back to article Microsoft attaches Xbox stream bait to Windows 10 hook

Microsoft, determined to do all it can to get and keep people on its newest operating system (Windows 10, in case you've been buried alive for the past year or so) has turned on Xbox streaming for its users. The company said late on Friday that game streaming was being switched on for all Xbox One owners with a Windows 10 PC …

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  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Alien

    Microsoft's usual difficulty of keeping business and consumer segments apart.

    ...firmly in the "consumer segment", then, this Operating System resides?

    Interest not kindled, it is.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Absolutely in the consumer segment.

      But will still contain the enterprise-level white screen that malware writers just love to activate to ensure their blackmail schemes work.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft's usual difficulty of keeping business and consumer segments apart.

      Yes, compared to the overall user-base of Windows, XBox game streaming is even more of a minority than Skype users. It's hardly a game changer for the majority (ooh, a pun!)

  2. James 51

    Until it is crippled, disabled or removed by an update MS stuck on because they can or if you neber wanted it in the first place, tough.

    1. TheVogon

      "Until it is crippled, disabled or removed by an update MS stuck on because they can or if you neber wanted it in the first place, tough."

      I think you are confusing Microsoft with Sony.

  3. Richard Jones 1
    WTF?

    How Is This Interesting?

    Just how and why should this make any difference to normal PC using people? What does it do that has any value? If someone wants an X box I guess they would buy one, why would I want this dodgy extra which appears much like a value removing tool.

    Am I missing some perfect point, I am certainly missing something as it means less than nothing at the moment.

    What with other stupid ideas like WiFi (Non)Sense are they running a 'do not touch this' campaign?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yawn

    ... And I'm an Xbox game developer.

    Who gives a shit?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    W10 ? No thanks

    I want an OS that I have control over and not some dark overlord which can add/remove features on a whim or do what the fuck it likes with my system without me having the power to stop it. No sale Microsoft until you sort out the forced updates shit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Let's just hope that you never actually work for a company with more than a handfull of staff then.

      Regardless of the OS, the Sysadmins have the power over OS life and death, you will always just be the end user....

      And unless you want to run an un-updated version of Linux then you have no control over what it is doing either, unless you are capable of reading driver level code which I doubt you have the inclination to do, or have the time to do.

      In a hypothetical world, I can understand your rant, in the real world its just a rant...

      By the way, W10 is free....

      AC because you are AC... ACs are the small people of this world...

      1. Preston Munchensonton
        Facepalm

        Regardless of the OS, the Sysadmins have the power over OS life and death, you will always just be the end user....

        Possibly (not everywhere any more), but having any company sell a product that they can adjust on the fly whenever they want is a really good way to piss off your customers. Even appletards would howl if their fruity overlords forced an update on them that borked things right into the shitter (notwithstanding Apple subverting any subsequent forum rants, but I digress).

        If you really believe that Windows 10 is free, you're a massively naive fool.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC (the childishly naive one)

        So you're telling me I can get Windows 10 free to install it on PCs I've assembled myself or on those with Windows XP ? Yeepeee ! Where can I download the ISO ? Can I use the same license key on any number of machines I want ?

        Oh, what is you're saying ? I have to buy a Windows 7 or Windows 8 in order to get "free" Windows 10 ?

        Windows 10 is free for suckers only.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC

        Let's deal with the utter horseshit you have written:

        1) "Regardless of the OS, the Sysadmins have the power over OS life and death, you will always just be the end user...."

        Well fuckedy doody welcome to the world of work where you prostitute your freedom for cash. If you had been following W10 you would know the enterprise edition does does not enforce updates, see the contradiction in your assertion there ?

        2) "And unless you want to run an un-updated version of Linux then you have no control over what it is doing either, unless you are capable of reading driver level code which I doubt you have the inclination to do, or have the time to do."

        What crap, ever backported ? Oh and for your information I actively contribute to the Linux Kernel fucktard.

        Un-updated, why would I want to remove my updates unless of course they are the usual MS fucked up updates that I can no longer un-update from W10. Or do you mean non-updated as currently in windows XP ?

        3) "By the way, W10 is free...."

        It's far from fucking free, a couple of definitions of free for you:

        a) without cost or payment.

        b) release from confinement or slavery.

        Apologies for the tourettes folks but that has to be one of the most retarded and blinkered posts I've ever had to rebutt on The Reg.

        1. Geoffrey W
          Happy

          RE: "Oh and for your information I actively contribute to the Linux Kernel fucktard."

          Hmmm...I see you picked up behaviour traits from a certain someone...

          1. Chika
            Happy

            Sometimes I can admire LT for sticking it to some developers. They deserve it.

      4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Trollface

        "By the way, W10 is free...."

        Oh, that's good. I can update my old XP system now.

    2. Chika

      I've been testing Windows 10 over the weekend (my LiveJournal has some of the details) and while it is possible to defang the damn thing, it takes a lot of work and still has bits in it afterwards that you can't do anything about. This includes the forced updates, the flaky Edge and its IE11 crutch and the fact that what we actually have is the return of good old bloatware (obviously they have forgotten the mess they got into with Windows Vista over that sort of thing).

      Thankfully, reverting to Windows 7 proved to be surprisingly easy.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MS's Game Plan

    1. Write an OS

    2. ????

    3. Profit

    1. Fibbles

      Re: MS's Game Plan

      I'm not sure 'write' is the verb I'd go for.

      Kludge, perhaps?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Fibbles - Re: MS's Game Plan

        or cobbled ?

        1. VinceH

          Re: @Fibbles - MS's Game Plan

          "or cobbled ?"

          I think you might have stumbled upon the ever mysterious step 2.

        2. m0rt

          Re: @Fibbles - MS's Game Plan

          ...klubbled?

    2. streaky

      Re: MS's Game Plan

      1. Write an OS

      2. Abandon gamers

      3. Have poor OS sales

      4. Oh shit!

      5. Write new OS

      6. ????

      7. Profit

    3. Chika
      Happy

      Re: MS's Game Plan

      1. Write an OS

      2. ????

      3. Profit

      So Microsoft are run by underpants gnomes? Explains a lot...

  7. Michael Habel

    So that'll be like what? 125W+ for the FailboxOne... Plus another 450w to convert the peasantry into the PC Master Race... Discounting any additional TV's, and Monitors. Well with a reportedly high standby 33~12-5W (WHEN NOT EVEN IN USE!) I) guess this Failbox can be said to be anything other then green!

    Besides S0NY did this first on the PSP & PS3 with Game Sharing. The only question lest will be. Will MicroSoft turn 'round and gimp the service as badly as S0NY had?! ...Here or latter on with the Vita & PS4?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft seem to be increasingly of the (dare I say Apple-like?) inability to distinguish exactly whose fucking computer it is.

    I want an OS that lets me fire up the things that are needed to get stuff done; then get the hell out of the way. If a company wants to cost me time, effort and annoyance to punt their cloudy crap (absolutely none of which I have the slightest interest in) then they can fucking well pay for the privilege.

    Cliche, I know, but it's looking like this may actually be the year of the linux desktop for me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Cliche, I know, but it's looking like this may actually be the year of the linux desktop for me."

      Every technical review of W10 I see is a nail in the coffin for the idea of ever upgrading from W7. It is time to start my migration to Linux - abandoning my investment going way back to Windows 2.

      My Windows dependent applications are decreasing in importance as each year passes. Offline XP or W7 will suffice. The only one that needs online access currently depends on W7, Excel 2010, VBA, and Internet Explorer object interface.

      By 2020 I would hope to have used my code writing skills to port that functionality to Linux - probably Mint with Free or Libre Office. That process should then allow me to avoid the intrinsic bugs in the current MS based combination over which I have no control.

    2. Tubz Silver badge

      Apple know you own the hardware but the software is on a long term free lease and they reserve the right to do what the hell they like, even leaving you dead in the water with no updates. This methodology covers basically Microsoft, Google, Samsung etc etc etc.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Well some people prefer a more managed service and that's fine. People who have been using Windows for a time, however, are not those people.

        To be honest, it's mostly Photoshop and the fact that Win7 isn't too bad after a few tweaks that have kept me with it this long (that and laziness...a not inconsiderable factor). Photoshop have screwed the pooch now, for me. I took out a year's subscription because I had to at the time but I am absolutely not going to be renewing. This might be just me; but I can't really describe how much I loathe some 3rd party coming in and rearranging my furniture without my permission. Also my entire (expensively collected over a long time) plugin collection stopped working which decreases the program's utility for me, considerably.

        Fairly recently I had two programs (from 2 different software houses) on my system remotely detonated. Not wholly without justification, as the programs in question were of dubious provenance; but the fact remains that some remote fucker has more control over my kit than I do sitting at the keyboard and that is simply unacceptable. Getting past my personal huffy and taking a wider view on the subject; this seems to be the direction that Microsoft seems to be going in and it seems likely that Microsoft will go further in the "rearrange user's kit for our own benefit" direction with Windows 10. I most emphatically don't want that. I don't want *my* computer shilling for cloudy this; appstore that; and remote services the other...nor do I want to play the "where's the fucking button today?" game.

        All in all, it's looking like time to bail for me. Everyone else's mileage may vary, of course.

    3. P. Lee

      The problem with MS (and Apple and Google) is that they are too big - by that I mean, they've saturated their market.

      Small companies always have a chance to grow, but when you've saturated the market, you've nowhere left to go and you start tending to evil. MS have that awful advert-filled skype on Windows (preceded by an awful advert-filled MSN client). Large companies stop serving their customers' interests because doing so doesn't result in growth and increased profit. They start looking for other sources of income and the old customers become less important. This seems like reason enough to break up large companies. The downside is that you have to protect against large companies outside of your jurisdiction using excess profits earned elsewhere (or in the past) to gain an unfair advantage of the smaller ones you've created. Free-Trade agreements tend to prevent this which is why they are so popular with global corporates. A global corp can always out-spend competition coming from someone with a better idea but little capital. They only way to make headway is to make money elsewhere. Apple muscled into phones from the desktop IT industry. Google muscled in on smartphones from the search industry. MS muscled into servers from the desktop sector. People and corporations use Linux because they are (rightly) afraid that they'll be disadvantaged by the owners of the stack if they use someone-else's product. Apple have always gone it alone. MS seem to be following them. They want to own the OS, productivity apps, email, calendaring, database, messaging. We aren't just talking about front-end apps, they want the application data too with the cloud and they want to own all the transactions with Stores. What is the point of having standard protocols when all applications are proprietary? Android is hardly Linux, it merely sits on top of Linux. There's nothing wrong with that but I'm increasingly concerned that all the mobile devices require subscriptions or an invasion of privacy.

      As the markets saturate, the corporations in them turn to owning more and more and rent-seeking from their customers rather than serving their customers' needs.

      1. Preston Munchensonton
        Boffin

        The problem with MS (and Apple and Google) is that they are too big - by that I mean, they've saturated their market.

        This is the dumbest, economic argument ever made. Free trade doesn't make companies big. Walmart isn't the massive retailer that it is because the US put NAFTA in place. Companies get big for lots of different reasons, but it isn't free trade. Free trade widens the pool of market participants, both buyers and sellers. If those companies are "too big", it's because the government regulation in place protects them as such. Banking regulations in the US are another perfect example of this.

        Please stop spreading such bad economics. Even hardcore, neo-Keynesians aren't going to make sure retarded arguments.

  9. Steve Knox
    Paris Hilton

    Why?

    Why not just import the XBox One libraries into Windows 10 so you can run the games natively on you PC rather than having to shell out for an extra machi--

    OHHhhh. Never mind.

    1. Uffe Seerup

      Streaming high-end games to rendered on XBox One to laptops and tablets

      Or even play multiplayer on separate screens (XBox + Win 10 PC) streamed from the same XBox.

      That's why.

      Even without a beefy GPU you can stream the game to a laptop or tablet, which incidentally can also connect the XBox controllers.

      More here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/windows-10

      1. TheVogon

        Re: Streaming high-end games to rendered on XBox One to laptops and tablets

        "Why not just import the XBox One libraries into Windows 10 so you can run the games natively on you PC"

        Mostly to prevent piracy I expect, but also there is quite a lot of custom on chip hardware in the Xbox One so it might not be that easy.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not on my network in a million years.

    I want PC's that can open programs (not just Apps) that I install because my users NEED them.

    Not have a load of Bloat added to the machines that has no place on a work machine. ( no chance I will be upgrading any of the production workstations any time soon )

    And at home when I'm merely a consumer I still want to decide what is installed on my home machines (last game machines i had were a Donky Kong and a Sinclair spectrum) i do not game so why would i want to have this bloat adding to the attack surface and to the size on the computer.

    Hoping there will be a comprehensive install menu where i can opt NOT to install :- Cortana and XBOX. and im sure lots of other stuff i don't want or need.

    AS for updates dont even get me started on these...... :-(

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: not on my network in a million years.

      "I want PC's that can open programs (not just Apps) that I install because my users NEED them."

      Did IQs drop sharply?

      Win10 allows you to open programs just like the previous Windows versions. I know plenty of people on these forums repeat that false mantra but it doesn't make it true. The App Store in Win8 can be disabled and that's likely for Win10 too if it bugs you.

      "Not have a load of Bloat added to the machines that has no place on a work machine."

      The linked MS website states that to enable the Xbox streaming App you need to install it first. So it's not necessarily included in the system image.

      "AS for updates dont even get me started on these"

      I think we should wait the couple weeks until Win10 is released and see how the update mechanism works: whether it is always-on as reported, and whether it can be disabled.

      While we're on the topic of OS updates...

      My other laptop has Mint 16 and it silently ceased to update itself. Plenty of errors but no indication that it's EOL. Why can't Mint give any hint to end users about the situation and offer an easy upgrade mechanism to a supported version? Do other distros do this? Is this better than say WinXP which has whined about the lack of support since year ago?

      Likewise I've met plenty of Macs that are running 10.7 or somesuch version with either no updates ever installed (non-technical users) or with all updates - but the system is still vulnerable since support for that OSX version has been silently dropped. The Mac App Store has the update link to Yosemite (and it works very well, though the mandatory Apple ID is a stupid requirement) yet some people never venture into the App Store and are not even given a hint about its existence.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: not on my network in a million years.

        "Did IQs drop sharply?"

        going by the questions i get every day the answer to this question would be YES

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Sandtitz - Re: not on my network in a million years.

        And how's for the mandatory Microsoft account to use their app store ?

        If you're so fond of Windows 10 there's no wonder you're not good at all at any other OS. If I were you I'd stop writing this nonsense.

        1. Sandtitz Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: @Sandtitz - not on my network in a million years. @AC

          "And how's for the mandatory Microsoft account to use their app store ?"

          I'm not against accounts when it comes to using the app stores, since the usage of an app store is optional. Whether the OS is Android, Win, IOS, OSX, Steam or whatever.

          If either upgrading to Windows 10 or logging into / using Windows required MS account then I would be as pissed as anybody else in here.

          Apple is of course subjected to different standards. Asking to create and use Apple ID is a wonderfully benign gesture from Apple, but the MS Account is just naughty vendor lock-in. Google pushing their own Google Account doesn't seem to get the bad press either.

          "If you're so fond of Windows 10"

          Relax, sonny boy. I haven't formed an opinion of Win10 yet, as I haven't bothered with the beta.

          "there's no wonder you're not good at all at any other OS."

          No wonder you're posting as an AC. I wouldn't post such silly name calling with my handle either.

          "If I were you I'd stop writing this nonsense."

          Dear Coward, please point the nonsensical points in my post. I bet you can't.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @Sandtitz - not on my network in a million years. @AC

            @ sanditz

            "Apple is of course subjected to different standards. Asking to create and use Apple ID is a wonderfully benign gesture from Apple, but the MS Account is just naughty vendor lock-in. Google pushing their own Google Account doesn't seem to get the bad press either."

            Perhaps Windows users have enjoyed the fact MS is neither Apple nor Google and want an OS/Ecosystem that behaves differently to the products offered by the two other vendors ?

            I'm not the original AC by the way.

      3. streaky

        Re: not on my network in a million years.

        Win10 allows you to open programs just like the previous Windows versions

        Indeed microsoft actually quickly backed away from the apple-tablet model once they figured it doesn't work at all, much less for them. People that bought into it notwithstanding.

  11. earl grey
    Flame

    Dear Microsoft,

    ODFO

    That is all.

  12. Mikel

    They are down 600m units a year. "Tie all the things!"

    A shame looseness is what sells.

  13. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    At this point in the marketing cycle

    this move sounds a bit like desperation.

    Where is the 'positive vibe' for W10? {silence results}

    I was in Iceland when Windows 95 was released. Even there there were Apple like queues at the stores on launch day.

    Now?

    We get reactions like

    Meh

    Later, much later

    I don't care if it is free, them tiles are going nowhere near my desktop

    etc

    At the moment this could well be the worst release ever.

    However, things could be different.

    The Challenge to MS is to keep the hype going for the next 3-6 months. Only then will we be able to see if the uptake of W10 has even reached W8.1 levels.

    Personally, I won't be going anywhere near W10 for at least a year. I want to see where Server 2015/Next is going before I decide if it is worth investing my time in the 'new microsoft' eco systems.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: The Challenge to MS is to keep the hype going for the next 3-6 months

      Actually, The Challenge for MS is to find a niche that will keep itself relevant in a post-PC world.

      Microsoft has had only one platform since its inception : the PC. Personal Computing started with Microsoft, and that is a Good Thing (TM), but now the types of platforms available for the Personal Computing experience have multiplied and none of the other types are under Microsoft's control.

      The PC market is shrinking like a balloon after a race. Users are no longer interested in the big, clunky boxes with the unwieldy interface, and even laptops are getting the stinkeye from people who have no technical knowledge and no inclination to acquire some.

      Tablets, Kindle and smartphones are the new future of computing, and Microsoft is not present on those markets. Ergo its desperate attempt to shoehorn its new OS with a tablet interface onto anything that has a screen in order to be able to scream "we're here !" all over the place.

      Unfortunately, in the process MS has vertically filed the PC user experience of millions who have gotten used to one way of doing things with keyboard and mouse for the past two decades and do not take kindly to having their private computer filled with ads and notifications that they need to subscribe to this or that to do something they've been doing quite nicely in their own corner since their first computer.

      Microsoft has mountains of cash, so it has time to find a new way. Given its current attitude and total lack of logic in presenting the new version and its functions, it seems that it will be a costly wait for Microsoft.

      1. peter_dtm

        Re: The Challenge to MS is to keep the hype going for the next 3-6 months

        Pascal Monnett

        quote

        Personal Computing started with Microsoft,

        /quote

        UTTER TOSH sir.

        MS were very late to the PC world. Before MS came along riding its 'No one's been fired for buying IBM' misunderstanding - there were LOTS of PCs around before MS joined the party.

        It would be more correct to say MS wrecked personal computing until it was set free again by smartphones & tablets. I still remember being taken aback by just how crap IBM clones were compared to all the other PCs I'd used (Sinclair; VICs; the mighty Beeb ; Amstrads etc not to mention Dragons (speaking FORTH ...)). And the plaeasue of having SCO Xenix V instead of the microsoft thing.

        Do you also think MS started the interwebs ?

        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

          Re: Utter Tosh

          I'm sorry you disagree, but I don't remember seeing ANY Personal Computers before the IBM PC, so I don't know where you get the notion that "there were LOTS of PCs around".

          Once IBM sold the PC, and once MS-DOS was the standard OS for it, then it started selling. That article I linked to specifically states that "The IBM PC was the first PC that justified widespread use".

          So, in effect, you are saying that there were many models in existence before the IBM PC, which I will not dispute. I am saying that Microsoft heralded the era where everyone has a computer at home, which is why it is Microsoft that is the multi-billion dollar behemoth it is today, and not Atari, BBC Micro, or any other of the dozens of previous companies that failed to survive.

          I do agree that there were tinkerers and platforms available. It was not, however, the global market it is today in any sense of the word. That market, like it or not, WAS created by Microsoft. It has now been extended and is in the process of being taken over by others, which is the way of things.

          And no, despite your contempt, I do not believe in any way that Microsoft has created the Internet. Check out my post history and you will clearly see that I have repeatedly stated that Microsoft has missed every boat that ever sailed past it once it had Windows and Office.

  14. bill 36

    Would you like some Cinammon with your Mint or what...Mate?

    I've converted several neighbours and friends away from MS over the last few years and they all love it.

    We need a strong MS in the market but i can't help thinking that the ship is going to be fatally holed one of these days.

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      Re: Would you like some Cinammon with your Mint or what...Mate?

      It is already fatally holed and has been for a long time

      Its just a question of how long those manning the pumps will last (Office and business lock ins)

      Because Johnny consumer does'nt care what OS he uses, so long as it works.

      Wheres the sinking ship icon?

  15. AegisPrime
    Meh

    Having finally got the (RTM?) 10240 build on my laptop I'm... nonplussed. It's a bit slicker than the earlier builds but honestly, besides the Start menu (which is really just a crippled pop-up version of the Win8 Start screen) it's not exactly a huge leap over 8.1 - more of a 'sidegrade'.

    The virtual desktops feature is nice (though I doubt I'll ever use it), having backups return from Windows 7 is good annnd... that's about it (I guess DX12 will be useful someday).

    Lot of downsides though - the email app seems strangely less functional than Win8.1 and QuickTime's busted now (won't install) which means I can't use 10 for video editing - the only reason I upgraded from 8.1 Core was to use an old 7 Home Premium/Anytime Upgrade Pro license to get a 'Pro' version of Windows on my laptop for BitLocker - that works so I guess it's a nice-ish freebie.

  16. Lostintranslation

    Who will upgrade to Windows 10?

    I am just interested to see how many people are planning to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7/8/8.1 when the public download is available?

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