Windows 10 is free. This is a statement which makes many people uneasy. After all Windows didn’t used to be free and nothing in life is ever really free, right? So when will the real cost of Windows 10 be revealed? Well now we know and it hits both customers and Microsoft in very different ways… Let’s break them down: 1. Windows 10 Cost to Microsoft: $1.5 Billion If you ever doubted Microsoft was taking a huge hit to give users Windows 10 for free, doubt no longer. This month the company announced its Q3 results and revealed this carved a massive $1.5 billion hole in its revenues. For context, this ties in almost exactly with the kind of income earned by previous versions of Windows. For example,
Windows 7 is still the king, but it no longer holds the majority. Nine months after Windows 10’s release, Windows 7 has finally fallen below 50 percent market share and Windows XP has dropped into single digits. While this is good news for Microsoft, April was actually a poor month for Windows overall, which for the first time owned less than 90 percent of the market, according to the latest figures from Net Applications. First, let’s look at Microsoft’s push to get 1 billion devices running Windows 10 “in two to three years.” Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks, passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, and 270 million after eight months.
Many of us have had Windows 10 on our PCs for a while now, so we’re pretty used to the new features of the operating system from daily use. Windows 10 has a hidden Start Menu that contains some useful tools for Windows power users, such as the task manager, command prompt, device and disk management, and others. Microsoft introduced a similar tool in the new Settings app in Windows 10.
Earlier this year Microsoft warned users that Windows 7 has serious problems. In short: Microsoft has made a seemingly small yet completely bizarre tweak to Windows Update on Windows 7 and confirmed it is crippling many users’ PCs. It switched the status of Windows 7 update KB3133977 from ‘Optional’ to ‘Recommended’.
Some things in life are certain: death and taxes, the Cubs finding a way to avoid winning the World Series, and Microsoft Windows driving people crazy. I can't do anything about the Grim Reaper, the IRS, or the Cubbies, but I can help with solutions to the six Windows 10 annoyances I hear about most frequently. Sign in with a local account instead of a Microsoft account The single biggest complaint I hear from new Windows 10 users is that Setup forces you to sign in with a Microsoft account. That's not actually true, but Microsoft has hidden the local account option so well that the publishers of Where's Waldo? are thinking of filing a patent infringement lawsuit. During the initial setup, Windows
True to its word, Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade offer ends on July 29, the company writes in a blog entry. Starting July 30, you'll need to pay $119 for Windows 10 Home, or get it free on a new PC. When Windows 10 officially launched on July 29, 2015, Microsoft made the new operating system a free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8 for its first year in a play to attract as many new customers as possible.
I have a bunch of Mac minis here at Camp David. In almost all cases, I bought the server version, which ships with space for two laptop-size hard drives. The reason is simple: I put Windows on one drive and OS X on the other. This, in turn, gives me a collection of highly versatile, small, easy-to-store machines that I can use for pretty much any application. For the kind of work I do, that flexibility is very helpful. One such machine has been operating in OS X mode as a scanning station. The particulars of why it was in OS X mode and was being used for the scanning project aren't relevant to our discussion. The salient fact is that the scanning project is over, and I have another project that
Microsoft made no secret of the fact that you could upgrade for free from any qualifying previous version of Windows, including Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, but also that you can only get it for free for a year. You might have issues with Windows 10′s security or privacy or simply be happy with your current version. As you’re eligible for a free copy if you own a genuine version of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, though, you may as well register your activation, if only to have somewhere to turn when support for your version is killed off, which will happen at some point. Despite it claiming this week that Windows 10 is installed on 300 million devices, Microsoft is keenly aware that many people still haven’t upgraded and recently published this video featuring Bryan Roper from the Windows team.
Upgrading to Windows 10 should be a personal choice, but increasingly it isn’t. In a series of ever more cheeky, arrogant and downright deceptive moves Microsoft has pushed Windows 10 upon millions of unsuspecting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. So how do you stop an automatic Windows 10 installation on your PC? And, if you’re too late, how do you reverse it? Thankfully both preventative and restorative measures are fairly straightforward: How To Stop Windows 10 Installing Automatically Since Windows 10 was launched on July 29, 2015 there have been all sorts of complex hacks to try and head off Microsoft’s ever more desperate attempts to push the new operating system on you. Thankfully there is
