Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Windows OS thread. We talk the Windows OS in mobile, tablet, desktop, and even IoT form if you so desire.
Windows 11 is coming and I'm going to write something about it here soon-ish.
Windows 10 is the new/old windows. The most current release version is Windows 10 20H1, meaning it came out in the first half of 2021. This is the norm. You can expect 2 incremental OS updates to Windows 10 per year now, except in 2016 when there was only one, because Microsoft. This will bring changes to Windows 10 over time. Version 20H1 might not seem super different but if you could find a PC on 1507 you'd see a lot of changes. Also, unless you're an enterprise business you're getting the new versions anyway. Windows 10 largely fixes a lot of the issues that Windows 8.x had, especially on desktop/traditional computers. There are conflicting beliefs on whether it is better on a tablet. I think a majority will say yes, but it definitely is not unanimous. -1607 made further changes to the tablet interface which brings it closer to the Windows 8.1 look.
There are also fears about the telemetry gathering in Windows 10. Microsoft has been collecting telemetry for 10 years now, since Vista, and while it is true they are doing more in Windows 10, almost everything is anonymized, especially if you turn off the advertising ID telemetry. There is nothing that links how many Joe User actually clicks the start button or goes to that website he doesn’t want his wife to know about. You really have nothing to worry about.
Windows 10 S is a SKU of Windows 10 that only runs apps distributed though the store. This is not quite as bad as it sounds. The store isn't just for the crappy UWP apps that no one uses. Standard Win32 apps *can* be distributed through the store though the Desktop Bridge, which is a development tool Microsoft provides that will take a standard Win32 app and put it in a UWP container. There are a number of these apps in the Windows Store now. Is Chrome there? No. Will Google put Chrome in the Windows store? Probably not, but they could if they wanted. The number of sales of Windows 10 S might dictate whether they do. Microsoft will be putting the "real" office Suite in the Windows store in this Desktop Bridge technology, so any app can end up there if a developer chooses to do it. Windows 10 S does have a couple limitations. The default browser will be locked to Edge.
While that's not a huge issue now since there are no other browsers that are any good in the Windows Store, if Firefox or Opera or Chrome end up in the store that could annoy people. The default search engine in Edge is also locked to Bing. People will not like this, but this isn't the biggest deal since www.google.com still exists. Personally, I like the idea of Windows 10 S. I'm not sure how it will work in practice. Only time will tell.
Windows 10 support is a tad convoluted, but here we go. Since Windows 10 is updated twice a year, the older versions largely go away quickly anyway. This means that for the vast majority of people, you will *always* be on a supported version of Windows 10. Microsoft supports prior versions for 18 months from time of release. So as of October 2017, Versions 1507 and 1511 are out of support and receive no updates. Versions still supported, but are not the current version, will receive security fixes only As of October 2017 these are versions 1607 and 1703. Again, the number of consumers this should directly affect will be statistically zero. Note that this is not all that dis-similar from previous versions, where Service Packs were eventually required for updates. (i.e. you must be on Win7 SP1 to receive updates, the non SP1 version is no longer updated).
Windows 10 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809 - Out of Support
Windows 10 1903, 1909, 2004, 20H2 - Still supported
Windows 10 21H1 - Current version
Windows 8.x is a complicated flower. The initial 8.0 release is no longer supported in any way. If you are somehow still on that, get at least to 8.1, which is a free update. 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. 8.1 was good to great on touchscreens, and largely terrible on anything else. It’ll be remembered like Windows ME was. Some great ideas executed in the poorest way possible.
Windows 7. Oh Windows 7. The rock of Microsoft, and the new XP. Until Windows 10 this was unquestionably the best Windows ever made. Some people still think it is. Windows 7 was supported until January 14th, 2020.
Windows 7 is now out of support and you will not receive any new security updates for it. If you're still on Windows 7, the time really has come to move on.
NOTE ABOUT WINDOWS 8.1 SUPPORT Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows 8.1 on modern CPU platforms. This means that if you install windows 8.1 on an Intel Kaby Lake (7000 series processor) or later; or an AMD Ryzen system, you will not receive any updates after April 2017. This is a very long story, but these newer processors do things like power management very differently than older parts, and actually require significant investment in writing drivers for the processors to support them. Microsoft has chosen not to do so. Windows 8.1 was still in mainstream support until mid 2018, meaning Microsoft should have updated it with this support at least through that generation, and chose not to. That is unfortunate, and wrong, but not much we can do about it.
The tl;dr of this is that technically Windows 8.1 is still supported on existing machines, but you're not getting support if you try to install them on new hardware.
Windows Vista is now out of support as of 2017. Vista is poorly remembered, but Vista is about 90% of what Windows 7 became. However if you are still running it, time to move on.
Windows XP has been out of support since 2014. You should not be running it. It was a great OS in 2001, but it isn’t 2001 anymore.
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There's certainly going to be much more of it in the years to come.
Though I think he should probably at least get to 7.
When shit like this happens, I find a chrome component is usually corrupted. Remove garbage extensions if there are any, and install chrome again over itself.
Or go to the 64-bit chrome if you're feeling saucy.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
If it's not getting security updates, it's both dead and a liability. Your guy is a silly goose who may or may not be actively contributing to the propagation of malware.
Besides, as of October 30th of this year you won't be able to buy copies of 8.1 any more anyway. I believe OEM's will still be able to sell the pro sku pre-installed on business machines for another year or so, but there will be no more retail or "normal" oem sales as of November of this year.
My mother is a prime example of this. She knows Windows 10 is a thing, and will probably upgrade her desktop at some point, but there's no reason for her to upgrade her tablet.
That being said, if I'm a mainstream users I'd be terrified of upgrading the windows OS on one of those cheap 8.1 tablets that came out. Granted part of this is because of insider builds but I had to recover my Venue 8 pro and installing an OS from media on that type of device is not a pleasant experience.
Will, the tablet mode in windows 10 is very robust, and the fact that you can choose to run it as a desktop OS or a tablet OS makes waaay more sense on a 2 in 1 type device. In your case, pull off the type cover and get a full screen tablet experience, put the type cover on and get a desktop operating system that's closer to windows 7 than 8.1.
And while not everyone agrees with this, my opinion is that except in a few certain use cases the tablet mode in 10 is way better than in 8.1. And the annoyances that were there, like the stupid all apps list in 10's tablet mode, are being changed in the coming summer update to windows 10 to hopefully fix a lot of those problems.
I've actually upgraded my Surface Pro 3 to 10 simply as an experiment--I can say that there are advantages and disadvantages. I didn't have a Windows 10 machine in my hose for Xbox One integration.
Honestly, the Surface Pro devices as a whole were so meticulously engineered around Windows 8.1 that there's no reason not to stay if you don't need DirectX 12 or something exclusive to Windows 10.
Some of those tablets have just enough storage to hold the os and some extra files. Like 48GB storage. Makes upgrading to 10 a bitch since you can't keep the backup OS to go back to if you need it. 10 didn't work? Get fucked!
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Yeah, there are some issues with the SP4 and SB that's that's not necessarily related to W10 (word is that MS has had serious issues dealing with Skylake and S0x standby). After the latest 4/19 update, these devices are to the point where they're generally pretty stable, although weird bullshit still remains (my SB still exhibits the "sleep of death" issue on AC power, although I just force updated an Intel driver which seemed to have alleviate it somewhat, but who the hell knows).
On the plus side, the Get Windows 10 notifications will also stop after that.
It completely boggles my mind how badly Microsoft has screwed this up. Windows 10 is a great OS, but the PR from this debacle of a year long upgrade is undoing almost all of the good from it.
I mean, I don't have a phd in marketing, but it just seems so simple.
-Make Windows 10 a free upgrade for anyone who has 7 or 8.1, and do not put a time limit on it. I could see an argument for only allowing a 7 or 8.1 license to be upgraded for free x number of times, but if i have a windows 7 computer that I want to upgrade to 10 in 2018, that should be free.
-Don't force it down people's throats. Present the option. Hell, I'm even ok with the odd pop up saying "hey do you want this?" But then have yes, and no buttons. Let the user choose. I like Windows 10 a lot but I also recognize there are many legit reasons to not want to upgrade a computer to it.
There. That's it. That's all they had to do. And they didn't.
I'm actually quite looking forward to the Get Windows 10 notification going away on the HTPC. It will reduce some stress from my life. Or bring media center to 10.
PSN : Bolthorn
just install and run the GWX control panel on that HTPC and you can make the notification go away right now!
If Microsoft didn't already subscribe to the whole "Well, you went through the trouble of calling about this OS license that's been used 40 times already, I'll go ahead and let you authenticate it," policy, maybe, but they do. They'd basically be dealing with people abusing the process indefinitely.
Trying to trick people into upgrading to Windows 10 was fucked up, but implying it was going to always be an option sounds like a fucking business nightmare.
Not really. The majority of windows licenses are obtained when people buy a new PC, or at least historically that has been the case. Windows 7 sales have already ended except for the Pro sku on certain business machines, and Windows 8.1 retail sales end in October of this year. Yes you can still find a new copy of Windows 7 if you look, but that's not the majority of the market. When my mother goes to best buy to buy a new laptop she's not also looking for Windows 7 in a box on the shelf beside it. She buys a computer, and it comes with Windows.
I'd actually hypothesize that the vast majority of Win 7/8.1 upgrades to Win10 do not represent lost revenue for Microsoft. They've already sold windows to that PC, and the user wouldn't be inclined to upgrade it to 10 if they had to pay. They'd use 7 until they needed a new machine, and then they'd get 10, which is a license paid for as part of the new PC.
Letting existing 7/8.1 machines upgrade to 10 also means users might try the windows app store, buy a few apps, maybe rent/buy some movies or music with the groove stuff, all of which microsoft takes a 30% cut of, and also means that when the user is looking for a new computer, they're more inclined to stay with windows.
The only thing I've particularly noticed missing is my handy search shortcut win+f, which I used all the time in 8.1. Is there an analogue for 10 that I've just not found?
Beyond that are there any tasty UI tips that folks like?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
just...hit the windows key?
Maybe I just had some minor sunstroke from earlier in the day, but it wasn't finding files that should be there.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
As with most "hidden stuff" in Win 10, the explicit "Search" thing you're looking for is in the WIN+X menu. Though it just opens the normal Start menu search anyway.
give it a git of time. a new Windows install does have to scan the hard drive and index everything before that'll start to work.
You can resize the start menu like you would a window.
The Win+X/Right-click-in-the-bottom-left-corner menu has gotten better. There's a checkbox in Taskbar Properties that lets you put replace the Command Prompt entry with Powershell.
Win+Tab is OS X's expose feature. You can click the button in the bottom right corner of that screen to add desktops. Ctrl+Left/Right switches desktops.
You can hide the silly "Search Windows" and "Task View" buttons on the taskbar. They take up space and you don't need them to use their features.
Microsoft can show you ads on your lock screen. Uncheck "Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen" in the Lock Screen settings to make them go away.
I've had, been having, still have, issues with Win10 search not finding things as well as Win 8.1 search. No fix that I can find. For files I've worked around it mainly by doing searches through the file explorer. Unfortunately that takes longer, but at least I can find the stuff I need eventually.
Finally, the start menu works right! and the colored titlebars for applications are awesome.
That deadline is a huge motivation for me to do this while I'm still on "sabbatical".
I'm still trying to get word if I'm due for a computer refresh this year, or not.