That.

Plus the fact that I can hit a large number of keys on my keyboard without having to look and I can't hit any keys on those soft keyboards without looking. Or at least not reliably.

And yeah, it's annoying the way those keyboards cover the screen and either cover elements or shift them around.

Updates for Windows 10 devices will be free indefinitely, just like how an Android or iOS device can get the latest major version of that OS at no cost.

Windows doesn't cost much on a pre-built system; pricing for OEMs is much lower, and some systems are now shipping with a free version called Windows 8.1 with Bing. This version is functionally identical for the end user (it merely requires the OEM to leave IE as the default browser and Bing as the default search engine--the user can change these as always). I'd expect to see an equivalent for Windows 10, possibly even for all devices. Profits from the app store more than equal the loss of consumer licensing income from the applicable devices, and corporate customers will continue to use a paid support plan anyway.

It will probably contain even more backdoors and tracking devices, the flat, monocolour UI really doesn't jive with me, and it doesn't seem like a massive upgrade to my current Windows 7 rig. I'll stick with what works for now.

The rumours were true, hope the StartMenu comeback finishes the hate train and encourage upgrades, again it promises more performance for gaming (there was a bit from Win7 to 8.x, this time it will be a huge one) and ingame recording.

Maybe it's a number sequence that doesn't make sense yet because we haven't seen enough numbers to find the pattern?

But Hanlon's Razor is probably a more poignant explanation: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. ;)

On Windows 7 (lucky to get two through work). Never done an upgrade for this OS - what will happen to get from win 7 pro to 10? will there be a specific upgrade key issued?.

Went on a honeymoon with Leisure Suit Larry 4.

That, my good sir, has made my day. Well done :p

For Windows 7 it will probably be in the form of a tool that sees the valid license and then provides an upgrade product key and various ways of downloading the OS (bootable DVD/USB, ISO image, etc.)

Windows 8/8.1 users might also have the option of upgrading through the Windows Store (as with migrating from Windows 8 to 8.1).

Note that DirectX 12 is only used by games that specifically implement it; games using earlier versions might see some incidental performance changes due to general improvements to the OS as a whole but that would not be a massive boost.

I don't know. For me one question is whether 10 will run on all the hardware I want it on. Since 10 is supposed to be lighter than 7 in terms of resource use, it has some draw for running on older hardware, but the question is whether all that hardware in the laptop will work.

I haven't done much testing with 10 on various hardware but 10 should have a slightly smaller footprint then 7 so if it runs 7 fine it should run 10 fine just as long as the cpu supports No Executable Bit and SSE2 you should be all good. You can always roll back if it doesn't work for you anyway.


I never understand these lists they always make so little sense, but this one is even worse then normal.
I guess it only "works" when you mix and match different kernels and skip a few that would break it.

1 -> 2 -> 3.0 -> 3.1
95 -> 95B -> 95C -> 98 -> 98SE - ME
NT3.1 -> NT3.5x -> NT4 -> 2000 -> XP -> 2003 -> Vista -> 7 -> 8 -> 8.1 -> 10

They also said 8 had a smaller footprint; It might be true, or they just didn't include a lot of programs including basic games and applications in order to make the install tighter. I had to help him get the win8 version of his solitaire downloaded which was something like 30Mb. Not to mention recently he said it's slow a certain times of the day, hinting it's using the internet to send feedback to M$...

NO, just no on so many levels.

From a GoGer perspective, there are too much games that will be unplayable due to the upgrade. I made the mistake with window 8 before and games like populous have issues. After I "Upgraded" back to windows 7 they run like a charm, with better performance too.

From a gamer perspective, there are no game on window 10 yet. A game developement cycle takes 3 to 5 years and the developers should not be familir with the nuances of the new windows. So expect more bugs from games on the new windows version. Expect lesser performance issue as the games are not optimized on the new windows as no one have experience with them yet. For an easier gamming life, better entertain the notion after 3-5 years when you have more games that run on the new windows instead of risking bugs and poorer performance.

From a normal PC user perspective, Microsoft reputation is kind of meh, what's stopping them from forcing adtisverment on you (Metro), Always Online DRM that force you to activate online every use, or any other anti customer tactics? Due to software developement cycle, there will be little software that is good to go in 6 to 12 months for the new window, so better check them after that.

Microsoft has this history of keep trying to shoehorning customers to upgrade to the new version WITHOUT MUCH BENEFIT to the customers. So I expect the new windows will be the same, maybe worst with force AODRM and cloud features or mandatory upgrade of the bing bar, internet explorer, silverlight that user don't want.

Windows 8's install size is smaller. Microsoft Solitaire Collection is not included in a default install (some OEMs pre-install it). The Vista/7 card games were also about 30 MB in total but they were part of the default install so this wasn't as obvious.

The performance impact could be Windows 8's Automatic Maintenance. This normally happens when the computer is idle, but if you return to using it while maintenance is taking place it might not finish or suspend the current process right away. Active maintenance is indicated by a timer symbol on the Action Center icon (with details within the Action Center). The scheduled time can be changed through the Action Center.

Third-party programs (including some pre-installed by OEMs) might also be performing their own tasks at inconvenient times.

Windows does feature a Customer Experience Program to report some generic data but this wouldn't be sending enough data to noticeably affect performance. Choosing the Express settings option during the Windows 8 first-run setup enables the Customer Experience Program (it can be enabled/disabled at any time).