[OFFICIAL] Windows 10 Insider Program

By Ian S.
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Windows Technical Preview  

1,031 members have voted

  1. 1. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being worst, 5 being best. What do you think of Windows 10 from the leaks so far?

    • 5.Great, best OS ever
      156
    • 4. Pretty Good, needs a lot of minor tweaks
      409
    • 3. OK, Needs a few major improvements, some minor ones
      168
    • 2. Fine, Needs a lot of major improvements
      79
    • 1.Poor, Needs too many improvements, all hope is lost, never going to use it
      41

  2. 2. Based on the recent leaks by Neowin and Winfuture.de, my next OS upgrade will be?

    • Windows 10
      720
    • Windows 8
      20
    • Windows 7
      48
    • Sticking with XP
      3
    • OSX Yosemite
      35
    • Linux
      24
    • Sticking with OSX Mavericks
      3

  3. 3. Should Microsoft give away Windows 10 for free?

    • Yes for Windows 8.1 Users
      305
    • Yes for Windows 7 and above users
      227
    • Yes for Vista and above users
      31
    • Yes for XP and above users
      27
    • Yes for all Windows users
      192
    • No
      71

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Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
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I am afraid, it will look exactly like that on RTM. Microsoft has poor UI taste and sense for consistency.

 

Meanwhile the real world experience and examples show otherwise.

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Grand Master

neo1911

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Meanwhile the real world experience and examples show otherwise.

Real world examples where Microsoft has shown consistency in UI design? Hahaha :P

Prove yourself.

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Grand Master

PGHammer

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Metro, end of.

 

When Microsoft actually HAS been consistent (they were largely consistent with XP, for example), they got whacked for it.  If anything, when it comes to Windows, the only consistency that is acceptable is INconsistency.  Just among desktop applicaitons alone, it is a hodgepodge of UIs; not only do developers use UI differences as almost a form of subtle (or unsubtle) branding, UI differences get downright silly even within a suite of applications - until Outlook adopted the ribbon UI, MIcrosoft Office was the most obvious offender.

 

We say we want UI consistency - however, when it gets down to cases, we rebel against it.

 

On the subject of Threshold, an x32 version of it IS out in the wild - I am installing it in Oracle VirtualBox as I type this.  (I won't post how, or where, per Neowin's policy - however, it is findable with extremely little effort; it took ME all of three minutes to find two sources for it.)

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Grand Master

LimeMaster

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I am afraid, it will look exactly like that on RTM. Microsoft has poor UI taste and sense for consistency.

You should think more positively about the future of Windows, since Microsoft are listening to their customers and are adding a lot of the most requested features. So it means that the UI will most likely be tweaked after they've collected enough feedback from the upcoming Tech Preview. :) 

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Grand Master

xrobwx71

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You could use Hyper-V in Windows 8.1 and do it that way though I don't have Hyper-V running on my Windows 8.1 PC right now.

Only on 8.1 Pro right?

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Grand Master

neo1911

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You should think more positively about the future of Windows, since Microsoft are listening to their customers and are adding a lot of the most requested features. So it means that the UI will most likely be tweaked after they've collected enough feedback from the upcoming Tech Preview. :)

Been positive since Vista days. The only close to consistent experience we got was Windows 7.

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Grand Master

Dot Matrix

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one notable feature missing is "my computer" in the start menu. would make it a lot easier to access my drives.

You can pin Explorer locations as tiles. It works this way in Windows 8, too.

 

post-420821-0-44540900-1410803804.png

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Ian S.

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one notable feature missing is "my computer" in the start menu. would make it a lot easier to access my drives.

It has been renamed to "This PC"

 

My computer itself hasn't been around since the XP days, with Vista we got "Computer" with 8,1 we got "This PC"

 

You can pin it to start, or in this case mini-start

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Quillz

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It has been renamed to "This PC"

 

My computer itself hasn't been around since the XP days, with Vista we got "Computer" with 8,1 we got "This PC"

 

You can pin it to start, or in this case mini-start

On this note, I would really like Win9 to allow the Recycle Bin to be pinned to the taskbar. Right now, the best you can do is pin it as a "favorite" on the File Explorer sheet.

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Grand Master

Dot Matrix

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Just filled out the poll, and I'm not expecting Windows Threshold to be a free update for the majority of users out there.

 

XP users have had PLENTY of chances to upgrade for cheap. Their time has come and gone.

 

Vista users are still somewhat supported, but their time has come and gone, too.

 

Windows 7 users are still enjoying a good deal of support, but their time is waning. I fully expect them to be thrown a bone, and offered some cheap (but not free) upgrade paths.

 

Windows 8 and 8.1 users I think are the most qualified for a free update, but I fully expect Microsoft to charge a small fee. Microsoft licenses their software, and it's how they generate income. I'm betting they're grouped together with Windows 7 users for promotional upgrades right after launch.  

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Grand Master

Quillz

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I think Win9 will be a free upgrade for 8.1 users, and a paid upgrade from 8.0 and older users. Which makes sense to me. 

 

But on the other hand, seeing that Apple is moving to free OS releases, it seems Microsoft might follow suit. 8.1 was already free for 8.0 users, right? Between enterprise customers, Office customers, Xbox customers, etc, it seems Microsoft could afford to make Win9 free. Not to mention that would likely entice many to upgrade who otherwise would not.

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HawkMan

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I think Win9 will be a free upgrade for 8.1 users, and a paid upgrade from 8.0 and older users. Which makes sense to me. 

 

But on the other hand, seeing that Apple is moving to free OS releases, it seems Microsoft might follow suit. 8.1 was already free for 8.0 users, right? Between enterprise customers, Office customers, Xbox customers, etc, it seems Microsoft could afford to make Win9 free. Not to mention that would likely entice many to upgrade who otherwise would not.

 

ummm, but 8.1 is a free upgrade to 8....

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PC509

Posted
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Needs some refinement, but that's what's going on right now at Microsoft. When it's released, I'm sure it will be much more polished. I really like it. 

 

I'm waiting to hear about some under the hood improvements. 

 

My biggest complaint with Windows 8 was the lack of personalization. The base Windows 8 install only had the "tattoo" style backgrounds for the start screen. When they fixed that and allowed a custom background there, I was happy. Other than that, I've been pretty happy with Win8.x and am looking forward to 9. 

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Grand Master

PGHammer

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Just Pro, otherwise I'd be using it on my tower.

Pro or higher - remember, Core is specifically intended for lower-cost/lower-end Windows PCs (it replaces Starter/Home Basic).  Pro, on the other hand, replaced the remaining non-corporate SKUs (except Ultimate, which was replaced by Pro with Media Center).  I went with ProWMC on my own tower for that reason (specifically, plans to use Hyper-V); I upgraded from 7 Ultimate to 8.

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Quillz

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I can't tell from the pictures... Are Win9 title bars centered in relation to the window (absolute centering) or in relation to the elements on the title bar itself, like the icon box and close widgets? Because the latter is how Win8 appears to operate, but sometimes it looked visually odd.

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Ian S.

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This must be an older build (no new Desktop icon) showing off Windows Features dialogue. High Res pic though.

332a52v.png

 

Colors for Start Menu (these probably are not all the colors):

 

 

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2cdwd1v.png

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Ian S.

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Wow,  nice to see you put credit on your front page, at least credit this thread or something. :P

https://www.neowin.net/news/windows-9-start-menu-changes-color-to-match-the-theme

 

 

Build 9841

http://winsupersite.com/windows/first-look-windows-technical-preview

k1fmvk.jpg

  • You can even resize the Start menu itself
  • Store is unchanged
  • Search, Share, Play, Print, Project, Settings, and Full Screen, the latter of which toggles the app between floating window and full-screen views, are the new (...) menu options
  •  If you try to use the old mouse-based triggers for Charms, nothing happens.
  • The virtual desktop view is called Task View
  • You can also use Task view to position apps into snapped views. 
  • File Explorer now contains a Home view
  • From Home, you can access your favorite folders, most recently used folders, and recent files, and from any File Explorer view you can access Home, Favorites, OneDrive, This PC and Network from the navigation bar as in Windows 8.1.
  • A prominent new Share button on the Share tab in File Explorer works like the similar button in Windows Phone,
  • Control panel still exists for advanced commands
  • Microsoft will even trigger Windows notification toasts to ask you for feedback as you use Windows. 

"Once you've signed up, you can use the Windows Feedback app to navigate through a menu of top-level choices (Recent Applications, Apps and Windows Store, Hardware and Devices, Download and Install, Internet Explorer, and so on) and then fine-tune it further (Mail, Maps, Messaging, Movie Moments, Music, etc.). You can search to see whether other Insiders have given similar feedback, add more details to that feedback, or start your own, adding text and screenshots as needed."

 

not.png

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Grand Master

Quillz

Posted
Posted

Wow, we're actually seeing some "Metro'd" icons, notably This PC. Microsoft might actually finally be getting around to updating all the out-of-place icons.

 

Also, those hi-res pics clarified some UI questions I had. It's clear now there is a 1px border on windows (other pics let me to believe windows were borderless), but you can see the title bar widgets have been moved to the up and right, because there is no longer a 1px line around the red close icon, like there was in Win8. I can also see now that the title bars are centered in relation to the actual window, which seems different from how Win8 did it (where it was centered in between window elements, like icon boxes and widgets).

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