Windows 10 - RTM Build 10240 - not for everyone
Today - MS released Windows 10 Build 10240 to Fast Ring members.
Some in the press are calling this the RTM version - as the Evaluation Copy markings have been removed.
I am travelling so was only able to initially update one device my Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet.
From Gabe Aul's posts - one of the goals of this release was to test the "production" release mechanism. So the good news was that Windows 10 10240 did download and install okay on my Venue. it was painful slow for me mostly because I did this from Hotel broadband. I installed over build 10166.
So here is the good bad and ugly and why I say Windows 10 is not for everyone.
First the good news - the install did recognize and install all the proper drivers - so Device Manager showed all good. So a big yea there.
But that's about where the yea's end. I can not say 100% that build 10240 is the actual GA release build that will be publicly available on July 29 - but as far as the overall quality I have been experiencing there are still holes in Windows 10 that really have me doubting why MS is actually going to release this product in 14 days. Considering that in theory this release is 74 daily builds newer than the most recent 10166 build released - I am pretty disappointed.
So let's start with some simple things. Open the Settings app - go to the system tab and select default apps - then try and select a default app for calendar functions - and even though I have both the native calendar app and Office 2016 preview installed - Windows 10 shows no apps and asks you select one from the store. Similarly - it actually showed Windows Media Player for the default Music player - instead of Groove Music.
Then click on All Apps and the first app in the listing is a blank green tile with the description of "@(winstore_1.0.0.0_neutral_n..." that doesn't launch anything.
For me location services also is not working correctly. In the same hotel room I have a laptop running Windows 8.1 and my tablet running Windows 10 both connected to the same WiFi network. Open the Maps app on both devices and the Windows 8.1 system immediately identifies the correct location and centers the map. With Windows 10 the maps app shows a location marker - but with a highly expanded map showing North and South America - as you drill down - you finally notice that the location plotted as My location - is off by about 1 mile.
It also effected every location consuming app - for example Weather thinks I'm in Los Angeles when I am actually in Anaheim.
Groove Music does open and load okay and can play both local and cloud content okay. There are still some issues that the app has getting the proper album artwork. Movies and TV does play my ripped H.264 content fine - I have not tried to stream a movie simply because of the hotel bandwidth constraints - but I expect it to work okay.
The Store app actually crashed on me 3 times before being able to stay open. I ran a check for updates for the apps installed - but no updates were found or applied - so I assume the apps are current. But the other thing that's tough to understand with Windows 10 apps is what versions am I running and are they current...
The Bing screen background does not automatically update. Mine is still running the image from Sunday July 12.
The Mail, Calendar & People apps all launched okay and appear to operate properly. I am only using them for my Outlook.com account - so can't say how well they run multiple accounts. One small note is that the people app on my Windows 10 Phone actually had a cool live tile feature that shows floating circles containing the pictures of contacts. But this doesn't work on my tablet.
The MSN apps - News, Sports, Weather, Finance also all seem to run okay.
But the new browser Edge is still a work in progress. For me to too many sites / capabilities just do not work well. MS are obviously hedging as well in that Internet Explorer 11 is also included in the build. It's buried in the Windows Accessories folder - but it's there. I just installed Chrome.
Phone companion launched okay - but I was unable to test because I don't have a micro-to-micro-usb cable on me to plug in my Lumia 735 running Windows 10 Mobile 10166.
All of the Office 2016 Preview apps launched okay. But all of my profiles were lost - so had to re-do them..
Alarms, Calculator, Camera all worked fine.
But as you can see - there are still many - in my opinion too many rough edges with Windows 10 to say to someone - "sure go ahead and upgrade to Windows 10 - you'll have a great experience". The reality is for many they will not...and this is a problem...
As I've stated for quite some time - really since about February - was that Windows 10 was "feature complete" and that all of the remaining work was clean-up. Well here we are some 5 months later and there is still some clean-up to be done.
For this writer - Windows 10 on a tablet is just okay... as is build 10240.
Some in the press are calling this the RTM version - as the Evaluation Copy markings have been removed.
I am travelling so was only able to initially update one device my Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet.
From Gabe Aul's posts - one of the goals of this release was to test the "production" release mechanism. So the good news was that Windows 10 10240 did download and install okay on my Venue. it was painful slow for me mostly because I did this from Hotel broadband. I installed over build 10166.
So here is the good bad and ugly and why I say Windows 10 is not for everyone.
First the good news - the install did recognize and install all the proper drivers - so Device Manager showed all good. So a big yea there.
But that's about where the yea's end. I can not say 100% that build 10240 is the actual GA release build that will be publicly available on July 29 - but as far as the overall quality I have been experiencing there are still holes in Windows 10 that really have me doubting why MS is actually going to release this product in 14 days. Considering that in theory this release is 74 daily builds newer than the most recent 10166 build released - I am pretty disappointed.
So let's start with some simple things. Open the Settings app - go to the system tab and select default apps - then try and select a default app for calendar functions - and even though I have both the native calendar app and Office 2016 preview installed - Windows 10 shows no apps and asks you select one from the store. Similarly - it actually showed Windows Media Player for the default Music player - instead of Groove Music.
Then click on All Apps and the first app in the listing is a blank green tile with the description of "@(winstore_1.0.0.0_neutral_n..." that doesn't launch anything.
For me location services also is not working correctly. In the same hotel room I have a laptop running Windows 8.1 and my tablet running Windows 10 both connected to the same WiFi network. Open the Maps app on both devices and the Windows 8.1 system immediately identifies the correct location and centers the map. With Windows 10 the maps app shows a location marker - but with a highly expanded map showing North and South America - as you drill down - you finally notice that the location plotted as My location - is off by about 1 mile.
It also effected every location consuming app - for example Weather thinks I'm in Los Angeles when I am actually in Anaheim.
Groove Music does open and load okay and can play both local and cloud content okay. There are still some issues that the app has getting the proper album artwork. Movies and TV does play my ripped H.264 content fine - I have not tried to stream a movie simply because of the hotel bandwidth constraints - but I expect it to work okay.
The Store app actually crashed on me 3 times before being able to stay open. I ran a check for updates for the apps installed - but no updates were found or applied - so I assume the apps are current. But the other thing that's tough to understand with Windows 10 apps is what versions am I running and are they current...
The Bing screen background does not automatically update. Mine is still running the image from Sunday July 12.
The Mail, Calendar & People apps all launched okay and appear to operate properly. I am only using them for my Outlook.com account - so can't say how well they run multiple accounts. One small note is that the people app on my Windows 10 Phone actually had a cool live tile feature that shows floating circles containing the pictures of contacts. But this doesn't work on my tablet.
The MSN apps - News, Sports, Weather, Finance also all seem to run okay.
But the new browser Edge is still a work in progress. For me to too many sites / capabilities just do not work well. MS are obviously hedging as well in that Internet Explorer 11 is also included in the build. It's buried in the Windows Accessories folder - but it's there. I just installed Chrome.
Phone companion launched okay - but I was unable to test because I don't have a micro-to-micro-usb cable on me to plug in my Lumia 735 running Windows 10 Mobile 10166.
All of the Office 2016 Preview apps launched okay. But all of my profiles were lost - so had to re-do them..
Alarms, Calculator, Camera all worked fine.
But as you can see - there are still many - in my opinion too many rough edges with Windows 10 to say to someone - "sure go ahead and upgrade to Windows 10 - you'll have a great experience". The reality is for many they will not...and this is a problem...
As I've stated for quite some time - really since about February - was that Windows 10 was "feature complete" and that all of the remaining work was clean-up. Well here we are some 5 months later and there is still some clean-up to be done.
For this writer - Windows 10 on a tablet is just okay... as is build 10240.
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