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

[Ziggy]

One way to do it would be to get another HDD (or SSD), clone your current drive to it, and then do the free upgrade. Secures you the free copy, and you can entirely reformat and set up 10 from scratch later once you've done that. Or, if it's problematic, put the old drive back in (the old key remains valid anyway).

That's a pretty good idea, if you don't have to forfeit your 7 key. I bought a larger SSD that I have to clone to, so I guess I might as well do this.

I've only used 10 once, and it was only doing a quick install and setup for a desktop I built for my uncle. I really wasn't impressed. I'm not gonna comment on what I think about the GUI because I didn't use it long enough (I don't think it would be fair). But there were multiple things that annoyed me, and one one thing I saw that made me smile and say, "Oh, cool!"

I forget if it was Solitaire or Minesweeper, or both, but I searched for one of those in the start menu and the only thing that popped up was a "free download" for it... But you have to create an account to get it. So, something that has been bundled with Windows forever they're now making a free download which FORCES you to create an account if you want it. I just think that's bullshit.

The only thing I saw that I really liked was a new option when you right-click on a file, you can view a checksum. IIRC, it was only ONE type of checksum, but having that built right into the OS is pretty neat-o if you ask me. Nothing else I saw impressed me. But again, I admit, I didn't use it for very long.

[ExedExes]

One concern, it talked about entering (ie buying) a windows 10 product key, can't say I have one and don't plan to buy one. How's this going to work out before the cut off?

As far as I know, you might only encounter that issue if you perform a clean install of Windows 10. This site here suggests that it might be a good idea to perform the free upgrade to Windows 10 before the cut off ends, then wipe your drive clean, so that Windows is activated and a key wouldn't be needed for a clean install unless you were changing out any hardware along with it because of the profile it keeps with the activation data. That's similar to what isiolia posted on the previous page yesterday.

If you use the installation media for an upgrade down the line, you wouldn't need a new key. That's what my plan is if I decide to.

[samsonlonghair]

I went ahead and took the plunge on both my desktop and laptop. The experiences of both have been very different. The desktop has for the most part run swimmingly, with only a couple of oddities such as booting taking a bit and hanging on shut downs because a program refuses to close(though I've seen this in Windows 7 too). The laptop however is a nightmare. Apparently it just doesn't have the memory to keep up, so it chugs to the point that simply clicking the icon to bring up the start menu may take minutes before it works. I'm not happy about this.

My laptop only has two gigs of RAM, but runs windows 10 just fine. Try disabling Cortana; she's a bit of a memory hog.

[Tanooki]

Cortana is a fun novelty especially if you keep an open mic and just want to lazy out, but she's also a very snoopy bitch and a memory pig (as you said above.) Last I had 10 on here I disabled it because I got fed up with it. I don't need it spying on me all the time keeping an active footprint and download going for updated news, weather, etc. Killing that off saves some good resources.

That link the last page had for killing the snoop stuff will in turn shut her abilities down almost entirely other than being a chatty search box on the computer itself if I remember right.

[samsonlonghair]

That's why it's best just to disable Cortana altogether. It's a neat gimick...the first time. After that she's just a one trick pony.

[Tanooki]

Pretty much how I felt about it. It's nice if you're super lazy, or better yet, crippled, then you can chat your way through stuff, but in general it's a sneaky bitch who spies on you and reports back to her masters while siphoning off resources.

[bmoc]

The Anniversary update is out today. I haven't had much time to play with it but I like the Start menu tweaks. Having it open straight up into what was previously "All Apps" is great. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten a call from my users telling me that "XYZ program" isn't installed when in reality they just don't know where to look (which is odd because "All Apps" is in the same place as "All Programs" from Vista/7).

[MrPopo]

Something I learned while I was at Amazon is that people don't actually understand how to use a computer; they simply understand that if they take this precise series of steps then they get where they want to go. If anything about that changes then they're utterly lost.

[Ziggy]

Something I learned while I was at Amazon is that people don't actually understand how to use a computer; they simply understand that if they take this precise series of steps then they get where they want to go. If anything about that changes then they're utterly lost.

That's something I was thinking about recently. The 80's and maybe half of the 90's, home computer owners knew a LOT more about computers. Not just how to use them, but people knew more about HOW a computer works. These days, everyone and their mother owns a computer or tablet. The extent of most peoples' knowledge is clicking on the familiar icon to open the internet browser and that's about it. When you look at the early 90's and earlier, the knowledge it took just to do basic things on a computer would completely baffle most computer users today. Something has been lost.

[MrPopo]

The barrier of entry has gone down. Someone who's savvy with Windows can be utterly lost on a command line because you generally don't need to use one in Windows.