Too good for a number scheme, Windows 10 announced for 2015

[Exhuminator]

Thanks for the tip on the hotfix. I hope this fixes the domain distributed update problems I've been having with my W10 computers.

[bmoc]

So I have successfully deployed the new Windows 10 build through WSUS. Some pitfalls:

1. Don't check the box for the Upgrades classification before installing the hotfix. Doing so can corrupt the WSUS database preventing you from deploying the new build. Luckily I did it in the correct order but a lot of people are having to rebuild their WSUS servers.
2. The new build can upgrade more than just Windows 10. It can also upgrade Windows 7 and 8.1 (with some user interaction...ughh). Thank goodness I deployed to a computer collection just for testing. If I had approved it for all computers thinking that it would only hit the Windows 10 computers, I would have had a very bad day. In production I am going to use Group Policy and WMI filters to isolate the Windows 10 computers.
3. The hotfix may not resolve the issue where WSUS thinks that Windows 10 is Windows Vista. Seems to just be a display bug though because the Windows 10 clients are getting the correct updates.
4. You also have make a tweak to IIS. You have to add a .esd MIME type as as application/octet-stream. If you don't then your clients will attempt to download the new build and immediately fail.
5. Upgrading my test computer to the new build left 16GB of data in the Windows.old folder. I rigged up a PDQ Deploy job that uses CCleaner portable to get rid of the old data.

It's not exactly a smooth experience but I can make it work.

[CRTGAMER]

Even though Windows 10 is a free upgrade, only worth it if a PC is crippled with Windows 8. No way for my Win 7 or Win XP PCs.

Another Compatibility Issue
I prefer Windows XP Pro for my Tower and Windows 7 for my Laptop. Not only for the ease of getting into File Explorer, but the compatibility of Windows 95 software that work under Win XP or Virtual PC in Win 7. Unfortunately the Laptop only has the home edition which limits to the older Virtual PC SP1 (no USB support). The newer Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode Microsoft Tools require the pro version, eventually I'll update it.

A few exclusive Win 95 games that run in Virtual PC SP1

1. KliknPlay Games (my Space Tanks game)

2. Bad Mojo (play as a cockroach no kidding!)

3. Spheres Of Chaos (newer Win 7 version too cluttered)

A whole wall unit of older Win 95 and DOS games to install and try out. I also run DOS Box and have multiple CDRs backed up from my long gone Windows 98 Desktop. So many FULL installed DOS 6.22 games to rediscover again.

My question is has anyone tried the newer Virtual PC for Windows 10?
Can Windows 95 programs run fine under it?

I am really happy with the older Virtual PC that has great Win XP-Win95 compatibility. I especially like the FULL install of Windows XP 32 bit (which I slipstreamed to SP3) under my Windows 7 64bit using Virtual PC SP1.



Screenshots of Virtual PC SP1 from my Win 7 64 bit Laptop. Virtual PC can also shoot the Win XP to full screen.

[isiolia]

My question is has anyone tried the newer Virtual PC for Windows 10?
Can Windows 95 programs run fine under it?

I've set a couple VMs up with it.

Windows 8 and on have rolled in Hyper-V for virtualization. As you may know, Virtual PC was originally a Connectix product (and predominately for Mac), which MS bought. More or less, it was designed for running desktop OSes and applications. That's pretty much what MS offered it for - both when it was free, and when it was bundled with the XP image for "compatibility mode" in 7.

Hyper-V is simply not made for that. It's a Server feature, and a very robust and powerful one at that...if what you're wanting to do is create/manage/connect to virtualized servers and the like.

The current iteration (which is the version included in 10) doesn't even officially support XP. Which is not to say you can't get it working - it's largely pretty straightforward, with the main catch being that integration features/drivers are now part of Windows Update (and XP won't get them). If you look around online, you can find the ISO that older versions would have mounted in the VM to install drivers from, and it works.
The Hyper-V manager disables some features (forced lower color depth for instance) if you connect to the VM through that, which you can work around by connecting to it via Remote Desktop.

If you try some of those same games though (as I did), you'd find they still won't launch - the virtual graphics card doesn't support a lot of the DirectX/3D features. Again, just not the point.
While some Win9X apps might run, if the point is games, then I suspect many/most will be a no-go.


After that, I briefly tried VMWare Workstation Player 12 (which is free for personal use, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page). In that, XP was supported for guest additions, and Spheres of Chaos fired right up.

VirtualBox is another free option.

Those are products that do what VirtualPC did/does. In my experience, they tend to work better, if for no other reason than continued development.

So, you can still effectively do the same thing in Windows 10, just not with Hyper-V.

[CRTGAMER]

Windows 8 and on have rolled in Hyper-V for virtualization. As you may know, Virtual PC was originally a Connectix product (and predominately for Mac), which MS bought. Hyper-V is simply not made for that. It's a Server feature, and a very robust and powerful one at that...if what you're wanting to do is create/manage/connect to virtualized servers and the like.

While some Win9X apps might run, if the point is games, then I suspect many/most will be a no-go.

I briefly tried VMWare Workstation Player 12 (which is free for personal use, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page). In that, XP was supported for guest additions, and Spheres of Chaos fired right up.

VirtualBox is another free option.

Those are products that do what VirtualPC did/does. In my experience, they tend to work better, if for no other reason than continued development.

So, you can still effectively do the same thing in Windows 10, just not with Hyper-V.

Thanks, a huge wealth of info! This helps for Windows 10 users wanting to play an older Win 95 game. If I ever do move up, this post is very useful. Currently I still prefer Windows 7 since it offers the best compatibility, many of the older 32 bit games still work in Win 7 64bit mode as well as older utilities for auto changing video resolution and gamepad to keyboard emulation.

Virtual PC SP1 does not support USB gamepads, but does support USB Keyboards and Mice; I do have a few PS/2 keyboard wired gamepads. Looks like both VMWare and VirtualBox works in Windows 7, I'll give each a try as an alternate to gain the USB gamepad support thru Virtual Win XP.

[bmoc]

So apparently Microsoft broke their own Xbox One controller driver on Windows 10 with a forced driver update.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/304040 ... -hand.html

Maybe now they will admit that forced driver updates are a bad idea? Yeah probably not.

[noiseredux]

So apparently Microsoft broke their own Xbox One controller driver on Windows 10 with a forced driver update.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/304040 ... -hand.html

Maybe now they will admit that forced driver updates are a bad idea? Yeah probably not.

well that's f'ing stupid.

The way they've gone about these updates is a mess. I should say that I love Windows 10 itself. I think the OS environment itself is excellent. I was a huge fanboy for Win7, but I've upgraded both my gaming PC and laptop to Win10 and have had no (serious) regrets. Sure there was the whole SecureROM lockout thing - which while hurting those of us who still have old physical software in our collections... at least made some kind of logical sense, and there was workarounds.

But the forced updates are just a really bad way to do this. I 'get' that their aim is to consistently have everyone on the same version of the same OS so that we're all in harmony. But I don't feel like it's going as well as they'd imagined.

Luckily I have a 360 controller should I play a game that requires one until this gets ironed out. But yeah. This points to a bigger problem.

[Tanooki]

Now that's funny, sad for them but funny.

I've been meaning to ask. I know late last year they did what would have amounted to a huge overhaul, what could be seen as a service pack pre-10 days. They looking to do any more or have they really ironed out the problems?

If you go back in this thread I pointed out where I hit a noted bug that was there back within the first 90 days of it going live where it would run my DISC % up to 100% (basically jamming up one of my CPU cores to max) which would cause the laptop I have to crawl. It's much like but not as horribly slow of a crawl my old laptop would get due to a windows API bug vs that motherboard/part setup that would set a core to max and it would take like 15min to power off to reset it if you let it sleep/hibernate(stupid fix there was to erase hibernate/sleep mode from it.) It's not a hibernation issue though in win10 when whatever hit did, saw enough whining online to know I wasn't alone and with like 2 days on the clock I put 8.1 back on here.

I prefer 10 over 8.1 but not if it's going to break like that. I think the time out for the free install was 1yr in (july?) Unless they just decide to extend it knowing it won't go over well with consumers used to free rollouts on their mobile devices.

[Fragems]

The fact that they badger me with Upgrade to Windows 10 for FREEEEE!!!!! every time I launch my Windows 7 pc just makes me more and more wary about upgrading. When someone tries to ram something down my throat for FREE it's usually not a good thing. I probably won't upgrade till I build my next computer in say a 5-6 years till then I'll stick to older games and consoles for anything they decide to build exclusively for DX12.

Really not looking forward to the house calls from relatives and/or neighbors that I might get from people installing it on accident since the newest message pops up in the middle of the screen with two big buttons for "Upgrade Now" or "Upgrade Tonight" with no other options aside from closing the window.

[bmoc]

I've been meaning to ask. I know late last year they did what would have amounted to a huge overhaul, what could be seen as a service pack pre-10 days. They looking to do any more or have they really ironed out the problems?

I believe new Windows 10 builds are supposed to be a semi-quarterly thing. The next big one, code named Redstone, is allegedly coming out in June. I'm not sure if there will be a new build released between now and then.

As for ironing out problems...I guess that varies from computer to computer. The 1511 build removed certain programs on install. Piriform products like CCleaner were sometime affected as well as Microsoft's own RSAT tools.