Lets hope they again will offer a utility to turn off that upgrade prompt. Corporations asked and received it on the Windows 7 upgrade.

Update? Well I probably would.

The possible sad news for anyone who uses Windows 8.1?

I can't see any significant difference between 8.1 and 10 - no, I'm not into fashionable appearances - I'm a "what's under the hood" kind of man. Nor am I into "Apps". So don't expect some life changing experience.

My only experience of Windows 7 has been on some of the kids and grand-kids machines, and one located where I do voluntary work. All of course configured as "straight out of the box" which I find irritating.

That's just me of course.

I'll be surprised if anyone finds some significant technical difference. File copy under Win 10 is just as crappy at times as it is under Win 8.1

Sometimes starts out fine at speed, then slows down to 760 Kb and tells me there are now 7 days 23 hours 58 minutes left. At least in Win 10 so far you can cancel it. Not so in Win 8.1 where it will only resume and you need to restart the PC to kill it.

I'm not the only person who experiences that phenomenon. Then again on the Laptop/Notebook Windows 10 I haven't really seen the famous BSOD yet - now I've just jinxed myself.

Then again I throw around collections of video files running into tens of GB, and I have 16GB of RAM.

Behavior like that might cause some users to disable all Win updates... and that would not be a good thing.

Well, the good thing is that it's an Optional Update. If you're just doing normal updates this shouldn't end up on your machine. You'd have to choose to install it.

We have yet to see how this particular update performs. It could be innocuous.

Behavior like that might cause some users to disable all Win updates

i have already turned off updates on my machines. I have an appointment on saturday morning that would be a disaster if i woke up to an updated, unfamiliar, buggy computer. Been there, did that.

I can see sense in Microsoft making it easy for the vast majority to update their systems. On one platform is easier to manage, and less likely to suffer from fragmentation.

Far too many users know very little about the OS and the systems are out-of-date and are vulnerable to attacks. WebmasterWorld members are not the average user, so i doubt anyone here would let their system become infected with malware and to be vulnerable to attack.

The positives are that there appears to be no charge for this. The negatives are that some people may end up with machines that no longer perform satisfactory, and, as with Win 8, it was such a culture shock that many hated Windows.

As for the corporate user, i'm sure Microsoft will have some solution to avoid the constant nagging, as was done previously.

I haven't installed Win10 yet. I am very curious as to how Cloud intensive this release will be. The handwriting on the wall indicates that MS, like the ancient big iron of the old days IBM, wants to regain control of the desktop, ie, turn it into a terminal to their cloud services... thus back to a subscription/monthly rate where profits can be better managed for the corporation.

In any event, I will keep one or two of the machines on the older OS for some time after Win10 hits the market because there are some things I just don't want to put on the cloud.

I can see sense in Microsoft making it easy for the vast majority to update their systems.

I can see quite a lot of people becoming quite upset to find their Desktop will not run Windows 10.

Fact.

[ADDED] Machines chugging along with Windows 7 [barely, but the owner doesn't know it] will also probably not run Windows 10.

Very early in the beta testing of Windows 10, I had a polite rant on the appropriate Insiders Forum about the absence of an advisory tool.

Silence was the stern reply.

The handwriting on the wall indicates that MS, like the ancient big iron of the old days IBM, wants to regain control of the desktop, ie, turn it into a terminal to their cloud services...

Oh it's there - I promptly discarded it.

I never believe in entrusting your information to persons/corporations beyond your own personal control. External drives are relatively cheap. I have backups of backups, and no intention of entrusting them to third parties.

IanCP, you're right, there's going to be a great deal of annoyance, with the upgrade ending with a machine incapable of running on Win 10.
Its only going to drive those with old systems into trying alternatives, even if they have to learn a new ui. I can see google being ready to pick up new users.

I also agree about cloud-based systems. For some its easy to use, and they don't understand the security and privacy, nor do they realise its easy to do it themselves. Businesses see cloud-based as a way to make money. The only advantage to users is their data everywhere. Users will have to be vigilant over their security.

The company apparently plans to offer a variety of methods and updates, starting with system tray notifications and possibly including advertisements and on-screen updates, with links to downloaders and even an installer.

This is pretty much what Apple did two years ago with OSX Mavericks, their first free operating system.

But they had the advantage of being the hardware supplier, and the upgrade was (as I understand it) only offered on machines that were known to be capable of running it smoothly.

What they didn't make obvious, though, was the fact that for some users it would result in older third-party software failing completely and having to be replaced at significant expense.

Proceed with caution.

...

There's no real need to turn off updates. This is an Optional Update that provides an HTML page that offers to let you choose to update your system. You'll still want regular updates. Also, it won't install Windows 10 automatically. You'd have to choose to do that specifically.

It won't appear for enterprise users as their update to Windows 10 won't be free.

There's no real need to turn off updates.

i typically keep all auto updates turned off. There is nothing worse, in my business, than waking up to a buggy computer shortly before an important appointment. Been there, did that. I do updates when i have time to sit at the machines and make sure all my software is compatable with whatever update i just did. I have programs that are specific to my industry and they can't adapt to the updates until they have seen the updates so some lag time is necessary.

plus, what is optional today could be automatic tomorrow, without any warning from ms

What they didn't make obvious, though, was the fact that for some users it would result in older third-party software failing completely and having to be replaced at significant expense.

That was my greatest fear when about two years ago I went from Win XP Pro to Windows 8 Pro.

Then of course we went to Win 8.1, and now I have Windows 10 Preview.

I can happily report I have yet to have one problem with all my old favourite third party software not working on any of them.

I have since paid for some upgrades to that software because of newer modern features.

Since Windows 7 Microsoft has offered some compatibility for older software. In Windows 7 we had XP Mode, which was a fully licensed copy of XP that ran in a virtual machine. You could run software from that VM directly on your desktop like a native application. Windows 8 has compatibility mode that will help older programs run in the OS.

If those options don't work, then there's always the option to use something like VirtualBox to run a virtual machine with your old OS and software. That covers most use cases.

Bill, there is also my version of "Classic" which works seamlessly for me in Windows 10 Preview. Yep some things are slightly different...

Actually I don't know who are behind it "Classic" - but it works for me - not necessarily an endorsement on my behalf, just what works.

Back to the main game? My personal copy of Windows 10 Preview?

File copy behaves a touch better. The claimed SATA 3 and USB 3.0? Using our Aboriginal cousin's expression?

Dreamtime!

Unless SATA 3 and USB 3.0 only translate to 64 MB/s?

Yes it's an advanced Desktop I have built and use.

SATA 3 and USB 3.0? At even 64 MB/s - who can remember back to 1989 or whenever with the 5 1/4" floppies?

We're spoilt now, or at 73 I'm just old.