Windows 10 taskbar icon removal for Win 7 and 8

[a380]

I for one am looking forward to w10. reserved my free copy already. no worries.

[murphyaa]

I think if Microsoft goes to a pay to play subscription service, they're gonna find a lot of people switching to Linux or other OS's.

[Kevin WS]

Windows is not great in a commercial global integrated environment. In the latter a number of big companies use 7 still due to compatibility issues with (common) back office systems and programs.

The W8 phones were a big boost to the business environment, and W8 was initially geared to these and tablets (replacing laptops now in a corporate mobile environment).

Early W8 was great. Had it at home and on a test machine at work. Then users whinged about the Interface changes and they upgraded (downgraded really) to more of the old stuff - like the old off button.

So users clearly didn't really want change, according to Microsoft anyway. So W9 is now skipped for what looks like a traditional upgrade to the old W7. Which now in the Corporate world will cause no doubt even more issues.

I would argue that Windows is an OS, and they should get it stabilsed and effective, and stop messing with user fluff. Leave the latter to 3rd party vendors - Techsmith being a good example - who do the fluff better as it is their core business. Like Snagit (have never looked back since us III Ng it), Fences etc.

Windows could then devote resources to the things - like fixing Word glitches etc.

But enough - there is lots in this vein elsewhere and its not really worth repeating here, except to say if Windows were a paper model.....

Windows 8 would be missing a page and a cover.

Windows 8.1 would have a back cover and be missing a page.

Windows 10 will have lovely colour cover, still miss a page, and lots of the pages will be in a different scale!

[Mike1158]

There is Linux but now they are diverging in method and technology so not as much an alternative as before. They also mostly have the mistaken belief that everyone WANTS and NEEDS to compile every program from base code. I wish the pc market would tell Microsoft where to get off but it is unlikely to happen in the near future. Like many others I will stop using their OS when they come out of the closet and announce the decision to go subscription. Wait until new business dries up for the big pc builders and see whereabouts on the map you can find a Microsoft sized splatt.

[airdave]

I'm the first to "bad mouth" microsoft if given the chance,
but now I am back peddling a bit.

I'd like to know more about the upcoming Win 10 option.
I have yet to read anything that indicates a "subscription" plan.

What I have read indicates Microsoft is done with trying to sell its OS,
done with trying to combat OS piracy
and wants desperately to turn everyone into a Windows user
including the billion Chinese users (with pirated Windows software)
...even if it means giving away their OS.

I have read the intent is to give up the OS revenue in favour of making everyone a Win 10 user
and then allowing (not forcing) them to buy Win 10 compatible software.
Including some of the things you used to get for free in Windows.

This will of course not stop third parties from producing Win 10 compatible programs,
so I think there will still be plenty of options for users.

Even those with pirated (non-genuine) Windows OS will be offered the free legal upgrade to Win10.
(Although I have heard you will still be branded a non-genuine user. Why? I don't know.)

If this is all legit...it may be worth it to give Win 10 a try.
Its being touted as the "best" Windows to date.
I would be most concerned with compatibilty with existing programs
(...the reason most companies will not be making the switch very soon).

That, and the fact that when installing the Win10 upgrade, you lose acces to all
previous versions and recovery software. In other words, you CANNOT go back.
(Short of formatting your hardrive and reinstalling an older version of Windows if you happen to own an OS Disk)

The recommendation I have read is to wait...until the bugs and compatibility issues are discovered.
The free Win 10 upgrade offer is apparently available for one year.
So, there is time to wait and see.

After one year, there may be a retail cost for Win 10.
Microsoft has already indicated it will go on sale.
But it is already speculated to be a much smaller cost than previous OS.

[SJPONeill]

Thanks, Dave, for such a balanced take on Win10...that's pretty much as I understood as well although I think that I saw somewhere on the MS site that unlicensed users may find they get reduced service or functionality until they ante up for a license...

[eric_son]

Has anyone else upgraded to W10 using the "normal" method? (normal ==> via windows update)

How was it?

My experience was not very smooth. I upgraded last friday night after coming home from work.
MS gave me the runaround. First, I had to install ALL updates (even the optional ones) on my W8.1 machine before the actual W10 update download started.
The first download was about 2.7GB. Not too bad...so i decided to wait it out. After the download, it started to install (checking files...)
Then it kinda hung up on "preparing to install". It probably spent 1 hour in that state.
After 1 hour, the installation stopped, and reported that I had yet to download more "optional" updates....200+mb worth. Might as well... so I installed them.
After installing, windows rebooted. After booting up, it FORGOT it was doing an update. In fact, it put me back to the wait-listed state. After trawling google, I found that I had to change a single registry key to "remind" windows that I was in the middle of an update. So I did that.
Windows proceeded...but this time, it told me that my update was 5+GB!
So to hell with it, it was way past midnight and I decided to go to bed, hoping that when I woke up, the 5GB download would have finished.

That morning, I woke up to check -- indeed the download finished, and AGAIN, windows tells me that it found yet more optional updates for W8.1 that needed to be installed before proceeding. Oh man, I felt like I was being scammed by those get-rich-quick-pyramid-scheme-sales agent. So I downloaded the yet more optional updates and had breakfast. After breakfast, the update resumed and told me that I needed 2.7gb to download. Hmm...sounds familiar. But hey, I've gone this far, might as well.

FINALLY, after that, the upgrade started.

All is good. Everything was done just after lunch.

W10 is great. Very responsive. But I should have listened to my friends who recommended I upgrade via the mediacreator (ISO) method instead of the wonky Windows Update method.

[jparenti]

Just to be clear: Microsoft has said that people upgrading from 7 or 8 to 10 in the first year will never be charged for anything. It's free. It always will be on the hardware you use to upgrade. There will be no subscription fee in the future, or reduced functionality, or anything of the sort.

I downloaded Windows 10 onto a Windows 7 machine via Microsoft's method. It worked fine -- slowly, yes, but I expect it to take an hour or so. (If you must use an ISO, here's the link:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10) So far 10 seems like it's eliminated the problems of 8 and retained the parts of 7 that made it popular, while adding good features.

Obviously it always takes a little while to get through bugs and issues, but so far I haven't found any running it on a machine built in 2009. And again, it's free. Not free to try, or free for a limited time, or free until the first year is up and then it's a subscription. Free.

[Burning Beard]

The problem I have with Win 10 (from 7) is I cant get Edge to work, or download apps. It will not accept my Microsoft account (or Xbox) account to initiate the download. My wife had the same problem with moving up from Win 8.1 but it is apparently now working for her.

Other than that It works well, but there are some things I need to get used to. By the way it seems to run older programs fine.

Beard

[airdave]

This would be my hesitation...
what older programs may or may not work anymore?

I really don't want to deal with that.
Some of my everyday programs are getting quite old now.
And I can't afford to update them.
(They work fine for what I do, so I will only update if necessary to my work)

Win 7 is working just fine for me, so I ask myself "why switch?".