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

[ApK]

Originally Posted by danwdoo

In the current builds you cannot disable the web search but it has been frequently requested. Hopefully this will be possible in future builds or at least the final release.

Oh, I'm sure it can be disabled. Try a hex editor.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by danwdoo

ISO can be downloaded here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

The existence of the preview ISO says nothing. I believe you cannot even upgrade to Win10beta, thus requiring a reinstall.

Anyway, since Win8 has a freely-available ISO, I imagine Win10 will as well. The question is, will it permit reinstallation via a Win7/8 license key??? Historically, upgrade licenses needed to be based off existing installs of the previous version, whereas full licenses could be installed from scratch.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by ApK

Oh, I'm sure it can be disabled. Try a hex editor.

Oh puleez

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The existence of the preview ISO says nothing. I believe you cannot even upgrade to Win10beta, thus requiring a reinstall.
Anyway, since Win8 has a freely-available ISO, I imagine Win10 will as well. The question is, will it permit reinstallation via a Win7/8 license key??? Historically, upgrade licenses needed to be based off existing installs of the previous version, whereas full licenses could be installed from scratch.

You can upgrade existing W8 instalations. Otherwise there wouldn't be anything to rollback to.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I'm looking into upgrading my computer to Windows 10.
It's a 7 year old machine, originally installed with Windows Vista. Later it got upgraded (in-place) to Windows 7, because I could get it for free as I was doing some IT-courses at a university. It seems I'll be able to get Windows 10 for free, and it looks al lot better than Windows 8.1 in many respects.
Is there going to be an ISO download, for people who want to do a clean installation? I don't really like to first install Vista, then upgrade to Windows 7, then upgrade to Windows 10. I can do a clean install using my Windows 7 CD, if need be, but still, I'd like to avoid an upgrade, as this system hasn't been re-installed since it was first built. Also, by the way... can the Web Search in the start menu be disabled? I REALLY dislike that, because if internet is slow, which sometimes happens, the search is slow as well. I don't want or even need to search the web each time I search for an application or a file on the local computer. And even so, I don't want BING to pop up if I search for something I can't find.

Do you want to upgrade to the preview or to the final product?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

Oh puleez

Yea, that'll never get old...

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Is that even possible these day? I would think that Windows regularly checks the integrity of system files to avoid malware.

Even if it didn't perform checks, it would be take a very talented programmer to extend the functionality of explorer.exe with a hex editor. While modifying existing values is trivial, inserting anything is not.

You don't replace it, you change the registry to point to a different explorer2.exe file that you have edited.
http://windows7themes.net/en-us/how-...-in-windows-7/

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

Do you want to upgrade to the preview or to the final product?

I want to get the free upgrade, and then do clean install, after I image the SSD.

Should I not like W10, I can restore the image.

The preview is running in VirtualBox already.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I want to get the free upgrade, and then do clean install, after I image the SSD.
Should I not like W10, I can restore the image.
The preview is running in VirtualBox already.

You'll have to wait until Microsoft releases it, latest rumours indicate that may be in a couple of months.

Originally Posted by ApK

Oh, I'm sure it can be disabled. Try a hex editor.

At least disabling a bit of functionality is a realistic scenario for using a hex editor.

[wodin]

If I used a hex editor on anything except Lotus 123 Vs. 3, it would disable ALL functionality!

Note: In the olden days of DRM, you had to put the distribution diskette in the 5 1/4" drive or the programme wouldn't run. This could be hacked by twiddling a bit at a specific location thus bypassing the DRM and allowing Lotus to run from the hard drive without the diskette.

[Jack Torrance]

Ive been playing around with again and so far the last 3 versions have been pretty much DOA. It seems that either people get it and it works with just a few bugs or it hardly works at all. Ive been in the the hardly works at all camp for the last 3.

Lets see how 10074 goes.

[zebradude]

Originally Posted by wodin

Back in the day when Fortran and Cobal were mainstream and Pasqual was avant-garde there was a saying:

Spoiler:

Assembly programmers are awesome!

FYI: COBOL

COmmon
Business
Oriented
Language

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Anyway, since Win8 has a freely-available ISO, I imagine Win10 will as well. The question is, will it permit reinstallation via a Win7/8 license key??? Historically, upgrade licenses needed to be based off existing installs of the previous version, whereas full licenses could be installed from scratch.

I've gotten upgrade versions of every Windows OS that I've installed after 3.11. I've been able to install them to a virgin hard drive. I inserted the previous disc to prove that I was upgrading. I hope that 10 will allow something similar.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by wodin

Back in the day when Fortran and Cobal were mainstream and Pasqual was avant-garde there was a saying:

Spoiler:

Assembly programmers are awesome!

I knew Basic pretty well, had a passing grade in FORTRAN but never warmed to it, but haven't familiarized myself with any programming languages since. I am hopelessly obsolete.