Scott Hanselman

I suspect a bunch of people will just do their normal "updates are available" update, ignore any "Windows 10 inside" warnings, and then still be gobsmacked that their OS suddenly looks different. I think that's the point where the IT manager to friends and family fallout will start... Is it possible to be simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the launch of Windows 10?!

I am one of minor group who use Windows 8.1 on a 8" tablet with mobile connection. While Windows 8 modern UI (aka Metro) preference was disaster on desktop machines the interface is almost perfect on tablets. Especially the charms bar, auto show/hide on-screen keyboard and live tile notifications.

I have tried Windows 10 preview builds and found the tablet mode is not even close to the Windows 8.1 user experience (again: *on tablets*). There is no charms bar, on-screen keyboard does not auto hide/show on text fields etc. As for update, there are also almost no updated drivers and vendor specific utilities yet and it is hard to believe it will be ready and well-tested within a month.

Basically I have no reason to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10 on my tablet. Unfortunately Microsoft is working hard to make Windows 8.1 tablet users live difficult :-/ Microsoft have announced that Modern Skype (Metro) application will be killed on x86/x64 devices (while continues to live on Windows RT ones) on July 7 without any option. Microsoft offers Skype for desktop instead but you lost most of the features like connected standby support, auto hide/show on-screen keyboard and start screen and live tile notifications so Skype becomes useless on tablet device. Moreover it does not support High-DPI awareness yet so it is blurry. And yes, there is no Skype universal application ready for Windows 10 yet.

Is this the new friendly approach how to treat existing customers ? Especially given the Windows tablet devices market share. There are options to move to different platform, is it what Microsoft communicates ?

I will not be upgrading my parents to Windows 10. I've had them on Linux for about 4 years, and I don't see Windows 10 changing that. As for myself, I will upgrade sometime this fall or winter after the dust settles.

I thought saying this on a renown MS employee's blog would be sacrilege, but I think Mr. Hanselman is OK with it.

When you talk about parents I was about to buy them a Windows tablet. But I have reconsidered the idea now. Since Microsoft decision of Skype app removal without options that does not have any technical reason (the same application continues to work on Windows RT devices) nor any logic it is hard to believe to the platform. What application do they remove tomorrow ? There is no trust anymore, it is just another example of arrogance, stubbornness and treating customers badly.

The official explanation in Skype forums that "it is duplicative for majority of users out there" is a bad joke. Of course it is duplicative, that's the point of Modern (Store) applications. I understand that desktop users did not accept and understand the importance of them for tablet/touch devices but now Microsoft itself is denying their current technology in (still) latest OS version.

Wouldn't be fair to at least communicate that Microsoft is no longer interested in having their OS on tablet devices ? The bad Windows 10 UX for tablets would support it.

Nontechnical users shouldn't be using Windows at all. Get them chromebooks, or possibly chromeboxes. Installing any Windows version that you have to support is just plain crazy.

I'll be upgrading on all the Windows 7 machines at home (we skipped 8 because I didn't feel like training my family on a bunch of "charms-bar" nonsense).

My wife has some trepidation, since she feels like all computer changes just result in problems, but given their hardware, I think Windows 10 will run a little bit better than 7.

I don't understand why they do such efforts to get everybody so fast on the new system. Haven't they learned from the past? It's great they give it for free, and it's great they do that for a period of one year, but problems will arise and will they be able to handle them on a short notice? I'm going for the update, but not from day 1, not even from month 1.
And geting a decent microphone isn't a that long job. It would have been better to release the video with the quality we are used from you. The urgency to release resulted in bad quality.... same as with Windows10?

I'll be upgrading all Win 8.1 desktops. My mom will be overjoyed to get her desktop start menu back. Our kids however, are content consumers and all running android on tablets and iOS on music players. The adults are a mixed bag of Android and Kindle.

A good news, I love windows, I'm wating windows 10 for multi devices :)

Hi Scott

What happens if I get the upgrade for free and after the year that has passed I need todo a fresh clean install? How do I get Windows 10 then?

Thanks
Giuseppe

@Andrew My parents run Linux too! I'll upgrade stat. Windows 8 gives me piles!

Good video again Scott.
Thanks

I am using Windows 7 now. Would I upgrade to Windows 10 for free? I hope it would be.

To be honest, I wasn't missing the start menu like other people did, I'm happy either way, but I have to admit that Windows 10 looks a lot better than Windows 8/8.1

Am I the only one who miss such essentinal things like different window title colors of active and inactive windows on desktop ? Is it supposed to be used full screen only like mobile phone ?

Nice video Scott. Thanks for sharing this info!

O.T. : And about "parent", "kids", "family" and so on... any news about Family Safety for Windows 10 Mobile?

Does windows 10 address the issue of 100% Disk Usage which I think is the most annoying issue in windows 8/8.1?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-performance/100-disk-usage-on-windows-81/858b7a3d-fc94-4219-abe0-c48264c82c8d?auth=1

(I've tried all of the solutions, but none of them worked for me)

I actually have a few questions regarding the free upgrade. Say I want a clean install or I build a new machine (which I do every few years). How do I take Windows 10 and put it on my new machine (with a newly formatted hard drive and no existing OS)? It would be annoying to have to install Win8 on the machine and then upgrade online.

Does the free upgrade come with a downloadable ISO that will allow me to do a clean install without jumping through hoops? If so... how do I go about retrieving the clean install?

What happens if I get the upgrade for free and after the year that has passed I need todo a fresh clean install? How do I get Windows 10 then?

In response to my previous comment. It is possible to download Windows 10 for future use. Microsoft added this page which allows for the download.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

"Are you the IT manager for your extended family? Will you be upgrading non-technical parent to Windows 10 or letting them do it themselves?"

That's quite the loaded question :P

I am adamantly forbidding any Windows 10 'upgrades' by family and friends, and making those that I'm the 'IT manager' for well aware that if they go there they're entirely on their own. If for any reason they're unable to stay on Windows 7 any longer I will be advocating moving to Linux or even OSX before I support Windows 10 (and that's coming from someone who cannot stand OSX or the Cult of Apple in general).