Comments Locked

51 Comments

Back to Article

  • SilthDraeth - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link

    Hopefully the release a new iso that works. I know the last one obviously worked for some people, but I downloaded it multiple times, ran a checksum, etc and I could never get it to install on my system. Granted I didn't try using a dvd, just a flash drive. But I feel it should have worked. It would see installed, reboot to a black screen, left computer alone for 12 hours, then force a reboot, and it would freeze again, after asking if I wanted express setup, or custom.
  • james.jwb - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    i had issues with the last build from the iso due to an external firewire sound card. Until i turned this off during the install process, it would never make it to the end. Even upon a working install, i had to change the firewire driver before it would not crash.
  • Omoronovo - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Hi mate, not sure if you'll receive replies to this but if you do:

    Ensure your processor supports (and has ENABLED) NX/XD bit. Windows 10 build 10130, 10158 and 10159 all require it during setup or it silently fails and reboots.

    Hope that helps. I had a similar problem, and this sorted it right out.
  • SilthDraeth - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Hey thanks, I am out of the country at the moment, but when I get home, I will see about trying it again with that feature. It is an AMD A10-7850k which shows as supporting that feature. Thanks again.
  • freeskier93 - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link

    I'm not seeing 10159 and the Insider Hub makes no mention of either 10158 or 10159.
  • Sttm - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Just installed it myself. Working okay. Start Menu seems wonky though. But then its never been too good lol.
  • dgingeri - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Do a google search for "windows build 10159 download" and there's a couple good links there.
  • robertjm - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Are you set to Slow or Fast for your updates? I'd bet the people on the Slow tier are not seeing them yet. You'll probably never see 10158 now as they pushed 10159 within 24 hours. Probably some nasty Gremlin under the hood of the earlier build which they needed to take care of immediately.
  • freeskier93 - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Yep been on fast ring for a while now. Finally showed up this morning after another Defender update and pressing the check for updates button a couple more times.
  • newcster68 - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    My computer at work is updating each build fast yet my pc at home is still stuck on 10130. Keep checking updates but nothing. Kinda pissing me off.
  • MikeMurphy - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Switch to fast lane. The fast lane is a fairly safe bet at this stage of development.
  • Gigaplex - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link

    I'm on fast lane, and it's not finding the update.
  • MikeMurphy - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    You need to be on fast track to receive this update. For me it fixed the explorer.exe crashing, stopped drainingmy laptop battery even after a full shutdown, but now my trackpad scroll gesture doesn't work.
  • vastac13 - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link

    Currently checked and downloading now after this article shows up in my rss feeds...
  • kspirit - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - link

    I am so excited for W10 it's not even funny.

    In the past I've just gotten new laptops every few years when a new version of Windows is released so I've never had to wonder about this but... When exactly will OEMs release drivers for W10? Will it be at launch or a few months later? I have reserved W10, but what if there are driver incompatibilities and reduced battery life when it does come? :/
  • extide - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    For most devices, except video cards, you will be able to use vista/7/8 drivers at first, so it shouldn't be too bad. As long as the hardware is current, windows 10 specific versions will come in time.
  • Flunk - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Contrary to popular belief you can also use Windows 7 or 8 video card drivers, you lose DirectX 12 support, but otherwise they work in Windows 10.
  • Gigaplex - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link

    Except that the only version of the AMD driver that works on older cards such as the HD 4000 series refuses to install on Windows 8.1, let alone Windows 10.
  • kspirit - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Right. The hardware is Haswell, and there is no graphics card on the ultrabook. The Insiders get a special driver for Intel graphics too, I believe. Perhaps they'll pair that with the RTM version too. Though the fingerprint sensor refuses to work for me on W10, with the 8.1 drivers. The sound drivers of 8.1 are also finicky. Maybe they'll fix all that up in the month.

    I'm hoping HP hurries up with their Elitebook drivers. I love the battery life and fingerprint sensor too much to let them go.
  • p1esk - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Is there any reason to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10?
  • Margalus - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    it's free
  • hughlle - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    It's better
  • nathanddrews - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Virtual Desktops
  • siriq - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Way faster even in boot time, i run win 10 on HDD.
  • BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    I've noticed no differences in speed between 7, 8.1, and 10 up to build 130 (haven't loaded 159 yet) on a 2.5 GHz Sandy Bridge with 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM 320 GB HDD. Boot to the login screen are slightly (like on the order of a couple seconds) quicker between 7 and 8.1, but the difference between 8.1 and 10 isn't notable. There's about the same amount of time in heavy disk activity after login before the system is "settled in" on all three operating systems. Shutdown times are basically the same (though I haven't tested shutdown on 130 since it errors on shutdown every single time...maybe 159 will resolve that). As far as I can tell, gaming performance is identical between OSes in Fallout New Vegas at least from a non-benchmarked, seat-of-the-pants feel and so is daily usage. Maybe the differences would be more notable on a SSD where the newer OS can take better advantage of increased drive performance, but I really don't see any night and day differences that make the new OS exciting in that department.

    To me, the selling points for W10 are more related to on-going support and evolution of how the OS fits into the workflow. All those are good things that make W10 worth a look. Performance improvements just aren't significant or notable, in my opinion.
  • siriq - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    My win 8.1 takes around 4 min to be useful and the win 10 takes around 2-3 min to reach the same state on my HDD. Well only with Build 10159.
  • siriq - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Ohh and i got no error msg on shutdown or restart as you and me had before. Few programs has to be reinstalled but over, this is much better than Build 10130. Way better.
  • Michael Bay - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link

    Jesus, what did you do to it? My 8.1 is ready in one minute or less from the moment I power up the pc.
  • wolrah - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    The Start Menu isn't the terrible thing it is in 8.x, and pretty much everything else about how Metro interacts with normal desktop use is also better.
  • piiman - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    It still sucks though.
  • daniel142005 - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Is there any reason *not* to upgrade to Windows 10? lol

    Windows 10 is basically Windows 8 done right.
  • p1esk - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Of course. There's a risk that the stuff I compiled for W8 won't work correctly. Unless it's guaranteed that everything I have on W8 right now will work flawlessly when I upgrade.
  • Mr Perfect - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Now would probably be a great time to fire up a test rig, then. You can bet that MS is going to forget about 8.1 quickly after 10 comes out. It's been my experience that it's better to move to the new platform on your terms, rather then wait for the old one to be discontinued while you're still relying on it and have to scramble to get things working on the current one. Unless you like 11th hour forced upgrades, that is. ;)
  • p1esk - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    What do you mean "forget about 8.1 quickly"? I see the support for 8.1 ends in 2018. It's likely by that time they will release the next version. So why should I rush? I don't care for virtual desktops, cortana, DX12. Been using ClassicShell for years, so the Metro crap does not bother me.
    I would be interested if there are significant performance improvements. Are there?
  • tipoo - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    A bit faster, DX12, it's free, UI improvements, it's free.
  • MrSpadge - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    I'm pretty impressed by the voice recognition on Phone 8.1, so having this on my main PC may save me hours of typing each month if it works well.
  • JSR - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Hi! Just have one question: Where can i find the Farmery Can picture used in the article? really like it! Would love to use it as a wallpaper. Thanks!
  • robertjm - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    1 - Hover mouse over photo
    2 - Right click
    3 - Save Image As
  • Brett Howse - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Ha I just took that with my phone the other day :) If you'd like the full size image though just shoot me an email http://anandtech.com/author/166 and can send you the original.
  • danjw - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    On concern I have for that those that intend do fresh installs to Windows 10, Windows Anytime Transfer, isn't supported in 10158. I haven't had a chance to checkout 10159 yet. But, this seems like a real issue to me. It isn't as big a deal for power users, but everyone else may try it and find their .mig file doesn't do anything.
  • dgingeri - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    It's a good build, and it solves some issues I've seen, but my system will still not engage the screen saver, turn off the screen, or go to sleep from inactivity. It just stays on all the time. I can't figure out what does it, but these things work when it is first installed, and then quit working after the first reboot.
  • tipoo - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Cool wallpaper. Exporer icons still ugly, I hope that's not final.
  • robertjm - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    The L2TP/IPSec VPN type is still messed up. There is no place to enter the Shared Secret, which is a required field (even if you leave it blank).

    This should be fixed before release as PPTP has been hacked, and some Black Hatters are boasting a 100% success rate at cracking it.
  • Martin84a - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    I just hope Windows 10 fixes that damn monitor ID issue that is present in Windows 7 and Windows 8. I am sick of tired of having my TV being the #1 display, no matter what I do.
  • brkkab123 - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Not worth installing. Seriously buggy and screwed up my dual-boot pc. I uninstalled/formatted ssd it was on. So far, Windows 10 isn't a worthy upgrade for any Windows 7 or 8.1 pc. Every 10 build since the January conference on it, has gotten worse. Not better.
  • Hairs_ - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    I have to say, I was massively disappointed after all the hype of the Build conference.

    While it's certainly less neurotic and incoherent than 8 in some areas, it's still very, very ugly, and very, very badly thought out. From the build conference, you might have expected that some of the fundamentals of Windows were being dragged out of the 80's, with Modern Unified apps, DX12, Cortana, etc etc etc.... the trouble is that as far as I can see none of those things are actually working.

    The Windows app store might be up and running, but there's nothing but junk in it (have a search for "twitter" and see how many 3rd party apps there are....). There might be a Unified version of Office but anyone using excel for anything other than the basics isn't going to be impressed.

    Performance is still shonky, and DX12 still isn't ready for launch. There are fundamental parts of the system, like text flow within a window, or disappearing scroll bars, or huge blank spaces where there needs to be information, or at least context.

    As for the design.... it's terrible. Truly terrible. Not only are they not living up to their promise to have a "single UI" across all the possible devices, they haven't even been able to have a single UI on a desktop device. Instead of scrapping old UI elements, dialogs and whatnot, they're just putting a white rectangle in front of them. They're actually adding to the number of different layers now. Windows is like an archaeological dig at this point, you can see things from every era from DOS onwards. What's galling is that where they have put in a new UI, it's almost universally less functional, less legible, less useful and less intuitive. There are parts where I honestly cannot understand the information flow. Going into "settings" feels like you need a rope and some breadcrumbs. It was actually a relief the other day to get dumped into the Win7 Network and Sharing controls centre, because it actually made sense! Everything I needed to see was in one place.

    It's the worst version of Windows I've ever used and I used 2.0 for a while. Truly awful.
  • Oxford Guy - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    I'm surprised all the hype hasn't gotten to you. It seems people are so desperate after Windows 8 for any improvement that they're willing to think this ugly UI is still something special.
  • Oxford Guy - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    The Mac OS from the 80s had a great UI (with the exception of a few oddities like Chooser and Internet Config stuff), with the exception of placing too much focus on programs unlike the Lisa which was task-centric.

    The closest Microsoft has come to an elegant UI is Windows 95. Once 98 came around with its terrible "strap a web browser onto a window" nonsense the trend started of basically just increasing the complexity. There is so much redundancy in Windows 7 alone and Windows 10 looks worse and is even more of a hodgepodge.
  • Nibholm - Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - link

    Upgrading to W10 basically means you go from user to product. Lots of uninstallable shovelware, ads, tracking of your use behaviour, forced updates/new shovelware and restrictions what you can do with your computer. Pro is bit better than Home Premium but most people will get latter.
  • Seeb66 - Thursday, July 2, 2015 - link

    Installed latest build of windows 10 this week and absolutely hated it. What the hell, it's even uglier than windows 8.
    - No window borders/frame
    - A stupid white title bar for all legacy windows,
    - Hideous close, maximise,minimise icons in the title bar (disproportional spacing, with no rollover effect)
    - Awful skinny font for the windows title text
    - icon design in file explorer alone makes me want to vomit
    - don't even get me started on the new control panel (designed for children < 5)
    I can't believe a graphic designer puts their name to this, aaaaargh it hurts my eyes.
  • xenol - Saturday, July 4, 2015 - link

    GIF support? Hot dog!

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now