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Windows 10 Discussion Thread and Information

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Automata

Destroyer of Empires and Use
Joined
May 15, 2006
Welcome to the Windows 10 Discussion Thread and Information. This thread replaced the pre-release discussion thread, which got out of hand and was difficult to read. The goal of this thread is to discuss the new operating system, ask questions, post answers, and generally help people use the operating system.

I do not want to see discussion of conspiracy theories on how Microsoft is just trying to steal your information, or help the NSA spy on you, or basically any unsubstantiated discussion unless there is absolute proof. This is obviously a fine line to walk, so please use your best judgement. If you want a more open discussion of Windows 10, please see this thread, which will be moderated far less.


FAQ

Questions before you upgrade:
Q. Can I upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1?
A. Yes! For the first year Windows 10 is out (starting 07/29/2015), the upgrade is absolutely free and your key is converted to the appropriate Windows 10 version.

Q. If I upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1, what version of Windows 10 will I get?
Windows7_To_Windows10_Upgrade_Path.png

Windows8_To_Windows10_Upgrade_Path.png
Source

Q. What are the differences between Windows 10 versions?
A. You can see a list of different Windows 10 versions here.

Q. What new features are in Windows 10?
A. You can see a list of features here.


Q. Do I have to upgrade a Windows 7/8/8.1 install before being able to do a clean install? Can I use a Windows 7/8/8.1 key during a clean install of Windows 10?
A. When Windows 10 first released, you had to do an upgrade to turn your Windows 7/8/8.1 key into a Windows 10 key to do a clean install. With the newest download of Windows 10, you can use your Windows 7/8/8.1 key to do a clean install!


Installation:

Q. Can I download Windows 10 from Microsoft?
A. Yes! You can download install media from Microsoft here.

Q. What methods can I use to install Windows 10?
A. If you have Windows 7/8/8.1 installed, you can download Windows 10 and update directly from your desktop. Alternatively, the install will give you an option to install to a bootable flash drive (doing all the work for you), or you can burn the ISO to a DVD.




Q. Are updates and drivers installed manually?
A. As of 08/01/2015, updates and drivers are installed manually, however, you can blacklist or hide specific updates or drivers. Newer versions of drivers may bypass this block. This may change in the future.





Information and Links:

Installation
Downloading and creating Windows 10 ISO files - c627627 07/31/2015
Dual booting Windows 7 and Windows 10 - AngelfireUk83 08/03/2015

General
Use the gpedit or mmc programs to modify how Windows 10 behaves - Sydo 07/31/2015
Enable NumLock on the login screen - ATMINSIDE 08/03/2015


Themes and Looks

Change Windows to a dark theme, instead of the stock white theme - ATMINSIDE 07/31/2015
Disable the Quick Access page when opening Explorer windows - ATMINSIDE 07/31/2015
Arrange icons in a group in the Start menu - thideras 08/14/2015

Apps
Remove built in apps - mimart7 08/01/2015
Remove built in apps, with more explanation and examples - Sydo 08/01/2015
How To: Run Application at Startup in Windows 10 - wagex 05/20/2016
 
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For those of you who like dark themes, this will change your apps to a dark color scheme:
1) Go to Registry Editor
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes
3) Create Key called "Personalize"
4) Create DWORD called "AppsUseLightTheme" and set to 0 value.
5) Repeat in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize
6) Reboot

Here's my Settings app after the change:
2015-07-30 23_38_35-Program Manager.jpg

Here's my Store app after the change:
2015-07-30 23_39_20-Program Manager.jpg
 
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Another tweak here, this time disabling Quick Access in File Explorer.

- Open File Explorer by holding the Win key and pressing E.
- Go to View.
- Go to Options.
- Change "Open File Explorer to:" from "Quick access" to "This PC".

Now File Explorer will open to your HDD/SSD/etc.
 
Note for all users that have NVidia Surround in use with Windows 10.
When Surround is enabled, display scaling is automatically set to 150%, this is fixed through the normal method of adjusting scaling.
 
Windows 10 | gpedit/mmc is your friend

I read a lot of complaints about functions/privacy issues this might help ease some of the frustration people are experiencing.

First off:

To access these tools press Windows key + R to open the Run command. Type "gpedit.msc" or "mmc" without quotation.

MMC = Let's you create snap-ins for various windows services/function. MMC is meant for computers with multiple users as it let's you define/disable/enable specific rules and features for individual user accounts.
gpedit = Does the same as MMC but applies to the local account and not specific users.

MMC basics:

Capture.PNG
Run the command

Capture1.PNG
Click "Files"

Capture2.PNG
"Add/Remove Snap-in"

Capture6.PNG
7.PNG
Choose if it should be local or a specific user

Capture3.PNG
Here you have various snap-ins for various functions, the one we focus about is the "Group Policy" Add that.

Capture4.PNG
Now you have access to change what ever is desired. (Keep in mind that if you change the wrong settings for the local account/your admin account, you can mess up badly and lock down your user account)

Same procedure for the "gpedit" just another run command.

Capture5.PNG


Hope this was helpful to some at least.



Now for the privacy concerns.

Windows 10 has a lot of privacy settings sitting right at your fingertips.

Click start menu - Settings - Privacy

Capture7.PNG
Here you have the ability to disable a lot of the privacy intruding features you might not want.
 
This is the official Microsoft page to create the Windows 10 ISO DVD/USB: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

To install a free upgrade to Windows 10, you need to have Windows 7/8 (not Windows Vista or Windows XP) registered with a legitimate Microsoft Key.
You actually need to have an activated running Windows 7/8 installation first.

Install Windows 10 over your existing Windows 7/8 installation - and activate Windows 10 in this way.
This will register your machine with Microsoft for use with Windows 10.

After you have done that, you can either continue to use your installed and activated Windows 10 or you can format/fresh install Windows 10 at any point in the future, because your machine is now registered with Microsoft for use with Windows 10.


You cannot fresh install Windows 10 before you've activated after installing it over your existing Windows 7/8 installation at least once.
 
Welp I broke my insider VM. It got corrupted during a video driver crash. Now I'm using the RTM iso to build a new VM. I can confirm that earlier OS keys don't work to activate.

Not sure how to get my insider installation rebuilt. I'll try logging in with my account later in the installation.

Well I used my MS account to log in and I ended up with a lot of the same settings I had before. Must have used all the data they collected on me to accomplish this.

I got on a chat box with support about that win7 key that won't work. She says it checks out good on her end :confused:

She also says that the activation servers are backed up and to try again in 48 hrs. :shrug:

I need to also figure out how to get my insider OS activated. We already know how to get the new release activated.

Update: Hmmm... My original insider VM lives. Must have been an issue with VMWare Player that required a host system reboot to fix.

I did note while installing the RTM iso that there are all kinds of options to shut off intrusive features of winten. That will save us a lot of registry hacks and digging around in deeply buried menus to turn it off later. So make sure you always do the advanced/custom fork and never the express fork.
 
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Can someone in the FAQ put the question and answer regarding the whole FREE issue many people who are not tech savy maybe searching on the likes of Google and may end up coming across this there's so many explanations regarding the FREE OS that people are confused.
 
Can someone in the FAQ put the question and answer regarding the whole FREE issue many people who are not tech savy maybe searching on the likes of Google and may end up coming across this there's so many explanations regarding the FREE OS that people are confused.

What part isn't covered?
 
I found a neat Powershell script online which will remove some of the MS apps that you may not want. You have to run Powershell as admin.

Code:
<#
Use 'set-executionpolicy remotesigned' prior to running this script.
#>

If (-NOT ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator"))

{   
$arguments = "& '" + $myinvocation.mycommand.definition + "'"
Start-Process powershell -Verb runAs -ArgumentList $arguments
Break
}
 
 
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.3DBuilder                     | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Getstarted                    | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub            | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection  | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.SkypeApp                      | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsMaps                   | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingWeather                   | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Office.OneNote                | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.XboxApp                       | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.ZuneMusic                     | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.ZuneVideo                     | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingSports                    | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingNews                      | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsPhone                  | remove-appxpackage
get-appxpackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.BingFinance | remove-appxpackage
write-host "completed"
 
Type the following command(s) in an elevated powershell to remove all Modern apps from the system account:

Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
This means that all newly created user accounts will come without built-in Modern apps. This also means that new user accounts will be created faster.

Type the following command to remove all Modern apps from your current user account

Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage

Here's yet another command you may find useful. Use it to remove all Metro apps from a specific user account. It's quite similar to the command above, just add -User username part. Substitute the user name of the account for which you wish to remove Modern apps in the command line in place of <username>.

Get-AppXPackage -User <username> | Remove-AppxPackage

Finally, here's a command that will remove Metro apps for all user accounts:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
This command will make sure that Modern apps don't keep coming back to your user account even after you uninstalled them.

Source
 
Microsoft backtracks on forced automatic updates in Windows 10

Windows 10 has been out for a couple of days now but ever since the insider preview days there has been something putting quite a few people off. With Windows 10, all updates are automatic and you can’t select which ones you do and don’t want to install.

However, following a few recent issues with driver conflicts, Microsoft has gone ahead and released a tool to allow you to block certain updates that may cause issues. The tool also allows you to uninstall specific updates that may have caused things to go wrong on your system.

http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/opera...ks-on-forced-automatic-updates-in-windows-10/
 
Please someone correct this if they have tested differently but is this ↑ about disabling *already installed* hardware driver updates?

While any option to choose is great - what we really need is to able to choose which driver and optional updates we want to install BEFORE they ever get installed and potentially affect the systems (especially friends & relatives systems where an unneeded forced optional hardware driver update can cause middle of the night phone calls and panic).

That is the goal, which as I understand it, wushowhide.diagcab does not meet.
 
Added a few more FAQ questions and sorted by the type of question. I also sorted the information and links by their type.
 
I use the start menu to launch programs, starting back on Vista. It is on my screen for maybe half a second. I don't understand all the hate for the start menu, other than it is fullscreen. It functions identical to Windows 7, only it looks different.

Win key -> "word" -> press enter

I have yet to see an substantive argument other than "I don't like it". I switched to Windows 8 the day it was released, and used it until Windows 10 was released. Never had a single issue with the OS or the UI.
 
Does anyone have any information on how the upgrade path performs vs doing a clean install? All the information I can find talks about how it's possible to do a clean install after upgrading from, say, Windows 7. There's a short Anandtech blurb:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9334/microsoft-confirms-you-can-clean-install-windows-10-after-upgrading said:
Once you upgrade W10 w/ the free upgrade offer you will able to clean reinstall Windows 10 on same device any time
That's nice to know, but I'm wondering if a clean install is necessary or beneficial. I don't see a lot of reports out there with problems doing the free upgrade (aside from people upgrading from an older OS to a beta, then another beta, etc). I know upgrades in the past have been a little spotty.
 
I use the start menu to launch programs, starting back on Vista. It is on my screen for maybe half a second. I don't understand all the hate for the start menu, other than it is fullscreen. It functions identical to Windows 7, only it looks different.

Win key -> "word" -> press enter

I have yet to see an substantive argument other than "I don't like it". I switched to Windows 8 the day it was released, and used it until Windows 10 was released. Never had a single issue with the OS or the UI.

Oh don't get me wrong. I also used Win8 since it's release and have not used anything else since now. It's a great OS i just find Winten to have a more pleasing UI for my taste.

- - - Updated - - -

Does anyone have any information on how the upgrade path performs vs doing a clean install? All the information I can find talks about how it's possible to do a clean install after upgrading from, say, Windows 7. There's a short Anandtech blurb:

That's nice to know, but I'm wondering if a clean install is necessary or beneficial. I don't see a lot of reports out there with problems doing the free upgrade (aside from people upgrading from an older OS to a beta, then another beta, etc). I know upgrades in the past have been a little spotty.

I noticed the disk usage on the OS drive was rather high when upgrading to winten, then after i made a clean install there was substantial more free space, maybe around 10GB.

It also seems to fix many "bugs" people have experienced.

All in all i advice all to to a fresh install after their upgrade has activated.
 
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