Hi, my impressions so far

BillyBob · 07 Oct 2014

I've installed Win 10 on two PC's, one a clean install and another upgraded Windows 8.1 on an old Atom based machine. No real major dramas so far, everything seems snappier than Windows 8.1 and much better than Windows 7, which I rarely use anymore. I've had a couple of glitches with XBMC, wont work on the Atom based PC and had a boot problem on the other one.
I'm not sure if bringing back the old Start Menu is a good idea, but will keep some people happy I suppose, I found Windows 8 easier to use and faster to get around without it.
Anyway I'm happy to go along with whatever they do as long as it doesnt slow my machines down, which it certainly hasn't. I like a lot of the Metro Apps like weather and News and all that stuff, so pinning them to the Start Menu is a good idea.
I just hope they dont bend over backwards for the Windows 7 users too much, because I want to go forwards not backwards. I want to live in the future not the past.

Jody Thornton · 07 Oct 2014

But see, by your definition "forward" is not really Windows at all. It's Metro/Modern, which is an environment Microsoft had to come up with to compete with Google and Apple on mobile devices. The Explorer shell is Windows and works well STILL for real content creative work. So it's unfair to say that catering to the corporate environment (who's IT personnel are more partial to the Explorer shell) is holding things back. I don't want a Metro-esque shell to be the predominant environment.

And before you say, "But you can stay with the old Windows if you don't like Metro", well we all have to eventually update Windows to stay current with safe patches. So if we want to stay productive in a way that Microsoft itself has fostered continuously until 2012, Microsoft OWES (yes OWES) its customer base to retain the Explorer Shell and further refine it.

BillyBob · 08 Oct 2014

I just hope they don't jump through anymore hoops, this should be enough to suit anyone who knows anything about Windows, a little bit of learning never hurt anyone. Surely having one operating system on Tablets, Pcs and phones is a good goal

MikeHawthorne · 08 Oct 2014

I'm happy with it the way it is right now, I hope they don't mess with it too much.
I much prefer it to Windows 8, it's just a lot more like a PC OS.

RTWFF · 08 Oct 2014

I did an in-place upgrade on a relatively old Dell Vostro desktop machine running Windows 8.1 (was originally Vista Business when I first bought it second hand in an office disposal, but did an in-place upgrade to Windows 8 and used Laplink's PC mover to restore all the applications), 2GB RAM, Office 2007, Dropbox, Windows Essentials. It works fine for me. One interesting (to me) point was the Windows 10 install recognised that my Flipboard App was broken and did a clean remove (or non-migrate, whatever)

The only question I've got (and this is the second time I've installed Windows 10, I installed it via VM Player on a different machine, so I didn't blink and miss it) is that I haven't been asked for the serial number Microsoft sent me when I was registered to be part of Windows Technical Preview. Any idea why not?

BillyBob · 08 Oct 2014

MikeHawthorne said:

I'm happy with it the way it is right now, I hope they don't mess with it too much.
I much prefer it to Windows 8, it's just a lot more like a PC OS.

Yeah I probably prefer it to Windows 8, I hope they don't mess with it too much, I don't want to go back to Windows 7 or XP I'm not worried about Aero or fancy stuff, let the 3r party people do all that, I just want an OS that looks modern and can eventually be run on anything, if they bring back Aero, it'll slow things down too much.

MikeHawthorne · 08 Oct 2014

I agree, and to respond to RTWFF, I've never been asked to enter a serial number either.

I think they just aren't bothering with it.

I finally got the conformation thing to work so I guess that's it.

I have pretty much all of my software installed have made and used a system image to restore it and everything is running glitch free.

Mike

lehnerus2000 · 08 Oct 2014

This is why W10 has to be more like W7 (from my SevenForums post):

In September:

Windows 7 market share increased by ~1.5%
The W8 Series market share fell by ~1.1%
XP market share was steady

Hi, my impressions so far-market-share-os-2014-10-08-2-month-bar-chart.png

NetMarketShare
Market share for mobile, browsers, operating systems and search engines | NetMarketShare

BillyBob · 08 Oct 2014

And a couple of years ago, the chart would have shown XP in front and long before that people didn't want to move away from DOS, and before that an Abacus board. A lot of people just cant stand change, even over in the Apple camp, the fan boys complain every time there's a change.
Well, as long as I'm alive I want to see change, and if Microsoft doesn't keep up, they're going to miss out. Big desktop PCs aren't the future, tablets and smaller PCs are, and touch screens.

lehnerus2000 · 08 Oct 2014

BillyBob said:

And a couple of years ago, the chart would have shown XP in front and long before that people didn't want to move away from DOS, and before that an Abacus board.

The switch from CLI to GUI is when PCs really took off.

People kept XP, because MS "dropped the ball" with Vista.

Note:
I've read that it was actually Intel's fault.

BillyBob said:

A lot of people just cant stand change, even over in the Apple camp, the fan boys complain every time there's a change.

W8 fans have been chanting that mantra non-stop for the last 2 years (see EightForums).
The "Market" doesn't agree.

When W7 came out, Vista & XP users started switching.
After ~30 months W7 & XP were each around 40% of the desktop OS market share (i.e. combined they dominated 80% of the desktop OS market).

MS "dropped the ball" again with W8 (i.e. most people refused to switch from W7 & XP).
Corporations are MS' biggest customers and they are avoiding W8 "like the plague".

Even worse, last month W8 lost some of the market share that it took nearly 2 years to reach.
That lost share went to W7.

BillyBob said:

Big desktop PCs aren't the future, tablets and smaller PCs are, and touch screens.

W8 fans have also been chanting that mantra non-stop for the last 2 years (see EightForums).
The "Market" doesn't agree.

If you actually have to do "real" work (e.g. databases, speadsheets, CAD, audio & video editing, etc.) you need a desktop and a decent monitor.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next "big thing" is most workers being supplied with 2 monitors.

I suspect that the tablet market will soon experience the same sort of shake-up that PC market did (in the late '80s - early '90s) and the phone market experienced during the last half decade.
There will only be a couple of companies left because the profit margins will get too small.

MS is trying to convince everyone (i.e. corporations) that W10 is a great desktop OS.

They need:

To get it right first time, like they did with W7
It to be as popular as XP was and W7 is

If W10 performs as badly as W8 has, MS could be in real trouble.

Hi, my impressions so far

Hi, my impressions so far

The "Market" has spoken

The "Market" doesn't agree