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  • mebby - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    I am still waiting a little while longer before I install a Win10 build on one of my machines. Getting closer.
  • III-V - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    I'm really loving it so far. Been using it since the technical preview was released.
  • B3an - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Maybe try it in a VM first, and if all goes well, install it on the machine.

    I hope AT do an article on this beta. I know they did one for the alpha/preview but this beta has improved a lot and more things have been added.
  • damianrobertjones - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    I wouldn't hold your breath as they didn't even review the Surface Pro 3!
  • damianrobertjones - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    Dammit. wrong page. That was Tom's Hardware
  • user777 - Thursday, January 29, 2015 - link

    You may also convert the Win 10 TechPreview VM image to ISO and install on USB drive.
    It works pretty slow however has much better appearance.
  • Chaser - Thursday, January 29, 2015 - link

    I tried it and loved it. Everything worked: sound, GPU, my aspplications, Outlook, games. But it still had some quirks that didn't make it worth it. Yet! :)
  • Cygni - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    notes so far:

    cortana doesnt understand how to launch a command prompt window. it bings it.

    file manager icons somehow got even uglier

    cortana takes up like a quarter of the taskbar for some reason?

    it doesnt look like you can choose specific windows updates to not install
  • Cygni - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    actually it looks like the specific updates are listed once they are detected, but most of the options are hidden in gpedit. which is truly how i want to spend my limited time on this earth, in gpedit.
  • fackamato - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    Why disable certain windows updates? (unless in corp env)
  • Cygni - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    microsoft doesnt exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to updates not breaking things
  • SilthDraeth - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    On the contrary, the record is pretty damn good. Considering the number of OS they support, and update. I can understand corporate, and military environments, since there are some often non standard things going on, and so updates must pass further in house validation. But for the majority of Windows users, you are better served turning on automatic update, then not being stupid and unplugging your computer, or any other hard shutdown method while they install.
  • Samus - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    You're concerned about updates breaking things while running a beta OS?

    Right.
  • piiman - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    As part of the program they are making you take them. Its a test OS!
  • Cygni - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    yes?
  • GuardianAngel470 - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link

    While I agree for the most part, I have had instances where a windows update broke something. In one particular series of games, the STALKER franchise, there was an update pushed out a while back that essentially broke DirectX 10 in that franchise.

    It can happen and, while it's true that it was probably the fault of the developer of whatever software is affected, the only solution is removing the Windows update and preventing it from reinstalling.
  • 'nar - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    There was a Windows Update several years ago now that affected the CPU driver. HP had been using the same CPU driver on both their Intel and AMD system images. After the update and reboot, BSOD. And HP is not that specialized. It may have been 2% of total computers, but that is still quite a large number all failing at once. Just goes to show that a so-called rare circumstance can still be a pretty big problem.
  • HungryTurkey - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link

    Most admins don't have a stellar track record of fixing the root causes of issues and they reghack a bandaid instead of ponying up the 250$ to talk to a Microsoft engineer. You shouldn't expect an update to work in 100% of cases of a 100% modifiable environment. The better you adhere to best practices and solid ITIL processes, the better your experience with microsoft updates will be. In the past 8 years, I have had one MS update bork things (a forefront update shortly after MS integrated the product into their lineup).
  • Chriz - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    I did the gpedit thing last time too and set it to notify me but not download. I just like to see what the updates are before it installs them is all.
  • Cygni - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    too logical
  • TWolfe - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Been playing with Cortana for a bit now and it seems to launch everything in IE. Can get it to launch any programs; instead it just seems to bing everything. My wife was trying to launch her Facebook page and it just opens IE and bings it. Has potential but a ways to go if it is to be a personal assistant.
  • Cygni - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    more fun things:

    laughably bad consistency of default icons/UI elements.

    love the huge amount of wasted space when you delete tiles out of the start menu

    the app search for some reason floats on top of the start menu instead of being integrated in it, and its slow as hell

    the 'all apps' link is tiny with an arrow pointing at nothing, clicking on it expands a menu the other direction

    desperately wants you to sign into a microsoft account to do anything at any time for any reason

    cortana is beyond useless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX8NOOmEKA4
  • crimsondoor - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link

    >>laughably bad consistency of default icons/UI elements.
    Yeah I agree. Why is the Win95 era hard disk space pie chart still there? And why the ugly new icons?? Why is control panel still there?

    >>love the huge amount of wasted space when you delete tiles out of the start menu
    This is a known bug. It will be resizable.

    >>the app search for some reason floats on top of the start menu instead of being integrated in it, and its slow as hell
    Known bug.

    >>desperately wants you to sign into a microsoft account to do anything at any time for any reason
    I never signed in actually. Signing in is a bonus, but you don't miss out anything important even if you don't. (unlike Android)

    >>cortana is beyond useless
    This is a beta. Also the first build with Cortana built in.
  • Flunk - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link

    I've been playing around with the build for a while and I've found you CAN make the search take up less space. Right click the taskbar, mouse over search and set it to "disabled" or "Show search button". "disabled" doesn't disable search, just the extra button.

    Also, I don't know what you were searching for to get the command prompt but if I type in "cmd" (for cmd.exe) or "com" it brings up "Command Prompt" as the first option. I do agree about the file manager icons, the yellow/orange is just too bright.
  • 3ricss - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    >>but if I type in "cmd" (for cmd.exe) or "com" it brings up "Command Prompt" as the first option.

    sweet didn't know that. thanks!
  • 3ricss - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    Yeah, launching cmd from cortana would be nice.

    I actually like the new explorer icons...hoping for a flat trash can too.

    It's nice that you can disable cortana on the taskbar. Would be even nicer if this was sizable.

    I don't know... I'm sort of enjoying this version of windows. Definitely an improvement over Win8.1 and perhaps Win7 too.
  • HardwareDufus - Sunday, February 1, 2015 - link

    I've had Win10 TechPrev installed frrom the beginning. This latest update is interesting. There appears to be 3 distinctly different styles to the icons.
    1. The Desktop Icons have changed. It's a style vaguely reminiscent of the Windows2000 Icons.
    2. The File Manager Icons have changed.... Yeah... They are ugly.... They've got to go. Seriously.
    3. The Settings Icons have changed... Single Color Line Drawings... I actually like these... Reminiscent of what's on Windows Phone. This should be the standard all the way around.

    It might be that they are testing out different styles. Regardless... Settings is the Winner here...
  • Wardrop - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    Tell me, has Microsoft made it any easier since Windows 7 to switch audio devices? In Windows 7, this is all done through undocumented COM API's, so it's virtually impossible (unless you have A LOT of time and technical knowledge) to programmatically switch audio devices, which is really inconvenient when using Windows as a HTPC.
  • Gigaplex - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    Odd, I've always been able to switch audio devices using the built in UI in Windows 7.
  • HunterKlynn - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    He specified programmatically, as in not using the UI.
  • Visual - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    If he's found the undocumented COM API's, a powershell command should do. Without looking, I'd not be surprised if even a registry change is enough. Obviously not a one-size-fits-all universal regedit file, but something customized and tailored for the specific device ids on a system.
    But I see no reason why it should be "any easier" for random programs to change my default audio device, as opposed to select a device to use for themselves only.
  • Gigaplex - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    Sounds like I don't need to rush for this update since there's very little that will impact me. Cortana doesn't work outside USA and my conventional laptop has no use for Continuum. I use VHD native boot, which unfortunately is incompatible with the upgrade process, so it's a royal pain in the ass to perform the upgrade.
  • wpcoe - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    "For those already on the Technical Preview, both the Windows 10 Fast and Slow rings have access to this new build, numbered 9926. Simply go to Settings, Update and Recovery, and choose the Preview Build tab to force a check."

    I have Build 9879 installed, but when I go to the Preview Build tab and click on Check Now, it says "No new preview build was found, please try again later"

    Is Build 9926 still available?
  • Brett Howse - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    Make sure you have KB3025380 https://twitter.com/GabeAul/status/558637466404397...

    Also, if that does not work, you can download the ISO files and update that way.
  • wpcoe - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Thanks, that did the trick. After two rounds of Windows Updates, the new build showed available and it is now installed. Time now to spend some time checking it out.
  • Narg - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    I just installed this version. I don't like the new Start Menu at all. The last version's Start Menu was nice, but still needed work. This one is no good. It's slow, no folders, not resizable, not very editable, and makes older Windows Programs even harder to find and run. I sure hope they do better before release.
  • Narg - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    ..oh and Cortana should be inside the Start Menu, not on the task bar!
  • inighthawki - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link

    There are folders, they're just well disguised as all the other apps and difficult to notice. They are there though.

    I do agree, though. The new start menu is way worse.

    -It's not resizable
    -I can't choose the things that show up on the system pins (i.e. can't remove them either). Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to force me to always have explorer, settings, and documents on there taking up valuable space in the MFU list?
    -Search being outside of the start menu is dumb. It's still one click+Type to access search in both ways, so why waste space on the taskbar? (Which btw, it doesn't really work well with small taskbar)
    -The icons in the all apps view are way too big. Makes it difficult to find things quickly with the amount of scrolling required.

    It has so much potential, though. With only a handful of minor tweaks they could really make it shine. I guess on the plus side they finally realized how retarded it was to force the 2 tile columns. You can now place the tiles wherever you want. It's too bad the tiles are still too large and ugly to be useful.
  • Murloc - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    well you better complain to microsoft on the proper websites then.
  • inighthawki - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Oh I already have. I've submitted a lot of feedback to the feedback app, don't worry :)
  • Hairs_ - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Dear god, that Settings window is ugly. Are all the UI elements that sparse?

    I've no idea why this gets called "modern", it's a return to Windows 2.0!
  • hrmes09 - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Damn right! There must be some competition going on in Microsoft about who will design the ugliest desktop GUI ever!
    They are still trying to hide the interface from the user. I managed to find the Control Panel after typing "Control Panel" in settings.
    This isn't Windows 10. This is Windows 8.2
  • Mr Perfect - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    They've gone to monochrome!
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Agree totally. This looks worse than previous builds.
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Can Cortana be disabled? Not trolling. I really never had the need for voice recognition, don't use Siri either.
  • Murloc - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    just don't click the microphone button on the right of the search box. Done.

    I think they mean to use Cortana not just as a voice recognition thingy, but also as an assistant in the general sense, i.e. you make a request (even by just writing in the search box) and you get an "intelligent" (I hope) answer.
  • Brett Howse - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Yes it can be disabled. Click in the search box, and click the hamburger menu icon at the top of the box and you can disable Cortana. But, you can keep it on and not use voice too.
  • inighthawki - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    You can also disable the search bar entirely on the taskbar. Right click taskbar > Search > Disabled.
  • damianrobertjones - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    G'sus! All I'm reading is moan, moan and complain. How about focussing on the things you DO like and actually providing MS with feedback about things you don't like.
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Perhaps there aren't that many things people like? Perhaps the bad things are so overwhelmingly bad? I still haven't found a reason to choose 10 over 7. I agree than 10 is better than 8 but it still doesn't bring anything to the table that would make be stop using 7. Besting 8 isn't hard as 8 was total garbage. Getting people off of Windows 7 will be harder than getting people of off XP. There are few minor things that are better, but nothing that makes you go WOW! But there are plenty of things that make you go YUCK!
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Example: even in OS X that has been historically the hardest to customize, I can remove anything from the sidebar, including the iCloud Drive and AllMyFiles. Why can't I easily remove One Drive and Homegroup from Windows 10 sidebar??? I'm not using either and I never will so I don't want to see them. I don't need network in my Sidebar either but I can't delete it, it comes back. MS is starting to hide options making it harder to customize and shoves features that not everybody wants.
  • inighthawki - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    I'm fairly sure disabling homegroup will remove that icon.
  • HisDivineOrder - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    That's really the problem with Windows 10 in general. It's marketed as the Windows for Windows 7 users to update to, but if a Windows 7 user was content with the Start Menu the way it was and didn't see those Windows 8 performance improvements as compelling, then what about Windows 10 is appealling to the discerning Windows 7 user?

    In fact, the Windows 10 upgrade is best as an upgrade for Windows 8 users who hated Windows 8's start screen, but those users were already using Windows 8... so...

    It all seems backwards to me. The people who Microsoft seems to be targeting with all their commentaries are the very people least likely to see anything worth getting with Windows 10, which I presume is why Microsoft had to give the upgrade away to Windows 7 users. And the people who most should be tempted by the upgrade--Windows 8 users--weren't really a problem in the first place in terms of them buying in, but losing the money in their upgrades is going to be costly.

    I'm not saying Microsoft shouldn't target the Windows 7 user, but I am saying they should be targeting them with more than mere words. Going way out there, then reeling it back in and trying to spin a Windows 8 Start Screen turned into a makeshift Start Menu is not exactly giving Windows 7 users what they asked for.
  • hrmes09 - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Would it do any good ? People like us were complaining about Windows 8 a long time before it's release but that didn't make any difference.
    I hope Microsoft staff are reading the comments on sites like this one.
  • Makaveli - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Some very good complaints. But you guys need to be sumbitting them to MS. Not hoping someone from ms is gonna come read the comments on anandtech.

    Please report to the proper channels I would like to see all of those things addressed also.
  • hrmes09 - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    OK. I just left some feedback to disable "Settings" on non-touch desktop and develop the Control Panel to include the extra functionality.
    Seriously, using Windows 10 on the desktop is like being caught in a war between the classic and the "modern" GUI.
    In some areas classic is winning, in others it's losing. It's madness!
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Yes, the lack of consistency is obvious. They're gradually moving stuff into the Modern GUI. Like, Windows Update control panel is gone in the latest build. Expect more classic items to be removed. On the bright side maybe, just maybe, we'll get a modern screensaver eventually?
  • inighthawki - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Heh, I'm sure the idea of screensavers are not present in modern UI. I would first expect to see them removed entirely before seeing a new one.
  • Alexey291 - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link

    Er and what if there isn't anything to like?

    I know its hard to believe but what if the things that we like are the things we already had (in win7) and things that changed are all pretty terrible.

    Oh and bingtana is awful btw.
  • jordanl17 - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    this build feels like the future. SO MUCH BETTER than previous builds. expandable start menu is awesome, among other things. Good job.
  • hrmes09 - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    Another example of Windows 10 forcing the user to do things he/she may not like:
    Calculator has become a "modern" application.
    You can use it from the "start menu" or you can pin it on the taskbar, but you can't put it on the desktop directly.
    To do that you will have to search for the calc executable and then create a shortcut for it. That will create a standard shortcut with a generic app icon. To have a nice looking calculator desktop icon you will have to create one or find one yourself.
    After that experience Windows 7 seems like Windows 12 to me.
  • Zak - Saturday, January 24, 2015 - link

    In the previous builds you could uninstall the Modern Calculator and get the classic calculator back. That doesn't seem to be case in the new build:(
  • Brett Howse - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link

    In good news though, pressing the Calculator button on my keyboard does at least launch the new version.
  • finbarqs - Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - link

    My USB stopped working in the tech preview... don't know why, it just stopped... but outside Windows 10, it's fine. So my keyboard and mouse just literally dropped in its' tracks.
  • spdfreak - Friday, January 30, 2015 - link

    Is there any kind of Media Center or an app that will use a OTA TV tuner in 10? I skipped 8/8.1 because I could never get my HD TV tuners to work. They would install and MC would see them but they would never tune or record anything.

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