It doesn't surprise me that you can't upgrade from Windows 7, only from 8.1. I imagine there are a lot of core differences which make an upgrade from 7 rather difficult

What? Yes you can. I have Windows 7 and I got the upgrade notification on my taskbar.

Edited June 2, 201511 yr by linux731

 

 

I didn't think Windows update updated you're nVidia drivers, only the nVidia tool.

 

At the moment in Win7 and 8/8.1 the graphics drivers from Nvidia and AMD are optional installs, with Windows 10 it is no longer possible to opt out of any updates so you will get whatever MS deems the most stable driver not necessarily the most performant one.

 

Worse still is that safe mode is no longer available from F8 so if you do have an issue you need to be able to get to the desktop first to initiate a boot into safe mode ( can anyone see any logic in that ?) or use the repair disk you made earlier. ( you did make one, right ? )

From an day to day user point of view... Windows 10 is great! As an FS9 user the last build of Windows 10 (10130) made the FS9 main menu non visible when running the sim in Full Screen mode. You can only see the menu in Windowed mode. However the simulation itself after you hit "Fly Now" works correctly in full screen mode is visible unless you want to call the in game menu via the Alt key and then the screen turns completely black. This wasn't broken in build 10122 released last week. I hope this is a temporary quirk rather than a permanent one.

 

Anyone experiencing a similar problem to mine with Windows 10 build 10130?

 

 

Thanks for mentioning this.

Yes sorry my mistake, apparently you can upgrade all the way from XP without a clean install, which surprised me. But as was said, it's only free for those on W7 and W8.

 

Are you sure drivers are counted as part of the updates you can't choose? I know security updates are coming under automatic, however I'm not clear on whether drivers would come under that, or if they came under features. Features are optional. I couldn't find an answer to that part. There is a safe mode in W10, it's just been overhauled. You don't need to have made a repair disk, but that's been true since W8, since it's all on you're hard drive still

More food for thought:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-as-a-service-the-pros-and-cons/

I will be getting a new computer some time this year or very early next year, so I will not be upgrading to Windows 10 now. The new computer will most likely have Windows 10.

 

PS: For those that don't want the Windows 10 icon in your taskbar first end the task with task manager (it's GWX.exe), then delete the folder. They put the folder in the C:\Windows\system32\GWX. After you delete the folder the Windows 10 icon will not appear anymore when you turn on the computer.

 

 

These little crappy updates and features going on behind the scenes from MS seem to be subtly slowing down Windows 7 on my system.  Anyone else noticing this?  It's really not a problem until I'm in the sim and can see a slight degradation with each of these blanketed 20 plus updates that have been coming down the pipe in the last few months.  I will remove this .exe for W10 and see how things go moving forward with that OS.  Sounds like another bright idea that may go bust concerning Windows 10 as a service.  Like many others it's anerving to have crap showing up on my system selling another OS without my approval.  I won't install anymore updates without vetting them out first and certainly not jumping on the Windows 10 bandwagon until I see what's really going on all around with big brother controlling my installed OS, personal usage options (forced updates, etc), and how it plays with FS9/P3D.

 

 

There is a safe mode in W10, it's just been overhauled. You don't need to have made a repair disk, but that's been true since W8, since it's all on you're hard drive still

 

How do you get into safe mode without first booting into the desktop and initiating a reboot from there ?, F8 does not work any more.

 

I wanted to get into safe mode yesterday as the latest preview would not boot due to an incompatible driver but was unable too as I could not reach the desktop environment, windows 10 helpfully tried three times to boot and then rolled me back to Windows 7.

 

How did you manage to get the safe mode?

I searched but could not find any mention of getting into safe mode from a cold boot, if the automatic repair does not fix the issues you are having it seems the only way is from the desktop

Source:

http://winaero.com/blog/start-windows-10-in-safe-mode/

More food for thought:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-as-a-service-the-pros-and-cons/

 

That made me think of one good thing that could potentially come from this; those not-so-technical users could end up bit a better running machine from an upgrade, because effectively MS is installing the upgrade, and not the manufacture.

 

They are radically changing their update model to be more bite size which should reduce the "upgrade hell" that some go through. This is quite different from Apple who, while give OSX out for free, still run by a big bang update, and users suffer because of this (sorry you're device can't cope, and you won't see any new security updates).

 

Linux sort of works in a similar way of bite size updates with whatever package manager you chose. However, they also still have big releases. Fedora for example can include quite drastic changes to the OS between versions. Part of the issue MS has is they give long support times for their releases. Apple will supply updates or a few months, maybe it's 6 months (just checked, l last update to Snow Leopard was 5 days after Lion was released). However, if you are caught with a device that can't take the update, or maybe an application that will break, you're very quickly going to be vulnerable. MS don't do this, they give very long support times, which can be an issue as it looks like this is their way to give shorter, or more manageable support durations. This works wonders for enterprises, but is difficult and costly for them.

 

I can't say I agree with all the changes, but I do see why they might have come about. Whatever happens though, unless people want to have a vulnerable system, people will need to be off W7 whenever that support ends

 

 

How do you get into safe mode without first booting into the desktop and initiating a reboot from there ?, F8 does not work any more.

 

 

I see you're point. You can do it from boot media, either cd/dvd or USB. However, if you don't have any of that, away on a trip or whatever, you're a little stuck until you can find one

 

Are you sure drivers are counted as part of the updates you can't choose? I know security updates are coming under automatic, however I'm not clear on whether drivers would come under that, or if they came under features. Features are optional. I couldn't find an answer to that part. There is a safe mode in W10, it's just been overhauled. You don't need to have made a repair disk, but that's been true since W8, since it's all on you're hard drive still

I have W10 Tech Preview on a virtual machine. I checked out the update history, and all I see are security and Windows updates. No drivers or stuff that used to be "optional updates", but then again I'm running it on a virtual machine so I'm not 100% sure.

Hmm ok. While Windows can detect it's in a VM for the most part, I very much doubt they would tailor the the updates accordingly. Also what version is the preview? Is it home or pro? Since it's only Home apparently that has forced automatic updates. But, you're findings do suggest that drivers could be part of a different update stream. I can't see them forcing driver updates on people's machines, security updates yes, but not drives. Too much potential to go wrong

Hmm ok. While Windows can detect it's in a VM for the most part, I very much doubt they would tailor the the updates accordingly. Also what version is the preview? Is it home or pro? Since it's only Home apparently that has forced automatic updates. But, you're findings do suggest that drivers could be part of a different update stream. I can't see them forcing driver updates on people's machines, security updates yes, but not drives. Too much potential to go wrong

Preview seems to be Home since I can't change update settings, nor join a domain.

Microsoft have "improved" (their words) the icon set once again in Windows 10

 

See if you can spot the improvement folks. LOL

 

Top to bottom: Windows 8.1 icons, old Windows 10 icons, new Windows 10 icons.

 

 

I think that, somewhere between Win7 and the latest Win10 Microsoft's graphic design team left the building

 Come on guys. I know that their is very little room for putting a positive view forward here, but I would like to point out that so far, I have not seen a single comment from the early adopters here in relation to FSx or Prepar3d having a problem with Windows 10. In fact it all seems pretty positive feed back. Us simmers are our own worst enimies most of the time. We want product that continue to improve but.....they must run on windows XP - Windows 7 - Windows 8 - Windows 8.1 operating systems and also would work for FS9 - FSX - FSX SE - and PrePar3D. They should support DX9 - DX10 - DX11- and soon DX12 both single GPU and SLI. We expect Dev's to build new content that will work for all the above on our custom one of a kind computers and we want complete control of the operating system because God knows we are all Brain Surgeons who can "Tweak" our machines better than the Pro's. We demand all of that and we want it yesterday and above all we are always screaming that it should be FREE!! This might just be a good time for all of us to sit down...shut up....and see what this new direction is all about. I am not a ###### of anyone but even MS can not screw up everytime!

Okay, I just got off the phone with MS support... The guy barely knew what Windows 10 was, so I cannot say that his predictions are accurate. He said that after the release date, you will not be able to redownload or reinstall Windows 10... Not sure how much sense that makes...?

 

 

Also, I just read on the MS website that if you upgrade from 7 Home Premium/8.1 Pro, Windows Media Centre will be removed. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifications

 

 

Another feature that will be removed, which I hate the most, is that if you are upgrading from 7 Home Premium/8.1 non-Pro, you will be upgraded to 10 Home, which DOES NOT allow you to make Windows Updates optional, or at least, non-automatic. This is really frustrating!

 

 

Actually I checked that. According to MS Site of FAQ's in one of the links provided showed that its not the case you are mentioning. If I understand correctly based on their table:

Windows 7 Home with be upgraded to Windows 10 Home.

Windows 7 Pro / Ultimate will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

 

Windows 7 Enterprise has few conditions on how it will be upgraded.

Same goes with Windows 7 N.

 

I have W7 Pro. I should get Windows 10 Pro.... (I better ... otherwise I will flip out) lol

Actually I checked that. According to MS Site of FAQ's in one of the links provided showed that its not the case you are mentioning. If I understand correctly based on their table:

Windows 7 Home with be upgraded to Windows 10 Home.

Windows 7 Pro / Ultimate will be upgraded to Windows 10

That's what I said though.