Technology Ramblings

On September 18, MS released Windows 10 Build 10547.  This is part of what is being called the "Threshold 2" release of Windows 10.   Some in the press are calling this the true Windows 10 release as it will coincide with MS's "Big Bang" announcement coming up on Oct 6.    Big Bang will be the announcement of the Surface 4 Tablet as well as two new phones - so MS's first Windows 10 specific devices.  There will also be a number of formal announcements from other OEM partners, like HP, Dell, Lenovo and others regarding their Windows 10 target devices to capture holiday sales. So on to the build itself.   As always I loaded 10547 on a couple of desktop machines a laptop and a tablet device.  Versus recent builds - the download process was much faster and the upgrade process also seemed a bit quicker.  The build also seemed to to include more MS native Windows 10 apps than previous builds - so you didn't spend as much time in the Store afterwar...

As with many enthusiasts I have several machines and several of those dual boot.  Also like many enthusiasts, I maintained separate Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 environments until I felt that Windows 10 was reliable enough to become my daily driver... During the pre-RTM Windows 10 Insider Program, MS upgraded and renamed several key apps.  Groove Music & Movies and TV are two that come to mind.  So here is the interesting thing.  They have never been updated or renamed in Windows 8.1.  In fact open the store in Windows 8.1 - and search for Groove Music and nothing appears.    MS has created an all new store experience for Windows 10 and has left the Windows 8.1 Store alone.  In fact I would say MS has turned their back on it. MS is in such a hurry to put Windows 8.x behind them that I believe they will practically stop supporting the product and especially the Store and the Apps.    This is what I am describing...

After a frustrating week running Windows 10 Mobile Build 10536 on my Nokia 735 - I returned home and found it running very well thank you on my daughters Nokia 635...    It was obvious after checking the 635 that the previous method of upgrading that went from 10512, to  10514.0, then 10536.1000 and finally 10536.1004 just did not take on my 735.  Even after a phone reset - things just weren't right... So after some deliberation I decided to take the big step and use the Phone Recovery Tool to go back to Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to 10536.1004 again... The good news is this method seemed to have worked well, the bad news is that from end-to-end the process was nearly 8 hours.   First I installed the recovery tool and connected my 735 - the 1.75GB download was slow, but the actual flash upgrade went very well.  All in about an hour... Then you had to launch the store and update all 18 apps - about another hour. Then I reinstalled Windows Insider...

After several disappointing delays and some flogging in the blogs - MS released Windows 10 Mobile build 10536.  To be very specific the build is 10536.1004... I installed over build 10512 on a Lumia 735.. To get there was a very frustrating process.  It involved applying 3 major updates, 10514.0, then 10536.1000 and finally 10536.1004.    This ridiculously convoluted path was required because 10536.1004 would not install directly over 10512.   If you wanted to return to WP 8.1 and then update you could go direct to 10536 - but either path was a waste of time and effort and a lack of understanding on MS's part of their own Fast Ring Community. While all 3 updates did apply - it took over 4 hours from the time I first checked for phone updates until everything downloaded and applied.  That is absurd - yes it is a test build - but the distribution and deployment should never take this long.. But then I noticed that most if not all my 3rd party apps ...

Many folks are looking at the press reports coming out about Windows 10 and considering updating their existing Windows 7 or 8 machines to Windows 10. But as much as MS touts a free and clean update process - with any OS upgrade there is risk. In fact in the early weeks of Windows 10 release - it was reported that some 50% of upgrades failed for one reason or another.    S o here are a few best practices and lessons learned over the past year being a part of the Windows 10 Insider Fast Ring group to help mitigate those risks.. First - review the current state of your OS and make sure you can upgrade to Windows 10.  From an OS level you must be at a minimum of Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.   Check your system properties to make sure you are there.  If not you will need to run Windows Update and get there.   Next review the current state of your hardware.   Here are the MS minimums... Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster. RAM:...