back to article If you wanted Windows 10, it looks like you've already installed it

Windows 10 looks to have won about seven per cent of the world's desktop operating system market. That's The Reg's back-of-the-spreadsheet calculation after running our eye over September’s data from Netmarketshare and StatCounter, the two services we regularly eyeball to see what's going down on the desktop. Here's the tale …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    Optional?

    "If you wanted Windows 10, it looks like you've already installed it"

    "Wanted"?

    Strange assumption that all those who've received W10 sought it out. That was not how the deployment was executed. I'm sure that a significant proportion of the recipients simply didn't have the wherewithal to prevent it being foisted upon them.

    1. Steven Roper

      I've removed the Windows 10 malware from at least two dozen computers in the last month. All my friends and relatives who come to me when their computers play up have complained "my computer keeps telling me to install Windows 10, make it go away!" - and I've put together a kill script that rips out all the unwanted KB updates and removes the Windows 10 install folders on the C drives.

      The problem is, all these people have their computers on automatic updates and every so often Microsoft simply sneaks in more Windows 10 shit and puts it back again. And I can't put their computers on manual update and tell them to only select and install updates marked as "Security Updates" since some of these people can just about manage to turn the computer on and click things with the mouse. I'm beginning to think about writing an application for them to run on their desktops and laptops that connects to my server and fetches the list of KBs and other shit to be killed every so often, so I can update it as needed and get them to run it once a week or so.

      I feel like I'm going to be condemned to fight this fucking war for the rest of my damned life. At least once 2020 rolls around they'll have to choose between Windows 10 or Linux Mint. When that happens anyone who goes with Windows 10 won't have me looking after their computers from that point on.

      1. x 7

        "I've put together a kill script"

        please publish!!!!!

        1. Steven Roper

          "please publish!!!!!"

          Not mine, because I haven't refined mine enough for public release, but if you want a kill script that does the same job try this one.

        2. Wade Burchette
        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          https://github.com/WindowsLies/BlockWindows/

          All you need.

          Oh and disble GWX in the registry.

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Set up Windows Update to only automatically install recommended updates and leave out the optional ones. Also tell it not to install Microsoft updates in the same way as recommended updates.

        It appears bad publicity has deterred them from putting Windows 10 stuff in recommended updates, at least lately. They might change their mind again.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "They might change their mind again."

          ..and there's the rub.

      3. regadpellagru

        "I feel like I'm going to be condemned to fight this fucking war for the rest of my damned life. At least once 2020 rolls around they'll have to choose between Windows 10 or Linux Mint. When that happens anyone who goes with Windows 10 won't have me looking after their computers from that point on."

        I feel for you. Ever since the W8 madness, I've made very clear to the population I currently support (family, friends etc ..., some of them 70 years old, who have yet to discover we can actually launch stuff on W7 by other means than double-click on the desktop), that if they buy a new laptop, they should get a Mac, and any Windows version above 7, I don't touch, like ever.

        1. t20racerman

          Agree. I moved my parents (in their 80s) to Linux Mint when their XP computer died. I just couldn't cope with non-stop "How do I...." questions on Win 8. They might have coped with Win 7, but Mint is simple, does everything they need and I VERY rarely get an IT call now.

          1. Roland6 Silver badge

            I moved my parents (in their 80s) to Linux Mint when their XP computer died.

            How long ago was this and which version of Mint and have you updated it to the latest release of Mint since? I ask, as your comment and variations upon it have frequently been made on El Reg. Whilst a move to Linux does get you off the MS driven upgrade treadmill, I'm not so sure a move to Linux xyz actually gets you off the upgrade treadmill and liberates you from the whims of those who think every new release should have a UI makeover.

            1. TCook1943

              There are distro's that rely on rolling updates and where UI makeovers just don't happen.

              My choice, currently PCLinuxOs is a case in point.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Why are you removing the offer and not just upgrading them to Windows 10? Its much faster and truely better than 8.1.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Twiddling with the UEFI payload to achieve a small gain in faux-boot time and fiddling with the moronic IFKAM a bit to make is marginally less heinous, perhaps, doesn't even begin to come close to compensating for the wholesale abuse of privacy and control accompanying migration from 8 to 10. Even less so in the light of the "safe harbour" sham finally imploding.

          Meanwhile 7 continues to Just Work and there's no good reason why it shouldn't continue to do so for many years.

          10 is no good to anyone.

        2. RoboticRabbit

          I thank you for your opinion, however I have my own already.

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "I feel like I'm going to be condemned to fight this fucking war for the rest of my damned life"...

        Stop getting stressed. Your friends and relatives chose Windows, you didn't. Let them take responsibility for their choices, it'll make them stronger and better people in the end.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Optional?

      The implication is true early adopters will grab W10 within a couple of months of its release. The rest are on the sidelines watching with no serious plans to upgrade from whatever. Some as alluded to is inertia and some is the fact there is no killer "app" on W10 to make upgrading worth it.

      The key for MS is whether W10 sparks sales of new kit (not likely) and is so significantly better that upgrading is the aggravation (it's not). Failing on both counts for numerous reasons, W10 is just going to an overhyped semi-failure.

      1. James Micallef Silver badge

        Re: Optional?

        "The rest are on the sidelines watching with no serious plans to upgrade from whatever"

        Yes, that's me. Mostly I'm waiting to see if there's a way to definitively and permanently control what data is being sent and what indications there will be of subscription payments to use Win 10.x / 11 etc.

        Otherwise Linux Mint is moving from VM to hard drive

      2. LucreLout

        Re: Optional?

        The implication is true early adopters will grab W10 within a couple of months of its release.

        Yep, I certainly did. I had an estate rebuild to do at home anyway so figured now was as good a time as later. Its certainly better than 8, though seems to largely be 7 with a tweaked GUI from my limited daily use. I'm ok with it - just watch those privacy settings.

        The rest are on the sidelines watching with no serious plans to upgrade from whatever.

        In the case of several friends & family, what they're doing on the sidelines is waiting for me to have time to upgrade them.

        I'm a developer by trade. However, one of the things I have to make time for in the vanishingly small slice of the day that I could call my own (job, commute, kids), is to act as unpaid hardware/software support for friends & family. Bottom line is that it's just easier for me if they're all on the same OS, so Win 10 it is.

      3. TheVogon

        Re: Optional?

        "the fact there is no killer "app" on W10 to make upgrading worth it."

        There is - Direct-X 12.

        1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

          Re: Optional?

          No version of DirectX has ever been "killer" unless you are a games junkie.

    3. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Optional?

      And given corporate IT, it is a strange assumption that all of those not on Windows 10 don't want it...

      I have it at home, but I'm still waiting for the IT department to update our AV software, so that we can update our Surfaces to Windows 10...

    4. Robert Grant

      Re: Optional?

      It's pretty difficult; if you don't want it, then don't push the upgrade button and wait a really long time. Therefore not that strange an assumption, and extremely disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Optional?

        "It's pretty difficult; if you don't want it, then don't push the upgrade button and wait a really long time. Therefore not that strange an assumption, and extremely disingenuous to suggest otherwise."

        You sincerely assert that everyone studies and analyses the function of every "update" their computer offers them and makes a balanced, informed decision on whether or not to permit its persistent "upgrade" urgings? Even though they'll have been *told* by their *trusted* *experts* how *important* it is to *promptly* apply *updates*. That's a strange assumption and it's extremely disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Optional?

      I intended to wait the full year before deciding if win10 was safe to move to but Microsoft are indirectly paying my wages and forced the issue. After a year of stable use under 8.1 I'm now back to crashes every other day, sleep mode too unreliable to use, a butt fugly desktop because they broke the uxstyle theming that brought back most of the chrome and settings hidden so well it's going to be weeks before I can easily find them.

      The clusterfuck of enforced updates is the gift that never stops shitting on you from on high. The intrusive spying is at least mostly fixable for now but it's a pia finding all the settings.

      I recommend avording this for as long as possible. Booting a few seconds faster really isn't worth the pain. Even the substantial speed improvements dx12 provides don't make it worthwhile unless you do nothing but game on your pc.

      1. Rick Giles
        Linux

        Re: Optional?

        Even the substantial speed improvements dx12 provides don't make it worthwhile unless you do nothing but game on your pc.

        That's all that I do on my W10 system. Anything else is Linux and as soon as I can get a beefy enough rig, it will all be Linux.

    6. BobChip
      Holmes

      Re: Optional?

      Basically nothing more than a strategy to hype Win 10 "adoption" figures. Bet they don't report how many regrade back to Win 7, or ditch the OS for an alternative.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Lorin Thwaits
    Coffee/keyboard

    I suppose Redmond's remaining hope to get more tileware followers lies in sales of new machines. Today's announcement of the Surface 4 is thus particularly important. Incredibly thin bezel, so they say. Edge-to-edge sea of pixels that will leave you aghast.

    We'll see if today's hoopla is enough to convince folks to give up a usable OS for more portability.

    And I'm curious to see how long it takes for Apple to fire a return shot across the bow ...

  4. Shadow Systems

    Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

    In a word: DUH. The "Ribbon" was insulting enough, but the giant fekkin tiles is a slap in the face AND a kick in the junk. I don't want tiles, I want a Detailed List; I don't want pretty pictures that float & gyrate & show me "Live Updates" ala "Active Desktop", I want to Get Shit Done. Bah.

    "Just install Classic Shell!" Why? I shouldn't *have* to install some third party kludge to undo the fuster cluck that is MS' UI, MS should give me the CHOICE of using a "Classic Style" OR their "Nifty Bitchin Super Kool Stuff!". Had MSHQ given us the CHOICE in Win8.x for using a Classic Style OR their whizbang BS then the reaction/backlash wouldn't have been so harsh & brutal. Had they given us the CHOICE of a Classic View OR their ultraspiffysploogefest then we MIGHT cut them a hell of a lot more slack. But they didn't so we won't. If I have to install a third party software to make Windows useable, then MS Fails. End of statement. The third party software may make it useable, but MS shouldn't have made it UNuseable to begin with.

    I mean Jeebus on a pogo stick, the whole POINT of the operating system is to Get Shit Done, yet it's obvious MSHQ is doing everything in it's power to PREVENT that from happening!

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

      I am using Antergos Linux (an Arch derivative) which supports over 4 desktop environments. MS should do something similar.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

      Go and sit on the Naughty Step.

      You are not the atypical user that MS wants to trap in their EcoSystem..

      I will join you because I refuse to do what Mommy Sataya tells me to do.

      The Ribbon and Tiles just get in the way of doing stuff but (here's the rub) we are in the Minority of Minorities in our opinion. Therefore we don't count. We can be ignored while MS carries on shooting themselves with a Footgun (IMHO).

      They would prefer if we died off or moved to a better OS. MS Does not need us and whatever we say/do will not even be on their Radar.

      Rant over.

    3. James Micallef Silver badge

      Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

      @shadow systems - I gather many people like the tiles because the shit they want to get done is different from the shit that IT professionals want to get done.

      You're perfectly right that all MS needed to do was offer a choice, even if it defaults to tiles. However it's also perfectly possible to work with 8.1 in desktop view, and commonly used programs docked in the taskbar so the (fake) start menu and/or tile view are hardly ever needed.

      1. dotdavid

        Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

        "You're perfectly right that all MS needed to do was offer a choice, even if it defaults to tiles"

        Completely agree but the reason MS claim to not add options for these sorts of things is it increases complexity for users; they're put off by large lists of things they don't understand (hence the ribbon, eugh, which is supposed to be task/context-sensitive and hide the stuff you don't need to use *now*) and if someone needs to provide support they can be sure all the buttons etc are in the same place on everyone's machine if there is only one style of Start menu.

        As another commentard noted, Windows is not exclusively developed for IT professionals, unfortunately. It's lowest-common-denominator thinking.

        1. Paul Shirley

          Re: "Windows is not exclusively developed for IT professionals"

          @dotdavid it's worse than that: Win8 onwards weren't developed for PC users of any kind. The whole mess is firmly aimed at tablet and mobile, the market Microsoft had no foothold in and the store environment riding on it.

          The problem is the lowest common denominator across mobile,tab&PC is a screen + OS. Can't assume a keyboard,mouse,touchscreen,microphone or even speakers. Not even internet access is guaranteed. So they picked the things they wanted to support (the mobile market and associated monopoly store) and assumed the desktop monopoly would force acceptance on the desktop.

          If only they'd killed off the real desktop OS *before* trying to kill off the desktop. Monopoly pressure doesn't apply if there's actually a choice.

    4. P. Lee

      Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

      It's the ghost of a dead mobile strategy. If you don't use tifkam, devs won't develop for it, which means no apps, which mean no mobile device purchasers.

      Oddly ms seem to have mostly given up on phones and tablets, so I don't know why they are still trying.

      Is it just the upgrade cycle? I don't see particularly good times ahead for W10 - "Not quite as bad a GUI as W8, but lots more snooping than W7" will not win W7 users.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

        Oddly ms seem to have mostly given up on phones and tablets, so I don't know why they are still trying.

        A couple of reasons. The first is that Microsoft never, ever listen to customers, and never see the world from the customer's perspective. So although there's no real market pull for Windows phones, they think that if they keep on, eventually world + dog will cave in and buy them. I don't agree, but as a customer of Microsoft they're hardly going to credit my opinion.

        The second reason is that (notwithstanding the huge writedowns on the failed Nokia phones acquisition), they'd have further writedowns on all of the investments in phone software and IP. That wouldn't land well with investors, nor would the immediate realisation that Microsoft is handcuffed to the desktop. Without a cloud offer, nothing to pitch for in IoT, no mobile presence, nothing in ad-serving and tracking (remember the huge and failed AQuantive acquisition?) where are they going? It'd kill their share price, and the value of the obscenely overpaid executives share options.

        And even in desktop and related areas, they've done nothing to add real user value - other than a series of f***ed up UI changes, Microsoft haven't written much new code for years, so all the crap bits of Server, Office and Windows are still there. They wasted their money and time buying Minecraft, in a doomed bid to get down and groovy with the kids. And meanwhile people like AWS own the cloud, Google own ad-serving, Google and Apple divide the phone market between them, and the IoT will be exploited by somebody not called Microsoft.

        As an investment case, Microsoft only has value to a patent troll, but for the execs to extract their pound of flesh they need to avoid the world realising that, and that's why they are still trying with phones.

    5. Naselus

      Re: Are Win7 users not upgrading because of Win8/10's tiles?

      If your reasoning for not upgrading to Win 10 is due to tiles, then you're not paying attention. There's a lot of good things to be concerned about with Win10. This is not one of them.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows 10 on floppy…

    https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/08/28/windows_10_floppy_disk.jpg

    Love it. However, the instructions miss something:

    "2. Type and press ENTER"

    Errm, type what and press enter? loadlin a:\vmlinux?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      Re: Windows 10 on floppy…

      I'm getting a read error on disk 2037 of 2079

      Can I try yours?

    2. Pen-y-gors

      Re: Windows 10 on floppy…

      Happy memories - I had a large-ish disk box once with several dozen floppies that held Win 3.1 and Word 2.0 - and a couple of dozen more for the Word language packs. And I seem to remember that the language packs were free from microsoft. Ah, how times change...

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Windows 10 on floppy…

        I remember installing slakware linux in the mid-90's using floppies that a friend of mine had done for me (my work didn't have a reliable internet connection and his did).

        I think about 6 floppies failed and had to be redone. Given that 'redone' meant giving it (serial install remember!) to him and getting him to re-write it and pass it back to me (2 day turnaround) it took a while!

        And then I did an rm -rf * in the wrong place and had to do it all again.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Windows 10 on floppy…

          "And then I did an rm -rf * in the wrong place and had to do it all again."

          A valuable learning experience about the dangers of doing stuff in root.

  6. Chairo
    Flame

    People don't like being forced into something

    A lesson Microsoft never seems to learn. Up to a degree I can understand it. By historical accident and aggressive sales/marketing/lobbying Microsoft managed to remove OS customer choice for more than a decade and it worked out pretty well for everyone. What they don't seem to realise is that people accepted the OS monopoly not only out of convenience, but also because Windows was seen as kind of a commodity needed for having choice in software selection and installation. They were happily using windows, because they could just buy and install everything they liked from wherever they liked with good support and no undue trouble. And software was available, because there were lots of developers that could use a wide range of stable high quality development tools.

    With Windows 8 Microsoft broke the deal. They started to lock down software installation, forced an inconvenient (for the vast majority of desktop users), unloved and unwanted interface down users throat and started to push crippled programs with a impossible locked down user interface, which was ironically called "modern" and that were served in an Apple style appstore. Developing for Windows suddenly changed from a relatively straightforward process into a quickly changing mess of tools and mostly incompatible APIs.

    Suddenly the OS was pushed in the focus and people realized that it stopped to be a commodity and is transformed into something they don't like at all. In short they felt betrayed and what little trust they had in Microsoft was destroyed.

    Now Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 with down user's throats and hammers it in with a virtual baseball bat. Just enter "Windows 10 nagware" in any search engine and you will find millions of hits. Funnily about 44 million hits on Google and about 18000 hits on Bing.

    Excellent marketing - if you want to prevent people from installing Windows 10 and destroy your brand, at least. What are they thinking? Are they really thinking?

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: People don't like being forced into something

      Totally agree.

      Windows of old was the slightly annoying but attentive waiter in a restaurant.

      Modern windows is a loud, garish, and offkey Mariachi band that refuses to let you dine in peace.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Gimp

        Re: People don't like being forced into something

        Modern windows is a loud, garish, and offkey Mariachi band crashing about the restaurant while it tries to tie the diners to their chairs.

        It's like watching a strange and sinister film noir Python sketch.

      2. Naselus

        Re: People don't like being forced into something

        "Windows of old was the slightly annoying but attentive waiter in a restaurant."

        Really?

        I seem to recall that, at the time, we all felt Windows was the antisocial halfwit proprietor, who pissed in the soup, swore at customers and tended to either spit at them or ignore them when they asked him to do anything, but we had no choice but to put up with him because he owned all the restaurants in town. Well, aside from the weird restaurant with the penguin logo that you could only get into through a secret tunnel over an assault course, and once you were in all the other clientele sneered at you. And the Apple cult, who grew their own food that tasted dreadful, but got away with it by telling the devoted that they shouldn't like other food anyway.

        Thinking about it, computing pre-2003 was basically horrible.

  7. FozzyBear
    Devil

    The thing that had me searching for a cross and holy water was the image for the article. Imagine for a second having to install windows 10 from floppy.

    NOW that is a new level of hell

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Then imagine installing the updates via floppy…

      (Yes, did Windows 95 from floppy once. NOT pleasant!)

    2. David 132 Silver badge
      Devil

      Imagine for a second having to install windows 10 from floppy.

      NOW that is a new level of hell

      *shudder*

      As someone alluded to above, I think the real meaning of Hell would be getting to disk #20xx of 2079, then hearing that GRAUNCH GRAUNCH GRAUNCH... GRAUNCH GRAUNCH GRAUNCH... and the dreaded "Disk Read Error. Aborting."

      Oooh. Nasty flashbacks.

      1. x 7

        somewhere I still have the original WinXP Gold set of img files.........

  8. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Privacy issues

    I'd say one other reason people are not trying out Win10 is privacy. My friends* who run Win7 are concerned about the amount of information being sent to Microsoft in Win10 (and, with a lack of information saying what exactly is phoned home, they tend to assume it's sending virtually everything.) The best thing Microsoft could do to assuage these fears is list exactly what types of info are sent, how to turn these off if they wish, and what is sent when "everything is off" (probably automatic update-related traffic.)

    I think, realistically, Win10 probably doesn't collect an unusual amount of info... but the privacy policy saying what info is sent to Microsoft, well it looks pretty bad when it's like "searches, microphone input, your E-Mail, login, password, user directory contents, may all be sent to Microsoft." But I assume defaut web search is bing; Cortana uses the mic; Outlook Online (or whatever it's called) would have your E-Mail going through them; only active directory the login and password and possibly user directory contents; OneNote will store your files with them too, but only if you actually use them.

    1. Chairo

      Re: Privacy issues

      I'd say one other reason people are not trying out Win10 is privacy.

      I agree. However Microsoft fixed this by sneakinginstalling the same tracking spywarefeedback features into Windows 7 and Windows 8 by security updates.

      Perhaps they need to advertise this more, so people are more ready to give up their current OS. "Get over it - no need to stick to 7 or 8, we track you anyway. You will be assimilated, resistance is futile". Yeah, that'll teach them...

      Edit: The scary thing is that they might really think like that...

      1. GregC

        Re: Privacy issues

        I agree. However Microsoft fixed this by sneakinginstalling the same tracking spywarefeedback features into Windows 7 and Windows 8 by security updates.

        Not on my machine they didn't. At least not after I found out which updates were involved and bade them farewell. It does mean that I now have the added annoyance of double checking every bloody update to W7 between now and 2020.

        It's almost as if they want me to make the move from dual-boot to just Mint....

        1. joed

          Re: Privacy issues

          I've just realized that by installing extra "functionality" on Windows 7 SP1, MS acted against their own definition of mainstream and extended support. I guess they can do whatever they please.

        2. Wensleydale Cheese

          Re: Privacy issues

          "It's almost as if they want me to make the move from dual-boot to just Mint...."

          I can just imagine the higher echelons of MS execs saying that they can do without your custom if that means you stop moaning.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Old MS-Office

    On 35 x 1.44 disks.

    Nail biting stuff, any disk could fail.....at any time...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Old MS-Office

      Our trick years ago was to take every floppy, dump it into a directory of its own on the hard drive, then back the lot up to tape (QIC40).

      There was a directory layout you could assemble that setup.exe would magically look for and load each "floppy" in sequence.

      Windows 3.1/3.11 could be done the same way, I've got a CD where I slapped all 5 disks into one directory. So installation is a matter of getting MSCDEX.exe going, then go

      C:\> d:

      D:\> cd win31

      D:\win31\> setup

      and in no time, Windows 3.1 was installed.

      1. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: Old MS-Office

        And it only occupied 11.2 MB! Winword 2 was another 8.4 MB and Excel 4 a much slimmer 6.1 MB. A trick with upgrades we used when needing to reinstall everything (again) was to just point the installer at the relevant .exe file from the previous version. Them were the days!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mum always said:

    Beware of free shit (or words to that effect)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've got ~13 out of ~15 PCs here on the 'We're validating Windows 10 for your PC' stage

    Over to you Redmond

  12. jzl

    Forced upgrades

    Why can't Microsoft get it right? Windows 8 had no start menu. Windows 10 is a virus. And the start menu is still buggered.

  13. Kraggy

    "Might the mess of Windows 8.x's interface be deterring the rump of Windows 7 users from going anywhere near a tiled interface?"

    For me, totally, a PC isn't a bloody phablet!

  14. Tristan

    1/7 computers stayed on 10 after upgrading...

    So far I have:

    2 computers where the customer upgraded to it and found their printer stopped working (old HP printers just don't work)

    3 computers where the customer upgraded and found that the start menu didn't work - rendering it a right pain to revert back to windows 7/8 as there upwards to be no direct run command to revert. The start menu in these cases does work in safe mode.

    1 computer where the customer upgraded and got trapped by not telling anyone that his computer didn't work any more until 90 days - Microsoft sneakily delete your revert files after 30 days. Replaced that PC as it was getting on a bit anyway (another one where anything like start menu or window 10 apps like settings just never loaded but showed no errors)

    1 where I was forced to upgrade to 10 due to needing windows pro (7 anytime upgrade is dead. Windows 8 pro packs work but just be bought physically from old channel stock which is like hens teeth)

    Old hardware not being supported and something wrong with the start menu seems to be the main problems. However, as I keep pointing out to customers, windows 7 is supported longer than the lifetime of the pc anyway, so why change everything and learn a new interface when it is working fine?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: 1/7 computers stayed on 10 after upgrading...

      "old HP printers just don't work"

      That probably can be fixed. I tried W10 on a test box under the Insider scheme & had the same problem. I downloaded the 8.x driver from HP's site & that fixed it. Up to a few months ago didn't we get posts telling us how hard Linux was because drivers for $HARDWARE weren't available?

      The test box, by the way, has been restored to health running Debian 7 to test ownCloud.

      I expect downvotes as the pro-MS downvoters who had previously taken cover seem to have psyched themselves up to weather the shitstorm & have reemerged.

    2. alpine

      Re: 1/7 computers stayed on 10 after upgrading...

      Yes, my shiny new Dell XPS13 9343 came with WIndows 10. And after I'd got rid of the tiles and managed to get the start menu looking almost right, it has large amounts of blank space that I don't seem to be able to remove.

      Fortunately I had a new copy of Win 7 Pro, and there is an 'Enterprise' set of Dell drivers for it. So I tried to put that on. But it came with a GPT disk which Win 7 isn't keen on. Eventually I decided to kill Windows 10 and clean the ssd back to a nice MBR config.

      All now well, and I've even made a small partition and installed Win 10 on it, in full Call Home mode. Just in case it ever appears to be of any benefit. I've tried it a couple of times. But there seems to be something wrong with the Wifi drivers which don't auto connect.

      The touch screen on a laptop is a bit of a bore as well, so Win10 doesn't get used any more really.

      The XPS13 is a nice machine, lovely display, touch screen or not... It's even made me resolve to keep all my regular applications down in QuickLaunch, just so I can have an empty screen and look at my background images.

  15. CLD

    "Yet the majority of Windows 8.1 users have stuck with the old, frustrating, operating system, despite Windows 10 being free. Why?"

    Outside of work devices where various business apps need to be updated to be Win10 compatible, the biggest let down in the home space has been the lack of Windows Media Centre. I know a number of people running Windows Media Centre at home and are unable to upgrade. Yes, there are third party alternatives (such as Kodi), but the effort involved with migrating does not seem worth it; it also takes a while of fiddling to figure out that the system just won't do what you want.

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      Of the 3 PCs that get regular use at home, one is the OH's Win8 laptop (I know, I know, but that's what it came preinstalled with and she seems to like it), one is my Win7 desktop and the last is the Win7 media centre. All eligible for the free update to 10, none updated to 10...

      The laptop may end up going to 10 at some point just because that's the one PC where an OS change will have the least effect. The mediacentre will remain on 7 for the reasons mentioned by CLD above. And whilst I'm not in any hurry to switch my desktop away from 7, I did sign up for the update notification so I could get the download and try installing it on a VM. But as someone else mentioned further up the comments, my desktop had been stuck on the "we're validating your update" message for at least a month, so I finally gave up waiting and nuked the updater from my system.

      Repeat this sort of thing across households worldwide, and it suggests the takeup rate of 10 could have been a lot better if only MS hadn't dropped the ball first by removing features that some home users find essential and then by using an update mechanism that seems a bit flakey.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perspective

    Just remind me of the Windows 10 / OSX / linux (all strains) market share comparison again?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Perspective

      Your intention being to imply that the sitting ducks are willing?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    Threshold 2 is't far off, that'll encourage peeps waiting for 'Service Pack 1' to upgrade.

    Corporates mostly haven't yet moved from Windows 7 Enterprise, like most we will upgrade 1000s of machines in the next FY

    Personally, I have tower PC, laptop, nettop, Stream 7 and HP Envy X2 hybrid all on 10547 and they all run fine. I expect peeps who have problems aren't very tech savvy, although they big note themselves to mug punters

    1. fowler

      Unfortunately, 'non tech savvy' mug punters make up a huge part of the a market for IT devices

      In fact this is increasingly the core of Windows problems. It is not simple or reliable enough to be a pure consumer experience for most non tech users but it is still too inflexible and difficult to configure for those who want to use it as a technical platform

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is Microsoft concerned?

    I'm not so sure that they are. Since Windows 8 came out they seem to have been on a constant path leading to an always-connected/consumption-oriented mass product rather than a general purpose tool.

    In that situation I don't see them caring much about providing a useful desktop experience for the common user. The only purpose of a PC in this scenario is to provide a platform for the Apps. I can imagine them producing a software layer to be added to the Linux distro of your choice in order to get the new Windows App experience. Eughh, but I wouldn't put it past them.

    Business is another matter, of course, and the Enterprise version will, I'm sure, eventually satisfy businesses. And one selling point to them will be the availability of a solid (though small) base of users willing (actually without any choice) to be a testbed for new features and updates before they are offered to the enterprises.

    Of course, I may just be talking shit. Don't much care - Windows has been deprecated for me and I have very little interest in what happens to it in the future.

  19. ntevanza

    Here's the rub

    For home use Win 10 is okay. There have been no complaints, with start button replacements installed. The interface isn't quite finished, but from what I can tell, there have been no detectable changes under the hood/bonnet in consumer versions other than hacking the internal version to 10. None whatsoever.

    And the rub is, unlike 6, 7 and 8, that makes it an easy technical transition, but also rather pointless. For example, 8 had better security than 7. 10 has nothing.

    I can understand privacy concerns, because the data governance cock-up probability function approaches 1 asymptotically.

  20. Nick Sticks

    I'm sorry, Windows 8 and 10 is my fault, and probably yours too.

    After all I opted out of that "Do you want to participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program?" thing on Window 7 (and previous OSes too).

    I didn't want them collecting information about my PC and how I used Windows, their words.

    That means that if all the tech savvy people opted out of this what was left was the people who just read their emails and looked at Facebook.

    So why wouldn't MS think that Windows 8 and 10 was what "the people" wanted or needed?

    1. Rick Giles
      Thumb Up

      Re: I'm sorry, Windows 8 and 10 is my fault, and probably yours too.

      You sir, have hit that nail squarely (and rather firmly) on the head...

  21. Andy Non Silver badge
    Mushroom

    A plague of pox on Microsoft.

    Several weeks ago I upgraded my dual boot Linux Mint / Windows 8.1 laptop to Windows 10. Both Linux and Windows 10 have coexisted happily since, with a grub menu allowing choice of operating system at bootup. I don't use Windows 10 very often, but on Saturday booted into it and allowed it to catch up on its updates. Big mistake. The computer now always boots into Windows 10. Windows 10 has deleted grub and re-enabled all the UEFI secure boot settings in the computers configuration.

    A quick internet search reveals that a number of people have similarly been hit with this problem. Whether this is a deliberate ham-fisted approach by Microsoft to force Windows 10 on computer users or malicious behaviour / incompetence by Microsoft is open to debate.

    It appears there are ways to reinstall the grub file and regain access to the lost Linux Mint boot, but if Microsoft is going to have an ongoing strategy of trying to squash alternative operating systems from computers, then I'm bailing completely. I'm not prepared to have to mess around fighting Microsoft to run the operating system of my choice; so I've nuked the laptop and put a fresh installation of Linux Mint on it, letting it take the entire hard drive. Bye bye Windows 10.

    As a footnote I now have to reboot the computer twice, the first (cold boot) fails and the machine hangs, so I have to do a second soft boot (CTRL, Alt, Del) then it boots into Linux. I suspect Microsoft update has also messed around with the firmware, forcing it to look for Windows 10 first, which now fails of course.

    A plague of a thousand poxes on you Microsoft.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A plague of pox on Microsoft.

      You can always run the pox *safely* contained within a VM if you discover any legacy need of it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A plague of pox on Microsoft.

      The computer now always boots into Windows 10. Windows 10 has deleted grub and re-enabled all the UEFI secure boot settings in the computers configuration.

      Maybe their marketing droids would say that trashing any other operating system found on the computer is "increasing the Windows 10 market share".

      1. Andy Non Silver badge

        Re: A plague of pox on Microsoft.

        @Smooth Newt

        I refuse to be bullied by Microsoft into using Windows 10. It would have been nice to have continued to have the choice of operating system and use either Windows or Linux as relevant; but after this incident I'm going 100% Linux. I'm going to rewrite my remaining Windows applications to run on Linux.

        I had been planning to buy another Windows computer and make it dual-boot with Linux; but with Microsoft up to such nasty games that is no longer a consideration. I'll need to buy a computer guaranteed to work with Linux, and that may mean buying one with Linux pre-installed instead of Windows.

        Microsoft have lost my "market share" of Windows 10 now, and for ever.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Wade Burchette

      Re: A plague of pox on Microsoft.

      I upgraded a Win8.1 machine with classic shell installed to Win10 yesterday. It conveniently uninstalled classic shell without my permission. I was so angry over this that if I could have found an email address of Microsoft, I would have let them have it. But I really didn't look for an email address. (Probably a good thing.) I still reinstalled classic shell.

      All Win10 had to do to be great was to give us a proper start menu, give us Aero, return F8 by default, keep our free games, and return a proper backup program. Microsoft couldn't even do that right. Cloud-first, mobile-first, customer-last.

  22. Mystic Megabyte
    Stop

    Legal advice needed

    After the collapse of the Safe Harbour agreement is Win10 now illegal in the EU?

    I don't think that MS's idea of anonymous data is credible. Your computer has been tagged and the data is going abroad.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/06/safe_harbour_walls_come_tumbling_down/

  23. John P

    I've so far personally upgraded 4 machines and have colleagues who have updated another 3 or 4 and none of us have had any issues thus far.

    Having said that, if any non-techie users ask what they should do, my advice is simply this: regardless of whether you're on 7, 8 or 8.1, if you're happy where you are, stay there until after christmas to give MS more time to squash issues. If you're not happy, go for it, you've got 30 days to change your mind anyway and I have tested the rollback on one machine with no issues at all.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WHY ARE YOU RANKING ON WINDOWS 7; THATS THE BEST OS OUT THERE. YEA WINDOWS 10 IS BETTER BUT STILL

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Are you the antiEADON?

  25. Sporkinum

    kb3035583 is back again

    After removing and blocking kb3035583. It magically showed up again today as an optional update. Guess I need to hide it yet again. Our friendly KB3035583 is back again...

    1. BobChip
      Big Brother

      Re: kb3035583 is back again

      I installed Win 10 on an old (2 yrs) laptop, and "cleaned up" my privacy by pretty much reversing all the default settings. This included hiding KB 3035583. Imagine my surprise when, after a "security update", I found that all my preferences had been reset to Win 10's out-of-the-box defaults. Hidden or not, 3035583 had re-installed itself.

      Doubtless MS will claim me as yet another successful convert to Win 10. The laptop now runs Mint 17, and I will not trust, or use anything made by Microsoft, ever again. EVER

  26. Sporkinum

    more ms pushed update BS

    Going to the Microsoft site that says what is sent in the updates, gives more information on what they are doing. Basically, they are re-pushing all the update stuff that people took care to get rid of. A bunch is being released today, and the kb3035583 was pushed for 8.1 on the 1st and 7 on the 5th.

    It looks like they changed the status of kb3035583 to supersedes to make it show up again.

    Description of Software Update Services and Windows Server Update Services changes in content for 2015

  27. WatAWorld

    Why didn't the article have the joke icon?

    Windows 10 has only been in general release for 2 months.

    Why would my failure to install something in 2 months indicate I don't ever want it?

    Businesses generally don't install things they want for a year or two after it is released.

    I'm planning to install Windows 10 on my test machine either end of October or end of November.

    The 7% who've installed Windows 10 now -- they are crazy or are early bird testers. Sensible people will wait a few months at least.

    1. x 7

      Re: Why didn't the article have the joke icon?

      "Sensible people will wait a few years at least"

      corrected it for you

  28. azaks

    pointless click-bait...

    Ahh... nothing like throwing a few scraps to the rabid anti-microsoft crowd.

    Excluding the sad "IT enthusiast" types that cant wait for a new OS to come out, the VAST majority of PC users couldn't give a fuck what OS they are running (and a good % of them wouldn't even be able to tell you what OS they are running now anyway). To project your sad OS obsession onto this majority, and conclude that because they have not all rushed out and upgraded to Win10 that you can actually draw any useful conclusion is stupid. My guess is that the author is not that stupid (see click-bait accusation above).

    To all the Linux whiners out there - you have captured 1.5-2% of the desktop in 2 decades. You are clearly not representative of normal PC users, so off you fuck. I like Linux and use it a lot, but not as my everyday desktop environment. Until you end the obsession with creating a thousand different versions of everything, and put your collective weight behind something that isn't a geek's wet dream, it will never be the "year of Linux on the desktop".

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