Win 10 has Update date

Microsoft has confirmed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update as August 2. The software giant posted a full blog after an earlier blog, apparently naming the date, was published and then pulled. It’ll come just over a year after Windows 10 first landed on July 29, 2015. That also seems to be the date when Microsoft’s year-long …

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a trap !

See title...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody expects the Windows 10 installer

I don't believe it. Stopping the free Windows 10 is too good to be true.

[Sebastian A]

Re: Nobody expects the Windows 10 installer

I've said it for months. Expect a press release with terms like "popular demand" and "unprecedented uptake" and "enabling our customers" to be released just a couple of days before the end date stating they're extending the offer, but only strictly limited to another 3 months or 6 months or whatever.

Then repeat ad nauseum until they have at least 50% coverage. (so, until the end of time).

[Sporkinum]

Don't foget this trick

I plan on doing this, so I can install later if I want to.

How to pre-activate all your Win7/8 systems for Windows 10 without actually installing Windows 10

[Pookietoo]

Re: Don't foget this trick

Seems like unnecessary hassle - if they were going to make Windows 10 a must-have "upgrade" wouldn't they have done something about it by now, rather than just trying to trick punters into installing it as a "security update"? Windows 7 is in extended support until January 2020 - won't you be buying a new machine by then, with the obligatory Windows installation, anyway?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't foget this trick

Why would you assume someone will be buying a new machine by 2020? Unless your current one breaks, what is the motivation? Intel is giving us 3-4% performance boosts each year, so it isn't like the performance of a 2020 PC is going to blow the doors off a 2015 or even 2010 model.

[Adam 1]

Re: Don't foget this trick

For one, multi TB SSD drives should be sensibly priced by then. Also possibly have commercialised mram or whatever it's called by then. Plus your li ion battery from 2010 may struggle to be useful in 2020. It's not only CPU performance that drives upgrades.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't foget this trick

Are you really suggesting an upgrade is needed to replace an SSD or a battery?

[Adam 1]

Re: Don't foget this trick

No, but at some point after replacing the handle on occasions and the blade on other occasions it stops being your grandfather's axe.People update for various reasons. Sometimes they need a laptop for their kids so they but a new shiny for themselves. In other occasions they want warranty coverage. In other occasions, people and businesses do unnecessary spending at tax time. Some people don't want USB devices to get the latest WiFi standard.

Your argument seems to be that because performance improvements are incremental, people won't but new shiny things. What that doesn't take into account is how much hardware has dropped in price* for the equivalent model. When you are forking out a few hundred instead of a few thousand, the incremental improvements can be much smaller than 15 years ago to be worth it.

If you are predicting a slowing in the market, well that is already happening for a few years as people consume their twit face on phones and tablets and stretch out their previous PC spend, buying maybe every 5 - 7 years instead of 3 - 5. That will continue to be the case without some killer use case that needs new hardware, but you would have to be brave to predict it going to 0. People sell perfectly good cars after 3 years for equally limited improvements.

* Unless your paying in £ I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't foget this trick

I never said it would go to zero, I was just disputing the idea that Windows 7 going out of support in 2020 isn't a problem because PCs will have been replaced by then. Look at how hard it was to get rid of Windows XP, despite 1) a much longer life 2) a much shittier OS and 3) far more performance/technology advances during that time.

Windows 7 looks to be Microsoft's new XP, though it will be much harder for them to get rid of - which may be why they have been so aggressive in trying to force upgrades. In the end I suspect they'll have to bring back free upgrades to Windows 10 (assuming they actually do shut them off) and hope the worries about lack of security fixes is enough to push people off.

[Adam 1]

Re: Don't foget this trick

I think the longer life for XP worked against them. There were plenty of netbook era and earlier machines that couldn't run vista/7 so the argument they were basically mounting was to throw that old box in the bin. A lot of people who do upgrade then pass that box into their kids/parents/uncle's neighbour's grandson's half sister, which doesn't remove it from the XP column in those Gartner reports.

As much as I personally prefer 7, and my media centre PC won't ever be upgraded until it dies beyond repair, come 2020 I will need to air gap it, throw it on its own subnet and only whitelist version traffic. Or find a new media centre that I'm happy with.

[Dan 55]

Win 10 has update date

Yes, it's usually now or tonight.

[paulc]

When will it be safe to

take my laptop out of Flight Mode?

[Andy Non]

Re: When will it be safe to

Remember to check the black box is working in case it crashes and burns. ;-)

[Mark 85]

So, the August 2nd version will be the real one? Makes me wonder why that version will be "special"....

[MrDamage]

August 2nd

Interesting how MS chose to do this on the anniversary of the USSR conducting their first nuclear test.

So the enemy of Freedom (tm), willfully unleashed that which is capable of destroying civilisation as we know it.

Seems somewhat fitting.

[Sebastian A]

I had actually expected the release date

to be just over a month after the free update deadline ends.

You know, so that people who updated for free no longer have the easy rollback option.

Gotta make sure your eggs have hatched before you count your chickens.

[Anonymous Coward]

"in addition to being available pre-installed"

Being available of being forced onto users..??? ... Gimme a break.. There's no incentive to buy PC tech any more, when the only choices are: Window, Window, or Windows. These unwitting users had the right idea though...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/12/microsoft_hp_italy_windows/

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/06/27/woman_microsoft_windows_10_upgrades/