If you are like me, everyday I power on my laptop and get a pop-up telling me I should upgrade to Windows 10, I do have a Windows 10 system, but for my work laptop I feel more comfortable still using Windows 8.1…So here is how you make the pop-ups disappear:
Open “Programs and Features”You can find this either in control panel, or by right clicking the start button (windows 8/8.1)
2. Now we want to click on “View Installed Updates” in the top right hand corner of Programs and Features
3. In the “Installed Updates” window, click on the search bar in the top right hand corner and search for KB3035583, when found, select the update and click on “uninstall”
4. You will be prompted to restart your computer, I suggest restarting
We have now stopped Windows prompting us to upgrade, but, if the computer is updated (Windows Updates are often automatic), then the issue will reoccur, therefore we need to block the update from installing.
5. Once Restarted, open Windows Update (found in Control Panel) and check for updates
6. You should see available updates, select the “important update is available” link
7. Look for KB3035583, right click it and select “Hide update”
8. Install remaining updates (unrelated to the article, but always good practice).
Windows 10 major update released today, here are the full details from Terry Myerson:
Today, we reach our next milestone as the first major update to Windows 10 is now available* for PCs and tablets. With this update, there are improvements in all aspects of the platform and experience, including thousands of partners updating their device drivers and applications for great Windows 10 compatibility. Windows 10 also starts rolling out to Xbox One today and select mobile phones soon.
But most importantly, with this free update we have reached the point in the platform’s maturity where we can confidently recommend Windows 10 deployment to whole organizations.
Experience improvements in this update include:
Performance in everyday tasks, such as boot time now nearly 30% faster than Windows 7 on the same device.
With Cortana, you can use your device’s pen** to just scribble a note in the Cortana Notebook and Cortana will recognize the phone number, email address, and even physical address to help you set reminders. Cortana can also now keep track of your event and movie bookings too, sending you helpful reminders to know where to go and get there on time, plus the option to book and track an Uber**. We’re excited to make Cortana available in Japan, Australia, and Canada and India (in English) with features and experiences customized for each market.
Microsoft Edge offers improved performance and security, along with tab preview, which allows you to hover over your open tabs and get a preview of what’s on those websites without leaving the page you’re on. Microsoft Edge now syncs your Favorites and Reading list items across devices so you can easily get back to the content you’re interested in most. And, Cortana will now notify you of the best coupons** from your favorite retailers such as Staples, Macys and Best Buy when shopping in Microsoft Edge.
And much more with improvements to Mail, Calendar, Photos, Groove, Xbox, Store, OneNote, Solitaire, and more!
The Renaissance of the Enterprise PC
Most enterprise PCs today are stranded in a world of complexity. Over the last few years, our expectations of devices and the workplace has changed. People want devices they can touch, with an experience that spans personal with professional use– with continuously updated software that simply just works and is secure. They demand the opportunity to use their own devices in the workplace, and the apps they know and love.
Our IT Pros know they can offer more. With this first major update to Windows 10, we’re empowering them to do so—with the first platform which spans all device types, enables management of both corporate owned and BYOD, and upgrades existing devices. Windows 10 is already actively running on more than 110 million devices including 12 million business PCs, and is compatible with the past while embracing our new way of working.
Simplifying IT for Continuous Innovation
Today we introduce two free services, designed for IT to bridge from today’s complexity to the modern workplace, maintaining control and delivering reliable quality of services:
Windows Update for Business provides IT controls over the deployment of updates within their organizations, while ensuring their devices are kept current and their security needs are met, at reduced management cost. Features include setting up device groups with staggered deployments and scaling deployments with network optimizations.
Windows Store for Business provides IT a flexible way to find, acquire, manage and distribute apps to Windows 10 devices – both Windows Store apps and custom line of business apps. Organizations can choose their preferred distribution method by directly assigning apps, publishing apps to a private store, or connecting with management solutions.
Managing Device Options for the Modern Workplace
Today’s update introduces two capabilities designed for IT to empower people to effectively, and securely, use multiple devices to get their work done:
Mobile Device Management, empowers IT to use the full power of Enterprise Mobility Management to manage the entire family of Windows devices, including PCs, tablets, phones, and IOT. Windows 10 is the only platform that can manage BYOD scenarios from the device to the apps to the data on those devices – safely and securely. And of course, Windows 10 is fully compatible with the existing management infrastructure used with PCs, giving IT control over how they bridge between two capabilities.
Azure Active Directory Join, empowers IT to maintain one directory, enabling people to have one login and securely roam their Windows settings and data across all of their Windows 10 devices. AAD Join also enables any machine to become enterprise ready with a few simple clicks by anyone in the organization.
Securing Your Organization
Every week we see in the news another major data breach – costing organization’s productivity, customer’s trust and driving a real impact to their business. We know these breaches often take 200+ days to detect and we see the tremendous costs of them. Industry experts predict there will be over two million new malware apps by the end of the year. We designed Windows 10 to protect our customers from these modern threats, and continue to strengthen Windows 10 as the most trusted platform ever with features like:
Credential Guard safeguards credentials inside a hardware-based virtualized environment and breaks the popular “pass the hash” used in many major breaches.
Device Guard uses Trusted Boot to prevent intruders from installing malware, helping to keep company devices secure.
Windows Hello*** enables people to say goodbye to passwords with enterprise-grade biometrics including fingerprint and facial recognition.
Windows Defender, our free anti-malware service protecting almost 300 million Windows devices every day.
Coming soon, enterprise data protection will help protect corporate data by separating and containing corporate data from consumer data. Currently in testing with a number of enterprise customers today, enterprise data protection becomes available to Windows Insiders soon. With Windows 10, you will not find a more robust offering for securing your business – anywhere.
Also in today’s update, we’re delivering on our promise to enable our enterprise customers to turn off all telemetry data if they choose. We strongly recommend against this, as this data helps us deliver a secure, reliable, and more delightful personalized experience. We’ll continue to work with third-party experts and incorporate your feedback on this important topic.
Thank you to our Windows Insiders
We’ve talked a lot about our Windows Insider Program, and how that open, collaborative process has been so critical to the choices we’ve made in building Windows 10. I want to thank the Windows Insiders who have continued to participate and invest their time and energy in the program. Throughout this time, we’ve also been investing in our Enterprise Insider Program where our team adopts complex organizations and their needs to ensure Windows 10 is an ideal solution for their devices. We’ve spent thousands of hours with companies like Daimler, NESTLE, KPMG, Hendrick Motorsports, Virgin Atlantic, and the PGA Tour. I can’t thank each of these organizations enough for their investment of time in making Windows 10 great. We’ve incorporated our experience with these companies within our deployment guidance for IT partners, and will continue to update as we partner with all of you to upgrade your organizations to Windows 10.
An attack using the SMB file sharing protocol that has been believed to work only within local area networks for over a decade can also be executed over the Internet, two researchers showed at the Black Hat security conference.
The attack, called an SMB relay, causes a Windows computer that’s part of an Active Directory domain to leak the user’s credentials to an attacker when visiting a Web page, reading an email in Outlook or opening a video in Windows Media Player.
Those credentials can then be used by the attacker to authenticate as the user on any Windows servers where the user has an account, including those hosted in the cloud.
In an Active Directory network, Windows computers automatically send their credentials when they want to access different types of services like remote file shares, Microsoft Exchange email servers or SharePoint enterprise collaboration tools. This is done using the NTLM version 2 (NTLMv2) authentication protocol and the credentials that get sent are the computer and user name in plain text and a cryptographic hash derived from the user’s password.
In 2001 security researchers devised an attack called SMB relay where attackers can position themselves between a Windows computer and a server to intercept credentials and then relay them back to the server in order to authenticate as the user.
It was believed that this attack worked only inside local networks. In fact, Internet Explorer has a user authentication option that is set by default to “automatic logon only in Intranet zone.”
However, security researchers Jonathan Brossard and Hormazd Billimoria found that this option is ignored and the browser can be tricked to silently send the user’s Active Directory credentials—the username and password hash—to a remote SMB server on the Internet controlled by the attackers.
They tracked the issue down to a Windows system DLL file that is used not just by Internet Explorer, but by many applications that can access URLs, including Microsoft Outlook, Windows Media Player, as well as third-party programs.
When an URL is queried by these applications, the DLL checks for the authentication setting in registry, but then ignores it, the researchers said in their presentation at the conference in Las Vegas.
This is true for all supported versions of Windows and Internet Explorer, making it the first remote attack for the newly released Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge browser, Brossard said.
“We’re aware of this matter and are looking into this further,” a Microsoft representative said Thursday via email.
Once attackers have the user’s credentials, there are several ways in which they can be used, according to Brossard.
In one scenario, they could use an SMB relay attack to authenticate as the victim on servers hosted outside of the user’s local network by using a feature known as NTLM over HTTP that was introduced to accommodate network expansions into cloud environments. In this way they could obtain a remote shell on the server which could then be used to install malware or execute other exploits.
If the remote server is an Exchange one, the attackers could download the user’s entire mailbox.
Another scenario involves cracking the hash and then using it to access a Remote Desktop Protocol server. This can be done using specialized hardware rigs or services that combine the power of multiple GPUs.
A password that has eight characters or less can be cracked in around two days. Cracking an entire list of stolen hashes would take the same amount of time, because all possible character combinations are tried as part of the process, he said.
Stealing Windows credentials over the Internet could also be useful for attackers who are already inside a local network, but don’t have administrator privileges. They could then send an email message to the administrator that would leak his credentials when viewed in Outlook. Attackers could then use the stolen hash to execute SMB relay attacks against servers on the local network.
There are several methods to limit such attacks, but some of them have significant drawbacks.
Enabling an SMB feature called packet signing would prevent relay attacks, but not the credential leaking itself or attacks that rely on cracking the hash, Brossard said. This feature also adds a significant performance impact.
Another feature that could help is called Extended Protection for Windows Authentication, but it is hard to configure, which is why it’s not usually enabled on corporate networks, the researcher said.
Microsoft recommends using a firewall to block SMB packets from leaving the local network. This would prevent credential leaks, but is not very practical in the age of employee mobility and cloud computing, according to Brossard. The researcher feels that a host-based filtering solution would be more appropriate.
The firewall integrated into Windows can be used to block SMB packets on ports 137, 138, 139 and 445 from going out on the Internet, but still allow them on the local network so it doesn’t break file sharing, he said.
Despite what you may have read, Windows 10 is not spying on everything you do. So feel free to remove your tin-foil beanie.
However, Windows 10 could potentially collect a ton of data about you — probably more personal information than any operating system in history. That’s due largely to Cortana, Win10’s built-in personal digital assistant, which collects such information to better serve you. But Windows 10 also collects information to make other aspects of your computing experience more personal.
The good news: If that data collection creeps you out, you can turn off all or any of it with a few clicks. It’s not hard, though some of the settings can be confusing or difficult to find.
Here’s a quick guide to the most important privacy controls in Windows 10 — whether you should worry about them and how to tweak them. (Note: You may need to log in as an administrator to make some of these changes.)
How to go private in Windows 10
It all starts with the Settings. If you’ve got a tablet or touchscreen laptop, tap the right side of the screen and swipe toward the left to call up the Action Center, then choose All Settings.
On a traditional desktop or laptop, click the Windows Start button and select Settings.
From the Settings menu, you want to click or tap the Privacy icon.
General
Here’s the first thing you see when you tap the Privacy icon:
Confused? Join the club. Microsoft has chosen to lead with some of its most obscure settings, all of which are on by default. Here they are:
Advertising ID: This is a unique number that identifies you to advertisers inside Windows apps so they can personalize the ads you see — similar to the way tracking cookies help deliver targeted ads on the Web. Microsoft says it does not associate this unique number with your name, email address, or any other personal information.
Don’t want personalized ads inside apps? Turn it off by sliding the button to Off. (That’s what I would do.) When you do that, the data associated with the ID number is erased.
SmartScreen filters: This is supposed to keep Windows Store apps from sending you to nasty Web sites that could potentially infect your machine. Unless you enjoy living dangerously, there is no good reason to turn this off.
Typing and writing: No, Microsoft is not looking to steal your Oscar-winning screenplay or the secret recipe for Flubber. It wants to capture information about how you write or type so it can improve the accuracy of its handwriting recognition and autocomplete suggestions. Microsoft ignores personally identifiable information, collects the data randomly, and slices it up into tiny bits that can’t be reassembled.
I don’t see a good reason to turn this off, but it probably won’t hurt if you do; your paranoia level may vary.
Locally relevant content: Another weird setting — this one tells your browser to customize your search results if you have selected a language other than English. Unless you’re a Russian agent operating under deep cover and you’re convinced the NSA has tapped your laptop, I can’t see any reason to turn this off.
Click the purple Choose box to decide whether you want the Microsoft Edge browser to show you targeted ads, and whether you want to see such ads on other devices you log into using your Windows account. The default setting is on, but I always turn these things off, because nobody really knows where all that data will end up or what it might ultimately be used for.
The other boxes offer information on how to opt out of other personalized ads via the Digital Advertising Alliance site, and a condensed version of Microsoft’s voluminous privacy policy.
Location
Location in Windows 10 is turned on by default. The main reason is Cortana, who needs to know where you are so she can make suggestions about local restaurants, give you weather reports, bail you out of jail, etc.
If you’d rather not have Cortana all up in your business, you can turn off location globally by clicking or tapping the gray Change button, then moving the slider to Off. Doing this essentially disables Cortana; the next time you try to ask her a question, she’ll demand that you turn location tracking back on.
You can also leave location on for Cortana but turn it off for other apps and services by changing the second slider to off.
Microsoft gives you a third option, which is to selectively turn location on for standard Windows Store apps like email, the Edge browser, Search, and Maps. These are turned off by default. As you add apps that use location data, they will appear on this list so that you can turn them on or off as well.
My advice: If you’re using Windows 10 on a phone or tablet, location makes sense: You want your mapping app to know where you are so it can give you directions, and you might even want to get ads for local businesses. It kinda makes sense on a laptop, if you spend a lot of time hopping between Internet hot spots. It makes little sense on a machine that doesn’t move much, like your desktop, but you might want to turn it on for Maps and Search.
Speech, inking and typing
This is where Cortana gets up close and personal by learning how you speak, deciphering your handwriting, and learning your contacts and schedules. That’s all turned on by default.
If you’re ready to break up with Cortana, this is where you do it. Choose Stop Getting to Know Me and then click Turn Off in the window that pops up. This will clear any information Cortana has collected about you so far on that particular machine. You’ll need to take an additional step to clear out the info stored online; more on that below.
If you change your mind and want to get back together with Cortana, you can click the same button, which will now read “Get to know me.”
The other stuff
Windows 10’s other privacy settings let you control which apps can access the camera, the microphone, your name and photograph, your contacts, and your calendar. The default setting for all of those is on, by the way.
Like most of the other settings, you can turn off access to all of these things or selectively by app. (Though, strangely, some apps — including Microsoft’s own Skype video and audio chat app — appear to be unaffected by these controls.) Turn off all of these things, and you will have greater privacy — but you’ll also have a much less useful device. So my recommendation is to be selective: Give greater access to apps made by companies you trust, and limit the others.
Taming Cortana
So you’re intrigued by Cortana, but you want to take it slow until you get to know each other a little better. You can customize what she knows about you until you’ve developed some trust.
Start by tapping or click inside the Ask Me Anything box to bring up Cortana’s menu, tap the second icon from the top (it looks like an old 5.25-inch floppy disk), and then select Settings.
The first choice is whether you want Cortana to offer alerts, reminders, or suggestions for places to eat or things to do. Turn this off, and you’re essentially losing the whole reason for using her. So, again, I’d leave this on and get more granular with your controls later.
What Cortana stores in the cloud
Everything you do with Cortana — your Web searches, your appointments, your contacts, and so on — is stored online inside your Windows account as well as on your machine. The reason: If you log in to your account from another device, the virtual personal assistant will “know” just as much about you and you won’t lose any personalized settings.
But if you should decide that Cortana and you aren’t a good match after all and you want to kick her to the curb, everything she knew about you will remain in the cloud. Don’t like that? Tap or click Manage What Cortana Knows about Me in The Cloud. This will open a website where you can wipe out the data.
Tap or click both Clear buttons to erase any memories Cortana has of you.
Hey Cortana
On most Windows 10 PCs, you can get Cortana’s attention simply by saying, “Hey Cortana.” For this to work, your computer’s microphone needs to always be on and listening for this phrase. If that idea creeps you out, I have good news: This setting is turned off by default. If you leave it off, you can still talk to Cortana by tapping the microphone icon, or you can just type your question in the Ask Me Anything box.
Personally, I’m turning this on; it’s just fun to be able to talk to my computer whenever I want to.
The Notebook
No, not that sappy flick based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. This Notebook is where Cortana stores all the information you have given her, based on the handful of questions she asked when you first fired up Windows 10, and the information she’s learned since then by scanning your email, managing your appointments, and watching your Web searches. (Yes, she does all that.)
This is where you can tell Cortana whether to suggest restaurants and events you might like, which stocks you want her to track, the TV shows you watch, the sports teams you follow, and a whole lot more. Almost all of these settings are turned on by default, but you can easily turn them off or go in and customize them further.
For example, if you don’t want any restaurant recommendations, you can select Eat & Drink and turn off Eat & Drink Cards. But you can also tell her to turn off Foursquare’s restaurant recommendations and turn on customized ones, based on the types of cuisine you like, how much you want to pay, and how far you’re willing to travel for some good eats. (You would, of course, have to supply all of that info to Cortana — she isn’t a mind reader, even if it sometimes seems that way.)
Bottom line: Cortana only knows as much about you as you are willing to tell her. If you’re unsure, turn off most of these categories at first and gradually add them back as your “relationship” develops.
Privacy matters
Yes, it’s possible Microsoft will know more about you than any other human, including your spouse. And yes, if presented with the right legal documents, it could be compelled to share this information with the authorities. That makes Microsoft no different than any other tech company that collects information about its users on the Web.
According to the official company statement on Windows 10 privacy:
“Windows does not collect personal information without your consent. To effectively provide Windows as a service, Microsoft gathers some performance, diagnostic and usage information that helps keep Windows and apps running properly. Microsoft uses this information to identify problems and develop fixes. More information on the Microsoft Services Agreement and Privacy Statement for consumers is available on our blogs.microsoft.com website.”
Microsoft has vowed it will not sell the data Cortana collects or use it for marketing purposes. We’ll see how well Microsoft adheres to that over time. But how much the company knows about you is still largely in your hands. It’s up to you to decide where caution ends and paranoia begins.
Search For and Pin Specific Sections of the Settings App
Veteran Windows users will recognize that the Control Panel is the place to find nearly any setting you could possibly want to tweak. However, with Windows 10, Microsoft is moving more and more of these items to the Settings app. While the Control Panel still exists, Settings is featured more prominently in the Start Menu, and it’s easier to navigate anyway.
More importantly, though, you can pin sub-sections of the Settings app to your Start Menu. For example, say you want to have a quick shortcut to Windows Update. To do that, you’d follow these steps:
Search the Start Menu for “updates” and click on “Check for Updates.”
The Windows Update section of Settings will open.
Right-click “Windows Update” in the sidebar of the Settings app.
Click “Pin to Start.”
Now, you can quickly jump straight to this section of the Settings app from the Start Menu in one click. There’s still a little bit of a mess as Microsoft moves some things around. For now, Control Panel and Settings still exist simultaneously and Microsoft has made no indication it intends to get rid of the Control Panel, but this method for dealing with day-to-day settings is much easier.
Pin the Recycle Bin to the Start Menu
In addition to sections of Settings, you can also pin the Recycle Bin to the Start Menu. For baffling reasons, making a quick shortcut to the Recycle Bin has been a convoluted endeavor. Now, just search for “Recycle Bin” in the Start Menu, right-click the shortcut and select “Pin to Start.” Boom. Done.
Clear Out Your Hard Drive With the New Storage Analyzer
Every once in a while, you’re going to need a decent disk space analyzer to find the junk you can get rid of. In the past, we’ve relied on third-party apps to perform this analysis. Now, Microsoft has its own built in storage analyzer. From the Start Menu search for the “Storage” section of the Settings app. From here, you can choose a drive to analyze. You’ll then be shown a list of types of files, how much space each category is taking up, and a list of folders sorted by how large their contents are. It’s not quite as powerful as our pick for the best disk space analyzer, but it’s handy enough that many users might not need anything more.
Uninstalling applications in previous versions of Windows was the worst. You could either wade through Control Panel’s list of apps, or download yet another third-party app for a more thorough installation.
Now, you can right-click any app in the Start Menu and select “Uninstall” to remove it. This includes traditional desktop applications as well as the new “modern” apps. You can search for the name of an app in the Start Menu, or click All Apps at the bottom of the Start Menu to see a full list.
You can also search for “Apps & Features” in the Start Menu to get a list of all the applications you have installed. This is largely similar to the list of applications in Control Panel, though it has a couple more features—for example, you can list only apps installed on a particular hard drive—which makes it a bit nicer to use.
Do Even More in the Updated Command Prompt
When Windows 10 was first announced, Microsoft revealed that the command prompt would finally support Ctrl-V. This was just the beginning, however. The new console supports selecting and copying text from the window itself. If you right-click the title bar, and select Properties, you can also enable line wrapping for text, filter pasted clipboard contents, and even adjust the window opacity.
Learn Some Useful New Keyboard Shortcuts
The only thing better than keyboard shortcuts is more keyboard shortcuts. Windows 10 comes with a ton of new features, so naturally there are also a bunch of new shortcuts to go with them. Most of the classics still work, but here are some of the new ones:
Win+Tab: View all virtual desktops at a glance.
Win+Q or Win+S: Open Cortana.
Win+I: Open Windows 10 Settings.
Win+A: Open the notification center.
Win+Ctrl+D: Create a new virtual desktop.
Win+Ctrl+F4: Close the current virtual desktop.
Win+Ctrl+[Left/Right]: Switch between virtual desktops.
Win+G: Open the Game Bar, for taking screenshots/recording video game play.
These are some of the most useful, but tech blog TechNet has a few more here. If you’ve found a new feature of Windows 10 that you really like using, chances are there’s a keyboard shortcut for it somewhere, so take a look.
Customize Quick Actions In the Notification Tray
The new notification tray in Windows 10 is a handy place to find all the apps that are trying to get your attention. However, it’s also home to Quick Actions, which are handy toggles for useful features. These may include toggling location services, opening OneNote to jot down an idea, linking to your VPN settings or just launching the Settings app itself.
Which Quick Actions are available will depend on your system, but you can customize them in Settings. Simply search for “Quick Actions” in the Start Menu to choose which options appear here. If you have a touch screen display, you can also enable a toggle to alternate between tablet and desktop mode.
For many years, fingerprint scanners were, at best, an expensive toy for the early adopters. Now, with security becoming more and more important, the average user is looking to better options to protect themselves. Phones are already starting to support fingerprint scanners, and now Windows 10 has support for them as well.
Of course, you’ll need fingerprint sensing hardware for this to work, which most people won’t have. However, some laptop models come with them built in, and you may be able to buy a third-party peripheral for machines that don’t have them. While it may not be a concern for everyone, hopefully in time this type of biometric authentication (coupled with proper use of a password manager) will mean the end of manually typing in passwords.
The above is a great article by Eric Ravenscraft, I found it here:
Microsoft has announced which editions of Windows 10 existing customers will be allowed to upgrade to when it launches on 29 July 2015.
Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free any time within the first year (by 28 July 2016) of the launch of new operating system.
As with previous versions of Windows, Windows 10 will come in a number of editions.
The edition of Windows 10 you get to upgrade to depends on the version of Windows you are currently running.
Windows 10 Home is the consumer-focused desktop edition. It offers a familiar and personal experience for PCs, tablets, and 2-in–1s. Windows 10 is also coming to the Xbox, giving games and gamers access to the Xbox Live gaming community, enabling the capture and share of gameplay and giving Xbox One owners the ability to play their Xbox One games from any Windows 10 PC in their home.
Windows 10 Mobile is designed to deliver the best user experience on smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets. It has the same Windows apps that are included in Windows 10 Home, as well as the new touch-optimized version of Office.
Windows 10 Pro is a desktop edition for PCs, tablets, and 2-in–1s. It is similar to Windows 10 Home, but offers many extra features to meet the needs of small businesses.
Windows 10 Enterprise builds on Windows 10 Pro, adding advanced features designed to meet the demands of medium and large organisations. Active Software Assurance customers in Volume Licensing can upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise as part of their existing Software Assurance benefits.
Windows 10 Education builds on Windows 10 Enterprise, and is designed to meet the needs of schools – staff, administrators, teachers and students. This edition will be available through academic Volume Licensing, and there will be paths for schools and students using Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro devices to upgrade to Windows 10 Education.
Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise is designed to deliver the best customer experience to business customers on smartphones and small tablets. It will be available to our Volume Licensing customers.
There will also be versions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise for industry devices like ATMs, retail points of sale, handheld terminals, industrial robotics, and Windows 10 IoT Core for small footprint, low-cost devices like gateways.
System requirements
To qualify for the upgrade, Microsoft said users must be running the latest versions of Windows 7 (Service Pack 1) and Windows 8 (Windows 8.1 Update).
The system requirements for the pre-released version of Windows 10 are given below, though Microsoft has warned they are subject to change.
Windows 10 preliminary system requirements
Latest OS
Make sure you are running the latest version either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
Processor
1GHz or faster processor or SoC
RAM
1GB for 32-bit or 2GB for 64-bit
Hard disk space
16GB for 32-bit OS, 20GB for 64-bit OS
Graphics card
DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
Display
1024 x 600
Country-specific editions of Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 Single Language edition, and Windows 8.1 with Bing all qualify for the upgrade to Windows 10 Home.
Microsoft said the availability of the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 devices may vary by OEM, mobile operator, and carrier.
Deprecated features
While Windows 10 will add a number of new features, there are also some features that are being removed. These are:
Windows Media centre will be removed. Upgrading from Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, or Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center will remove the Windows Media Center app.
No DVD playback. Watching DVDs requires separate playback software.
Windows 7 desktop gadgets removed. Installing Windows 10 will remove Windows 7’s desktop gadgets.
Windows 10 Home users can’t defer updates. Only Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.
Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts games removed, replaced. Games that came pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released new versions of Solitaire and Minesweeper called the “Microsoft Solitaire Collection” and “Microsoft Minesweeper.”
USB floppy/stiffy drives require new drivers. You will need to download the latest driver from Windows Update or from the manufacturer’s website.
Windows Live Essentials OneDrive removed. Replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive.
Microsoft just said in plain English what it’s been talking about for months: Windows 10 will be the last major launch for the Windows platform.
Speaking at Microsoft Ignite, the company’s multi-day event for connecting with the IT crowd, Jerry Nixon, one of the company’s developer evangelists, broke the news.
“Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” he said.
Microsoft is calling it quits on Windows? Um, no.
But the real meaning is almost as momentous: Windows 10 represents a shift in the way the company thinks about Windows. As several Microsoft executives have said — and inferring from all the updates to the current Windows 10 beta program — it’s shifting the software to a “Windows as a service” model, as opposed to a piece of software you buy and more or less leave alone until the next model.
All this started at a moment during one of CEO Satya Nadella’s early earnings calls, when he talked (a bit confusingly) about his vision for “one Windows” running across all devices. That vision came into much sharper focus when Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 10 in the fall, where the company announced a new kind of public beta program for testing the software, with direct feedback from users as well as regular updates.
Then, in the new year, Microsoft presented its Windows vision to consumers; clearly, it meant what it said about Windows 10 on all kinds of devices when it unveiled the exciting HoloLens wearable. And last week, amid the launch the latest Windows 10 beta during the Build developer conference, the company stated the software would get many feature updates even after its launched.
Now it’s clear those updates will be perpetual. Windows will be, going forward, more akin to Google Chrome, which was one of the first big consumer-facing examples of software as a service, in the modern sense. For Chrome users, updates typically happen in the background and features are added or get turned on as they roll out.
Updates can even include big changes that are invisible to users. Chrome replaced its entire browser engine (from the open-source WebKit to its homegrown Blink) a couple of years back, but users didn’t even notice. To them, it’s still just Chrome, not Chrome 42, which is technically the current version number.
At its recent events, Microsoft has pledged Windows 10 will arrive in the summer. However, when asked about an official “release to manufacturing” RTM launch — the point in the release cycle when Microsoft sends the software to PC manufacturers — Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore essentially said it wouldn’t be as big a deal this time around.
Windows 10 won’t ship with every promised feature at launch; many will be “lit up” at a later date. For example, extensions in Edge, the new browser, won’t arrive until a little while after launch.
While these kind of feature updates are the norm in the app realm, for Windows, it’s a big change from previous generations. Yes, the OS gets patches and bug fixes all the time, but feature upgrades are handled differently. With Windows 8, there were really only two major upgrades (Windows 8.1 and the Windows 8.1 Update), and the original release was back in 2012.
Switching to the Windows-as-a-service model is a significant change to Microsoft’s business model, even more so because Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 7 or later. Traditionally, Microsoft has charged a nominal upgrade fee for existing Windows users, but now the model appears to be, “You buy once, you’re in forever.”
With that membership, you’ll get keep getting upgrades as long as your hardware supports them. This is just like Chrome, your apps, and other operating systems like iOS operate. There will still be launch events for certain feature packs (and you can be sure the term “beta” will become more common on Windows features), but it’ll all still be Windows 10. I suspect the version number will eventually fade to the background, and it’ll just be referred to, colloquially, as “Windows.”
In other words, Windows, as a service, will never go to 11.
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