Windows 8 & 10 - Thread Updated
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Man. I really want to get a version of Orcs Must Die on Steam. I haven't played 2, but 1 was hella fun.
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@Coin
2 is also amazingly fun. ^_^ -
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I've been running Windows 10 for a few days (thanks to @HelloRaptor for lending a hand) and it's pretty solid.
I'd say better and cleaner than Win7, which used to be my most acceptable version so far, and by far an upgrade to anything 8.x.
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Win10 is awesome, and such an improvement. Someone convince @Thisnameistaken it's better >>
pokes
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Has anyone noticed any appreciable improvement in their gaming from having DirectX 12?
I remain a very happy Windows 7 user, but that in particular is making upgrading tempting.
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@Three-Eyed-Crow said:
Has anyone noticed any appreciable improvement in their gaming from having DirectX 12?
I remain a very happy Windows 7 user, but that in particular is making upgrading tempting.
I had been using Linux before (and will again once I've gone through my queue of non-wine runnable games ) so I can't compare empirically, but you could look at a benchmark comparison chart such as the one here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/gamers-its-safe-to-upgrade-to-windows-10/ .
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@Arkandel said:
@Three-Eyed-Crow said:
Has anyone noticed any appreciable improvement in their gaming from having DirectX 12?
I remain a very happy Windows 7 user, but that in particular is making upgrading tempting.
I had been using Linux before (and will again once I've gone through my queue of non-wine runnable games ) so I can't compare empirically, but you could look at a benchmark comparison chart such as the one here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/gamers-its-safe-to-upgrade-to-windows-10/ .
That's a good article. You're not going to see any real advantages to DX12 because, as it notes, there aren't any DX12 games out yet.
The security article is a bit hyperbolic in some places, but all the technical information is good for people to have. I hadn't really thought about people buying a new machine with the OS who don't immediately wipe it and reinstall.
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I was looking into this today and it might be helpful to someone else. Basically the idea was to save my activation key for Windows 10 in case I wanted to do a clean install without upgrading from Windows 7/8 first.
Well, the Windows 10 activation key we get for upgrading is generic. There is a discussion here:
So basically they don't care about the activation key at all any more, what MS is doing is saving your hardware's signature somewhere after you upgrade, then validate it against whether it's found or not in that database or not.
It'd be interesting at some point to reinstall a machine which has been upgraded in the past. That thread claims you can get away with not even putting in the activation key - you'd just hit skip enough times to go through then it'll activate itself later when it connects to the internet.
For more funtimes, if in a year+ from now you decide to upgrade your motherboard, your hardware's signature will be different. At that point you won't be able to either do a clean install of Windows 10 or upgrade from Windows 7/8 for free any more. Oops.
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So I got everything updated on my new laptop for Windows 10.
It seems quite nice. I've removed all the funky tiles I didn't want to deal with, but I've gotten all of my other stuff installed so far. Seems to be working quite well.
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@Bobotron said:
So I got everything updated on my new laptop for Windows 10.
It seems quite nice. I've removed all the funky tiles I didn't want to deal with, but I've gotten all of my other stuff installed so far. Seems to be working quite well.
That's been my experience as well. I still can't get my popcap games to play, but all my other stuff seems to be working just fine, or even better than before.
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@HelloRaptor
Do you have any specific tweaks or suggestions you'd recommend? I am working at downloading my Steam stuff, but just on a couple of tests, things like Bloodlines runs a lot better on the new laptop (probably due to the ram and integrated video card, but...)ETA: Found my first error. Fonts are installed, but on some things that use them from the HD (like Chrome and my font stuff on my game's wiki), the font doesn't display.
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@Bobotron On the security side of things for Windows 10 at the office we've been doing a lot of research. One thing that's come up other than the wifi / information sharing is the way they use a "branch cache" or torrent like feature for windows updates. Could be worth disabling if you're concerned about potential bandwidth issues or whatever,
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@ThatOneDude
I'll look into that. I really only just shut stuff down to sleep mode, and I'm finding oiut that Windows 10 automatically updates rather than prompts you to. So I had something open (but saved, thankfully) last night when I went to bed, and when I got up today everything was closed with no prompts or anything. This may be annoying. I've set it to 'prompt for reboot' now, but being unable to adjust what updates and do it on my timetable is a little annoying.Also, looks like the font thing was fixed during a manual update yesterday, so there's that.
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@Bobotron said:
@ThatOneDude
I'll look into that. I really only just shut stuff down to sleep mode, and I'm finding oiut that Windows 10 automatically updates rather than prompts you to. So I had something open (but saved, thankfully) last night when I went to bed, and when I got up today everything was closed with no prompts or anything. This may be annoying. I've set it to 'prompt for reboot' now, but being unable to adjust what updates and do it on my timetable is a little annoying.Also, looks like the font thing was fixed during a manual update yesterday, so there's that.
Ugh yeah. My Windows 7 updated last night and I lost some unsaved shit, too. Kind of grumpy. Plus it made me oversleep.
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@Bobotron said:
Other than using ClassicShell to get the Win7 interface back. I don't like the search on my taskbar, or its absence from the start menu, or even the fact that it includes bing search results. So I just dump the new menu/search bar entirely and stick with the Win7 start menu/taskbar.I thin you have more control of updates in the Professional edition. For folks who only had a Home license I've just gone and wiped them, installed Win7 or 8.1 with an Ultimate/Pro (respectively) copy, run a crack to make it look authentic in the snapshot they take, then run the install for Win10 Pro and used authentication to make it legit.
Edit: Huh. Thought I posted this a while ago but when I didn't see it and went to hit reply, there it was.
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I have Windows 8.1 Enterprise on my workhorse work/gaming machine. It works just fine and I have had no issue with it.
I upgraded my travel work laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10... and then promptly downgraded before upgrading again.
What?
So my laptop is about 80% used for work. It had an old Cisco VPN client and an old Sonicwall VPN client. I don't know which one was the offending party but it doesn't matter now. Windows 10's upgrade will detect that VPN and just not properly install your wifi drivers. So no wifi, at all. There is a workaround but that workaround failed for me. The in-place upgrade from 8.1 to 10 resulted in my inability to uninstall those VPN clients because the OS 'was corrupted.' I hope I don't have to uninstall anything else and run into that same problem.
It works fine now but this was two hours of my life wasted. Also, after finally getting used to Windows 8.1, I do regret all the changes they made for Windows 10 which is a retrograde to the Windows 7 days for those who opted to skip a generation. I used to be able to do a quick two scroll view of all my apps in the old Metro UI that is now all janky and confused with the 'new' Start button.
Cortana is fairly useless because it is not clear what she can actually do and what she will do and then what she can do but won't. I'm sure there's an instruction guide somewhere. She'll sing you a song but only a preset group of songs. You can ask her anything but most of the time, she'll just show you Bing search results.
Microsoft also continues their long legacy of their browsers not being compatible with their enterprise-class products. I don't know if it has been resolved since I last checked on my laptop but Edge will not work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Luckily, they have legacy IE support, but I don't understand how hard it is to just make their browsers work with their own products. This was a serious issue when CRM 2011 was only operational with Microsoft IE... and Microsoft IE 10 was not compatible. For about two months, I think every CRM company was inundated with hate mail til they were given the workaround of using Compatibility Mode or CRM 2011 was updated to a new roll up (which requires a huge amount of testing to be rolled out for end users) to be compatible with all browsers.
I like Cortana in principle. I like Edge in principle. I like to keep all of my tech stuff in sync and up to date with the latest stuff, especially since none of the Windows 10 improvements are going to flow down to 8.1 which is pretty much totally obsolete. But I'm not clamoring for a replacement of my Windows 8.1 Enterprise installs on my NAS and my work machine. Windows 10 has a lot to iron out.
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I just finished upgrading to 10 on my PC, so we'll see how it works out. I'm running with their shell for the moment, may dl the Classic Shell if I find I don't like it.