Windows 10

[SuperDave]

Have a look at Windows 10.

[DaveLembke]

My brother just shared with me a link to download and test the beta for 10. Download of iso's in progress and will test the 32 and 64 bit english ones on some spare boxes I have.

http://preview.windows.com

Interesting that they gave up on 9 and went direct to 10. 

[halstead]

Yeah, I read about it in news. I guess windows 8.1 can be assume as windows 9. Its only my opinion.

[BC_Programmer]

My brother just shared with me a link to download and test the beta for 10. Download of iso's in progress and will test the 32 and 64 bit english ones on some spare boxes I have.

http://preview.windows.com

Interesting that they gave up on 9 and went direct to 10. 

Word for Windows went from version 2.0 straight to 6.0.
Powerpoint, Access, and Excel went from 3.0, 2.0, and 4.0 respectively straight to version 7.0.
Visual Interdev went from 1.1 straight to 6.0; Visual J++ went from version 1.1 straight to 6.0 also.

It's hardly the first instance of Numbers being skipped. And we need to bear in mind that "Windows 7" was chosen completely arbitrarily anyway.

[DaveLembke]

It's hardly the first instance of Numbers being skipped. And we need to bear in mind that "Windows 7" was chosen completely arbitrarily anyway.

Hey your right about Windows 7 being completely arbitrarily implemented. For years I thought they based it off of the version in the command shell such as 5.1 for XP, and I thought Vista was 6.x and so Windows 7 was 7.x, and Windows 8 was 8.x, and so 9 would be 9.x and so on etc.

But as checked between these 2 computers one running XP and the other running 7 as shown in the pic attached, I was wrong with my assumption that they were following the command shell versions in the numbering of the OS to have started with 7 as 7 when they did since Vista was in between XP and 7, with XP being 5.1, and I thought Vista was 6.x.xxxx]. And I assumed that 7 was 7.x.xxxx] ... interesting... 

Now curious as to what Vista shows for Windows Version in command shell? Anyone still running Vista to share this? Very curious as to what version the command shell reports for Windows Vista... 



[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

[BC_Programmer]

Hey your right about Windows 7 being completely arbitrarily implemented. For years I thought they based it off of the version in the command shell such as 5.1 for XP, and I thought Vista was 6.x and so Windows 7 was 7.x, and Windows 8 was 8.x, and so 9 would be 9.x and so on etc.

But as checked between these 2 computers one running XP and the other running 7 as shown in the pic attached, I was wrong with my assumption that they were following the command shell versions in the numbering of the OS to have started with 7 as 7 when they did since Vista was in between XP and 7, with XP being 5.1, and I thought Vista was 6.x.xxxx]. And I assumed that 7 was 7.x.xxxx] ... interesting... 

Now curious as to what Vista shows for Windows Version in command shell? Anyone still running Vista to share this? Very curious as to what version the command shell reports for Windows Vista... 

Windows 2000 is 5.0
Windows XP is 5.1
Windows Vista is 6.0
Windows 7 is 6.1
Windows 8 is 6.2
Windows 8.1 is 6.3
Windows 10 is 6.4

[DaveLembke]

Thanks for answering that BC with prior and later versions too 

[camerongray]

I'll need to try it in more depth but from what I've seen I imagine I'll be pretty happy with it.

The biggest improvement so far that I can see for me is the ability to snap windows to quarters of the screen rather than just halves.  I run 1440p monitors so a lot of the time, even half a screen is too much for some applications so I like to snap some things (e.g. mail client, IRC client, terminal.etc) to a quarter of a screen.  At the moment I have to use third party software (Divvy) to do this which although it works fine, I'd much rather have the support natively.

[DaveLembke]

The biggest improvement so far that I can see for me is the ability to snap windows to quarters of the screen rather than just halves.  I run 1440p monitors so a lot of the time, even half a screen is too much for some applications so I like to snap some things (e.g. mail client, IRC client, terminal.etc) to a quarter of a screen.  At the moment I have to use third party software (Divvy) to do this which although it works fine, I'd much rather have the support natively.

Cool to hear about this feature to snap windows into quarters of the screen.

For the longest time I have wished that Windows had the ability like Linux to have Work Spaces where you had say 4 different desktop environments to work with. When I am on my Linux systems I use these habitually, and after any extensive time working with Linux and going back to Windows its like...hmm... I guess I just need to minimize or stack my windows and have to select from the bottom. http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/items/virtual_desktops/index.php?lang=

I think the closest thing to Work Spaces and Windows for me have been running virtual machines, but they are a resource hog compared to the Linux Work Spaces feature, and you have to properly manage them in Windows or else you can corrupt them if terminated abruptly etc, while I feel that the Linux Work Spaces are more robust in design when the system goes down for one reason or another..... maybe I should suggest this feature to Microsoft... with Windows 8 it seemed as though they already had 2 environments the desktop and the touch pad large block selection navigation system already.

[BC_Programmer]

I think the closest thing to Work Spaces and Windows for me have been running virtual machines, but they are a resource hog compared to the Linux Work Spaces feature, and you have to properly manage them in Windows or else you can corrupt them if terminated abruptly etc, while I feel that the Linux Work Spaces are more robust in design when the system goes down for one reason or another..... maybe I should suggest this feature to Microsoft... with Windows 8 it seemed as though they already had 2 environments the desktop and the touch pad large block selection navigation system already.

Desktops Already does this. Windows 10 has a task view thing which seems to try to be like virtual desktops but as far as I can tell it just switches focus between different sets of windows. Which reminds me of another annoyance, it has a search button and the task view button to the right of the start button, but they cannot be removed.

[DaveLembke]

Thanks BC for sharing this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx

I didnt know they added this as an optional download addon for Windows from sysinternals. Very Cool... Im going to have to check this out on home pc. 

[DaveLembke]

Testing with Windows 10 Beta 32-bit .... its actually not that bad and fast to get to desktop on older computer which was surprising.

Testing using a HP DX2300M ( Pentium D 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, Integrated GPU, 40GB SATA HDD)

Only trouble so far is with an old error that I remember seeing a while back with Windows XP and a update that broke running 16-bit applications on 32-bit OS.


Exact message in the box is:

--------------------------------------------------------------
16-Bit MS-DOS Subsystem
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe - edit test.txt
NTVDM has encountered a System Error
A device attached to the system is not functioning.
Choose 'Close' to terminate the application

[ Close ]    [ Ignore ]

--------------------------------------------------------------

So EDIT doesnt want to work from command shell. I am going to try this out on another computer I have to see if there is a true problem here or if there is some strange issue between this older computer and the Windows 10 beta before posting this as a real problem to the MS Forum for Windows 10 beta.

Anyone download and test the beta of Windows 10 (32-bit x86 ) yet to confirm if they are also having the same problem I am having with edit from command shell?

In regards to the statement in the error message of: "A device attached to the system is not functioning."

My thought on this is to check the HDD first to make sure its healthy. I know this drive is healthy and ran a check disk on it and all is well. I also ran crystaldisk info on this same drive prior to this under a build of Windows 7 64-bit and everything was good health wise and only 18,000 hours on the drive and 1200 cycles of power to it and reallocated sector count remained at 0 which is good.

So this issue might be similar to the XP issue of years past and it popping up with 16-bit applications after a security update broke 16-bit applications run from command shell.

Also to add.... prior to running edit, I was just testing out random features of the command shell and when running MEM to display memory, the Windows 10 (32 bit x86 ) had to install NTVDM before MEM would function. After it installed the internal Windows component MEM then worked properly.

The next command was EDIT test.txt and thats when the error popped up. I then rebooted and tried again and MEM shows memory without any issues from command shell and running EDIT again popped up the same error message about the 16-bit application.

Lastly I was surprised that they removed the top right menu that was part of 8 and 8.1 from Windows 10. I actually dont mind it missing, but those who have come accustomed to Windows 8 and 8.1 may find themselves clicking the top right corner with nothing happening until they break the habit or microsoft adds this dual navigation for Start Menu -or- Top right Corner to not be awkward to 8 and 8.1 users going to 10.

[BC_Programmer]

I have the x64 version installed in a VM. I'll install the x86 version and see if the same thing occurs.

What edit.com are you using? Is that included in the x86 version?

The top-right menu (charms) still there, at least Win+C shows it. the option is in the taskbar properties->Navigation tab, under "When I point to the upper-right corner, show the Charms". But it might be broken. Can't get it to do that in the VM.

FWIW Edit works in my XP SP3 VM. When the x86 install finishes I'll try it there as well.

[BC_Programmer]

OK, it finished.

Start->Run CMD prompted me to install the feature (NTVDM)... I allowed it. After it installed, Edit launched just fine.

[DaveLembke]

Start->Run CMD prompted me to install the feature (NTVDM)... I allowed it. After it installed, Edit launched just fine.

Cool thanks for checking on this. I will try this on a different box and see if its some odd issue with Windows 10 and hardware of some kind. Also I will grab another HDD that I have and install Windows 10 to that drive on this same box to rule out any possibility of a drive problem, even though the drive was healthy when running prior OS on it.

As far as which edit I was using its the one that came with the build located at c:\windows\system32\

As far as the version of Windows 10 I only saw 2 ISO downloads available  one for x86 (32bit) and the other for x64 (64-bit) that were English. I downloaded both of those and burned them to DVD-R.

Its interesting that NTVDM had to be installed to allow functionality of some of the command shell legacy features, when all prior Windows versions didnt require installation of any internal feature to allow legacy command shell functionality. Curious as to if this was intentional for security ( since why allow command shell features if your a home user that is strictly a GUI user and not a developer or an admin etc ) - or - because they are likely trying to steer away from the legacy command shell in the future and this is 1 step closer to its removal.

Thinking of Windows without a command shell, I would feel very restricted, and confined to only abilities that are part of Windows and applications or having to write programs that run only in GUI to do what i do so quickly within the command shell environment.

If it is for security reasons that they are eventually doing away with command shell, I dont see why they wouldnt just implement bare minimum privileges at the command shell, and require elevated privileges to do anything nasty from it. Similar to Linux distros requiring sudo. To do anything nasty credentials would have to be known for the targeted system(s).