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Windows 10 Preview on Surface Pro 3

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wynand32

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You know, Windows 10 is cool, but other than slightly improved font-smoothing and secondary screen rendering, I can't think of anything it really does "better" than Windows 8 (assuming you use an add-on like Start8 from Stardock to make the Start Menu not suck).

My biggest issue with Win8.1, at least on a desktop, is how the desktop is treated as a separate application and the jarring transition between it and full-screen Windows apps. It's particularly bad on multiple monitors, where opening a Windows app flips away from the desktop. And, it's a pain having every desktop app stuck in one multitasking window with all the others. In fact, the whole "full-screen Windows apps" thing is a pain for many reasons.

And yes, I realize we're talking about the SP3 here and not desktops, but let's face it: Win8.1 is SO bad on the desktop that things had to change dramatically. I agree that Win8.1 is fine on a tablet or hybrid when used as a tablet, and with touch, but Microsoft needed to fix it with on the desktop and traditional notebooks, and with keyboard/mouse. Did they go too far in the other direction? I don't know--I think it's pretty good in tablet mode, certainly much better than Win8.1 is on the desktop.
 

Kris

Active Member
From this (http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-insiders-will-get-the-windows-10-rtm-build-on-july-29th) it looks like the RTM bits will be available for us as part of the Windows Insider program. So I'm supposing we'll just update to the RTM build like we would the preview builds.
What is the GA build? Is that like Home edition or Pro edition. I have a Windows 7 pro key, the way they talked makes me think that I need to reinstall it to get a better Windows 10 edition. Sorry if this is a Desktop question in the surface area but everyone here seems to have answers for things I can't find anywhere else.
 

Kris

Active Member
Separate issue. Created a Pictures folder in my OneDrive folder to have a slideshow for my desktop, slideshow is still not working. But now OneDrive is creating 3 sub folders on its own; Camera Roll back, Saved Pictures, and Screenshots but is not backing anything up into them. I have deleted them many time and told OneDrive not to sync them but they keep coming back. I finally just renamed the pictures folder, still no slideshow but so far no extra folders. This just started happening on build 130.
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
What is the GA build? Is that like Home edition or Pro edition. I have a Windows 7 pro key, the way they talked makes me think that I need to reinstall it to get a better Windows 10 edition. Sorry if this is a Desktop question in the surface area but everyone here seems to have answers for things I can't find anywhere else.

GA = General Availability, i.e., just means the public build. And I'm very much reading this to mean that we'll be able to update our Windows Preview builds to the GA build.
 

Kris

Active Member
GA = General Availability, i.e., just means the public build. And I'm very much reading this to mean that we'll be able to update our Windows Preview builds to the GA build.
I get that but again how does General Availability compare to Home and Pro?
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
I know there's other stuff like Cortana and Edge, but I'm assuming 8.1 users will be able to get Edge and I've never been excited about being able to talk to my computer.

Cortana gets a bad rap sometimes. It's (she's?) not just voice commands. Cortana is hardcore machine intelligence accessible throughout Windows 10. For now, that means simple stuff like offering up additional information in Edge when browsing a topic (right-click on something and choose "Ask Cortana), and tracking flights pulled from email (just got my first notice about an upcoming flight my daughter forwarded to me, which was surprising and pretty cool). In the near future, Cortana will serve as the engine they're creating to make Office easier to use (Office Now).

I think Cortana will end up being one of Microsoft's biggest strengths. IBM and Google are players in machine intelligence, but nobody even comes close in terms of integrating machine intelligence into a real OS. Siri is a pale shadow of what I think Microsoft intends for Cortana, and is limited to iOS. Google Now is smarter than Siri, but is limited to Android (and, like so much Google stuff, boring as hell). Because these systems learn from user interaction, having Cortana in so many different types of machines being used in so many different ways by so many different people means it's going to get incredibly smart. Hell, it's almost scary.

Yeah, as you can see, I'm a fan. Seriously, though Cortana is the real deal, and we're only getting glimpses of where it's headed.
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
I get that but again how does General Availability compare to Home and Pro?

Hmm, not sure what you're asking. Let's set aside the "GA" part, because that simply means it's no longer a beta/preview. Has nothing to do with Home or Pro (i.e., all Windows 10 versions will be "GA").

You raise an interesting question though in terms of which we'll get, the Home or Pro version. I really don't know how that's going to work for Windows Preview users. They could just give us all Pro, perhaps as payback for all of our efforts in testing, or they could base it on where our installs originally came from. The latter likely isn't true because many people will have clean installed one build or another rather than upgraded from a previous installation.

I'm not even sure how they'll handle non-Preview users upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8. They could either get whatever corresponds to the version they already have, or they could just give everybody Pro since it's free anyways.

Anyways, I'm sure all of these details will be made available between now and July 29.
 

Compusmurf

Active Member
You'll end up with PRO on your Surface Pro 3. I believe they are going to base it on how your key was registered as. 8.1 pro will get you 10 pro, etc. Can't speak for any other machines. I'm slightly "worried" about my other machines since it's using a pro TECHNET NFR key. :) Gods, I miss Technet!!!
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
You'll end up with PRO on your Surface Pro 3. I believe they are going to base it on how your key was registered as. 8.1 pro will get you 10 pro, etc. Can't speak for any other machines. I'm slightly "worried" about my other machines since it's using a pro TECHNET NFR key. :) Gods, I miss Technet!!!

The implication is that Windows Preview machines will be upgraded in place to the GA build. Many of those will be clean installs of previous Preview builds. So, there's no guarantee that any Preview machine will ever have had a key, and Microsoft will have to account for them.

Lots of details missing.
 

sdreamer

Member
Completely agree! Make the folders a different unique color, or some kind of stamp that appears after a grayed-out folder that says "online only" or "web only" or some such.
I think really all they had to do is move the Online/Offline Status Column to the left most so its the first thing users see, and change it to some sort of icon that is online or offline... but it's probably more of a "lets be more consistent across platforms, and since other platforms don't really do placeholders we'll just cater to them" sort of deal...
 
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