Even Mary Jo Foley has broached the possibility of sooner rather than later. Don't forget that W7/W8 were held for several months before being formally released in the fall. Around here, we only really care about RTM, because leaks typically occur soon after (not to mention releases to channels like MSDN). W7/W8 RTM'd by the end of July.
It doesn't work with UAC fully disabled, neither does the calculator. As I said before, there is a much smarter and better way of doing the app system, and what I suggested actually makes sense, but I doubt Microsoft will take that concept on board. This is despite it being even more secure and saving disk space, and other related benefits. It's strange that they are having a bit of a security push, and making sharing in home environments much harder (you have to play around with the registry to avoid that homegroup nonsense), and say you can't use apps with LUA (parent to UAC) disabled due to security concerns, and yet they didn't have the foresight that running apps in a mini-VM would be a great idea. It certainly knows what is and isn't an app, since it blocks them with LUA disabled in the first place! By running in a VM, you could have UAC turned up to maximum for the apps, and yet have it minimised or disabled for the rest of the system, like power users do. UAC prompts are good in concept, but people just end up blocking stuff they need to happen, or get sick of the prompts and just accept everything anyway (like clicking through installers). It's strange they got rid of Aero Glass because it was slow (on low end machines when Vista first came out), but since then computers are much more powerful, the code is vastly more optimised, and they've change the screen draw method so it really wouldn't impact on machines now. Hey, if it can't add it a bit of blur how are computers expected to play Solitaire? Outdated example I know, but it's a valid point. It's not taxing, nor should Aero Glass be. On the topic of efficiency, I get back to the Skype example I used earlier. How is 1700+ separate files efficient? Having them in a single package that is loaded virtually like mounting an ISO isn't difficult, and even that isn't the best example as it could be done better. This method if done right wouldn't be slower either, you would simply have the file table at the beginning of the app package, and it would mount in an instant. No different than loading the same data off the NTFS drive and MFT. The concept is actually even more simple than I just described, and since it is running in its own virtualised file system it could even be faster as well, since you could have it's own special super fast file system in the virtual package. It wouldn't have the NTFS overhead either! For instance, it could be exFAT in the virtual OS. I'm not saying it has to be exFAT, there really is no limitation in what they could do to tweak efficiency in regards to the file system in this concept. You also reduce system MFT fragmentation, and since the app packages would likely be less fragmented as well, there's even more speed. Drives do slow down due to fragmentation, even SSD's, despite what people try and claim. If this wasn't the case, 4 KB read/write times would be the same as 2 MB read/write times etc. This simply isn't the case. SSD's are just limited in write cycles, which is why defragmenting isn't recommended. Also, because they are fast anyway fragmentation is less noticeable. Still, my concept leads to potentially faster load times, less hard disk space used, and potentially far better security as it's in a VM, so why wouldn't they consider this, if they are so concerned of these things in other areas of the OS? With these other areas of the OS actually being detrimental to useability. This concept achieves better performance and security, whilst also improving useability by allowing users to have separate UAC levels (or even disable UAC entirely for the rest of the OS by disabling LUA). It will also probably be much more attractive to system administrators to have proper fully-fledged Windows 10 on their machines since useability, and security in particular, are of particular concern. I apologise for the second rant about this in as many days, but it's almost as if Microsoft have overlooked doing the smart thing with apps because they're 'out-of-sight, out-of-mind' in that hidden folder of theirs. People were crabby with the WinSXS folder size, if only they discover the size of this WindowsApps folder after installing a couple of dozen third party apps and several app updates.
I can see at least another 6 months. I think Microsoft is gearing it up for Christmas holidays they will make a sweet ass DirectX 12 bundle with the Xbox One probably with Fable Legends and Halo 5.
Ya, everybody is making it out like June 1 is the hard date for rtm... When most windows rtm was finished at late July, early Aug.
Technically both you and nosense were right. They went gold in July/August, but general availability to retailers wasn't until later in the year. This timing allowed for Christmas sales, which is probably more of a moot point now since PC's (Proper Computers) have been 'replaced' by consoles and tablets, and also allows for businesses who wish to upgrade to do so over the Christmas/New Year/early January slow period.
I have finally decided to install the leaked build 10036 on my Acer S7 tonight to experience the changes by myself.
Personally I don't consider Windows 10 to be complete and feature-rich enough to bear the number 10 yet. Despite better stability on my machine with build 10036, considering they only gave stability and transparency to the start menu, and more desktops to win+tab IN 2 MONTHS OF WORK, there have been absolutely no new features in this time span and if this is the pace of work they have, they definitely won't release in 4 months. Either that or the whoever gave the numbering to Windows 10 is clearly bananas.
Part of the problem THERE is that the reason for the lack of more new features is that folks are still having issues accepting the features introduced even with Windows 8 (most of which are hardware-driven). And if you DO add new features (even those that ARE hardware-driven), you get accused of moving away from the "soul" of Windows (if you're Microsoft) or the "soul" of OS X (if you're Apple). Transparency in mini-Start is a feature that no previous version of the Start menu (or StartScreen) even HAD - however, do you call it a new feature or an existing feature? Then there are color choices for the Taskbar (and StartScreen/mini-Start) - you can now mix your own colors for both (which was decidedly missing from the original Start menu and Taskbar). Again, new or existing feature?
The XAML startmenu still can't detect if Apps are removed or not. (YES! I'm using the leaked build as my main os and yes i'm totally aware that this build is buggy.. This is why i'm using it, to find bugs and send it to Microsoft. I think this is the only right way to find all bugs.. on a VM you just test some build in Apps, look at the "ugly" icons and that's it..)
I'm starting to give 10036 Pro (replaced 9926 Pro) a thrash on my main PC as part of ongoing "can/should 10 replace the current main OS" testing (I did the same with 8, and wanted to do it with 7), so this is not new. I have a small (all of 80 GB) 8.1 partition because I have one set of games that haven't been able to run on the builds of 10 yet - once this group clears that hurdle, 8.1 will be banished. Yes - 10 is THAT good otherwise. I am, in fact, entering this post from 10036 Pro, while installing DCUO (compatibility testing - it's one of those games that have not worked in 10 yet) and Office Preview (which has worked in EVERY build of 10 so far) at the same time. (Simultaneous installs is, in fact, something that 8.1 had issues with - however, 10 does this sort of thing routinely; after all, of what good is an operating system that can properly multitiask if you are unable to multi-install? (Neither Vista OR 7 supported simultaneous installs - a quibble, I admit, at the time; however, it DID worry me.) I've even gone back to an old trick that I first used with Vista and 7 (but went away from) as part of the testing: I put the Desktop Bar back on the Taskbar. (Not only is the Desktop Bar back, you have the same options it had in the Vista/7 heyday - Text and Icons, Text Only, or Icons Only.) It's not staying - at most, it will be a sometime-thing when I have a browser window open full-screen. However, I'm not the only user that has a use FOR this feature - in fact, some users leverage it more than I do. If I can get these older-OS users off the fence, that is fewer headaches for me.
BTW for anyone seeing high CPU usage in explorer, go into folder options and uncheck the 2 check marks under privacy and hit the clear button, issue will be gone.