Windows 10 Announced - Released 29-Jul-2015

You can - using WinPrivacy10; Powershell Windows Updates and wusa server. The instructions are on the WinPrivacy10 website.

 

LOL... makes it sound as if all you will ever need is Windows Defender and Smart Screen...

 

Here's a pretty good comparison:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-systems/25123/windows-10-vs-windows-81-which-is-best-for-you

 

Thanks Viktek, I had to upgrade to Win 8.1 with a nightmare of problems (MS stopped any updates to Win eight, and now I'm just wondering whether I should endure the same kind of angst with Win10...

 

4 weeks till the free is up, idk what to do running 7 i like it ........ laptop will take it but it seems so messy !. Anyone else sticking with 7?

 

Yes, I'm sticking with W7 till 2020. At that time I will probably change my hardware and will then decide what I'll be using in future. No hurry for me

 

Go with what you like and want - NOT what M$ tells you to have.
I will be sticking with 7 for many years to come.

 

I am having the same doubts re my machines with Win 7 and Win 8.1 with Classic Shell, which works great.
Seems like a hassle with potential issues and no real functional benefit, maybe better security but I think I'm pretty much covered with that
But the advice is image, do the upgrade then revert so you at least have the freebie for future.

 

Thanks 7 works a dream on my Ausus the old saying not broke don't fix it, 3billion machine they said well not even close lol

 

It's worth upgrading and then rolling back to Windows 7, so that you have a Windows 10 license, in case you ever decide to upgrade in the future, so you don't have to pay for it.

Windows 10 should work at least as well as Windows 7.

 

Roger this is what I've been reading, namely one can roll back to one's original OS (be it Win 7 or Win 8.1), is that part of the whole process of upgrading?

 

Windows 10 is akin to taming a wild tiger.

However, having said that, the security mechanisms and mitigations included with Windows 10 far outshine Windows 7. And with the upcoming Anniversary Update having the additional security of deprecating SHA-1 and enforcing much stronger digital signing restrictions on kernel-mode drivers (SHA-256 signing, EV certificates, etc.), this is going to be one strong beast.

Though one must continue training, taming, and keeping a watchful eye on said beast.

 

Yes, the upgrade backs up the old OS and rolling back is supported for thirty days; after that the old OS backup is deleted. I've rolled back quite a few machines and it has been a quick and error free process.

Note that it's a good idea to check on the OEM website to make sure a machine is compatible with Windows 10. The GWX app compatibility test is superficial and shouldn't be trusted.

 

Great news Victek as this makes it a safe upgrade just in case things may not work out as expected. Reading your signature I guess you are convinced Win 10 is the way to go, and generally speaking I'm also inclined towards the latest as long as there are no major glitches. I still do think MS should slow down in launching new OS's. Any reasons as why people asked to roll back their machine?

 

One reason for rolling back is aversion to change; sometimes people don't perceive any benefit to 10 and don't want to deal with the learning curve. Another reason is the Edge browser. MS chose to make it the default even though it is very basic and doesn't accept extensions. It was also a big oversight IMHO that Internet Explorer favorites were not automatically imported into Edge during the upgrade. The result was many people thought their favorites were lost. Most people coming from Windows 7 are happy to keep 10 after I install Classic Shell Start Menu and switch the browser default back to Internet Explorer (or whatever else they were using before).

One caveat about the roll back feature; it works reliably if the upgrade completes successfully. If the upgrade doesn't complete successfully the roll back may fail as well. In my personal experience that has only happened once, but it's a good idea to take precautions.

 

I've only had to roll back one computer. That was a really old laptop with an extremly slow CPU, and Windows 10 did not run well on it. But, on the other hand I have installed Windows 10 on some 10 year old laptops and its runs very well.

I've upgaded 10s of computers (most of which are at least a few years old) to Windows 10, and have only gone back to the original OS on one of them. One old Toshiba laptop I upgraded had issues once upgraded, so I did a clean install of Windows 7. However, after the customer decided to upgrade to Windows 10 themselves, and had issues, I did a clean install of Windows 10 and it ran fine. Having said that, just about all of the other installs have been upgrades from an OS wich has seen at least a few years of use rather than clean installs.

 

Roger and Victek, thanks really appreciated...

 

I've just upgraded to Win 10 without any problems as far as I can tell so far. It is definitely faster than Win 8.1 albeit booting is slower. Coming from Win 8.1 it is easy to find things although I was one of the few lovers of the full metro interface. I do have a problem though, namely my Samsung 'Recovery' software does not display the tab "backup" anymore, which means I cannot backup the system anew. The restore tab is there but I would bet it's not reliable. So I have 30 days to find out how to backup my new system or I'll have to rollback through Windows. I have a good feeling about it and I always appreciate the state of the art...

 

Well - taken the plunge from 8.1 to 10.

I know there have been security updates, but early impressions are that the GUI (e.g. borderless white Settings app, pop-ups vs the rest, Settings and Control Panel) seems schizophrenic and needs a lot of work. And some functionality seems to have taken a step backward (e.g. try adding a task bar icon to the notifications area). Also I have noticed no speed improvements.

I will probably now stay with W10, but I think I preferred the W8.1 (with Classic Shell) interface.

It still feels very much like a work in progress even after a year. I wonder if the Anniversary Update will bring some significant improvements.

 

This, indeed, will bring forward quite a bit of nice refinements as we would expect, being one year after initial release. It's shaping up well. Although my worry is over hardware/software drivers with this upcoming update due to SHA1 deprecation. It will be important for security but may cause some madness initially similar to Vista days.

 

Yes and unfortunately this will happen just a few days after the free offer expiry, so no chance to wait and see what effect the SHA1 deprecation will have.
If it is madness, I may have to go back to 8.1 image of June 6th.
Maybe it would have been best to leave the upgrade till the last minute, so that the is less to 'forward recover'.

 

You may be interested to know that WindowBlinds now supports Windows 10. There are also a number of other compatible products from Stardock, such as Start 10 (replacement start menu similar to Classic Shell) that make the UI friendlier.

I would agree that Windows 10 isn't noticeably faster. And by the way, you may want to disable Fast Start which just causes problems in my experience.

 

Thanks for UI tips.
Interestingly, Fast Start doesn't appear in Power Options. Hibernation must be disabled on this machine. Never liked hibernation so I will leave it that way.

 

Not there under "Power Options/Choose what the power buttons do/Shutdown Settings"? As for the schizo settings, etc, at least for now they haven't removed the Control Panel, which is comprehensive and familiar (there has been talk of it going away at some point).

 

Nope - not there. Maybe I disabled hibernation in Win 8.1 already, it seems to be dependent on that.
It can be enabled apparently via command prompt: powercfg /hibernate on but I'll pass for now.