Windows 9 magically became the Windows 10 Technical Preview. 

I installed Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9841 today and was blown away. The install was super quick (including the NTFS format of a new Hard Drive) with very little prompting. Almost automatic and on an old AMD Phenom cpu based computer.

Screen Capture above is thanks to Ashampoo Snap 7 software

I admit that I am not a fan of Windows 8. When I first setup a laptop earlier this year, Windows 8 had the shutdown hidden among it’s “Charms”. I have always stated that Google is your friend. Back then I had to fire-up the desktop and do a Google search to find out where the “Shutdown” on my new Windows 8 laptop was.

No such nonsense with Windows 10 Build 9841. I downloaded both the 32 bit and the 64 bit ISO files from Microsoft. Just do a Google search on ” Windows 10 Download”. The first result will be the direct Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview download page. You do not have to sign up for anything to D/L from that page.  I don’t want to post the link to the direct D/L page, but since Google is your friend…

You can also do it the long way by visiting Microsoft’s Windows Technical Preview webpage.

From the downloaded 32bit Windows 10 ISO, I created an install DVD. Then I took a brand new hard drive. Placed the HDD into an external drive caddy which has an eSATA connector. The AMD Mini Tower PC has eSATA connectors at the back of it. There are no internal Hard Drives in that computer. My Windows Photo Editing software boots from an external HDD via the eSATA connection. That way I can make the computer run Apple OSX,  Linux or Windows 10  just by changing the eSata hard drive.

The Windows 10 Technical Preview install and setup was surprisingly quick – 15 to 30 minutes and that somehow included formatting the HDD using NTFS. Very straightforward. My Windows 8 install (earlier this year) was a nightmare in comparison, which took ages to complete. This Windows 10 install, was not an update. This was a brand new install on an old AMD cpu based computer. Even a total newbie should be able to install Windows 10. Precious little in the way prompting. Just started the install and it basically ran by itself.

OK, there was “one” tiny thing which worried me and could throw off a newbie. When the install started a large Windows icon showed up in the centre of the screen. It stayed there and it looked like nothing was happening. Then the moving circle of dots appeared below the icon indicating that it was doing something. Not a big deal. Just leave it alone and let it do it’s thing. I suspect that Windows 10 was just trying to recognize my old hardware and confirm to itself that it could complete the install, and complete the install it did.

The Start button on Windows 10 is different. It is also configurable. The Windows 8 Metro apps show up as either a normal pgm list item or you can configure them to show as mini Metro tabs next to the Start menu.

The Shutdown is still not there if you “Left” click the Start Button. You have to “Right” click the start button to get the Shutdown option. You can configure the way the Start Button works.

I could not get the Metro panel to display when I pressed the Windows key on the keyboard. Good riddance. It is probably configurable. The Windows 8 Charms would not pop up either. Again, likely a configuration. Not a problem since I had no use for the Windows 8 Charms.

The Task Manager in Windows 10 is amazing. It is awesome, full of detail about what is running. You also get some of the same info that you got before in Windows 7 by typing in MSCONFIG. The new Task Manger will be a great help to the Tech Support and Enterprise folks, who will be rolling out new systems.

The Control Panel has more stuff, but works more of less like it did in Windows 7.

You really should D/L and install the Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9841.

Next, I installed a bunch of software.

First up was Anti Malware by Malwarebytes. Extraordinary software which everyone should D/L. There is a “free” version and so you have no excuse not to try this pgm out. This is a must have program. It worked like a charm. Windows 10 also setup my network internet connection with no fuss. I was impressed.

I also downloaded AVIRA antivirus. I had legal access to brand name commercial antivirus pgms, but wanted to see how Avira (a really great and FREE antivirus) would run under Windows 10. AVIRA Installed and worked perfectly. There will be those who may put down AVIRA, because it is FREE. Go visit AV_TEST.ORG and you will find that AVIRA is about as good as the other commercial AntiVirus pgms.

Everyone should have a Firewall program to prevent someone from getting into your internet connected PC. One of the best Firewall pgms is made by Comodo. The free version is what I D/L and installed. Comodo also plays well with other brands of security software, like AVIRA. For an extra level of security Comodo can also change your DNS Server setting, to use the more secure Comodo DNS Server. It asks you during the install and I would recommend it. Windows 10 had no issues with Comodo Firewall.

Next was the FireFox Web Browser. Installed and ran like a charm under Window 10. I also added a number of privacy add-on, like “Ghostery“ and”BetterPrivacy” which they also worked without a hitch under Windows 10.

I was becoming very impressed with the way things were going. Especially when I reflected back on the mess that my install of Windows 8 had been. It seems that Microsoft listened to users and has delivered.

Since my security concerns were taken care of and “working”, I figured that it was time to run Android under Windows. Yes, Android. There is a Kronos Time Schedule app that runs only under Android, which I need to use. So next up was installing BlueStacks, which runs Android in it’s own virtual environment under Windows. BlueStacks installed like it had under Windows 8. No issues. It actually runs better under Windows 10. I installed Kronos and a number of other apps. Android and Android apps ran just fine in Windows 10 under BlueStacks.

I next downloaded VLC Media Player. Yes it is also Free and is an amazing Media Player.

Time for a break. I started to play with Firefox and Internet Explorer. No problems. YouTube and DailyMotion videos played without a hitch under Windows 10. My regular sites would load under Windows 10, like they did on my much loved Windows XP and Windows 7 computers.

Then it occurred to me that Windows 10 is not even in the BETA stage. Surprisingly, I had no issues running any of the above software in Windows 10 Build 9841. The install of Windows 10 was also very quick and very easy. I firmly believe that Microsoft has a “huge” winner with this new Windows 10.

Video is courtesy of the Liliputing YouTube Channel

Seriously, do yourself a favour and sign up and D/L your own copy of Windows 10 Technical Preview. You will likely be impressed, as I have been today. Really good operating system and it is not even in the Beta stage.

I am by no means a Microsoft “fanboy” and seriously expected to have all sort of glitches with Windows 10. I’m impressed because I had absolutely no problems (even with freeware whose authors I suspect do not get the same access to Microsoft Engineers as do the Commercial software vendors), which BTW is not my normal experience installing new operating systems.

 

 

Posted by: Vincent Banial

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