Windows 10 to be released July 29th

[Borgholio]

http://kotaku.com/windows-10-will-be-ou ... 1708127315

Microsoft just announced that Windows 10 will be out late next month.

July 29 is the big day (at least for PC and tablets), with the OS available both digitally and in stores.

Remember: in a break from the company’s previous launches, existing users of Windows 7 (SP1) and 8.1 will be able to upgrade for free.

There’s obviously loads of new stuff coming along with the OS, but most of you will just be happy to have the old start menu back by default.

Those wanting to get in line and setup their upgrade before July 29, notifications are now appearing in people’s taskbars.

*Does the happy dance*

[Zixinus]

What does Windows 10 do for my gaming that Windows 7 isn't already doing? Aside minor changes to the GUI, what are the significant differences?

[Borgholio]

Compared to Windows 7 I'd just stick with 7. But Windows 10 was designed to bring back much of the Windows 7 look and feel to the shitbox that is Windows 8. I still use 7 on all my machines except my laptop which came with 8...so it's going straight to 10 next month.

[TheFeniX]

Windows 8 with Classicshell is a great improvement over the already solid Win7 for personal use. I prefer W7 in an enterprise environment, but for home use I have not regretted moving to Win8. The only complaint I have is that, while playing a Borderless Windowed game, sometimes the classhell will come up behind the program instead of taking focus. Thus forcing me to press my windows key 3 times to bring it up. Other than that, it does about everything Win7 does and does it better and faster. Win8 on an SSD and decent hardware is redonculously fast.

I would never upgrade to Win8 on a PC with 7, but if it's prepackaged there's no reason to downgrade unlike when Vista was the current OS.

[TronPaul]

I switched from 7 to 8 because of the better task manager, faster boot time, and better resource usage. These days 8 isn't actively trying to shove a bad UI paradigm shift down your throat, and I'd say it's better than 7 currently. Looking forward to the nicer start menu in 10, but I'll wait for a verdict before switching.

[salm]

What does Windows 10 do for my gaming that Windows 7 isn't already doing? Aside minor changes to the GUI, what are the significant differences?

The feature I´m most interested in besides a couple of VR related ones is the multidesktop function. Other operating system have had that forever and I think it can be quite a time saver.

[DaveJB]

Windows 10 is also going to come with DirectX 12, which likely won't make any difference for the immediate future, but sooner or later is going to become a requirement for games.

As an aside, I hope the rumour that those who take the "free upgrade" offer are going to be foisted with the same bullshit restriction that MS attempted to pull with Vista - namely having your copy tied to your motherboard, and being forced to buy a whole new copy if you ever want to upgrade your system - turns out to be false. Otherwise, that means when I (hopefully) upgrade later this year, I'll have to hold off on getting Windows 10, then install Windows 7 on my new hardware just so that I can immediately upgrade it to Windows 10.

[Tribble]

I don't see the point of upgrading to Windows 10 if my laptop was designed for Windows 7. In my case it could actually make things worse because I would likely have to reformat my hard drive and lose my recovery partition.

[Thanas]

Windows 8 with Classicshell is a great improvement over the already solid Win7 for personal use. I prefer W7 in an enterprise environment, but for home use I have not regretted moving to Win8. The only complaint I have is that, while playing a Borderless Windowed game, sometimes the classhell will come up behind the program instead of taking focus. Thus forcing me to press my windows key 3 times to bring it up. Other than that, it does about everything Win7 does and does it better and faster. Win8 on an SSD and decent hardware is redonculously fast.

I would never upgrade to Win8 on a PC with 7, but if it's prepackaged there's no reason to downgrade unlike when Vista was the current OS.

I have done the same and can confirm everything TheFenix is saying is correct. Win 8 is very stable and fast. If the default UI weren't that bad (thank god for classicshell) it would be a great OS.

[Borgholio]

Yeah I like Windows 8 on my laptop, I just hate the interface. Once 10 comes out I'll try it on the laptop and if it works as advertised, I'll probably get my Win7 machines updated as well while 10 is still free.

[Lagmonster]

Okay, for those of us who truly do not give a damn for the details so long as our Internets and our Steam runs stuffs real good, and who are using some Windows 7, what are the bullet-point, shorthand reasons for or against upgrading?

[salm]

Here is a video discribing the multidesktop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vkASYTrjHs

It is esspecially useful if you are confined to a single or dual monitors. You can have your Internet Reddits, Facebooks and what not running on one desktop and when your boss comes in you can quickly switch to the desktop where you´ve got all the boring Photoshops, Excels and AutoCADs.

[Borgholio]

You can have your porn running on one desktop and when your wife comes in you can quickly switch to the desktop where you´ve got all the boring Photoshops, Excels and AutoCADs.

Fixed that for you.

[TheFeniX]

Okay, for those of us who truly do not give a damn for the details so long as our Internets and our Steam runs stuffs real good, and who are using some Windows 7, what are the bullet-point, shorthand reasons for or against upgrading?

W8 is faster (not just on boot) than Windows 7 and uses less resources. Aside from the default GUI of W8 being garbage for anything that isn't a touchscreen tablet or smaller, W8 is a better in every way. Since installing ClassicShell I have missed nothing about W7, even though it was a great OS.

From everything I've read about 10, MS seems to have listened to the blowback (instead of saying "Fuck you. Here's Metro. Don't like it? Ok, here's a gutted desktop. GOTO 10.") from W8 and basically taking all the improvements of W8 over 7, adding some more QOL improvements, and not forcing Metro down your throat. It adds tiles to your start menu. This is in stark contrast to Vista which was incredibly broken inside and out.

What sucks is that Metro actually works well as a tablet interface: you got something that was easy to manipulate with a touch-screen, but also had a fully functional OS underneath. It would do anything your PC could do (unlike ipads and Android devices). There is nothing my boss can't do from his Lenovo tablet he can't do from his PC. But with a standard desktop, he'd likely throw the thing out the window. But with Metro, one touch gets his e-mail open, another opens a PDF or DOC, a swipe gets him back to E-mail. Two touches gets him to the VPN. Another opens our network drive. And so on. And W8 is lightweight enough to not crater anything that was old enough to run Vista. It's a pretty sad day when hardware requirements for your newer OSs are lower than your old ones.

It is esspecially useful if you are confined to a single or dual monitors. You can have your Internet Reddits, Facebooks and what not running on one desktop and when your boss comes in you can quickly switch to the desktop where you´ve got all the boring Photoshops, Excels and AutoCADs.

ALT + ESC finally got an upgrade to make it as invaluable for fucking off at work as ALT+F4.

[Zaune]

Here is a video discribing the multidesktop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vkASYTrjHs

It is esspecially useful if you are confined to a single or dual monitors. You can have your Internet Reddits, Facebooks and what not running on one desktop and when your boss comes in you can quickly switch to the desktop where you´ve got all the boring Photoshops, Excels and AutoCADs.

You mean like several Linux desktop environments have been offering for almost a decade?

Still, I'm more interested in the fact they're actually going to unify the app store across the desktop and mobile editions, which suggests that there'll at least be a Compatibility Mode for running x64 apps -and hopefully x86 ones- on a handheld.

[salm]

You mean like several Linux desktop environments have been offering for almost a decade?

Jep. And Apple as well if I am not mistaken. I wonder why it took MS so long to implement such a useful feature.

I just hope Multidesktops can be displayed next to each other in a sphere in VR. Imagine having like 64 Desktops around you.

[Zaune]

Yep. And Apple as well if I am not mistaken. I wonder why it took MS so long to implement such a useful feature.

Market dominance breeds complacency, I suppose. Windows 95 was successful enough to attract such an overwhelming majority of app developers that it was commercially infeasible to develop exclusively for any other platform, and thus their market share became self-sustaining until the Vista debacle and the rise of cheap tablets threw a spanner in the works.

[Beowulf]

Windows internally has supported multiple desktops for decades. It just hasn't been a user facing feature, because there's been little call for it, while the complexity penalty for showing it to users is high enough that it's mostly not worth it for MS. The internal feature is used to separate the logon and secure desktops from the main user desktop.

[RogueIce]

Okay, for those of us who truly do not give a damn for the details so long as our Internets and our Steam runs stuffs real good, and who are using some Windows 7, what are the bullet-point, shorthand reasons for or against upgrading?

I can't give you technical stuff, but I guess I can talk about this: what is your computer like, and how long are you going to use it?

For example, take myself: I have little benefit to upgrading from W7. Because I'm using a 2007 laptop, which can not be upgraded hardware wise. I think it boots fast enough and I have no present issues. And since I'm pretty much hardware-limited in being unable to play newer games, W10 stuff like DX12 isn't going to matter for me. When the time comes for me to upgrade, I'll be buying a whole new platform entirely, whether it's a laptop or desktop. Which will probably already have W10, and if not I can upgrade anyway as long as I do so before July 2016. But for now, on this laptop, there's very little point.

Likewise if you have a desktop, but it's older and/or not especially high-end. The key point being whether you're the type to upgrade components, or if you'll just buy a whole new desktop when the time comes. If it's the latter, see above about my laptop. If you are willing to upgrade RAM or get a new video card, well then it might be worthwhile to upgrade (at some point) so your OS can keep up.

Also if you just build from scratch or have a higher end rig as-is, it probably wouldn't hurt either to take advantage of the future games with DX12 and the like. Luckily though you have a whole year to decide so it's not like there's a major rush.