Windows 10: The next chapter

[Audioaficionado]

I installed on a VM that is supposed to be a sandbox of sorts. Never the less win 10 found out my user name on the host OS win 7 and assigned that as off line account. So if we didn't already suspect that windows snoops behind your back, this is a affirmative example that is does. If it got my host OS user name, I'm pretty sure it also got my COA key and sent it back to Redmond, WA as well. I eventually resigned in with my MS online account so I'll get credit as an official tester. So like c6 says, better disconnect from the internet when you install. Connect later after you lock down some of the windows and doors.

 

[Janus67]

what hypervisor did you use? hyperv, virtualbox, etc?

 

[Audioaficionado]

VMWare Player 7. Workstation 11 VM according to the info properties. Next time I'll make sure the network is set to NOT connect on startup when I build the next VM.

BTW I cleaned the disk using diskpart and win10 still wouldn't install on it. You can manipulate it while in the installer. Delete, create new, create new of differing sizes, partition it, but it doesn't recognize it as an installable partition even though it created it

It's a 60GB RAID0 striped slice from two Intel Matrix RAID1 mirrors. I had win7 on it for years. If win10 can see and manipulate, but not install on it, then that's a huge bug that needs to be fixed. It's not a driver issue or it would see two 30GB partitions or not see it at all.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

There's no way to disable Windows updates? I know I had no problem doing so before. I believe it was setup during the last parts of my installation.

As for setting up a PC name or User Name, I don't want no dam stinkin email showing up. I want a name I choose.

Not liking this feeling at all. Its almost everything is being crossed and interconnected to a MS account. Maybe they're doing this for the "device" registration to make sure its a legit PC for a legit copy. Who knows but I don't like it one bit.

P.S.- The hell with cloud computing too! I don't want any data on someone else's rig while the masses is as clueless as a rock and have accepted all these technologies. If only they knew and understood it all we won't see a change for a long time or ever for that matter.

 

[c627627]

In Windows 10 Pro - yes there is a way, and it should be done *before* you connect the computer to the internet for the first time after installation of Windows 10 Pro.
In Windows 10 Home - there is no way - you need to wait until someone legitimate and verified figures out a way, it may be a while, I'm sure someone somewhere will figure out how to force-disable updates.

The same goes for email, do not sign in with your Microsoft account, and you will be able to choose. If you sign in with a Microsoft account - it will be chosen for you.

Can people please use the official feedback app inside Windows 10 Beta to submit to Microsoft a request that we be given an OPTION to choose the user name instead of being assigned one after we sign in with a Microsoft account? My old hard drive on which I installed Windows 10 Beta died right after I submitted my first batch of feedback to Microsoft - ha!
I did make a drive image of my Windows 10 Beta install, I wonder if I should reimage onto a different Hard Drive before or after the RTM comes out?


As far as the Pro version goes GTXJackBauer, things can be disabled in options, I will be posting details on how to do all that as soon as the final version of Windows 10 comes out... I'd like to control when and what gets updated, and change defaults, all will be well as long as they gave us options to turn all that stuff off... and I think they did in Pro.

Cloud computing can be turned off, even in Beta it's not mandatory... so all's good so far unless you get Windows 10 Home instead of Pro, but there is NO WAY in my humble opinion mandatory updates on Home will stand. It will stand as much as Metro did. Someone somewhere will make a program to disable updates on Home one day soon. Then someone else will make a malware version of that program and we need to make sure we can tell the legitimate version from malware version of Home Update Disabler... but I would bet the farm someone somewhere will make a Home Update Disabler, just like they made Classic Shell to disable mandatory Metro.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

In Windows 10 Pro - yes there is a way, and it should be done *before* you connect the computer to the internet for the first time after installation of Windows 10 Pro.
In Windows 10 Home - there is no way - you need to wait until someone legitimate and verified figures out a way, it may be a while, I'm sure someone somewhere will figure out how to force-disable updates.

The same goes for email, do not sign in with your Microsoft account, and you will be able to choose. If you sign in with a Microsoft account - it will be chosen for you.

Can people please use the official feedback app inside Windows 10 Beta to submit to Microsoft a request that we be given an OPTION to choose the user name instead of being assigned one after we sign in with a Microsoft account? My old hard drive on which I installed Windows 10 Beta died right after I submitted my first batch of feedback to Microsoft - ha!
I did make a drive image of my Windows 10 Beta install, I wonder if I should reimage onto a different Hard Drive before or after the RTM comes out?


As far as the Pro version goes GTXJackBauer, things can be disabled in options, I will be posting details on how to do all that as soon as the final version of Windows 10 comes out... I'd like to control when and what gets updated, and change defaults, all will be well as long as they gave us options to turn all that stuff off... and I think they did in Pro.

Cloud computing can be turned off, even in Beta it's not mandatory... so all's good so far unless you get Windows 10 Home instead of Pro, but there is NO WAY in my humble opinion mandatory updates on Home will stand. It will stand as much as Metro did. Someone somewhere will make a program to disable updates on Home one day soon. Then someone else will make a malware version of that program and we need to make sure we can tell the legitimate version from malware version of Home Update Disabler... but I would bet the farm someone somewhere will make a Home Update Disabler, just like they made Classic Shell to disable mandatory Metro.

Thank you for this. I'm a "PRO" guy. Once you go Pro you can never go back! Isn't that the saying..........

 

[Audioaficionado]

I didn't get to choose my local account name and there was no option to choose one during the installation. It polled the host OS and found out the user name and assumed I was the same. No biggie as I'm using my MS insider account name now and I would have used the same name on the local account anyway.

Here's something interesting. It's keeping tabs on your activities and even though I've had the VM running 24/7, it knows I've only been doing things for a few of those hours.

 

[c627627]

Well, obviously the most important part of the question is what happens when there is no host OS, when we are running Windows 10 alone as most of us will.

That's when all that kicks in, as much as I want to directly help you now, it's hard to start compiling a list of options to be disabled because they may change things around overnight from Beta to RTM. But rest assured as soon as RTM is available, there will be a thread here with a comprehensive list of what and how to disable, I've done that for every single operating system since Windows 9x/Me! You can cherry pick from the list whatever you want, I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, I am looking forward to it.

For now, letting it do whatever it wants on a test machine is a good way to handle Win 10 Beta, it's still a bit rough in the way it "feels" but Microsoft irons these things out for the RTM release, for whatever reason there's always a big difference in the RTM over their previous Betas, even though the last Beta should be close to RTM - RTM is always considerably smoother, it's as if they're holding off on applying turtle wax until RTM...


Hey it's June 19, I can't imagine there's much longer to go before the code goes gold, I really don't see how they can get Windows 10 to stores without giving it at least a month to prep packaging and marketing. If the release date is officialy the last week of July, then my bet is on next week, with the week after that possibly being the case if they push it to get a bug removed... I suspect they will close the project soon, unless someone can post how else they could meet the store availability dead line...

 

[Audioaficionado]

Well I've submitted my first feedback. I figure to be submitting many more in the near future.



Oops! Should of mentioned my build#

 

[petteyg359]

Here's something interesting. It's keeping tabs on your activities and even though I've had the VM running 24/7, it knows I've only been doing things for a few of those hours.

That's not specific to Windows 10, or even Windows. You can get a rough estimate of how much a person actually uses a system just by looking at event logs. If there's a 10 hour break with nothing logged, you can bet the user wasn't actually using the system during those ten hours.

 

['Cuda340]

Upcoming changes to Windows 10 Insider Preview builds
June 19, 2015 by Gabe Aul


Hi everyone, we’re hard at work on the next builds that we’ll send out to you for PC and Mobile. I don’t have an update on timing for that quite yet, but I do have some important changes to tell you about that are coming with the next PC build as we get ready for July 29th.

Microsoft Account notifications

If you don’t have your Microsoft Account (MSA) connected to your PC, starting in the next build you’ll start seeing notifications asking you to do so. You’ll need to connect the MSA that you registered for the Windows Insider Program with (and accepted the “Microsoft Windows Insider Program Agreement”) in order to continue receiving new Windows 10 Insider Preview builds (both Fast and Slow rings) from Windows Update. If you already have your MSA connected to your account on your PC, then you’re all set. We’re introducing new infrastructure in Windows Update to help us deliver new builds more effectively to Windows Insiders, and ensure that we’re flighting builds to people who have registered and opted in to the program. Connecting your MSA also allows seamless access to Windows Insider-only functionality in the Windows Feedback app and Insider Hub too.

This change is for the Windows Insider Program ONLY, and is specific to how we’re delivering the Insider Preview builds. Once available on July 29th, you do not need an MSA to upgrade Windows 10 on your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PCs if they are not receiving Insider Preview builds. You will not be required to use an MSA on new PCs that come with Windows 10 preinstalled or clean installed from media. Some features in Windows 10 do require an MSA to use, such as downloading apps in the Windows Store.

Getting the final release on July 29th

Windows Insiders running the Windows 10 Insider Preview (Home and Pro editions) with their registered MSA connected to their PC will receive the final release build of Windows 10 starting on July 29th. This will come as just another flight. I’ve gotten a lot of questions from Windows Insiders about how this will work if they clean installed from ISO. As long as you are running an Insider Preview build and connected with the MSA you used to register, you will receive the Windows 10 final release build and remain activated. Once you have successfully installed this build and activated, you will also be able to clean install on that PC from final media if you want to start over fresh.

If you are running the Enterprise edition of the Windows 10 Insider Preview, to upgrade to the final release of Windows 10 Enterprise you will need to download and activate it from Volume Licensing Service Center. As a reminder, the Enterprise edition of the Windows 10 Insider Preview is not eligible for the free upgrade offer and can be upgraded to the final release of Windows 10 through an active Software Assurance agreement.

Stay with us as a Windows Insider

As we’ve announced before, the Windows Insider Program will continue even after we release Windows 10 on July 29th. Windows Insiders will continue to receive future flights as we begin to work on the next release immediately after Windows 10 ships. You’ll get to see the latest Windows fixes, features, and updates and give us feedback. So stay with us! Of course, we’ll provide you an option to leave the program and stay on the final build if you choose: but we hope that we’ll continue to provide you great reasons to remain a Windows Insider.

Insider Hub & Windows Feedback app

Because we’re getting ready for the final release, we’re removing a few things we don’t expect to ship to everyone. So starting with the next build, the Insider Hub will no longer be pre-installed. Windows Insiders can reinstall the Insider Hub app through the following steps:

*Go to Settings, System, Apps & features
*Click Manage optional features then Add a feature
*Select the Insider Hub entry (the list is in alphabetical order) and click Install.

You will have to go through this process with each build we flight prior to the final release on July 29th, but once we start flighting new builds after July 29th it will be preinstalled again.
The Windows Feedback app will continue to be included in builds and in the final release. But as I noted above, the Windows Feedback app will have functionality specific to Windows Insiders who are registered for the program with their MSA connected to their PC.

One more thing – Here comes Microsoft Edge!

In the next build we release to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring, the “Project Spartan” name will officially change to Microsoft Edge. One result of this naming means that the Microsoft Edge app has a new app ID. This will cause any favorites, cookies, history and Reading list items that you had saved in the Project Spartan app to be lost after upgrading from a previous Windows 10 Insider Preview build. If you want to keep these, you will need to back up your favorites before the next flight! To save your favorites, follow these steps before upgrading to the next build we release (do it now):

*Copy your favorites from %localappdata%/Packages/Microsoft.Windows.Spartan_cw5n1h2txyewy/AC/Spartan/User/Default/Favorites.
*Save them to %userprofile%/Favorites.
*After upgrading to the next build open Microsoft Edge, choose Settings, and you’ll see an option to import favorites from another browser. Choose Internet Explorer to import the favorites you saved in your %userprofile% directory into Microsoft Edge.

We expect to have new Insider Preview builds for you soon and think you’ll be excited about the continuing progress we’re making on Windows 10. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks,
g

Source

 

[Audioaficionado]

After they go gold I want my OS on a hard drive, not a VM. If RTM still won't install on my 60GB partition, I suppose I'll have to get another SSD and a PCIe SATA III controller card to run them full speed.

 

['Cuda340]

Upcoming changes to Windows 10 Insider Preview builds [UPDATED 6/22]

Upcoming changes to Windows 10 Insider Preview builds [UPDATED 6/22]
June 19, 2015 by Gabe Aul


This post was updated at 12:00pm on June 22nd.

Over the weekend we saw a few articles about this post and confusion that it caused. I’m sorry for that and want to take a moment to clear up a few things. This is a very complex topic, since we’re managing:

**Multiple versions of Windows
**A new approach to how we are building and delivering Windows
**And a new preview program that is different than what we’ve done in the past.

Let me start by restating very clearly that Windows 10, whether you get it on 7/29 or whether you got it in a preview form through the Windows Insider Program is intended to be installed on Genuine Windows devices.

Friday’s post was intended to clarify how the Windows Insider Program will proceed, and in attempting to do so created some unintended confusion. I sincerely apologize for that and will try to separate them more clearly below in order to provide more clarity.

The crux of it is this:

**Do you want to continue as a Windows Insider and keep getting preview builds after 7/29?
**Or do you want to upgrade your Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system that has been getting Windows 10 Insider Preview builds to the 7/29 release and stop being an Insider?

“I want to continue as a Windows Insider!” If you want to continue as a Windows Insider past 7/29 there is nothing you need to do. You’re already opted in and receiving builds in the Fast or Slow ring depending upon your selection. This is prerelease software and is activated with a prerelease key. Each individual build will expire after a time, but you’ll continue to receive new builds so by the time an older prerelease build expires you’ll have received a new one. Since we’re continuing the Windows Insider Program you’ll be able to continue receiving builds and those builds will continue to be activated under the terms of the Windows Insider Program. We provide ISOs for these builds for recovery from any significant problems, but they are still pre-release software. As part of the program we’ll upgrade Insiders to what is for all intents and purposes the same build as what other customers will get on 7/29, but that will be just another build for Insiders, and those who stay in the program will simply get the next build after as well.

“I want to opt out of the Windows Insider Program on 7/29.” If you decide to opt-out of the program and upgrade to the 7/29 build you will be subject to exactly the same terms and conditions that govern the offer* that was extended to all Genuine Windows 7 and 8.1 customers. This is not a path to attain a license for Windows XP or Windows Vista systems. If your system upgraded from a Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 license it will remain activated, but if not, you will be required to roll back to your previous OS version or acquire a new Windows 10 license. If you do not roll back or acquire a new license the build will eventually expire.

It is our hope that the vast majority of Windows Insiders who have been with us since we announced the program last year will continue forward, and it was in that light that we authored the blog post about upcoming changes to the program. I regret that this caused confusion about who was or was not eligible for the Windows 10 upgrade offer, but hope that this helps to clarify.

Thanks,
g

Source

 

[torin3]

Ok, not a free license.

Oh well, at least I'll get a chance to try out the Enterprise version at work. See how well it works for us there.

 

['Cuda340]

For clarification:

Original blog posted in post #431 of this thread was updated at 1:00pm on June 20th by Microsoft.

Their blog was updated, not post #431 of this thread.




Full Scoop (already posted above):

Original blog post which was updated at 1:00pm on June 20th

 

[Audioaficionado]

So insiders don't get the official RTM Gold build for free. They get it as yet another build in a continuing process of being beta testers. It will always have that 'Evaluation Copy' tag in the lower right corner.

 

[c627627]

No time to read yet... Can someone post the Cliffs Notes of what is going on...

 

[torin3]

No time to read yet... Can someone post the Cliffs Notes of what is going on...

The most recent thing?

Microsoft said something that sounded like participants in the Windows Insider program would get a full version of Windows 10 for free. Then they clarified that what they actually meant was that you could keep participating in the Windows Insider program if you wanted, or you could use up a Win 7 / Win 8 code to convert it to a full final version of Win 10.

 

[Audioaficionado]

Let me start by restating very clearly that Windows 10, whether you get it on 7/29 or whether you got it in a preview form through the Windows Insider Program is intended to be installed on Genuine Windows devices.

Exactly what is a 'Genuine Windows device'?

The crux of it is this:

Do you want to continue as a Windows Insider and keep getting preview builds after 7/29?
Or do you want to upgrade your Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 system that has been getting Windows 10 Insider Preview builds to the 7/29 release and stop being an Insider?

“I want to continue as a Windows Insider!” If you want to continue as a Windows Insider past 7/29 there is nothing you need to do. You’re already opted in and receiving builds in the Fast or Slow ring depending upon your selection. This is prerelease software and is activated with a prerelease key. Each individual build will expire after a time, but you’ll continue to receive new builds so by the time an older prerelease build expires you’ll have received a new one. Since we’re continuing the Windows Insider Program you’ll be able to continue receiving builds and those builds will continue to be activated under the terms of the Windows Insider Program. We provide ISOs for these builds for recovery from any significant problems, but they are still pre-release software. As part of the program we’ll upgrade Insiders to what is for all intents and purposes the same build as what other customers will get on 7/29, but that will be just another build for Insiders, and those who stay in the program will simply get the next build after as well.

“I want to opt out of the Windows Insider Program on 7/29.” If you decide to opt-out of the program and upgrade to the 7/29 build you will be subject to exactly the same terms and conditions that govern the offer* that was extended to all Genuine Windows 7 and 8.1 customers. This is not a path to attain a license for Windows XP or Windows Vista systems. If your system upgraded from a Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 license it will remain activated, but if not, you will be required to roll back to your previous OS version or acquire a new Windows 10 license. If you do not roll back or acquire a new license the build will eventually expire.

It is our hope that the vast majority of Windows Insiders who have been with us since we announced the program last year will continue forward, and it was in that light that we authored the blog post about upcoming changes to the program. I regret that this caused confusion about who was or was not eligible for the Windows 10 upgrade offer, but hope that this helps to clarify.

Thanks,
g

So no free lunch for 'Insider/beta testers' after all. You have to pay for win 10 one way or another.

 

[Janus67]

Yeah, a little unfortunate. I haven't decided quite yet what I plan to do. I have some dreamspark licenses so I may just attach either the win7 or win8 one and call it a day at this point for that and not have to worry about my random info being sent to M$ from the tech preview.

For what it's worth, been running it now for a few days with no real issues. So thumbs-up there.