Windows 10 Announced - Released 29-Jul-2015

I thought I had nailed my Win 8.1 to 10 laptop upgrade, but I started experiencing freezes after booting again.

Eventually, I have found a solution, posted here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...roblems-solutions.378465/page-25#post-2602974

 

Some important details on the kernel-mode driver signing requirements for Windows 10 Anniversary Update:


Source: https://www.osr.com/blog/2016/06/02/driver-signing-details-emerge/

Source: https://www.osr.com/blog/2015/12/29/recommendations-driver-signing-windows-10-otherwise/

 

Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393 / RTM) has a cumulative update (KB3176925 / 14393.3) trickling out shortly to Insiders which is likely to be a ZDP (zero day patch) that will apply on August 2nd which will bump RTM build 14393 up to 14393.3 which would come through Windows Update.

 

From How-To Geek:You Only Have a Week Left to Get Windows 10 Free. Here’s Why You Should Update

 

Microsoft Releases Windows 10 Build 14393.3 (Cumulative Update KB3176925)
http://news.softpedia.com/news/micr...93-3-cumulative-update-kb3176925-506545.shtml

 

If I upgrade to Win 10 from 8.1, would I have to reinstall the oem drivers,tools,programs,sound and wifi card, etc, that are currently on my Win 8.1 PC? (assuming they are compatible with Win 10.)

Has Microsoft announced how long it plans to support Win 8.1?

 

If you in fact do an upgrade - meaning you run the install from the Windows 8.1 desktop - then existing drivers and programs are preserved. As long as the 8.1 drivers are compatible with 10 everything will work fine afterward.

 

Thanks Victek

 

Your welcome, and by the way you may want to check the OEM website regarding Windows 10 compatibility for your specific model. My experience is the GWX compatibility check is superficial and sometimes declares that a system is compatible when in fact it's not (and the upgrade fails).

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

 

Cumulative Update KB3176927 brings RTM build up to build 14393.5 now for Anniversary Update, at least within Insiders flight level at the moment thus far.

BTW, if anyone wants to test drive RTM 14393 on a VM, Microsoft is already providing free downloads of 14393 for different VM platforms (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/).

 

You will use Cortana, Microsoft says
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/26/you-will-use-cortana-says-microsoft/

-------------
You can't turn off Cortana in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
...but you can lessen her awareness.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3100...ana-in-the-windows-10-anniversary-update.html

 

*******!

 

Thank You WildByDesign

 

Not by using the preferences. But as mentioned in the gHacks article, in Windows 10 Pro (and Enterprise, and Education) edition, you can disable Cortana through Group Policy Editor.
Another option is to disable Cortana by editing the Registry, which works on Windows 10 Home as well, as is also mentioned in the gHacks article.

 

@hawki You're welcome

 

Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/28/microsoft-removes-policies-windows-10-pro/

I was wondering why I couldn't disable the silly lock screen on the latest build of windows 10 anniversary edition. Looks like the removing of options will continue sadly.

 

Thank you for info @Banzi. So MS continues to take away control over OS from user.

 

Taking away gpedit from Win10-Pro is criminal. Time to switch back to my Windows 7 partition again, forever?. Arrggghhh

 

I had a very.. interesting problem upgrading to windows 10 pro. Im not going to don the tinfoil hat yet, but I will admit the problem creeped me out.

First, I use Linux full-time. I only have a Windows install because my computer came with it and "in case" I need it for some specific reason. Since Windows 10 is "free," I figured id upgrade so that I could get security updates for 5 more years (2020-->2025), and so that I could get bitlocker encryption (to compliment luks on my linux partition). Heres where it gets interesting:

I have my fingerprint reader setup on Linux with fprint. I use it solely for sudo- not to login, to unlock my screen or anything else. I never had the fingerprint reader setup to do anything on Windows at all. After updating to Windows 10, the led light on my fingerprint reader stopped working... in Linux. The Linux install in question had no updates related to the fingerprint reader, and I even booted a backup snapshot (btrfs) from a month ago- same deal. The reader itself worked, but no light.

I tried powering off the computer for a minute, then booting back into Linux- still no light. I tried rebooting a number of times. I removed the battery and power cord. I even setup fprint using Debian (I have Arch and Debian on different btrfs subvolumes) and the same deal. Finally I went into the BIOS/UEFI, found the fingerprint reader option, and noted that it has a "reset" function. I tried the reset, powered down the computer for another 10 seconds, then booted back into Linux- fingerprint reader light now works fine... with no software changes.



Given what I've read about Windows 10 and privacy, this spooked me a bit. I should note that my Windows 7 install didnt even have the fingerprint reader driver installed- it was a clean install from CD, drivers straight from the OEM, backed up, then upgraded to 10. Its prolly just a driver or something that left the fingerprint reader in an inconsistent state. Ive had similar things with drivers that dont effectively reset the device on a reboot and need to be hard powered down- hence why I shut it off and removed power just in case. Anyone else have any ideas on this?

Besides this glitch, the upgrade took forever despite my strong hardware, but nonetheless worked fine- no driver issues, no crashes, it seems to work fine, etc. I grabbed ShutUp 10, updated the virus definitions in Defender, made sure Chrome and Ublock Origin were updated, and no issues. Havent used it since then though, so time will tell the next time I boot windows.

 

Microsoft does not take away Group Policy Editor from Windows 10 Pro - they remove certain policies, as mentioned in the gHacks article.
But that is bad as it is, of course! And even more so, because there is no way of knowing what Microsoft will take out with another update.
For me, Windows will end with Windows 7. I'll enjoy it while it lasts, and in the meantime I'll be anticipating my migration to Linux.

 

It seems to be mostly policies that allow you to personalise the OS, ie disable the lock screen, removing some start menu policies etc. I don't think MS is doing that to make us safer, I think they will likely start spamming the lock screen with ads for store apps like they do on the start menu. The problem is I & others like to tweak the OS to make things better or to disable functions we don't use, taking that away from users will probably make quite a few revert to older OS's.

 

I booted up a laptop of mine with Win 10 on it that hasn't been booted up for quite a while. It downloaded the November update I think. It reinstalled Windows, or upgraded it leaving a windows old folder. I had it originally installed on one partition and it added a partition with the upgrade too. Does it usually install the OS when updating to a new build? There's another anniversary update releasing next week...

 

Kirk Reynolds,

It sound like a version 1511 update. That's OK. The extra partition is a Recovery partition and we might get another Recovery partition next week with the Anniversary update.

If you run Disk Clean-up, Clean up system files on the C: drive you could gain 10 GB of Free Space. Widows.old will be removed.