Win10 build 10074: What’s new, what’s unknown

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	TOP STORY Win10 build 10074: What’s new, what’s unknown
	By Woody Leonhard With the recent release of build 10074, Windows 10 Technical Preview should be nearing the feature-complete phase. But while there’s lots to see in the latest build, there’s also much that’s still unknown. Here’s a look at what’s new, what’s been killed, what’s likely, and what’s still obscure.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/win10-build-10074-whats-new-whats-unknown (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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	TOP STORY Win10 build 10074: What’s new, what’s unknown
	By Woody Leonhard With the recent release of build 10074, Windows 10 Technical Preview should be nearing the feature-complete phase. But while there’s lots to see in the latest build, there’s also much that’s still unknown. Here’s a look at what’s new, what’s been killed, what’s likely, and what’s still obscure.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/win10-build-10074-whats-new-whats-unknown (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Hi
I am a freelance IT technician in Australia and some of my customers have received an email (see below) stating that the free upgrade Windows 10 customers will automatically go on a monthly fee system for the use of Windows 10. It also warns that non-payment will result in reduced functionality.

(Email Text Starts)
Subject: A warning about Windows 10

Microsoft aims to suck consumers into a web that many will find difficult to get out from.

Microsoft is getting worse than Apple, now with the introduction of subscription software. Adobe has tried it and and are now offering both subscription and stand alone software. Maybe it is time to look at Chrome as an alternative to Windows.

So the answer is unless you have plenty of money, DO NOT TAKE UP THE FREE OFFER TO UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10

Stick with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1

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Around the 27th of July Microsoft will start banging their drum as they offer Windows 10 for free, millions are expected to download the new software to their computers and every new computer will come with the new OS installed.

But as they say in this world nothing comes for free and in Microsoft’s case the free 12 month software licence will terminate in July 2016 which is when Microsoft will dumb down the capability of PC’s unless you fork out a monthly or annual licence fee which could be as high as $10 a month per PC in a home.
The unlock key to how Microsoft will try and lock in consumers to paying monthly for the privilege of having Windows on their PC were outlined this week by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella when he predicted that Microsoft will lift their cloud based revenues from a current run rate of $6.3 billion for the their cloud services such as Office 365 to $20 Billion by June 2018.
Last week, Microsoft said sales of Windows to PC makers to install on their machines dropped 19 percent for the Pro version and 26 percent for other versions in the most recent quarter.
Meanwhile at Google executives are sitting and waiting as they further develop their Google Docs and free Chrome operating system.
Already several big Companies in Australia have dumped Windows from their PC’s ahead of the introduction of Windows 10.
Woolworths already has 25,000 employees operating on the Google OS. So has Clipsal and Sound retail group Addicted to Audio.
Nadella announced the run-rate goal for cloud services at a meeting last night with analysts during the software maker’s Build conference in San Francisco.
Run rate refers to quarterly revenue presented on an annualized basis.
Microsoft wants to get a billion people using its Windows 10 operating system before they throw the charge switch in 2016.
Windows chief Terry Myerson said that Microsoft has developed tools to make it easier to convert applications originally programmed for Google’s Android to Windows phones and those written for Apple’s iOS devices to Windows gadgets without rewriting the bulk of the code.
Microsoft is trying to use Windows 10, to jump-start the personal-computer market and to entice more tablet and smartphone buyers to choose Windows models. If they achieve this they are in an excellent position to restrict PC operations or restrict access to certain services running on the Windows OS unless a consumer or business signs up to pay for the privilege of using their Windows OS.
The company is also betting that easier development of mobile apps and the ability to repurpose work done for other operating systems will get more engineers to build Windows programs, which in turn could help woo users back to the platform they have been dumping in favour of Android and Chrome.
“One thing we haven’t had — a great Windows release could drive people to refresh their PC,” Myerson said in an interview. “I see people with these Windows 7 PCs and I look at a great new 2-in-1 device with touch and I think there’s so much more you could have. I’m a little more optimistic.”
With Windows 10, Microsoft is introducing what it calls Universal Apps, which work regardless of the size of the device — though developers will have to add code if they want to tweak the programs to only show certain things on, say, an Xbox, or to make use of 3D holograms using HoloLens technology being developed by Microsoft.
Microsoft said companies such as Disney, Netflix, Evernote, and Box are creating Windows 10 Universal apps.
For Windows 10, Microsoft will have one app store regardless of whether users are on PCs, tablets or phones and will add the ability to pay for apps through customers’ wireless carriers — an advantage in countries where fewer customers have credit cards, Myerson said.
Nadella also demonstrated additions for Office software, including functions from SAP SE and LinkedIn. and a service for Uber. that lets customers summon a ride based on appointments in their Outlook calendar. It grabs their location from Outlook as well.
What Microsoft is aiming to revive the Windows franchise with Windows 10 by giving software away fror free, and 12 months on when consumers have got use to the new sofware start charging consumers.
In the browser market Explorer has been smashed by both Google Chrome and Firefox now the Company wants consumers to start using their new called Edge.
New features in Windows 10 will constantly prompt consumers to start using Edge and their doomed search engine.
Edge Browser
The program has a design that blends some aspects of Windows 8 with the older, more popular Windows 7’s appearance. It adds a new browser, which the company said Wednesday will be called Microsoft Edge, to succeed Internet Explorer. The update to Windows will also bring Cortana to PC desktops, and will have touch-enabled Office applications such as Word and Excel built in for smartphones and tablets.

Sales of Windows are suffering along with a declining PC market, after corporate customers upgraded new machines last year because Microsoft was ending support for the 13-year-old Windows XP. That buying cycle has petered out and global PC shipments dropped 5.2 percent in the first quarter, according to researcher Gartner Inc.

(Email Text Ends)

This appears to me to be a false rumour.

[*]Have you noticed anything similar?
[*]What is your opinion on this matter? Can you clarify?

Kind Regards
Ken Farlow
Cornerstone Computer Connections[/TD]
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some of my customers have received an email stating that the free upgrade Windows 10 customers will automatically go on a monthly fee system for the use of Windows 10.

From Apple or Google?

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At the end of your article, you state, “if the new OS ends up being a, uh, “service,” there’ll be no need for a final, fully finished product.”

I think this blog post (http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/) makes that very clear:

“We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.
And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers.”

As a developer of apps for Windows, I don’t herald this as great news, but rather a harbinger of things to come. Maybe things will get better for windows development, or maybe windows dev will start acting more like the slushy landscape of web development. That we will need to do things differently is patently obvious – we’ll have to start coding for “features”, just like in web dev. When you start your app up, can you use the new 128-bit libraries, or must you use the 64-bit counterparts? Can you leverage the hew holographic tech, or gracefully downgrade to plain 3D renderings?

The times, it has been said, are a changin’, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it.

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I’d liked to think that one of their major focus’s is security. I didn’t see any mention of that.

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alright- a few concerns about the new OS- one, I want my current start menu- don’t like all the new fangled start menus- mine looks like windows 98 now- and would like to keep it that way- with control panel fly out menu- I want a truly classical view for start menu, folders, IE etc- also, I understand there are ‘phone home’ things in the new OS? No?

you said “And because much of Windows 10 is, in fact, made up of Windows apps, the OS itself could change rapidly.”

See- I don’t want my OS changing constantly on me- I don’t want to have to keep relearning everything because someone decides for me that a service or program would ‘work better’ if this that or the other thing were changed- I finally got used to windows 98- knew how to navigate through various menus etc- then it gets changed , have to relearn where everything is- then it gets changed again to windows 7- had to relearn where everything was- look up hacks to change certain features back to how I liked it- etc- now we’re talking about a new OS that is going to keep changing things at whim on us?

I dunno- I like things the way I like them-

[[The Start menu retains its now-familiar layout (Figure 1), with a Win7-like list of programs on the left and fancy live tiles on the right.]]

I understand that there will be no way to add control panel with a fly out sub menu like windows 7- and although I know you can delete live tiles, I would much prefer menu based second column like in windows 7 – will that be available?

From another article [[Continum is an on-the-fly mode for 2 in 1 devices that can automatically change mode if it detects there is suddenly no keyboard attached.]] http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/10-great-new-features-in-windows-10-1267365

Which is important, because just the other day, I was typing away, took a little beak, looked down and my keyboard was gone- vanished- then it reappeared sdconds later- I sure wish I had contium to save the day

[[Desktop interface overhaul]]

Really? Who said I wanted an overhaul? I like my uncluttered minimalist desktop with tiny icons now- I don’t want apps running all over the place- floating all over the desktop-

Please Microsoft- leave the desktop alone, and the menus and the classic look- At least give us an option to keep windows 7 look completely- without mucking with menus etc- I don’t like your ‘new and improved’ versions- I like my current minimalist look and menu driven start menus and basic plain vanilla windows, browsers etc

And just one other note- there is talk that windows 10 might be the ‘last major upgrade’ apparently meaning it’s the last os you’ll have to buy- but certainly microsoft is going ot have to keep making money- so how are they going to be doing this? By doing what adobe did and forcing everyone into ‘renting’ their software by the month?

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Windows 7 allows you to do a full system image backup. Then, using a “rescue CD” restore the backup, even on another drive installed in the same computer. Being able to restore the entire system has been a godsend to me dozens of times. Windows 7 also has the ability to resize, create partitions, which is great should you have a multi-terabyte hard drive. These tasks I’ve done many times. In fact, it was Woody that taught me how to do them. Are these abilities available with Windows 10? If so, how?

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Woody said, “The Start menu retains its now-familiar layout (Figure 1), with a Win7-like list of programs on the left and fancy live tiles on the right.”

Sorry, that is incorrect. There is *no* “Win7-like list of programs” on the left. There is a list of Most Used programs like Win7, but that as far as it goes. If you ask for ‘All Apps’ it gives the same god-awful alphabetic program list that Win8.1 gives. No folders, no categorization. I don’t even see a way of re-sorting it to types or most recently installed, at least (and I really mean at least) Win8.1 gave you that.

I want the *folders* of programs (or links) back! The example I give is trying to find the DVD burner program you know you installed, but can’t remember the name but know that “CD” and “DVD” isn’t in the name! How the heck are you supposed to ask Cortana to run that program. You’ll know it if you see it, but looking through a list of 200 to 300 items (all with their pretty, touch-sized icons!) is not going to cut it.

Windows 7 will be the new XP. If Microsoft wants to go down the road to mobile only apps, they can do that; even Apple (!) knows better than that. OSX iOS! When one has to use third-party aps to make an OS useable, there is trouble ahead.

I am well aware why Microsoft is doing this (Phones/Tablets are selling, Desktops aren’t) but I can’t understand why Microsoft is turning away from business and their needs. A server doesn’t need touch, or big live icons, or voice recognition.

I guess they don’t want to go the way of IBM, but I think the alternative is going the way to Blackberry.
-bb

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From build 10074 – Image backup was “deprecated” in Windows 8.1, but you could still find it. I found image backup through the control panel (not ‘settings’ – which MS is trying to replace the control panel with) and ‘System Image Backup’ is still there. (control panel / system and security / file history)
But no searching found it – I doubt MS will keep it, too old school. (Do you backup your Tablet or Phone? No! everything is in the cloud.) Maybe third-party utilities will come to the rescue.
The disk management tool is still in build 10074, but again, it’s the same version that is in Win7. Who knows if it will survive – do you format partitions on the tablet?

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People are talking about the Start menu having glass and shading, but the elephant in the room is functionality. It has the power button in a bad place (likely accidental click). It emphasises “Most Used” programs, which are obviously already going to be on your taskbar. It hides Windows Accessories programs, which I use, but foregrounds apps,, which I never use. It keeps some things like “Documents” fixed in place, which I never use. Bottom line is that that The Start button/menu was the most criticised aspect of Win8/8.1, yet they still aren’t close to getting it right. It needs extensive customisability.

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Who ever heard of a service being free in the business world, at least over time? What other Microsoft services are free vs. paid? My assumption of their point is that Windows as a service will be like Office 365, a paid service. Hope I’m wrong.

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I suspect they are going to a ‘rent’ process like adobe photoshop is now- Yup- either pay monthly extortion fee/ err I mean rental price, or leave, seems to be the direction companies are now going in- it used to be that the customer came first- now we’ve moved into a ‘company first customer an afterthought it seems- I hope this is not hte3 intention of Microsoft too-

Martin- I too hate the new style of start menu- I just want text based links in the menu like windows 98-7 have- and I certainly don’t want tiles floating all over my desktop- just want the shortcut icons like before- small, quick, convenient – Everytime windows updates, it takes me forever hacking it to get the look I want- I don’t want some programmer deciding what I for me- constantly changing things on me, forcing me to have to relearn the program over and over again-

One other concern, are all the aps going to be ‘phoning home’ to Redmond to inform them whether they are up to date or not? Used to be you could turn off this phone home behavior, but seems like companies are implementing phone home processes now that can’t be turned off/disabled- I don’t want to be moving to a cloud based system either (another major reason I didn’t upgrade to adobe CC)- is that the direction MS is moving? I certainly hope not

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All of this is moot. Windows 10 is no longer, and being replaced by … Windows. No more version indicator (10, 8.1, 8, 7 et al).

Once on Win10 (yeah, how many are really going to do that), all change will be forced upon you. Your choices are soon to be limited to EXACTLY what Microsoft makes FOR YOU.

Long term, I suspect what it will cost users is a choice that Microsoft will make for you as well. Then, like now, you will either pay or get off their bandwagon.

Now it makes sense that ms will upgrade previous versions, i.e. 7, 8, and 8.1 for “free.” In my part of the world, nothing is free.

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Well it looks like Microsoft is going to force us to go to a place a lot of us would rather not go eventually. There is a reason I do not use Apple products because their attitude is use what we give you and you will take it when we give it to you and you will love it. I don’t play that way at all. I like OPTIONS and CHOICES.

I am also not a fan of anything in the cloud either. I want my programs/files on my desktop/external harddrives where I have access to all of them. I know I am old school, but they call it a personal computer for a reason.

I work on my desktop computer every day and as of yet have not found a need for the use of a tablet or much of a real use for a smartphone (although I do have one). So not everyone is going the way of the tablets and smartphones, although I know a lot of people are. But I need something I can work from and with and so far my desktop is the one thing that can do all that I need it to do.

Automatic forced updates on Win10 is the big killer for me though. With Microsoft’s track record of late with their updates, being forced to take them as soon as they come out is going to leave some people with bricks I am afraid. They just don’t have a good record when it comes to issuing good updates the first time out.

I am sticking with Win7 for as long as I can and just wait and see what happens. And to think I was waiting to purchase a laptop after Win10 came out… not now.

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Yep, I hate the cloud/privacy issues, the app-ification of Windows, the start menu, the reduction in personal control. The one thing that previously distinguished Windows was easy customisation.

However, I see two reasons why Win10 might be a success for MS:

1. Tech writers loving the new features. I can see this happening all over the net. I call it Feature Fascination. They will come out in praise for the final version by highlighting the new features, and the punters will swallow it, especially since some of the new features are good.

2. Consumers loving convenience. Look at the ludicrous level of privacy invasion happening now. Google and Facebook knows everything about us and uses that info to target ads according to our personal idiosyncrasies. It’s like soul-sucking. If we were told up-front that this was the plan, we wouldn’t have accepted it. But it’s been a gradual erosion of privacy that succeeded due to it being covert and the products being convenient and “free”. It’s getting to the point of The Matrix becoming real. We’re all getting plugged in slowly. HoloLens and OneDrive might one day replace reality!

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