back to article Windows 10: Major update on the Threshold as build 10586 hits Insiders

Microsoft has released Build 10586 of Windows 10 to "Windows Insider" previewers, as the first major update to the operating system nears release. This build bears all the signs of a RTM (Release to Manufacturing) release, if the Insider rollout is successful. The build number does not show on the desktop, and in Windows …

  1. ADRM
    FAIL

    Windows 10

    Yawn...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    Sticking with Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. Then most likely Linux Mint Mate. I don't want to play in the Microsoft Play School Walled Theme Park Land.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge
      FAIL

      zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

      Linux post..... So this week's favourite is Mint? What next week?

      1. ADRM
        WTF?

        Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

        I have a ton of Microsoft Windows software, MapPoint North America and Europe, Directory Opus, numerous games specifically for Windows etc. Microsoft has lost their direction. MapPoint has even been discontinued. After Windows 7 EOL as it stands at the moment it will be Mint Mate. Who knows it may be another Linux OS but it won't be apple or Microsoft unless Windows changes direction and no longer spies on us, they return Media Center and stick some pretty Aero in there F.F.S. I have a GTX960 to push pixels around yet Windows 10 looks pale and anaemic. I have used M$ since 1990 DOS.

      2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

        I've been using CentOS for a long time. Migrated to is from Mandrake. Currently V7 with Cinamon

        Does what it says on the tin. No Canonical software in sight.

        and I don't rant on systemd. Never had a problem with it.

        1. Stretch

          Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

          "I've been using CentOS for a long time. Migrated to is from Mandrake. Currently V7 with Cinamon

          Does what it says on the tin. No Canonical software in sight.

          and I don't rant on systemd. Never had a problem with it."

          And the accusation is Windows is boring compares with this how?

          1. aqk
            Coat

            Re: zzzzzz<rant>zzzzzzzzzz

            Please! Don't encourage him. Just let him rant.

            1. h4rm0ny

              Re: zzzzzz<rant>zzzzzzzzzz

              I like GNU/Linux as much as the next person, but can we please not have every Windows article spammed with comments about it? It's tiresome. And it reminds me of annoying sales callers who say: "You're using _____ for your gas? You could save money by switching to..."

              When I click on an article about Windows releases then that's what I want to read about. Not be preached at by zealots. And I say this as someone who has been using GNU/Linux (and UNIX before it) for longer that most people who do. Just go away.

        2. -v(o.o)v-

          Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

          "Systemd on desktop" - but that's just one of its big problems. It is developed almost solely to desktops. While most of us run servers that gain nothing useful from it.

      3. Chika
        Linux

        Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

        So this week's favourite is Mint? What next week?

        Who knows? Who cares?

        Yay, free t-shirt!!!

        I already said my bit. Personally I'm in the process of playing around with openSUSE's Leap and so far I am very unimpressed. Mint was my project last week and I managed to get it to run TDE with few problems other than it didn't like restarting unless I took it all the way down to init 0 first.

        Never did hear much from people who said they were going to switch to Linux, did we?

        1. keithpeter Silver badge
          Windows

          Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

          @Chika: For a trouble free TDE have a look at exegnulinux (http://exegnulinux.net/). Based on Debian stable. Curated by one chap. Worked fine when I tried it but I'm not into TDE.

          Back on topic: The staff PC at one place I work in is an atom based small form factor PC with 2Gb RAM. Was freezing so techies reimaged and decided to try Windows 10 for Education. Seems OK once they found a graphics driver that would make it to the native resolution of the panel. No big drama. Sort of zzzzzz...

          1. Chika

            Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

            @keithpeter: I'll probably give it a go next week if I get some time. I think most of the trouble with openSUSE right now is that TDE hasn't caught up with the new version yet though I have managed to get TDE working using 13.2's repo instead. Also managed it with Mint the week before - as a long term KDE3 user I can't praise it enough!

            As for your Atom, I can't say that I'm surprised about the driver. Every Windows release has issues with drivers at some point in the early days. I've not really delved into that version of W10 though it looks interesting from what I've seen so far.

        2. Valarian

          Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

          "Never did hear much from people who said they were going to switch to Linux, did we?"

          No - because once we had, there wasn't much more to say. :D

          Posting from Chromium on Ubuntu 14.04, installed on this machine the day the Win8.1 telemetry stories started appearing. No problems so far except VS2013 wouldn't run under WINE so I switched to MonoDevelop.

          1. zen1

            Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

            Well, as one who made the transition to Mint, I'm definitely getting more comfortable with it. But, so far, I absolutely love it. And as you said, once I made the switch, no reason to bitch about anything.

          2. SleepGuy

            Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

            "No - because once we had, there wasn't much more to say. :D"

            Exactly. I settled on LMDE a couple years ago for my desktop and love it. I have Windows available in VMWare Workstation for when I need it but that's not very often.

          3. d3vy

            Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

            How have you found mono develop?

            I had a mess with it years ago but didn't like it much... VS is one of the few things that ties me to windows.. Not that I want to switch, no need to at the moment, but If mono develop has reached a decent standard its always an option!

        3. jelabarre59

          Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

          > Never did hear much from people who said they were going to switch to Linux, did we?

          Maybe because they already switched, and are happily doing *productive* work, rather than fighting against the shitstorm that is MSWindows.

      4. TCook1943

        Re: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

        Magiea 5 here.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Windows 10

      I have it installed too, hate it, its a huge downgrade from Windows 7. The only reason I keep it, is I get 10 calls a week from botched upgrades, its a decent money spinner.

      The main problem is usually realtek WiFi drivers not getting dhcp setting correctly. Easy money.

      I wait for the call back from the wanting to go back to windows 7. It's usually follows by week 3 or 4

    3. jelabarre59

      Re: Windows 10

      > I don't want to play in the Microsoft Play School Walled Theme Park Land.

      Yeah, it's like the "Apple Touchy-Feely Stalag", except the toilets don't work.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still stuck with legacy

    "th2_release Professional".

    3 bytes buffer is all there is.

  3. Dan 55 Silver badge
    WTF?

    Too... much... unification...

    The New Xbox Experience screenshot appears to show a battery icon next to the clock in the top right, why on earth would it need that?

    1. Roger B

      Re: Too... much... unification...

      Because as awesome as controlling the Xbox with the kinect is, we're still a few years away from being able to voice control your character in Halo 5, "switch weapons" "reload" "Throw grenade" would be nice, but until then we're stuck using our hands "like a baby's toy" to quote a certain Frodo Baggins in Back to the Future and so using a controller, its nice to have a battery icon.

      1. Chika
        FAIL

        Re: Too... much... unification...

        we're still a few years away from being able to voice control your character in Halo 5, "switch weapons" "reload" "Throw grenade" would be nice,

        Nice? Not sure about that. Konami Laserscope - Parents Will Love What They Don't Hear! (the actual clip is at 6:45 - Warning: NSFW).

      2. P. Lee

        Re: Too... much... unification...

        >we're still a few years away from being able to voice control your character

        and even then, while it might be fun, it would only be appropriate at non-critical times. Voice control is too slow and too tedious for normal use. If I had to say "reload" every time in an FPS I'd go nuts.

    2. Dwarf

      Re: Too... much... unification...

      Because its dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, rather than optimized for the required task.

      Its a bit like trying to optimize a toolbox into a single spanner, hammer, wire cuter and screwdriver. On their own, they each work perfectly, but when joined together, all of them become a pain to use more than occasionally. Sure a multi-tool / Swiss Army knife has its place, but not as your primary day-to-day tool of choice, more an option to get your out of a hole.

      Ford tried the same with the model T, but look where they are now, different types of cars for different purposes.

      Walkers sell different types of crisps to satisfy different user tastes. I could go on but you get the point.

      So, why do Microsoft want to repeat the mistakes of the past ??

      Give the customer what they want - something Windows XP or Windows 7 shaped without the cloud BS / forced MS account / spyware / auto-update / we know whats best for you.

      I'm interested to watch the show, since I've already moved to Linux as I got fed up with the MS BS. Its much like selling a once loved, but now unreliable car. You only know you made the right choice about 3 months later.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Too... much... unification...

        nothing wrong with getting a familiar experience across devices. its only a mistake if they get it wrong, but i'm pretty sure it will come together over the next year or so.

        1. adnim

          @Terra Re: Too... much... unification...

          .."but i'm pretty sure it will come together over the next year or so."

          Whilst the client base is used as beta testers.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Project copy Google and spy on you, phase II.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Project copy Google and spy on you, phase II.

      Now with store-and-forward spying so you don't always need to be online to share with us!

  5. Camilla Smythe

    That reminds me. Maybe I'll upgrade to 17.2 from 17.1 ... or just not bother.

    BTW what is this 'Threshold' thing and, presumably having got over Threshold 1, what did they do wrong on Threshold 1 such that they encountered Threshold 2?

    Surely everyone knows by now that you have to pick up the dusty feathers and ribbed condoms.

    1. picturethis
      Alert

      Dictionary

      Threshold: "-n: denotes a location or point in time, that once crossed, signifies that there is no retreat or going back to the previous state."

      Pretty much sums up what MS is doing with Windows 10. You're either going to cross the threshold or not. Think of it as getting married to you're new partner (Windows 10) and carrying it across the "threshold"..

  6. Fehu
    Trollface

    "All your files are exactly where you left them"

    But you still won't be able to find them, because "Windows".

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. PK

      Re: "All your files are exactly where you left them"

      Sounds like they're saying that they'll keep your files where they are for this upgrade, but are not ruling out automatically moving into a paid-for OneDrive in a future update. All for your own peace of mind of course,,,

      1. P. Lee

        Re: "All your files are exactly where you left them"

        This kind of assurance is a bit like arriving home and announcing to your wife that you haven't had an affair.

        It brings fear uncertainty and doubt where there was none. At least, now I begin to wonder about weasel words - sure the files are where I left them, but where else are they too?

    3. Chika
      Trollface

      Re: "All your files are exactly where you left them"

      All your files are exactly where you left them

      ...but all your base are belong to us!

    4. Paul Shirley

      Re: "All your files are exactly where you left them"

      I knew there was a reason i put my files somewhere windows doesn't expect them. Can't move what it doesn't know about!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Coming soon to a mobile ... near you

    We'll see about that.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Long File Path Support in File Explorer ?

    So does Windows now actually, finally support files with long paths that *it itself creates* ?!

    Or is it still ridiculously full of very old, very bad bugs ?

    1. Nolveys
      Trollface

      Re: Long File Path Support in File Explorer ?

      It's easy to access files with long paths under Windows, just use the subst command.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Long File Path Support in File Explorer ?

        Don't be ridiculous. Users should be able to access these files directly through the File Explorer UI, not be forced to do Drive Substitution to get at them, FFS.

        It's 2015.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Please be upstanding

    For the ritual MSFT two-minute hate.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Please be upstanding

      Don't confuse hate with apathy. Many of us are former MS supporters. We've been manipulated, screwed, and betrayed. Hate is reasonable and expected because of that. But then it devolves into apathy. I'm still watching and listening in case there's a turn around. I don't hate them, I'm just apathetic about them at this point. My Win7 is locked down, and will not get any updates unless I allow it. When Win7 gets creaky and I find an OS that does what I need it to do, I'll use it.

      1. a_yank_lurker

        Re: Please be upstanding

        @Mark 85 Supporters and loyal customers but because 'Slurp does not care about customers have wondered away. Some have gone to Linux and some to Apple. But never to return. At first we may have struggled as we moved away but now that we have learned Linux or OS X we will not return.

        1. Mark 85

          Re: Please be upstanding

          I'm with you on this. I'm testing Mint on a spare PC we had here at the house with my programs and having some issues but I'll get them worked through.

          My rule of thumb: "People only hate what they care about.". I'm just not caring enough about MS to hate them.

          1. jelabarre59

            Re: Please be upstanding

            Funny, a "spare PC" is what I was running MSWin10 Preview on. Some old clunker laptop with a dead battery, missing keys, and a non-functional DVD. Ideal system to run MSWin on, as you wouldn't want to use it for REAL work.

    2. John Bailey

      Re: Please be upstanding

      "For the ritual MSFT two-minute hate."

      No thanks. The endless mockery opportunities have us all quite entertained enough.

      Sorry sweetie. You seem to be a wee bit confused. This is not hatred, it's ridicule.

      Never mind though.. I'm sure NEXT year will be the year of Windows what ever version they are inflicting on people against their will by then.

    3. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
      Pint

      Re: Please be upstanding

      For the ritual MSFT two-minute hate.

      Good heavens no, I wouldn't give it that much time, less stand up for it.

      I will merely have a beer and then agree with Garry Perez's clear and concise opinion on this matter. There is really no need to add anything else.

      To me, that was an Open Source opinion: useful, very much to the point, devoid of BS, eminently usable and adaptable by anyone who wants to.

  10. DrXym

    Boiling a frog

    I'm going to guess the first "major feature" is that the temperature has been turned up a bit - the exciting opportunity to pay Microsoft to overcome an artificial barrier they put in somewhere.

    1. Chika
      Coat

      Re: Boiling a frog

      Sounds ribbit-ing.

  11. oceanhippie

    *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

    Things like security, if you copy over notepad.exe (and who doesn't) you now have to go in and edit the permissions or it won't run.

    From a malware point of view that's good. It's fast has hell, even on my old laptop running 10 out does my current one on 7.

    BUT I still hate it, I hate the looks I hate the start thingy. I hate the loss of control, I hate the online.

    My PC is mine, Its part of my personality, its customized the way I like it. I hate letting others use it (as its a thinkpad I disable the touchpad, that usually gets them)

    The privacy/cloud/online accounts makes in not mine in some way? And even when I turned all that off it turned its self back on.

    "I can't let you do that Dave"

    Unfortunately this is the way everything is going, we can hold out in windows 7 for a few years, but then we the El Reg comentards can go Linux. But our mums will still be bewildered by MS, and we'll still have to help them. Even if we do bang our heads against the screen in frustration.

    I'm going to sit in a corner and cry now.

    1. Benno

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      Shirley, things like the executable 'protection' above could be backported to 7 without too much dram? Oh that's right, 7 is old hat now.

      Well MS, I too have used and deployed your Operating Systems on many thousands of machines over the last 30 years, and this 10 thing will go down as a bigger fiasco than the 'Windows Vista Ready' cockup.

      I currently manage a government network of about 8000 nodes that is not internet connected - for many reasons. Windows 10 is just wrong on too many levels to be even considered for testing in this environment. Not only that, but with all the telemetry stuff going into 7, we're fighting to prevent the current fleet from wasting it's time trying to phone home...

      Nice work - alienating the corporate customers

      (Opinions are my own, but I suspect that they are consistent with that of many others)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

        maybe time to let the younger set take over. nowt wrong with win10 that another major release can't fix.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

          >maybe time to let the younger set take over.

          Well, from my experience web design is the domain of the "younger set" and look how well they are doing... Talk Talk being just the latest...

      2. JDX Gold badge

        Re: could be backported to 7 without too much dram?

        Well sure. They could put man-decades of work in and pay all those salaries, then give it to you for free. But that's not really a sustainable business model.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      Having read the above, I have the urge to climb into my win10 tower and start removing its memory, just to see if Cortana starts singing Daisy, Daisy...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      Things like security, if you copy over notepad.exe (and who doesn't) you now have to go in and edit the permissions or it won't run. From a malware point of view that's good.

      If it is still running Win 10 and not self-delete the installation it's not doing its job as far as I'm concerned. I am not interested in "safe" execution if the "safe" it executes is spyware in itself. That's like a government approved spy virus allowed through by a virus checker.

      On the plus side, Microsoft's campaign to make Win 7 and 8 more attractive is clearly working. I would have never believed it possible... :)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      If you've got to re-teach someone the new MS interface why not give them Linux Mint or Zorin of some other beginner friendly Linux.

    5. Arctic fox
      Windows

      @ oceanhippie Re"I'm going to sit in a corner and cry now."

      One suggestion to avoid tears might be the following: "Spybot Anti-Beacon." It, allegedly, takes Win 10 firmly by the throat if using custom install does do not enough for you.

    6. ici.chacal

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      I put my technically-clueless mum on Ubuntu a couple of years ago after Windows ground to a near halt and her browser became more toolbar than web page; ironically, the only calls for help I get now are because Hotmail (or whatever M$ call it now) has messed up her email...

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      I'm still running XP. It runs my games, and TurboTax. That's about all I need it for. But now that game developers are starting to port their games to Linux (thanks Steam?) I might just have to go back to using pen and paper for taxes...

    8. jelabarre59

      Re: *Sigh* windows 10 is quite good for a given value of good.

      > Unfortunately this is the way everything is going, we can hold out in windows 7 for a few years, but then we the El Reg comentards can go Linux. But our mums will still be bewildered by MS, and we'll still have to help them. Even if we do bang our heads against the screen in frustration.

      Hey, could always go for a MSWin-clone like ReactOS. They're expecting to have a v1.0, fully XP-compatible release available in about 10 years from now....

  12. a_yank_lurker

    Is It Still a bloody Hoover

    Does the new update still vacuum users' data to the mothership? If it still very chatty with the 'Slurp it is still a never go.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is It Still a bloody Hoover

      Given that we have grown wise to that it now uses store and forward, so it can dispatch this data when you're not watching...

  13. bigfoot780

    Your files are still here

    Well they won't be in onedrive if you've got a lot.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Your files are still here

      Unless you follow Nanny's rules you may lose your data. Nanny being MS.

      Is it any wonder that a good number of commentards here have thrown in the towel and said sayonara to MS for good since W10 came out. We can't be bovvered fighting it any longer and have better things to do with our lives.

    2. dogged

      Re: Your files are still here

      Because 73TB is reasonable.

  14. Chika
    Facepalm

    Damage Control

    Actually I've been reading a few articles in other sites and forums (fora? forii?) regarding this and it looks like the shills and apologists are now out in force trying to limit the damage caused by Microsoft's arrogant actions with W10.

    They insist that a lot of what is being said (especially some of the stuff here) is either exaggerated (I told you a million, billion times...) or even false and give all sorts of reasons why Microsoft needs its "telemetry" and so forth.

    While I know where I stand in all this and have spoken out about it, I suspect that this whole business is far from over.

    In fact I can see this rumbling on for quite a while yet, especially once the corporates start getting in on the action. Believe me, there is more than one corporate IT bod out there that will swallow Microsoft's bullshit whole and ask for second helpings. (I even briefly worked for one, so I know whereof I speak!)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    it looks like the shills and apologists are now out in force trying to limit the damage caused by Microsoft's arrogant actions with W10

    Well, we managed to already spike one of their attempts at trying to bullshit (see the followup comment), so let them come.

    This, I reckon, is Microsoft's major problem: the grownups here have been around long enough to have heard it all already, and the experience has never really been positive. That is a legacy of destroyed trust that is not going to go away because you throw out some new MBA words, especially not if you then proceed to make it appear that those NSA hooks found years ago are now going to be a very active part of the user experience.

    1. a_yank_lurker

      @AC - If one has been around awhile one has been burned by a manufacturer before and has learned there is a pattern. Slurp is following this pattern and many have desired to be screwed by another company.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't live with it, can't live without it

    Still need Windows to play my games but need to keep windoze for office is decreasing.

    I am pretty agnostic on media server OS as reliability is more of a consideration here.

    Most of my usage is now Ubuntu 15.04 on desktop now although I have experimented with a number of other distro's. Quite good enough for me, even on an old NC10 netbook, and despite purist mutterings on pros and cons of different boot strategies - its a desktop so I don't care!.

  17. Snowy Silver badge

    If...

    it is the first major update so soon after launch I think I wait until it is a bit more stable before I "upgrade" from 7.

  18. arctic_haze
    Black Helicopters

    Time to be careful

    Tomorrow is the Update Tuesday. I must watch if any of the upgrades wants to change my Windows 7 computers into spyboxes.

  19. nuclearstar

    Any chance we could have a Windows article that isnt full of "linux is so much better" comments?

    Good for you, you like to use Linux. I like to use Windows, it is essential to my job, puts food on my table, pays for my mortgage (so I dont live with my mum still) and pays for my social life, that isnt spent dribbling over a kernel.

  20. Chika
    Terminator

    @nuclearstar

    Good for you, you like to use Linux. I like to use Windows, it is essential to my job, puts food on my table, pays for my mortgage (so I dont live with my mum still) and pays for my social life, that isnt spent dribbling over a kernel.

    Hmm, so it would appear. Mind you, the last post I saw from you didn't appear to be particularly forthcoming about what you found better about one version of Windows against another so why should anyone take any notice when you try to criticise a thread's contents, an operating system or whatever?

    I've written a lot over the last few months, especially about Windows 10 and Linux, and I'm sorry for boring some of you if that's how it seemed, but I try to give my reasons for my views on a particular system and help if I can. Even if that means dribbling over a kernel (though I forget how long it has been since I last needed to do that!)

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