Features - QOTW: Have you installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview?

Quote:

---

Share your thoughts and impressions right here.

---

Read more.

Yes I have and using it to run a VM of Server Technical Preview, visually both still seem a hell of a lot like W8.1 & S2012R2 respectively, not had a chance to do much but so far both are very quick even though I am running them off a work laptop. First impressions are that I like both but lets review after the weekend :) .

No, and probably won't. I think I'll wait for several months after reading all the reviews and forum comments. After Win 8, no way will I ever blindly follow Microsoft like in past years. I trust 'em as far as I can throw 'em.

Downloaded the ISO today for a play over the coming weeks.

Downloaded it and running it in Virtual Box to see if I will install it when it releases or stick with 7

No, I think I'll wait until the consumer preview before having a play with it in Virtualbox.

installed over Win 7 on dual boot system,no problems and seems faster than Win 8.

Yes, I installed it in a Hyper-V VM on W8.1 Pro as people in the office were asking about it. Seems good so far.

Ive installed it and although It is better for desktop PC users in that the start menu has returned, I am not convinced that sticking the ModernUI on the side quite works.

Its just like Win 8/8.1, network Teaming not work, Battlefield 4 still Laggy as hell but plays perfectly under windows 7 and no Media Centre so my tuner card is usless

I'm using it right now and I'm impressed. I immediately hated Windows 8, this is much more like how I felt when I installed the Windows 7 preview. So far no crashes or incompatibilities and it seems quicker than Windows 7 on the same machine. I'd still like a toggle that completely nukes the Metro/Modern UI stuff though, it's absolutely useless to me.

Installed in in a VM on ESXi. Only confirmed my emulator runs on it thus far.

I put it on my old backup PC that usually has Win 8.1 (with Classic Shell) on it. No probs so far and I quite like the tiles integrated into the start menu.

Not yet ;-) I'm waiting for Win10 RC ver. then i will upg. my WIn8.1 and save all my stuff there :D

----------
http://loccothan.blogspot.com/

http://rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishr...fs_overall.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MickyTek

Its totally **** just like Win 8/8.1, network Teaming not work, Battlefield 4 still Laggy as hell but plays perfectly under windows 7 and no Media Centre so my tuner card is usless

---

Enterprise version x64 has media player?

Installed on 8.1 Hyper-V, then on HP laptop, now on main PC, seems fine with a few little annoyances and bugs (nothing major so far). New Start menu isn't as good as Pokki for Win 8.1 IMO.

PCs are dual core, not very fast cpus but desktop experience is smooth (both have 8GiB and SSDs tho).

On Tower PC I have problems with anything that uses DirectX (Furmark and other OpenGL titles run fine so am ruling out graphics hardware issue atm - AMD driver fault? Not sure, but laptop runs DX (very, very slowly LOL) so may be to do with Z97 MSI mobo).

I must say that on my system installed on a mechanical hard drive (and a fairly slow one at that) that this is the fastest Windows version so far. No issues so far and very quick!

Yes. I'm dual booting with Windows 8.1.

Both versions downloaded, and will be installed on multiple machines, from absolute bare minimum specs up to middle of the road - won't go on my main machine until it goes gold. My biggest concern at this point is drivers. Generic drivers won't yield anything but generic results, at best...

Installed non-enterprise Win 10 TP x64 over the top of Win 8.1.1 x64 and got two BSOD's (Bug Check 0x8e: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) before it restored Win 8.1.1 x64 back.

Couldn't find the dump files, but after booting back into the restored Win 8.1.1 x64, I tried the Win 10 TP again and noticed that it was sending up data to a URL containing "watson", so I assume that was the dump information.

I had several pieces of software which had drivers installed, so I'm guessing one of them was not compatible with Win 10.

No, I haven't. I've thought about it, but not yet decided whether to or not, and haven't had the time anyway.

I'll probably, first, wait to see what the concensus of opinion is, and second, wait until MUCH later in the cycle to see if my minimum expectations appear to have been met. If it appears they haven't, then there's no point me installing any preview, because I won't be installing the release version. There's only any point in bothering if my minimum criteria seem to gave been satisfied, in which case, I'll take a more thorough look.

So, in short, no, not yet. And might not.

Not after reading this:- http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...our-every-move

Installed in VirtualBox just to check if Microsoft finally updated the 95 era dialogue boxes. It didn't, so I commented about that (something I've done for the past few Windows testings).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iworrall

Not after reading this:- http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...our-every-move

---

It's a technical preview of course it will be snooping ;)

Nah, not feeling it TBH.

I jumped on the pre-release versions of Vista, Win 7 and Win 8, but I'm tiring of this crap now.

Seriously, this is an OS, not CoD or Fifa.

I was going to until it said recommended for second PC. I've only got one PC (running w8.1) and I've got it set up in a way I really like, so I think I'll just wait til April

I've never understood why people not involved in hardware, or software development feel the need to install alphas & betas.
Sure it's fun to take a look, but most pre-release stuff is so different from the final product to make previews fairly worthless aside for development purposes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iworrall

Not after reading this:- http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...our-every-move

---

You can turn it off...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MickyTek

Its totally **** just like Win 8/8.1, network Teaming not work, Battlefield 4 still Laggy as hell but plays perfectly under windows 7 and no Media Centre so my tuner card is usless

---

lol? Do you not understand the concept of a 'technical preview'? Of course there will be features/drivers that won't work properly. Also, your comments regarding the performance of BF4 on 8.1 are completely unfounded. Google it and you'll see that most games (including your example BF4) run ~ 10-15% better under the newer OS. You're clearly new to computers, so the URL for Google is www.google.com. They do make computers for people like you, they're called Macs...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MickyTek

Its totally **** just like Win 8/8.1, network Teaming not work, Battlefield 4 still Laggy as hell but plays perfectly under windows 7 and no Media Centre so my tuner card is usless

---

I don't think you should be allowed to download a Technical Preview because you don't understand what it's for and how things may break.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corky34

I've never understood why people not involved in hardware, or software development feel the need to install alphas & betas.
Sure it's fun to take a look, but most pre-release stuff is so different from the final product to make previews fairly worthless aside for development purposes.

---

Using pre-release software is a good way to understand the features of the product and provide feedback about them. Pre-release is typically quite close to the release version, especially late in the cycle, where it's feature complete and the only things which are done are bug fixes.

Not going to both myself, 8.1 is working great and I can't see this technical preview being more stable etc.

As it is I will probably upgrade when 10 is released (free or otherwise).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ET3D

Using pre-release software is a good way to understand the features of the product and provide feedback about them. Pre-release is typically quite close to the release version, especially late in the cycle, where it's feature complete and the only things which are done are bug fixes.

---

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying no one should give W10 a try, I just find it annoying to read how people have had X problem, how they don't like Y, or how something doesn't work. The name technical preview should tell most people how incomplete it is, yet some people seem to think they can replace their main OS with the first beta build.

I can understand people wanting to give a release candidate, or late betas a try as by that stage it's mostly feature complete, but to moan about development builds just seems like people don't understand what alpha, beta, RC mean, maybe peoples expectation are to high when it comes to what they expect from beta software, or maybe I'm just fed up with hearing people moan about beta software causing them problems.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corky34

I'm just fed up with hearing people moan about beta software causing them problems.

---

You hear people moaning a lot then? :eek:

Pretty sure the point of a beta is to get feedback from users i.e. 'moaning': Umm, that's kinda the point and possibly why features change in the first place. In fact MS probably want more 'normal' users complaining (or at least picking up the most egregious bug-lets & design flaws).... :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pleiades

You hear people moaning a lot then? :eek:

Pretty sure the point of a beta is to get feedback from users i.e. 'moaning': Umm, that's kinda the point and possibly why features change in the first place. In fact MS probably want more 'normal' users complaining (or at least picking up the most egregious bug-lets & design flaws).... :)

---

True enough, but I think it's about expectations.

I get Corky's point, and from comments I've seen, a few here but mainly elsewhere, some 'testers' are applying the standards we have a right to expect of released, shipping and paid-for versions. In reality, of course, nobody in their right mind uses previews, especially alpha's or early beta's, on any important system, or with data that isn't comprehensively backed up, and you have to accept that, first, some software just won't work, second, that almost anything you see might change, or even disappear, in final versions, and third, anything could happen to reliability or stability. Fourth, it's almost certainly (or, entirely certainly) not optimsed code, no doubt has debug options still present or turned on in the compiler, and absolutely will take a performance hit as a result.

This is a tech forum and a pretty high proportion of users have a tech background and understand what this preview is about. And so do have realistic expectations. But not all previewers do, and some comments I've seen have shown a wildly unrealistic grasp, despite MS spelling it out clearly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pleiades

You hear people moaning a lot then? :eek:

---

Feedback is very different from moaning, or would you consider this constructive,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MickyTek

Its totally **** just like Win 8/8.1, network Teaming not work, Battlefield 4 still Laggy as hell but plays perfectly under windows 7 and no Media Centre so my tuner card is usless

---

Or articles like Windows 10 Technical Preview "rough, unfinished" on touch PCs.

You only have to look around the web to see that many people have already passed judgment, on an unfinished product.

I think because of Windows past and people's high expectations it gets a rough ride. Factor in us techies and I guess opinions will be polarised

I installed windows 10 TP on an old laptop of mine, one which used to be a win7 machine, and although i dislike a lot of the UI decisions, such as the very thin border around windows and the complete lack of shading to give any perception of depth to windows/title bars, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast it booted (at least the first couple of times, after that it started to hang...) in that it achieved 35 seconds to desktop where on win7 it used to be around 3-4 minutes. The pc was also a lot more responsive (so much so that i'd actually consider it usable again) and used approximately 30% less RAM than when it was on win7. so averall (assuming MS dont mess it up) i would consider upgrading to Win10 when its properly released.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corky34

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying no one should give W10 a try

---

Well, you did say that you didn't understand why people who aren't developers should test it. Now that you said what's really on your mind, I can understand it, but I certainly see end user feedback as important even at this stage. I imagine that most testers will also test later versions to see if any of their complaints (or feedback) have resulted in changes.

I guess i should have included people who are willing to give real feedback, people with experience of beta testing, those that understand what is involved in testing beta software, people that understand it's unfinished work, that things are going to change.

TBH i didn't really know how to describe, or what catch all word i could use that best described the kind of people that understand what beta testing involves (it's not easy), personally i wouldn't install W10 TP because i just don't have the time needed to do a proper job of testing it, plus i can read articles from people that do have the time about what's new, what's changed, etc, etc.

I was going to give it a proper look but with rumours of built in keylogger and god knows what else I don't even want to test it right now. I really wish all my stuff would work on Linux sometimes.

That privacy policy is proper dirty. Everyone needs to read that before trying this. Totally put me off! You guys reckon the final release will be as dirty?

Oh, for Pete's sake, people - it's not like MS has tried to hide the fact that they're data collecting - they make it downright obvious and up front...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...vacy-statement

They lay it ALL out there, including the 'rumors', and hidden information, and crap they didn't want you to know about. So cloak and dagger from the evil empire. I mean, with how people are more prompt to complain on the different forums out there about how bad and evil MS is, before they even install the software (if they ever do). then I guess I can see a certain level of appropriate in real data gathering on performance of a beta product.

It's a fair statement to say you don't care to install a preview because of the privacy statement, or possible lack of privacy. It's pure rubbish to say you won't install it because you read a rumor. This is a tech site, not some gossip rag. And, for the record, it's no different than the privacy policy they used for the Win7 beta. I'm not sure about Win8, as I didn't participate in that one. And it seems pretty much everyone but the Mac crowd, and those that think it's hip to hate on MS for the sake of doing it, at the bare minimum, likes Windows 7.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bane2087

I was going to give it a proper look but with rumours of built in keylogger and god knows what else I don't even want to test it right now. I really wish all my stuff would work on Linux sometimes.

---

I heard a rumour from a taxi driver that if you read the EULA backwards at midnight before installing the TP you call on Slenderman.

As is addressed elsewhere: the privacy policy is pretty much the same policy that applied to the Win8 and Win7 technical previews. If you don't like it then nobody is forcing you to use it. Remember the Ubuntu/Amazon farrago? this kind of thing isn't exclusive to Microsoft, no matter what the trolls might want you to think.

Back on-topic: I've done a little testing (just a couple of hours over the weekend) and other than the fact that there are no RSAT available it seems reasonably decent. I actually prefer the start screen to the new start menu, but this could easily be because I'm used to it now or alternatively it could just be a personal taste thing. I still need to do a fair bit more testing, but those are my thoughts right now. Not had to file any bugs yet (which I definitely did for 7 and 8), which is nice.

Used it a lot more over the weekend, and to keep it simple it is what I thought Win 8 should have been...

Installed (finally) inside Virtual Box and so far i like it, Bit like 7 and a bit like 8.

There are aspects of the UI that i don't like; not enough to put me off using it but enough to bug me.

Will see how this develops, i might even put this on my Dell D630 when i finally move over to the HP laptop i have just to see how it copes with older spec machines (8GB ram and a 256GB SSD helps many laptops feel a lot better then their base spec would say)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GuidoLS

Oh, for Pete's sake, people - it's not like MS has tried to hide the fact that they're data collecting - they make it downright obvious and up front...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...vacy-statement

They lay it ALL out there, including the 'rumors', and hidden information, and crap they didn't want you to know about. So cloak and dagger from the evil empire. I mean, with how people are more prompt to complain on the different forums out there about how bad and evil MS is, before they even install the software (if they ever do). then I guess I can see a certain level of appropriate in real data gathering on performance of a beta product.

It's a fair statement to say you don't care to install a preview because of the privacy statement, or possible lack of privacy. It's pure rubbish to say you won't install it because you read a rumor. This is a tech site, not some gossip rag. And, for the record, it's no different than the privacy policy they used for the Win7 beta. I'm not sure about Win8, as I didn't participate in that one. And it seems pretty much everyone but the Mac crowd, and those that think it's hip to hate on MS for the sake of doing it, at the bare minimum, likes Windows 7.

---

Well, .... exactly.

Anyone that knows me knows I'm pretty sensitive about, and careful of, my privacy. For that reason, among other things, I don't use Google, let alone have a Google account, won't use any Google-provided email service, refuse to have store 'reward' cards, and am adamant about installing MS OS's on local accounts, not an MS account.

And that latter point is a bit of an obstacle for me in running this preview.

BUT .... I understand what MS wants from this preview, and why they want to link it to an account. So IF I decide, eventually, to test out the preview, it'll be in a way that eliminates or at least reduces drastically any personal information that might be at risk, and at a minimum that means installing it on a 'sacrificial goat' system that doesn't any live data on it, or certainly, not containing personal info, or any access to the rest of my network. Fortunately, the bulk of truly personal info is on a network with no net access, entirely isolated from my other machines that are net-connected.

When you read MS's Preview privacy policy, the permissions users grant are pretty intrusive, but we also implicitly agree to MS using that data for the declared purposes, and ONLY those purposes. So, for instance, capturing voice data for the purposes of improving voice recognition features is legit. Using it to snoop on users is not, but is there ANY evidence, anywhere, that MS has done that? Or wants to?

I'm pretty careful about my privacy. In fact, very careful. But MS say up-front what the privacy policy is for preview. It seems to me that refusing to run the preview is reasonable, if that's how someone feels. Also, running it as I might, on an isolated machine and being very careful what you do, and what data you give it access to, is fair enough, if that's how someone feels. Or, not giving a hoot and giving MS free reign is fair enough, if that's how someone feels.

But, any responsible adult DOES check out the privacy policy before installing anything, if they care about their privacy. And if they do, they're told what MS will be doing. It's not subterfuge, it's not underhand, it's certainly not a conspiracy though it might be reason to not run the Tech Preview. It's user's choice .... and responsibility.

I wonder what percentage of users installing anything read either the Terms of Use, or Privacy Policy, though? My bet would be, pretty small.

Installed, liked and switched my gaming machine to it. No better way to find problems than using it in anger.

I can't think of one reason why I would install this. Oh wait, how about I've been using Windows since Windows 3.0 and I know how long it takes them to get rid of bugs? Some could be really serious ones, too. Installing a preview version of something from Microsoft can be nothing but a bug festivity. This is meant for people who'd like to help Microsoft debug it. I only use Windows for professional audio work, so I need a completely stable OS for that. Still using XP and W7 for that. For everything else - Linux. There's no chance I'll change to something else any time soon.

Downloaded last week same day it was released, installed via hyper V on windows 8, its more or less the same with start button & menu with the metro tiles included. I'm sold on it buy these features they have implemented should have been added to windows 8. Imo they need to change the aesthetics so it resembles something different and unique, as i would believe the end user would think windows 8/10 are the same which in a sense they are so they need to differentiate the OS more

have totally missed windows 8 , 7 is perfect IMO.

issues i have so far after 5 mins:

i hate the plain UI, miss the taskbar of 7 and the shadowing.. now its just blocky squares and opaque colours.
the privacy and integration of email accounts i do not like, also the app store is pointless and unnecessary on a desktop PC unless you are very untechnical maybe?.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jackvdbuk

have totally missed windows 8 , 7 is perfect IMO.

issues i have so far after 5 mins:

i hate the plain UI, miss the taskbar of 7 and the shadowing.. now its just blocky squares and opaque colours.
the privacy and integration of email accounts i do not like, also the app store is pointless and unnecessary on a desktop PC unless you are very untechnical maybe?.

---

Yeah its a shame there's not really any killer apps, I reckon Microsoft should use the store as a package manager, would help a lot for getting and updating "classic" software in one place.

Was on holiday last week but downloaded yesterday and installed last night. It recognised my LSI MegaRAID card and presumably stole the drivers from my live Win 8.1 install to show me my virtual drives. I setup a couple of Samsung 840 Pros in RAID 0 and pointed it at that and clicked next and off it went. 20-25 mins later and I was at a blurry desktop (Windows Display set at 1024*768). Three devices did not have the correct drivers (AMD HD7870, Belkin Wi-Fi Card and my TrackIR4) which was impressive. Both the Belkin and TrackIR drivers are packaged as part of overall software install and not easily available separately so good effort. Performance wise it feel no different to 8.1, feeling snappy at all times. I found it amusing that for a measly €7 a month I potentially have a legal MS OS and full Office package (Office 365 individual subscription) which does exactly as it says on the tin but without the sometimes complex installation and lack of device support that you would get with a Linux distribution. Install size was 17GB but this was sans .NET 3.5 and 4.0 which I found necessary to install a couple of apps (ATTO benchmark and Elite Dangerous Beta 2.04), and each time it went off, found, downloaded and installed without intervention needed.

I have installed it over my existing Windows 8.1 Pro install, but this weekend, I'm going to do a clean install.