Windows 10 Insider will remain free and genuine to people within the Insider Program

[Kodiack]

Microsoft clarification kinda clears up free Windows 10 license confusion - Ars Technica

 

Anyone who sticks with the [Windows Insider] program will continue to receive a steady series of activated, genuine [Windows Insider] operating system releases.

 

Basically, Windows 10 Insider will remain free and accessible, just like it is now. These copies of Windows will be free and genuine, and they'll continue to have quicker release schedules and exciting new changes. Yes, this means that they'll be more prone to bugs than the official releases, although it also means that people using the Insider program will have access to the latest cutting-edge features and fixes.

The Insider program seems like a way of rewarding testers with free software, so long as they continue testing. Personally, I rather like this model! Most customers will stick with whatever operating system their OEM provides, while the technical people that don't mind occasionally getting their hands dirty and hunting down a bug can get this for free as a thanks for their feedback.

 

This works out nicely even for my own systems. I wouldn't want a Windows Insider install on my daily driver (my desktop), but until now, I've had little incentive to have a Windows install on my Linux-powered laptop. I'd be more than happy to allocate a few gigabytes aside for a free Windows install with minimal licensing concerns. In the off chance that something does break, I could just boot into Linux and fix it, or even reformat that partition altogether! That's an unthinkable situation for my desktop, although it's perfectly reasonable for the laptop.

[Notional]

To those, they will be locked into perpetual beta mode.

[Kodiack]

-snip-

 

This is different. Previously, it was thought that people on Insider installs would get free upgrades to the official release. Then Microsoft backpeddled on that statement. Now they're saying that people on Windows Insider can remain on Windows Insider indefinitely, or switch over to an official release with a license key.

[Arty]

To those, they will be locked into perpetual beta mode.

no you won't

they are giving the option to leave

if you bothered to read the insider updates

[Fetzie]

To those, they will be locked into perpetual beta mode.

 

It makes it very convenient for people that want or need a Windows VM.

[Dabombinable]

I should re-install Windows 10 on my laptop, though since I've never used Windows 8/8.1 on it after their technical previews I don't know if Windows 10 will hog the CPU as much (Core 2 Duo T7600 and Windows 7 drastically slows it down over XP).

[Arty]

I should re-install Windows 10 on my laptop, though since I've never used Windows 8/8.1 on it after their technical previews I don't know if Windows 10 will hog the CPU as much (Core 2 Duo T7600 and Windows 7 drastically slows it down over XP).

Windows xp was so light nothing other than linux will compete

 

windows 10 is less then 7 and less then 8 in terms of hardware intense 

linux<xp<linux<10<8<7<vista

[Kodiack]

I should re-install Windows 10 on my laptop, though since I've never used Windows 8/8.1 on it after their technical previews I don't know if Windows 10 will hog the CPU as much (Core 2 Duo T7600 and Windows 7 drastically slows it down over XP).

 

I'm surprised you'd have performance issues with Windows 7! I have another laptop sitting around with a considerably slower T5250, and its performance in Windows 7 was/is excellent, though I have Linux on it now. I did also install a small 40 GB SSD into that a few years ago, however. Are you sure that it's the processor that was bottlenecking things? For general, lightweight use, a T7600 should be adequate.

[Dabombinable]

Windows xp was so light nothing other than linux will compete

 

windows 10 is less then 7 and less then 8 in terms of hardware intense 

linux<xp<linux<10<8<7<vista

Ah, right. Part of the problem for me might also be the fact that I'm using Windows 7 Pro, my Xeon benches far slower under it than it did under Windows 7 Home Premium. And only Puppylinux/Macpup can compete with XP when it comes to light resource usage, 128MB of RAM is all you need after a clean install-and only 80MB of that will actually get used, plus even a Celeron 300A is barely noticeable at basic tasks over a Pentium III EB 1000

[Arty]

Ah, right. Part of the problem for me might also be the fact that I'm using Windows 7 Pro, my Xeon benches far slower under it than it did under Windows 7 Home Premium. And only Puppylinux/Macpup can compete with XP when it comes to light resource usage, 128MB of RAM is all you need after a clean install-and only 80MB of that will actually get used, plus even a Celeron 300A is barely noticeable at basic tasks over a Pentium III EB 1000

how much ram do you have?

pro/home shouldn't make a dif really.

[Dabombinable]

I'm surprised you'd have performance issues with Windows 7! I have another laptop sitting around with a considerably slower T5250, and its performance in Windows 7 was/is excellent, though I have Linux on it now. I did install a small 40 GB SSD into that a few years ago, however. Are you sure that it's the processor that was bottlenecking things? For general, lightweight use, a T7600 should be adequate.

Most of the time the CPU was sitting around 50-60% usage, mostly due to svchost.exe, trustedinstaller.exe and the Windows update services. My normal trick of doing all the updates manually, disabling Windows update and letting svchost run its course don't work. Over 2 hours of the computer being left alone the same processes are still hogging resources.

how much ram do you have?

pro/home shouldn't make a dif really.

4GB, the laptop is pretty much fully upgraded.

[Arty]

Most of the time the CPU was sitting around 50-60% usage, mostly due to svchost.exe, trustedinstaller.exe and the Windows update services. My normal trick of doing all the updates manually, disabling Windows update and letting svchost run its course don't work. Over 2 hours of the computer being left alone the same processes are still hogging resources.

4GB, the laptop is pretty much fully upgraded.

on a clean install? 60%?

X86/32 or x64? i don't remember off top my head which one that chip is.

[Dabombinable]

on a clean install? 60%?

Yep, my Grandmothers Vista laptop which was upgraded to Windows 7 (not a re-install), has 4GB of RAM and a 2GHz Pentium T3200 runs faster.

[Kodiack]

Most of the time the CPU was sitting around 50-60% usage, mostly due to svchost.exe, trustedinstaller.exe and the Windows update services. My normal trick of doing all the updates manually, disabling Windows update and letting svchost run its course don't work. Over 2 hours of the computer being left alone the same processes are still hogging resources.

svchost is a container process for services. If one svchost process is using a bunch of CPU, it's because a service or two is likely misbehaving. If you right-click on svchost.exe in Task Manager, there's an option for "Go to service(s)" that'll highlight what service(s) are running under it.

[Dabombinable]

svchost is a container process for services. If one svchost process is using a bunch of CPU, it's because a service or two is likely misbehaving. If you right-click on svchost.exe in Task Manager, there's an option for "Go to service(s)" that'll highlight what service(s) are running under it.

I did that, and apparently nothing was using the CPU. The copy of Windows iteslf is clean because I bought the disc in store, and none of my external drives were connected and only my Antivirus was installed (and that's not the problem since under XP on dual Pnetium III the same Antivirus program caused no loss of performance).

[Arty]

Yep, my Grandmothers Vista laptop which was upgraded to Windows 7 (not a re-install), has 4GB of RAM and a 2GHz Pentium T3200 runs faster.

 

 

svchost is a container process for services. If one svchost process is using a bunch of CPU, it's because a service or two is likely misbehaving. If you right-click on svchost.exe in Task Manager, there's an option for "Go to service(s)" that'll highlight what service(s) are running under it.

"superfetch"

That was a problem in 7 for sure that i don't seem to have in 10 atm

[Arty]

I did that, and apparently nothing was using the CPU. The copy of Windows iteslf is clean because I bought the disc in store, and none of my external drives were connected and only my Antivirus was installed (and that's not the problem since under XP on dual Pnetium III the same Antivirus program caused no loss of performance).

ew antivirus

Chrome + Windows Defender (MSE) is all you really need, but if you don't feel safe, once a week with malware bytes.  anything more than that and your probbly being paraniod .. unless your doing sketchy things

[Dabombinable]

"superfetch"

That was a problem in 7 for sure that i don't seem to have in 10 atm

Oh, in that case I'll disable it. I've had plenty of practice disabling since I use SSD's in 2 of my desktops.

 

ew antivirus

Chrome + Windows Defender (MSE) is all you really need, but if you don't feel safe, once a week with malware bytes.  anything more than that and your probbly being paraniod .. unless your doing sketchy things

Straight up I don't trust Google, and Windows defender is next to useless. Avast has been good so far and its firewall has even stopped a couple of intrusions.

[Arty]

Oh, in that case I'll disable it. I've had plenty of practice disabling since I use SSD's in 2 of my desktops.

 

Straight up I don't trust Google, and Windows defender is next to useless. Avast has been good so far and its firewall has even stopped a couple of intrusions.

ah Can't aviod Google forever

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

This make a lot more sense tbh. It doesn't make sense that people could get a legit version of Windows 10 by just upgrading for free via the insider program lol. They spent how many millions on development... there's no way they were going to just give it all away for free.

I'll probably stick with the insider program tbh. On Linux? I didn't so much like the stable builds such as the slow to upgrade Ubuntu LTS which the latest one lacks the Linux Kernel v4.0... the Linux Kernel has been doing a lot of upgrading as of late and a prime example is the Kernel v4.0 which allows immediate kernel upgrades without rebooting which is handy of course for servers running on Linux to receive security patches and such without disconnecting a server during reboot, or those folks who don't ever turn off their PC. I always turn mine off though when not in use. The ancient times where reboots would wear out your PC faster have long-long passed. Nowadays? I'd rather not risk wearing out my PSU more than anything lol.

Maybe one day the Linux Kernel will patch the 64bit firmware loader for ca0132 sound cards (Creative Labs Sound Blaster Recon3D & Z series) so that they work properly under a 64bit kernel without headache-inducing workarounds.

Anywho? Yeah, I'll stick with Windows Insider on 10 and keep filling that windows feedback app requesting changes and tweaks... LIKE DISABLE OR GIVE ME THE OPTION TO DISABLE SYSTEM MEMORY SHARING FFS! I don't need my RAM to act as part of my VRAM... which WDDM 2.0 or at least how NVIDIA coded the driver with SLI setups seems to be... It's messing up my framerate when it starts loading my RAM with stuff instead of my VRAM sigh.

[Dabombinable]

ah Can't aviod Google forever

I can if I use my old computer, most of their programs can't run without SSE2 instructions.

[Arty]

Heyyo,

This make a lot more sense tbh. It doesn't make sense that people could get a legit version of Windows 10 by just upgrading for free via the insider program lol. They spent how many millions on development... there's no way they were going to just give it all away for free.

I'll probably stick with the insider program tbh. On Linux? I didn't so much like the stable builds such as the slow to upgrade Ubuntu LTS which the latest one lacks the Linux Kernel v4.0... the Linux Kernel has been doing a lot of upgrading as of late and a prime example is the Kernel v4.0 which allows immediate kernel upgrades without rebooting which is handy of course for servers running on Linux to receive security patches and such without disconnecting a server during reboot, or those folks who don't ever turn off their PC. I always turn mine off though when not in use. The ancient times where reboots would wear out your PC faster have long-long passed. Nowadays? I'd rather not risk wearing out my PSU more than anything lol.

Maybe one day the Linux Kernel will patch the 64bit firmware loader for ca0132 sound cards (Creative Labs Sound Blaster Recon3D & Z series) so that they work properly under a 64bit kernel without headache-inducing workarounds.

Anywho? Yeah, I'll stick with Windows Insider on 10 and keep filling that windows feedback app requesting changes and tweaks... LIKE DISABLE OR GIVE ME THE OPTION TO DISABLE SYSTEM MEMORY SHARING FFS! I don't need my RAM to act as part of my VRAM... which WDDM 2.0 or at least how NVIDIA coded the driver with SLI setups seems to be... It's messing up my framerate when it starts loading my RAM with stuff instead of my VRAM sigh.

They pretty much did with the 7/8 upgrades. and Thier making thier money off oem builders. and basically pc builders starting next month. + enterprise customers. + server customers

[Kodiack]

They pretty much did with the 7/8 upgrades. and Thier making thier money off oem builders. and basically pc builders starting next month. + enterprise customers. + server customers

Plus Windows as a Service, which seems to be their ultimate goal. They're wanting to gain a stronger foothold in the mobile market, and being able to link several devices into one larger Windows ecosystem is one way of achieving that.

 

Selling copies of Windows to system builders isn't where the money is. It's enterprise and the mobile market that Microsoft is chasing. They're late to mobile, but with their strong foothold in PCs, they may be able to entice people to switch over.

 

Microsoft seems to be following Apple's suit with OS X and iOS. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 10 is a long-running name like OS X is for Mac. I assume that Microsoft will make the barrier of entry to future operating system upgrades even smaller/cheaper, especially since Windows 10 alone is already a free upgrade for the first year for 7/8/8.1 users.

 

Microsoft wants to get people using their marketplace. Heck, developing and releasing an app for Windows Phone is one small part of their Student Accelerator program. They really want developers and consumers to start using it.

 

In the chance that the marketplace does succeed, I just hope that Windows doesn't ever get locked down by default like Android or *shudder* iOS.

[Arty]

Plus Windows as a Service, which seems to be their ultimate goal. They're wanting to gain a stronger foothold in the mobile market, and being able to link several devices into one larger Windows ecosystem is one way of achieving that.

 

Selling copies of Windows to system builders isn't where the money is. It's enterprise and the mobile market that Microsoft is chasing. They're late to mobile, but with their strong foothold in PCs, they may be able to entice people to switch over.

 

Microsoft seems to be following Apple's suit with OS X and iOS. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 10 is a long-running name like OS X is for Mac. I assume that Microsoft will make the barrier of entry to future operating system upgrades even smaller/cheaper, especially since Windows 10 alone is already a free upgrade for the first year for 7/8/8.1 users.

 

Microsoft wants to get people using their marketplace. Heck, developing and releasing an app for Windows Phone is one small part of their Student Accelerator program. They really want developers and consumers to start using it.

 

In the chance that the marketplace does succeed, I just hope that Windows doesn't ever get locked down by default like Android or *shudder* iOS.

plus forcing cortonna on windows to use bing ( which i can't find a away to change to google ) means more ad traffic

and office 2016 coming

[Doobeedoo]

So those who upgrade through insider and continue using post release Windows are they gonna have that info gathering in system that was mentioned? Or it's getting removed after release, also for post insiders?