the phrase "files in private folders" refers only to those stored on OneDrive. The section also includes a new link to the Law Enforcement Transparency Report.

More at the source.

Any Hyperventilators out there, if any, can now breathe easy. Microsoft really doesn't give a fig about your data.

[wodin]

All I know is that the November update must be HUGE under the hood. First of all the Windows Update screen called it an "upgrade" rather than an update, then it took longer to download than the original Win10 upgrade, and also longer to install entailing at least three reboots. It was like installing a whole new OS, maybe it was.

And all for a half a dozen advertised changes.

[Katsunami]

Regarding the Threshold 2 update, is it this one?

"Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586"

I've had this in my Windows Updates list for almost 5 days now, on "Waiting for download", and never got it to do so until today.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Getting back to Windows 10:
Any Hyperventilators out there, if any, can now breathe easy. Microsoft really doesn't give a fig about your data.

Still isn't good enough. It never was, not even with Windows 8.x and before.

What I would like to have is one button, called: "Disable all data and file sharing." If I'm not sending and receiving any data myself, the operating system should stay offline completely. Also, stuff such as OneDrive and Modern UI apps should be store downloads, not standard installations.

To be honest, the last "good" operating system I used, which was only an operating system, was Windows NT 4; maybe I would also still include Windows 2000. From XP onward, when MS introduced online activation, it all started going downhill with regard to online/offline separation.

Now, Windows 10 is so integrated into the web that there aren't even any offline help files anymore; not as far as I know at least.

[wodin]

So now that the new SP4 type cover with fingerprint reader is nearly here, I'm interested in getting one for my SP3. But I have a question that I've been trying to research with no luck.

If I'm using Windows Hello to log in with my fingerprint what happens if I'm in tablet mode? I mean if I left the keyboard with the fingerprint reader at the office how do I log in? Is the password still available or is my tablet just a pretty piece of glass and magnesium?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wodin

So now that the new SP4 type cover with fingerprint reader is nearly here, I'm interested in getting one for my SP3. But I have a question that I've been trying to research with no luck.

If I'm using Windows Hello to log in with my fingerprint what happens if I'm in tablet mode? I mean if I left the keyboard with the fingerprint reader at the office how do I log in? Is the password still available or is my tablet just a pretty piece of glass and magnesium?

I own several devices with fingerprint login, and they all offer a PIN or password alternative. Although fingerprint recognition (on my iPhone and iPad at least) is very, very reliable, you might do something such as cut your finger which would prevent you from being able to use it.

[wodin]

Since Windows Hello allows multiple finger prints, I'd think you'd just have to generate one with the cut finger and all would be well again.

[wodin]

At least until it healed.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wodin

Since Windows Hello allows multiple finger prints, I'd think you'd just have to generate one with the cut finger and all would be well again.

A few months ago I nearly cut the top off the finger I use to log in with. Bandage on it for about two weeks, hence no fingerprint.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

To be very honest, I've been thinking to switch to Linux full time because of the direction Microsoft has taken with Windows is going since Windows 8 (and Office since 2007).

I've tried, but it's almost impossible if you don't keep a seperate Windows-installation for games and Windows-software you really need; if you don't, much messing around ensues. (And I still haven't seen a decent alternative for Foobar, and CD-ripping software. That stuff is just much better under Windows.)

Yes, I run Windows 10 on both my computer and my laptop, but I only do so because in about 4 years, Windows 7 will be dropped, and I don't like sticking to the past if I will need to move to Windows 10 (or its successor) eventually.

Who rips CD's in 2015?

There's this article out today:

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday described his company’s bold moves to protect Windows users from digital security threats. But the company has already made its most significant contribution to cyber security: free Windows 10 upgrades.

the key to online safety for most customers is simply to install the most-up-to-date version of the Windows operating system. And that doesn’t necessarily cost time or money.

Microsoft has known for some time that moving users to the most recent version of the operating system makes them safer. In a 2014 analysis [http://www.microsoft.com/security/sir/default.aspx] of Windows user data, Microsoft found that users of the old-school Windows Vista operating system were four times more likely to be infected by malware than Windows 8.1 users.

This year, though, the company made moving from an old version of Windows to the latest edition a free upgrade, at least for some users. Mr. Nadella has gone out of his way to shift Windows from a product to a service. In the new scheme, bug fixes are part of the deal, installed automatically in the background. Windows 10 also has core changes that make the system much harder to attack; features like Device Guard, which blocks untrusted software installed on a computer.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/11/...rss_Technology

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

They just drop features and/or support of some versions of OSX and then blatantly state that you'll just have to buy a new Mac to get the new OSX version.

Really?!? I'm not a Mac user and that doesn't sound like a platform I or anyone else would want to use. Yet their Mac and laptop sales are growing.

Something must be missing from your statement.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Who rips CD's in 2015?

...

I do.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Who rips CD's in 2015?

I do. How else would I get high quality lossless music?

Buy FLAC's at prices costing up to €1,50 or so a piece, which are ripped with who knows which codec and from which CD-edition, and that probably have all the metadata wrong?

No, thank you very much.

I'll just get myself a €15 CD/DVD burner, and go to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de MarketPlace to buy a second-hand CD for €0.01 to €1 and €2.50 shipping. With a bit of luck, I can actually choose the edition. If it's older music, I'll always choose the oldest edition I can find (look them up at Discogs), to avoid the loudness war.

===
Oh, and on the latest Windows 10 update: I hate it. More different font sizes. More tiny fonts despite me setting the font size at 11, more black stuff, and more sub-menu's... and all of that, combined in the right-click menu of the start-menu icons.

Black means no dropshadows. It makes windows and menu's blend into one another, and that's not good. (At work, I detest Windows 8.1 for that; everything is flat and white.)

See that attachment. That's three (!!) different font-sizes in about 1/8th part of my screen; compare the left menu, the start menu icons, and the taskbar menu...

And what's with the grey Firefox (and, beneath the menu, Thunderbird) icons? Since this update, their background is suddenly grey.

Windows is becoming more and more unusable, and I'm running out of ways to fix this crap.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Really?!? I'm not a Mac user and that doesn't sound like a platform I or anyone else would want to use. Yet their Mac and laptop sales are growing.

Something must be missing from your statement.

No. I'm not missing anything.

Mac OSX.

Releases of OS X have steadily dropped compatibility with earlier Macs.

For the early releases of Mac OS X, the standard hardware platform supported was the full line of Macintosh computers (laptop, desktop, or server) based on PowerPC G3, G4, and G5 processors. Later versions discontinued support for some older hardware; for example, Panther does not support "beige" G3s,[58] and Tiger does not support systems that pre-date Apple's introduction of integrated FireWire ports (the ports themselves are not a functional requirement). Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard", introduced October 2007, has dropped support for all PowerPC G3 processors and for PowerPC G4 processors with clock rates below 867 MHz. Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" supports Macs with Intel processors, not PowerPC. Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" requires a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer processor.

The only thing I'm reading there is 'dropped support' and 'requires <newer stuff'.

During the Intel transition:

PowerPC-only software was supported with Rosetta, though some applications eventually had to be rewritten to run properly on the newer OS X for Intel.

Versions

It looks like the old OSX-versions were only supported for up to 3 years; with newer versions, this has shrunk to 1,5 to 2 years. At some point, you'll just hit a brick wall, where Apple won't support OSX version A, but successor B won't run on your current system.

Apple users don't really seem to care; at least not the ones I know.

(Obviously you'll hit that same brick wall with Microsoft as well, but it will take much MUCH longer. Most people will have bought a new PC long before support of a particular Windows-version is dropped.)

===

In comparison, a Windows version since NT 4.0 is supported for 10 years, and newer versions of Windows normally run software written for older versions, often out of the box, sometimes with use of a few compatibility settings.

I've been running games written for Windows 98, and the mid-range systems of that time, on Windows 10 64-bit, on a computer having a thousand times (!) more memory and power than a system of that era. Knowing that Windows 10 will be supported in the current form up to at least 2025, that's almost 30 years (!) of compatibility. (I'm assuming MS is not suddenly going to remove features such as running 32-bit software on a 64-bit system, or do other weird things.)

Even though I've got a lot of bad things to say about Microsoft and Windows, I have to say that they've mostly got their compatibility sorted. The only exception normally are very old devices on new Windows versions, and the other way around, because manufacturers don't create the drivers.

[kennyc]

Bing Gains due to Win 10:

"Search queries on Bing in the U.S. last month increased by the largest margin since Windows 10's launch, hinting that Microsoft's strategy to embed the search engine in the OS may be working....."

http://www.computerworld.com/article...ors_picks=true