Brett, I love your reviews and I can't wait for you to pick apart W10 and give the details on all the under-the-hood changes about performance and efficiency that you guys are so good at. :)
You will be amazed especially if your a gamer when they roll out DX12 games. DX12 is basically AMD's Mantle. Google some benchmarks. There double in some cases..same hardware just a software upgrade.
Edge is blistering fast. Lacks add-on stuff but that will come. The GUI is cleaned up immensely. That is a personal perference how you like things but its pretty sweet.
Going forward Xbox, MS Phones, Tablets all will run the same operating system different interface. The ability to make Universal Apps that run on all platforms is nothing short of amazing. MS also provides developers software to make most of that painless. Literally probably this time next year apps for there Tablets and Phones should have exploded.
Personally my experience leads me to disagree. I have to keep chrome installed on both my machines because edge just won't quit locking up on half the websites visited until some element or other has completed loading.
"You will be amazed especially if your a gamer when they roll out DX12 games."
Well as of now Game compatibility is rather poor. I just started going through my game library and so far most of it has problems ranging from simply won't start to only opens in a window or strange graphical glitches. I suppose this could be AMD's driver but don't really know. Apart for it still being a flat and ugly OS its shaping up nicely otherwise.
Running on nVidia, I play(ed) Civilization V, Might & Magic Legacy, Camelot Unchained, Mass Effect 1-3, Witcher 1 and 2, tried Witcher 3 (but didn't really play yet so can only say it starts and seems working) plus few dosbox old school.. Except issues in ~Feb-March (I think) when Civ V wouldn't start at all I haven't had any problems and was actually suprised how well it works... And until recently I was running with Microsoft driver (got GTX 580 card). It sounds like a driver issue, but who knows...
Anyone got issues with Edge being unable to lookup loopback addresses? I've got Plex Server running and it just refuses to open via Edge but runs fine on Firefox
It really depends on your PC. Unlike previous versions of Windows, there is little to no CPU or GPU hit, so running on older systems should really not be an issue. However, like win7 and 8, 10 likes to have lots of RAM on hand. I have 8GB installed and while (with only the OS, drivers, and Edge open) it is only actively using 2.2GB, it has some 6.5GB cached. On systems I have tried 10 on with only 4GB of RAM things still run OK... but certainly not as fast as systems with more memory available. Tried installing on a 2GB system 'just for fun', and it did not run particularly well.
Also, it depends on driver support. On my older and simpler desktop things absolutely fly, because it is basic hardware with basic and well understood drivers. My laptop on the other hand really could use some newer 3rd party drivers to help smooth things out a bit. Things like screen orientation, screen brightness, wifi (though wifi is mostly fixed in later builds), etc have really had a rough time on 10. My bet is that win10 will run much better 6 months from now than it does today, not because of patches and fixes on MSs end, but because hardware makers will make better drivers for devices.
The philosophy is that RAM is there to be used and there is no benefit from not using it. But doing so in such a way as to be well behaved at all supported volumes of memory is something that has taken them a few generations. So don't be fooled by seeming high RAM usage when the great majority of it is optional caching.
I`ve tried to install various builds on my Samsung NC10(first-gen Atom N270 with 2Gb of RAM), and it was constantly overloaded with 99% utilization. I guess time to retire it has come.
Quite sad, considering basic tasks in 8.1 run well on it.
What about all those tablets which run on "W8.1 with bing" and only have 1GB RAM? I find it difficult to imagine that these devices won't run on W10, or are not upgradable to a version of W10.
I've been running every build on my HP Stream 7 and with build 10166 performance has improved to be almost on par with the default 8.1 w/ Bing install. Its a bit more sluggish, but not much. The performance hit is mostly from the poor quality eMMC. I've only seen the CPU pegged at 100% rarely - situations that'd cause my gaming rig to do the same thing, albeit for a shorter period of time.
I was playing a game on my Stream 7 and it overheated my CPU to the point where it throttled down to 40 MHz. After it got back up to 100 MHz, Windows itself ran fine. I was kind of surprised Windows needs so little computing power! The graphics power is a different story.
I am running on an old laptop (Core2Duo 2GHz/ 4GB/SSD) and my biggest problem originally was Windows Security/Defender. Once replaced by BitDefender (even tried Avast at a time a bug showed up), CPU usage was much lower. Otherwise, my CPU would *NEVER* idle. Updating to the latest now.
My biggest problem is that it STILL insists on converting my local account to a microsoft account, which I do not want to do, and that is the only way to upgrade to the 10240 build. And they stated that they want to test the windows update process, so no ISOs for the time being. I'm fine with that, but then why constrain the process by forcing to convert to microsoft account? That makes no sense to me, since every other app is usable with specifically logging into the app with a microsoft account. Everything BUT the upgrade...
The Windows Insider program requires a MSA, but once it ships out you don't need a MSA for anything except the Insider program, or apps that require it like OneDrive. In fact its much easier to not use a MSA in Windows 10 than 8.1.
I do have an MS account, since being an insider requires that, and I'm totally fine with that. What bothers me is that it wants to convert my local account into an MS one for the upgrade. Up to build 10130 this was not needed. It just asked for the MSA login without converting the whole local account. (And the feedback app still works perfectly fine this way)
then just switch your online Microsoft account to a local account again right after you upgrade. ..You don't have to stay online with a Microsoft account.
To keep it short - you don't need a password to log in with a local account. If you use MSA - password is required, or at least a PIN. Try telling your 60 y/o dad that everytime he wakes his laptop, he needs to press "Sign In" and then type 1234.
No, you can use a MS account and still allow auto login - just have to set it up manually. Open elevated command prompt, type "netplwiz", uncheck users have to enter a password to login, and in the resulting dialog, enter the "xyz@hotmail.com" and password and it should log you in automatically. I have this setup on all my win 8.1 and 10 machines successfully.
In Win 8 you don't need to press "Sign In". Hit any button and you'll get there. Just make sure to wait a second for the GUI to change (this was not required in Win 7 and iniitally drove me nuts in 8). I suppose it's the same in 10.
Because you don't control the data that gets associated with your Microsoft account. And you also don't control the (present or future) EULA that stipulates what on your computer becomes accessible by Microsoft.
My Windows 10 PC is a work PC, and I'm running windows 10 to make sure all of our software works on it. I'd prefer not to use my own Microsoft personal account for a work PC. I'm OK with it for now, but will remove it once the final build comes out.
Currently have 10166 and going to update to 10240 very soon. I have this on a Lenovo Gaming laptop that I bought a little over a year ago the y510p, and on my new gaming rig. Shockingly the last couple of builds not one singular issue. Fast, well thought out, and a huge improvement over Windows 8.
I was especially pleased that on my pretty much top of line gaming rig I recently put together not a singular issue at all.
Hi loving the windows 10 experience BUT when I installed 10130 build I got the dreaded critical error start menu cortana(which many people had). I had to set up a local account which updated to 10162 build. It's asked me several times to sign into my ms account but I can't because the account is already on my pc but can't get rid. I've tried the fix option in updates but still won't let me. I even change the key to one which the 10162 build which activated but still same issue. I was thinking of either setting up a new ms account or just a clean install of 10162 build in hope it rectifies it's self. If anyone can help me so u can upgrade to the new 10240 build I would be most grateful.
Hi, after upgrading to build 10240 from 10130, I cannot open the properties of any network connections. Inmediatly I right clic WiFi or lan connection or what ever to view or change configuration, just the network connections window is closed. This happened the same when I upgraded to build 10162 from 10130 and I had to do a rollback. Build 10130 works fine. Pls help me.
Yeah I tried this! Windows 10 is like a kids project gone wrong! Reminds me of it's shake and bake and I helped! You can't turn off auto updates! So if you get a conflicting CPU crashing update (Which happens allot with Windows) You are basically screwed untill Microsoft finally fixes it! And that could leave you without a PC for a while! And yes you guessed it! The keylogger is still there! So not only can you not customize Windows 10 how you want! It also spies on you! Sorry but Windows 10 is a bigger failure than 8! Nobody is going to want this even if it is free!
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45 Comments
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kspirit - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Brett, I love your reviews and I can't wait for you to pick apart W10 and give the details on all the under-the-hood changes about performance and efficiency that you guys are so good at. :)powerwiz - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
You will be amazed especially if your a gamer when they roll out DX12 games. DX12 is basically AMD's Mantle. Google some benchmarks. There double in some cases..same hardware just a software upgrade.Edge is blistering fast. Lacks add-on stuff but that will come. The GUI is cleaned up immensely. That is a personal perference how you like things but its pretty sweet.
Going forward Xbox, MS Phones, Tablets all will run the same operating system different interface. The ability to make Universal Apps that run on all platforms is nothing short of amazing. MS also provides developers software to make most of that painless. Literally probably this time next year apps for there Tablets and Phones should have exploded.
hughlle - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
Personally my experience leads me to disagree. I have to keep chrome installed on both my machines because edge just won't quit locking up on half the websites visited until some element or other has completed loading.piiman - Saturday, July 18, 2015 - link
"You will be amazed especially if your a gamer when they roll out DX12 games."Well as of now Game compatibility is rather poor. I just started going through my game library and so far most of it has problems ranging from simply won't start to only opens in a window or strange graphical glitches. I suppose this could be AMD's driver but don't really know. Apart for it still being a flat and ugly OS its shaping up nicely otherwise.
HollyDOL - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Running on nVidia, I play(ed) Civilization V, Might & Magic Legacy, Camelot Unchained, Mass Effect 1-3, Witcher 1 and 2, tried Witcher 3 (but didn't really play yet so can only say it starts and seems working) plus few dosbox old school.. Except issues in ~Feb-March (I think) when Civ V wouldn't start at all I haven't had any problems and was actually suprised how well it works...And until recently I was running with Microsoft driver (got GTX 580 card). It sounds like a driver issue, but who knows...
ricardo42 - Saturday, July 18, 2015 - link
Learn the difference between your and you're, and there and their.blackoctagon - Sunday, July 26, 2015 - link
And they'reK_Space - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Anyone got issues with Edge being unable to lookup loopback addresses? I've got Plex Server running and it just refuses to open via Edge but runs fine on FirefoxMakaveli - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Updating my VM now.redviper - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
This was fixed in 10162 (and in 10166).K_Space - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
So it has! Many thanks!tipoo - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Last time I tried it a few months ago it was noticeably slower and clunkier than 8.1. Has that all been ironed out lately?Makaveli - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
guess you will have to try it and find out :)CaedenV - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
It really depends on your PC. Unlike previous versions of Windows, there is little to no CPU or GPU hit, so running on older systems should really not be an issue. However, like win7 and 8, 10 likes to have lots of RAM on hand. I have 8GB installed and while (with only the OS, drivers, and Edge open) it is only actively using 2.2GB, it has some 6.5GB cached. On systems I have tried 10 on with only 4GB of RAM things still run OK... but certainly not as fast as systems with more memory available. Tried installing on a 2GB system 'just for fun', and it did not run particularly well.Also, it depends on driver support. On my older and simpler desktop things absolutely fly, because it is basic hardware with basic and well understood drivers. My laptop on the other hand really could use some newer 3rd party drivers to help smooth things out a bit. Things like screen orientation, screen brightness, wifi (though wifi is mostly fixed in later builds), etc have really had a rough time on 10. My bet is that win10 will run much better 6 months from now than it does today, not because of patches and fixes on MSs end, but because hardware makers will make better drivers for devices.
DERSS - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Older Insider W10 builds have failed on my 2012 PC and I got auto-rolled back to W7. (I had all drivers updated, so I am not sure why).By now W10 is completely gone from my Windows Update, it does not offer W10 to me any more.
epobirs - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
The philosophy is that RAM is there to be used and there is no benefit from not using it. But doing so in such a way as to be well behaved at all supported volumes of memory is something that has taken them a few generations. So don't be fooled by seeming high RAM usage when the great majority of it is optional caching.khanikun - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
It's pretty much how smartphones work. They'll cache the hell out of memory, but they also easily let go of it if something else needs it.On Windows, I usually turned off the virtual memory, cause I have tons of ram. Why not make use of it?
Michael Bay - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I`ve tried to install various builds on my Samsung NC10(first-gen Atom N270 with 2Gb of RAM), and it was constantly overloaded with 99% utilization. I guess time to retire it has come.Quite sad, considering basic tasks in 8.1 run well on it.
we - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
What about all those tablets which run on "W8.1 with bing" and only have 1GB RAM? I find it difficult to imagine that these devices won't run on W10, or are not upgradable to a version of W10.tecknohow - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I've been running every build on my HP Stream 7 and with build 10166 performance has improved to be almost on par with the default 8.1 w/ Bing install. Its a bit more sluggish, but not much. The performance hit is mostly from the poor quality eMMC. I've only seen the CPU pegged at 100% rarely - situations that'd cause my gaming rig to do the same thing, albeit for a shorter period of time.mkozakewich - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I was playing a game on my Stream 7 and it overheated my CPU to the point where it throttled down to 40 MHz. After it got back up to 100 MHz, Windows itself ran fine. I was kind of surprised Windows needs so little computing power! The graphics power is a different story.frenchy_2001 - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I am running on an old laptop (Core2Duo 2GHz/ 4GB/SSD) and my biggest problem originally was Windows Security/Defender. Once replaced by BitDefender (even tried Avast at a time a bug showed up), CPU usage was much lower. Otherwise, my CPU would *NEVER* idle.Updating to the latest now.
piiman - Saturday, July 18, 2015 - link
You sir are a "master of the obvious"zoxo - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
My biggest problem is that it STILL insists on converting my local account to a microsoft account, which I do not want to do, and that is the only way to upgrade to the 10240 build. And they stated that they want to test the windows update process, so no ISOs for the time being. I'm fine with that, but then why constrain the process by forcing to convert to microsoft account? That makes no sense to me, since every other app is usable with specifically logging into the app with a microsoft account. Everything BUT the upgrade...Brett Howse - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
The Windows Insider program requires a MSA, but once it ships out you don't need a MSA for anything except the Insider program, or apps that require it like OneDrive. In fact its much easier to not use a MSA in Windows 10 than 8.1.zoxo - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
I do have an MS account, since being an insider requires that, and I'm totally fine with that. What bothers me is that it wants to convert my local account into an MS one for the upgrade. Up to build 10130 this was not needed. It just asked for the MSA login without converting the whole local account. (And the feedback app still works perfectly fine this way)randomguy007 - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
You can disable microsoft account and use local account instead.zoxo - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
yes, you can, but you can't upgrade to 10240 without converting to MSAMargalus - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
then just switch your online Microsoft account to a local account again right after you upgrade. ..You don't have to stay online with a Microsoft account.althaz - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I don't understand why you would want to use Windows without a Microsoft account? Please enlighten me?granets - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
To keep it short - you don't need a password to log in with a local account. If you use MSA - password is required, or at least a PIN. Try telling your 60 y/o dad that everytime he wakes his laptop, he needs to press "Sign In" and then type 1234.vvume - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
No, you can use a MS account and still allow auto login - just have to set it up manually. Open elevated command prompt, type "netplwiz", uncheck users have to enter a password to login, and in the resulting dialog, enter the "xyz@hotmail.com" and password and it should log you in automatically. I have this setup on all my win 8.1 and 10 machines successfully.MrSpadge - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
In Win 8 you don't need to press "Sign In". Hit any button and you'll get there. Just make sure to wait a second for the GUI to change (this was not required in Win 7 and iniitally drove me nuts in 8). I suppose it's the same in 10.piiman - Saturday, July 18, 2015 - link
"Try telling your 60 y/o dad that everytime he wakes his laptop, he needs to press "Sign In" and then type 1234."Really?
bug77 - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
Because you don't control the data that gets associated with your Microsoft account. And you also don't control the (present or future) EULA that stipulates what on your computer becomes accessible by Microsoft.zoxo - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I want to keep separate my device login from the actual MSA login.kmmatney - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
My Windows 10 PC is a work PC, and I'm running windows 10 to make sure all of our software works on it. I'd prefer not to use my own Microsoft personal account for a work PC. I'm OK with it for now, but will remove it once the final build comes out.powerwiz - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
You can use any email name you desire. For instance my login account is my gmail address.ajl7519 - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
Just upgraded from the previous build without a hitch. Took about 10 minutes or so to install. The Windows Insider Build Evaluation watermark is gone.Oxford Guy - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link
I'm so glad JavaScript will get faster so those windows that move around with ads when I try to use a website will be even more entertaining.bug77 - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
AdBlock Plus user: what windows with ads?powerwiz - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
Currently have 10166 and going to update to 10240 very soon. I have this on a Lenovo Gaming laptop that I bought a little over a year ago the y510p, and on my new gaming rig. Shockingly the last couple of builds not one singular issue. Fast, well thought out, and a huge improvement over Windows 8.I was especially pleased that on my pretty much top of line gaming rig I recently put together not a singular issue at all.
FORESTFAN - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
Hi loving the windows 10 experience BUT when I installed 10130 build I got the dreaded critical error start menu cortana(which many people had). I had to set up a local account which updated to 10162 build. It's asked me several times to sign into my ms account but I can't because the account is already on my pc but can't get rid. I've tried the fix option in updates but still won't let me. I even change the key to one which the 10162 build which activated but still same issue. I was thinking of either setting up a new ms account or just a clean install of 10162 build in hope it rectifies it's self. If anyone can help me so u can upgrade to the new 10240 build I would be most grateful.NickSP - Friday, July 17, 2015 - link
Hi, after upgrading to build 10240 from 10130, I cannot open the properties of any network connections. Inmediatly I right clic WiFi or lan connection or what ever to view or change configuration, just the network connections window is closed. This happened the same when I upgraded to build 10162 from 10130 and I had to do a rollback. Build 10130 works fine. Pls help me.P39Airacobra - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Yeah I tried this! Windows 10 is like a kids project gone wrong! Reminds me of it's shake and bake and I helped! You can't turn off auto updates! So if you get a conflicting CPU crashing update (Which happens allot with Windows) You are basically screwed untill Microsoft finally fixes it! And that could leave you without a PC for a while! And yes you guessed it! The keylogger is still there! So not only can you not customize Windows 10 how you want! It also spies on you! Sorry but Windows 10 is a bigger failure than 8! Nobody is going to want this even if it is free!