It's heads you win, tails you lose as Microsoft introduces CoinFlip™ for Windows 10

Microsoft emitted two fresh builds for October's Windows 10 last night, although which one you'll get depends on your current build or, for new Insiders, a "virtual coin toss". The company had previously warned that it would be shipping the updates that will become the 19H2 release with features turned off by default. It could …

[LeahroyNake]

The useful bit

'as well as implemented a rotation policy to distribute work more fairly over a CPU's "favoured" cores.'

While the rest of it can schedule its own appointment with the recycle bin the change to the CPU thread allocation is interesting.

I'm guessing that as Ryzen 3000 CPU'S can only boost certain cores to the max boost frequency (there is an article on this over at AnandTech) there should be a slight increase in single threaded application performance. Always nice in my book, I just hope this part is not a coin flip :)

[Dwarf]

More detail required ...

Does it use the same random number generator that Windows uses to decide if it will operate properly today ?

Does it require a cloud connection and monthly subscription ?

[fobobob]

Re: More detail required ...

I've always assumed they used RANDU from vbscript, inside of hamster-on-wheel.vbs to make this determination.

[Ramis101]

Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

In my mind an OS is supposed to quietly get on with running things, be stable and reliable and above all does not go through a major upheaval every 6 months that at best simply breaks every antivirus product on the market and at worst deletes all your hard work?

If you wanted to add functionality, you installed what used to be called a programme, now irritatingly renames to App also.

I support a number of companies PC's, mostly windows and predominately Win7, because "it works". I have a couple of Win 10 installs but they are LTSB - the only version of Win 10 i see as a viable OS. its just a shame that M$ makes it near impossible to *cough* legally use.

Old Fuddy Duddy out!

[Nunyabiznes]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

Only one upvote possible so --->

[Ramis101]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

Perhaps give it a little longer before sticking the boot in, looks like i'm not alone after all

[simonlb]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

All MS realistically need to do is:

1. Remove the abysmal abortion of a UI and reinstate the one from Windows 7.

2. Get rid of all of the telemetry: if the telemetry was genuinely looked at and used, their updates would be seamless and work correctly for the vast majority or users every time. As this is patently not the case, then there must be an ulterior motive for the telemetry which no-one should trust at all.

3. If you must do an update cycle, make it an annual one, not every six months as people don't want to go through the pain and hassle of 'testing' a full OS update twice a year.

Please feel free to add further suggestions as you see fit.

[Anonymous Coward]

@simonlb - Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

Nice wish list.

[the Jim bloke]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

The problem with all of these suggestions, is that they are to the users benefit.

They do nothing quantifiable for Microsoft - downgrading the hate and contempt felt in user-land obviously isnt of value - so why the hell would Microsoft exert itself?

Instead they will continue promoting the fallacy that because they provide an OS they own your machine, and like an incompetent manager, will make pointless changes and screw people around just to demonstrate their power.

[Ramis101]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

Dang, i forgot about all the telemetry!... though most of that can be cured with LTSB

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Have i got invisible rose-tinted specs on?

Nice list but sadly you are shouting at an empty building. They won't listen.

Your option 3 is exactly what Apple has been doing for several years. I think it was Ubuntu that got us into this six-monthly cycle. Personally, I hate it which was why I left Ubuntu and went to CentOS. (This was before Canonical thought about long term releases before anyone points this out)

[Nunyabiznes]

Shirley

Surely you meant Heads you lose, Tails you lose? We've been around long enough to know how Windows updates go.

[Usermane]

Re: Shirley

Or better, it's head I win, tail you loose.

[Anonymous Coward]

Head the Program will crash

Tails the PC will crash

If it lands on its side both will work.

[Charles 9]

No, if it flips edge, the entire machine will Halt and Catch Fire. About the only way you'll convince the world to stop using Windows.

[Evil Scot]

If it lands on its side windows defaults to its original browser...

[Roland6]

LoL loved the headline

The headline introduced visions of MS bundling a new Coinflip game with W10, as their entry into the online gambling market...

[Anonymous Coward]

Never Mind

I've finally switched to Debian v10

[Anonymous Coward]

I could do with some extra income

Can anyone tell me if they are still recruiting for this win10 testing job, and if so, how much do they pay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Joke icon?

I thought software was only tested pre-release. When was 10 released?

[Wzrd1]

Re: Joke icon?

I thought software was only tested pre-release. When was 10 released?

This is Microsoft we're talking about. Testing is conducted post-release, by their "partners", aka every company that has the misfortune of utilizing their products.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I could do with some extra income

To apply, simply purchase a new computer with Win10 pre-installed. You pay them for the privilege of testing their software.

[Anonymous Coward]

Loaded a new version of Windows 10 on the Mrs' laptop a few days ago. It buggered up the video, DVD just kept juddering and intermittent noise. Had to roll back. Maybe I'll wait 6 months for MS to get rid of the bugs before risking updating again.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: getting rid of bugs

They might do that but they'll just introduce more to replace them.

Such is the way of the world these days.

[Wzrd1]

Re: getting rid of bugs

They might do that but they'll just introduce more to replace them.

Not always, remember, a bug with seniority is a feature.

[Nolveys]

Maybe I'll wait 6 months for MS to get rid of the bugs before risking updating again.

That's like waiting for the rust on your car to fix itself.

DVD just kept juddering and intermittent noise.

Had a customer a while ago that reinstalled Windows 10 on a laptop after the last install died the death. After reinstall the OS wouldn't detect the DVD drive at all, not even a "what is this?" entry in device manager.

After attempting five or six of the usual voodoo fixes one finds in MS threads we decided to just give up on using the drive. The last time I recall having non-physical problems with optical drives was when they ran off proprietary cards in the '90s.

MS's recent offerings are complete and utter garbage.

[Rohime]

Loaded a new version of Windows 10 on the Mrs' laptop ...

If its got a DVD, then its too old to run Win10.

[Anonymous Coward]

A virtual cointoss

I think Microsoft have found the killer app Windows 10 has been missing. You can laugh, but just shut up!

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone currently forced to use windows 10...

due to work - linux and mac only at home - perhaps they should take a look at their god awful flat UI again at some point. I know its been said many times before but I'm hoping someone in MS might actually read this - a UI where widget control areas and data presentation space are indistinguishable is not fit for purpose. Also the bug whereby the bottom of a full height window can sometimes disappear below the explorer bar (or whatever its called this week) and can't be accessed to resize the window is really p*ssing me off.

[tymal77]

5700 XT Cooling Question

Do the current 5700 XT lines of ASUS/MSI/Sapphire have aftermarket cooling? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting results for it. That aftermarket cooled 5700 XT's would come out in the 2nd week of August, which is now and those cards exist. And are 3rd party, so I imagined they would have custom cooling. Or do I need to wait a little longer?

I'm also getting recommended by people to NOT get a 5700 XT, but go with an Nvidia card, is that just bias on the part of those people? Cause the benchmarks look really good for a card that's almost 150 euro cheaper then a 2070 Super. And the RDNA structure does sound really nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Will it fix

I can still crash my windows 10 by turning off the 2nd monitor when playing a game as the 'add new hardware' wizard collapses and then tries to figure our resolution and then crashes to desktop to have a lie down..

Despite the focus tool it still pops up annoying notifications about the windows AV that won't update unless you force it manually. And when playing online it really isn't helpful as you also lose focus on mice and keyboard for a bit.

50% of the time it won't boot first time because I need to turn both monitors on first. (Yes I am not joking)

I play with a wireless controller it works fine. Switch to metered connection and reboot, it won't work the controller. Tells me I have to remove metered connection because it can't download the drivers (seems to uninstall them on reboot)

Sharing anything is such a pain it is just pathetic.

And this is a fresh install. Previous to that it :-

Also dropped to desktop every 30 minutes when in a game, like clockwork.

Key board drivers didn't work for the corsair gaming keyboards.

Oh and 22inch second monitor on DVI sometimes flipped to primary making the 27inch monitor secondary and none functional. This meant all my games crashed because the resolution was set above the range of the 22inch..

Does it fix any of that? No? Windows 10 still garbage then?