Be Excellent To Each Other

Has anyone tried this yet? I've got the Tech preview downloading just now, It looks.... interesting?

Looks good I.e. Exactly like windows 7 but with nicer snapping and the multiple desktop feature that's been around for over a decade elsewhere.

Would use.

What happened to Windows 9?

Um, it's the one we've been using for nearly two years now since Windows 8 bombed.

Keep up, grandad.

Windows 8 has been so widely ignored and/or hated that they decided to do away with the single number iteration and launch Windows 10 as a WHOLE NEW THING.

There's also a story done the rounds that a load of third-party apps have a simple version check that involves determining what version of Windows they're running on if the version number starts with a '9' (i.e. a check for Windows 95 and 98), but that Windows 9 might therefore be incorrectly flagged up as 95/98, not sure how true that is though.

Windows 10 looks good, I'd certainly consider using it on a new PC, whereas Windows 8 I've refused to have anything whatsoever to do with. (As has my organisation.)

Unfortunately I haven't been able to completely avoid its UI horrors thanks to Server 2012. A really fun game is watching someone who's never logged into a 2012 server before, trying to work out how to log out of the fucking thing.

If nothing else though it has forced me to learn how to do far more from a command line or the run box, as there's fuck all chance of finding it anywhere in the UI.

Yeah, that sounds like complete bollocks. For a start, Windows 10 will report as version 6.4 or 7.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library ... 85%29.aspx

As far as I'm aware, that's the only basis for version checks.

Windows 8 was so bad they wanted to distance themselves from it by a whole extra integer.

I played around with it for a while last night and it seems like somethings are harder to get to - requiring more clicks to get to it than in Windows 7. (Was Win8 like that?)
It seemed kinda slow, but that'd probably because I've got it running as a VM.
Anyway, apart from a few little things, I quite liked it.

They really should have a checkbox for "Get rid of all the metro bollocks" during installation.

Java is the worst offender apparently - https://searchcode.com/?q=if(version%2C ... ndows+9%22)

That link shows all the source code in that search database that checks for Windows 9.

Given the shit the Microsoft legacy team have to put up with, I'd say it's entirely believable.

What GazChap said. There really is a lot of code that would assume Windows 9 was 9x. How big a factor this was we don't know, but it probably was a factor; and it's such a weird thing to do you have to assume Microsoft wouldn't do it lightly. This is not without precedent: Nasty Software Hacks and Intel's CPUID is a good read.

No, as Gaz linked, plenty of code uses the OS name string for whatever reason. Not using the proper API is dumb, but when you have as many developers working on top of your platform as Microsoft do, even a million-to-one dumb thing will be happening to someone every day.

As the other have said, should do and actually done are different things. I'll avoid linking the things they have.

Of course one of the best blogs around, TONT, often describes how MS bend over backwards for app-compatibility. (i.e. why shitty batch files still exist). Look at this classic: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/arc ... 72476.aspx . People couldn't even use GetVersion correctly when Win9x was around!

So, first thing - free update for Windows 7, 8.1, and Mobile 8.1. Anyone going to get it?
And.. ermm... Holograms?

I will, but I always try the new shiny

Not sure if I will, my Windows boxes are either a games machine or a home media pc, neither of which things are traditionally happy with a new operating system being dumped on them

I'll be trying it on both my phone and my PC.

From Techradar.com



Yay!!! Finally!

I like everything I have seen and heard about Windows 10, so the free upgrade seems like a no-brainer to me at the moment, bar any serious issues or compatibility problems.

I will upgrade Windows on Bootcamp if only to get rid of Win 8 once and for all. That was ME for a new generation.

Still using Windows 7, will probably upgrade to this as it looks to have addressed the issues with me not wanting the Metro interface on a desktop PC or any other device that's not touch.

If MS play to form then this should be a good OS as their pattern appears to be one crap OS followed by one good one.

Still think they have a huge amount of work to build a credible app store that will compete with Apple and Android though.

I have no big problems with 8.

If I'm honest I've maybe not given it a chance, I have 7 on the primary PC and did install 8 on a laptop and Surface Pro. Problem is all my PC activity is done on the main PC and any other stuff is generally on IPad or IPhone.

We are also sticking to 7 at work so its not had much use there either.

I have no big problems with 8 once I've installed ClassicShell to make it as much like 7 as possible

Windows 8 made my mother cry...true story.

It made everyone's mothers cry, in a way.

You folk use Windows oddly.

I bet you use a mouse and everything.

In what way isn't it demonstrably worse than Windows 7 on a normal PC?

It's great on a Surface, btw. They should have aligned WinPho8 with WinTab8 and kept the desktop OS separate, imo.

File transfers.

We're talking usability here.

Text input.

These are pretty minor straws you're clutching at.

Feex.

sorry, is cookie saying that it is a free upgrade to 10 if I have win 7?

Yes.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/78666 ... -8-1-users

I use it every day on my work machine and to be fair I have not had a bad experience.

It supports dual screen better than 7. I don't use Metro often, other than the search.

I don't think it is as bad as ME or as bad as the detractors make out

But everyone's opinion is valid

I've started building the business case for a Surface Hub in my office today.

No it isn't.

I certainly do wonder how long the complainers spend in the start menu.

Windows 8 is a parsnip.

Once passed the front page, it is very similar to win 7

Windows 8 has a dangerous and secret past.

Windows 8 is waterproof to a depth of 25 metres.

The interface formally know as Metro is a nightmare to use on anything without a touchscreen.

Well, the real problem at the heart of Windows 8 is that it switches between two totally different interfaces to do different tasks for no good reason.

Once you install ClassicShell or similar it is fine, and basically just Windows 7 with some nice iterative changes. Bootup times are much faster too.

Nothing they showed of Windows 10 is really convincing me it'll be an improvement. If they have a simple option to turn off all the Metro stuff, Clippy 2k15 (aka Cortana) and all the other useless guff, I'm sure it will also be fine.

I have no idea why Microsoft think that people want to use apps designed for a touchscreen on a device without a touchscreen.

The Windows App Store is a right mess, full of fake apps, clones, and junk.

The "new strategy" Microsoft are taking is actually a decade old. It didn't work then and it won't work now.

Define a nightmre, waking up with no penis is a nightmare, being chased by a bear is a nightmare.

One click on a the desktop icon is not a nightmare..

Cross-platform software in an era where people use phones and tablets as small computers is a wildly different prospect to doing it when tablets barely existed and people used phones as phones.

"Trying to do anything whilst the UI keeps changing gives me a headache".

Your logical fallacy is relative privation.

I disagree with Lewie on everything apart from his point about the store. I don't have much experience with itunes/appstore but the Windows store does seem to be full of crap.

Again, in my use of windows 8, 8.1 and windows phone, the UI does not keep changing!