[OFFICIAL] Windows 10 Insider Program

By Ian S.
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Windows Technical Preview  

1031 members have voted

  1. 1. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being worst, 5 being best. What do you think of Windows 10 from the leaks so far?

    • 5.Great, best OS ever
      156
    • 4. Pretty Good, needs a lot of minor tweaks
      409
    • 3. OK, Needs a few major improvements, some minor ones
      168
    • 2. Fine, Needs a lot of major improvements
      79
    • 1.Poor, Needs too many improvements, all hope is lost, never going to use it
      41

  2. 2. Based on the recent leaks by Neowin and Winfuture.de, my next OS upgrade will be?

    • Windows 10
      720
    • Windows 8
      20
    • Windows 7
      48
    • Sticking with XP
      3
    • OSX Yosemite
      35
    • Linux
      24
    • Sticking with OSX Mavericks
      3

  3. 3. Should Microsoft give away Windows 10 for free?

    • Yes for Windows 8.1 Users
      305
    • Yes for Windows 7 and above users
      227
    • Yes for Vista and above users
      31
    • Yes for XP and above users
      27
    • Yes for all Windows users
      192
    • No
      71

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Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

Anyone managed to get the logon screen changed? I don't like the new hero wp as a background.

 

I haven't seen that done yet, someone might have to modify some login screen file like they would do for vista and 7, iirc.  Or maybe MS will just let us set what we want at some point.

Grand Master

Draggendrop Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I actually like the new log on screen.......much more appealing than a colored background for now.....and I also imagine someone will come up with a way to place your own there sometime.....So far build 10162 has been much better than 58/59 for me anyway....Cheers

Veteran

Ian S.

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I actually like the new log on screen.......much more appealing than a colored background for now.....and I also imagine someone will come up with a way to place your own there sometime.....So far build 10162 has been much better than 58/59 for me anyway....Cheers

For me the login screen is to fancy. I mean... it's a login screen not something users are going to be staring at all day. I definitely want to be able to customize the background that way I can set a solid color. that would be a unique feature to Windows.

 

In other news:

Interesting new sites from Microsoft:

http://www.msftdiagnostics.com/

 

and 

http://www.researchnews.com/

  • Draggendrop
  • Like 1
Mentor

dragontology

Posted
Posted

Question: For those running on a tablet, does Windows 10 default to tablet mode, or do you have to select it? and can you use desktop mode just fine, or are there caveats?

 

Happy with 10159 in my VM. I'm wondering if it's possible to have VMWare Player play a VM at startup. Kidding, but only partially. My wife really does not like 10, and I told her, I am moving forward with 10, and if she wants, I can build her a virtual Windows 7 that will run just as well as it does now (it's our installed OS). This is why I built with a Xeon 1231v3 instead of an i5 and went with 16GB of RAM instead of 8. My VM for Windows 10 is actually using 8GB and two of my cores, so it's performing wonderfully, especially with Intel's vt-x or whatever it's called, turned on. I think it's running just as well as it would be natively. Metro apps have a slight delay, but didn't they always? You stare at that bold, high contrast icon for a good five seconds before you get the app's UI.

 

We skipped Windows 8, so the paradigm shift from Windows as an offline OS to Windows as an online service is kind of jarring. I can roll with the punches, but my wife still thinks XP is the best Microsoft's done. And, like I've been saying, they've been shifting to online since Windows 97 (what I call the third edition of Windows 95 that bundled IE and had the IE-inspired file manager, in 1997

Grand Master

+Anarkii Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Are you guys able to download apps from the Store on build 10162? I tried downloading Wunderlist and it says: Try again later. Something happened on our end.

I tried with Phone Companion, it says incorrectly installed, so I uninstalled it and it keeps telling me when re-downloading unable to do so. Same error as you get.

Veteran

Studio384

Posted
Posted

Question: For those running on a tablet, does Windows 10 default to tablet mode, or do you have to select it? and can you use desktop mode just fine, or are there caveats?

 

Happy with 10159 in my VM. I'm wondering if it's possible to have VMWare Player play a VM at startup. Kidding, but only partially. My wife really does not like 10, and I told her, I am moving forward with 10, and if she wants, I can build her a virtual Windows 7 that will run just as well as it does now (it's our installed OS). This is why I built with a Xeon 1231v3 instead of an i5 and went with 16GB of RAM instead of 8. My VM for Windows 10 is actually using 8GB and two of my cores, so it's performing wonderfully, especially with Intel's vt-x or whatever it's called, turned on. I think it's running just as well as it would be natively. Metro apps have a slight delay, but didn't they always? You stare at that bold, high contrast icon for a good five seconds before you get the app's UI.

 

We skipped Windows 8, so the paradigm shift from Windows as an offline OS to Windows as an online service is kind of jarring. I can roll with the punches, but my wife still thinks XP is the best Microsoft's done. And, like I've been saying, they've been shifting to online since Windows 97 (what I call the third edition of Windows 95 that bundled IE and had the IE-inspired file manager, in 1997

  • dragontology
  • Like 1
Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

I prefer to have Start open on boot, but when I go into the Navigation settings, Show Start when I log in is greyed out. Any way around this? I'd much rather see a selection of programs to run than a blank desktop when I fire up the system.

You can boot to Start via the Tablet settings page in Settings.

Windows 10 has really grown onto to me to the point where I don't want to have to clean install 8.1 just to get my free upgrade. I wish there was a way they could just validate my Win 8 key and activate RTM when it's released and even give me an ISO download.

Then it wouldn't be an "upgrade", would it? If you don't want to re-install, you could always purchase a retail copy and install that.

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted

Ok so just did an upgrade on my main 8.1 install (created an image backup first with Acronis) to 10162. Everything is working fine, except I cannot activate, even with product key listed on microsoft page - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

 

8N67H-M3CY9-QT7C4-2TR7M-TXYCV

 

Anyone else having this issue?

I'm having that problem on EVERY machine in my house right now. Some were upgrades from previous installs, but two were upgraded to 10162 from clean installs of Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. NONE of my machines will activate. I'm starting to think that there is a serious activation bug in this build, or there is a problem with Microsoft's activation servers (which seems unlikely since the clean installs of previous OSs activated fine).

  • vipanonymous and xendrome
  • Like 2
Grand Master

patseguin Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

You can boot to Start via the Tablet settings page in Settings.

Then it wouldn't be an "upgrade", would it? If you don't want to re-install, you could always purchase a retail copy and install that.

 

Yes, it would be an upgrade if they had a system to validate your license key. Just like for example when I had the Adobe CS6 upgrade. When I had to do a Windows reinstall I didn't have to reinstall CS5 then CS6. I installed CS6 and it recognized it as an upgrade an asked me for my CS serial and then it installed.

Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

Yes, it would be an upgrade if they had a system to validate your license key. Just like for example when I had the Adobe CS6 upgrade. When I had to do a Windows reinstall I didn't have to reinstall CS5 then CS6. I installed CS6 and it recognized it as an upgrade an asked me for my CS serial and then it installed.

The term "upgrade" infers that you have something to upgrade from - IE: an installed, and activated copy of Windows 8.1. Anyone can have a key.

Grand Master

xendrome

Posted
Posted

I'm having that problem on EVERY machine in my house right now. Some were upgrades from previous installs, but two were upgraded to 10162 from clean installs of Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. NONE of my machines will activate. I'm starting to think that there is a serious activation bug in this build, or there is a problem with Microsoft's activation servers (which seems unlikely since the clean installs of previous OSs activated fine).

 

OK per this thread and a reply from an actual Microsoft Employee - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/cant-activate-in-preview-build-10162-even-change/6cc99621-6108-4161-a770-5da4138cbeff?auth=1

 

 

 

We are doing some testing and work on the Activation process.  That message is expected and we hope it will go away in the next day. When we have the service back up and running, it should attempt to activate automatically.  Until then you can ignore it because I believe other than the UI showing its not activated, its not affecting any other use of the system.

 

So I am going to just carry on as usual.

 

EDIT: Mine is now activated, it must have done it on it's own. So everyone else having an issue check your system properties.

Grand Master

patseguin Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

The term "upgrade" infers that you have something to upgrade from - IE: an installed, and activated copy of Windows 8.1. Anyone can have a key.

Wrong. Upgrade means you have a licensed previous version. I have several pieces of software that are upgrades and I don't need to have the previous version installed. It validates the old key then installs.

Grand Master

trek

Posted
Posted

Wrong. Upgrade means you have a licensed previous version. I have several pieces of software that are upgrades and I don't need to have the previous version installed. It validates the old key then installs.

it's not like that idea is foreign to them... In the 98SE days, you could clean install from a 98SE upgrade media and it would prompt for the CD of a full version 95/98 disc during the process. I wish they still had a process like that... Obviously evolved slightly.
Grand Master

Stokkolm

Posted
Posted

I have 10162 running on my SP3 and the tablet mode really takes getting used to. But I think I'll be able to live with it as of this build.

Agreed, I prefer Windows 8.1's "tablet mode" to Windows 10's. I'll get used to it though and probably end up liking it better after a while. On the desktop side of things Windows 10 is far superior.

Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

Wrong. Upgrade means you have a licensed previous version. I have several pieces of software that are upgrades and I don't need to have the previous version installed. It validates the old key then installs.

Windows upgrade versions are designed to install on top of a currently activated install - you're "upgrading" that install with an upgrade license, as opposed to a retail or OEM license.

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