Windows 10 - Free to Win 7/8/Phone users

[lexandro]

Microsoft has revealed that Windows 10 will bring its voice-controlled assistant Cortana to PCs.

It also unveiled a headset that it said would one day project the operating system over views of the real world.

In addition, the firm announced that the OS upgrade would be offered free of charge for devices running Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Phone.
The offer, which is limited to the Windows 10's first year of release, may aid its adoption.

It marks a change in strategy from Microsoft's previous policy of charging for major updates, and could help avoid a repeat of the relatively slow uptake of Windows 8.

Source: BBC News

[The Dude]

Give me desktop or give me death

I hope i never have to adopt the metro ui

win7 foreva!

[lexandro]

Win7 user myself, but a free new OS?

Hell yeah I take that. I will still have my retail Win7 to fall back on if it goes pear shaped.

[FunkZ]

I think I paid around $100 for upgrade to Win 7. Then Win 8 upgrade was only $35 and now Win 10 for free. I like this trend.

[The Dude]

Originally Posted by lexandro

Win7 user myself, but a free new OS?

Hell yeah I take that. I will still have my retail Win7 to fall back on if it goes pear shaped.

I guess I could snap up a couple copies and sell them once the free upgrade policy expires. I'm still baffled by M$ with the new ui. Why cant we have an option? If we wanted less choices in computing we would just buy apple products instead.

[jbmcmillan]

Originally Posted by The Dude

I guess I could snap up a couple copies and sell them once the free upgrade policy expires. I'm still baffled by M$ with the new ui. Why cant we have an option? If we wanted less choices in computing we would just buy apple products instead.

Have you looked at the tech preview yet a lot has changed from 8.1 not totally like 7 but not totally foreign either?I'll probably grab it on 8.1 now.Things change.I hope they don't go subscription based and make it clear on release if they are going that way.I suspect that's what is going to happen making it a free upgrade and all.

[AMDGUY]

http://www.engadget.com/video/5min/518612322/

A little preview. I think it looks pretty good.
Have to try it & see.

[The Dude]

Live tiles are to me like behemoth icons that are occupying my clock cycles and memory banks

There's no media center unless you buy a upgrade which kills htpc applications

The apps open in fullscreen by default? is this a real thing? i frequently use open office, adobe x, firefox, calculator, and have a windows explorer window open simultaneously and need to see them all to cross reference info. I'm sure this is a setting but still is a lousy feature, f11 works fine.

There's a whole list of gripes but, I also have this feeling that the way the os functions makes it a resource hog or potentially sluggish.

I just don't know what I'll do in the future when win7 becomes obsolete. I hope they give us a traditional option again one day. Win 8+ just seems like a childrens or begginers operating system and not for intelegent adults.

[AMDGUY]

I was wondering about the media center, that's too bad.
They say the apps open in fullscreen only in tablet mode.

[Slizzo]

Guys, watch the stream of the event!

I'll be getting it for my main right that has 8.1, my TV rig that has 7, and my Lumia 1520.

Also, I suggest listening to (or watching) the latest Windows Weekly podcast.

[The Dude]

I just feel like i was stabbed in the back with windows 8 and successors. I have been an avid ms fanboy and i am scorned.

hell hath no fury.

I doubt i'll ever pay for a ms product again, not to say i wont use them...

[lexandro]

I never use media center so not having it is fine by me. Plenty of programs to download that can do the same thing for free anyway.

But I dont like the look of that system tbh. The fact is on a desktop I am not going to have touch screen. So there better be a way to turn off touch and configure the system to no have as much crap on it. And to make the interface less touch oriented.

Edit* Cyber........you messing with my posts again you naughty moderator?

[XZero450]

Windows 8 was an impossible sell to the people and businesses for which I am employed by on the weekends.. These are users that have not always adopted a smart phone yet, and the transition from XP Non-classic to Windows 7 was hard enough.

In fact, many of these would not upgrade out of XP until support was officially discontinued. It will be a much easier to upgrade to Windows 10 because it wont be as large of an adjustment, and it will be a free upgrade.

[Nagoshi]

Originally Posted by The Dude

Live tiles are to me like behemoth icons that are occupying my clock cycles and memory banks Your CPU is pretty fast Besides you probably dont need all of your 2500K power while looking at what to open next. Win8 has better memory management than Win7 too.

There's no media center unless you buy a upgrade which kills htpc applications That one sucks, but it's not like there isn't any other HTPC choices around. Wasn't Win8's HTPC upgrade like $10? It's not a whole lot to spend.

The apps open in fullscreen by default? is this a real thing? i frequently use open office, adobe x, firefox, calculator, and have a windows explorer window open simultaneously and need to see them all to cross reference info. I'm sure this is a setting but still is a lousy feature, f11 works fine. There's now a more-or-less official distinction between apps and softwares/programs. By apps I believe they mean the ones who comes from the App store, the "metro apps". Regular software/programs will probably open up like good old regular stuff.

There's a whole list of gripes but, I also have this feeling that the way the os functions makes it a resource hog or potentially sluggish. It actually shouldn't. Windows 8 is a breeze to run on many platforms. Then again my Netbook struggles, but it has an old, slow Atom 1.67 dualie and 1GB RAM that can barely run a full Win7 edition anyway.

I just don't know what I'll do in the future when win7 becomes obsolete. I hope they give us a traditional option again one day. Win 8+ just seems like a childrens or begginers operating system and not for intelegent adults. That wouldve been true a while back, but now everybody complains when things aren't where or as they expect it. This creates much negativeness about everything new coming out nowadays.

Threw in some thoughts in bold.

Just some food for thought... but people used to do complicated overclocking back in the days (now it's much easier) and they go through lengths of stuff to root their Android phones to possibly never install custom apps? And then I see everybody complaining about Win8 not having a start menu, which you can install for FREE from 30 seconds worth of Googling something as simple as "Windows 8 start menu" - and as a bonus, it's way more configurable than the "old" Windows start menu!

[jbmcmillan]

Just watched a video about 10 and apps won't open full screen unless you are in "tablet" mode and even in 8 there is an easy way to close apps with the traditional x in the top right.Even in tablet mode you still have access to the taskbar.So they have made changes enough so maybe I won't feel the need to use the Stardock start menu I have now.

[Slizzo]

Originally Posted by jbmcmillan

Just watched a video about 10 and apps won't open full screen unless you are in "tablet" mode and even in 8 there is an easy way to close apps with the traditional x in the top right.Even in tablet mode you still have access to the taskbar.So they have made changes enough so maybe I won't feel the need to use the Stardock start menu I have now.

One of my little quibbles with the Metro interface in Windows 8.1 is that the "X" doesn't actually close the app on your computer. It just closes the interface for the app. The app actually continues to run in the background (take a look at the task manager after "X"ing out of a Metro app).

[FunkZ]

I've been running Win 8.1 since the .1 came out. I never use the full screen Metro apps. I set the desktop as default on boot. I had to download Helmut's 7 Sidebar. I have to right-click the Windows button instead of left-click when I want to restart or shut down. Other than that it works pretty much like 7 did for me.

[AMDGUY]

I downloaded the latest preview & installed it on a spare hard drive.
Works great, no issues so far. A little different from 8.1, but I'm liking it so far.

[The Dude]

Okay okay, I'm being a dinosaur. I still greatly dislike the interface. I've played around with 8.1 at stores and I simply dislike the interface. I also do not understand why someone would want to touch their monitor. I'm not some kind of neat freak but fingerprints on a screen are yucky.

Tablets are tablets and PC's are PC's. Win 8 seems like forcing a tablet based os onto a desktop. Since tablets are basically just bigger smarter smart phones I feel like running win8 on a desktop PC gives you a pseudo smartphone with reduced (traditional desktop) functionality for advanced users.

I'm going to test this hypothesis by downloading the preview. Most likely I'll be back here eating my hat shortly.

[AMDGUY]

Well I think the main idea/goal of W10 is to be cross platform.
There is no Windows mobile/phone OS anymore.