As you maybe already know Windows 10 Technology Preview already available for Windows Insider program participants. What’s cool about Windows 10 is that after RTM Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users will be able to switch to Windows 10 for free during the firs year. There is also free online course on Windows 10 available on MVA.
What’s interesting is that once you logged in to Windows Insider Program you have an option both to perform direct/in-place upgrade of your Window 8.1 to Windows 10 TP using Windows Update delivery vehicle (default option) and also ISO download for testing on VM/separate machine.
So I decided to give it a shot and perform in-place upgrade of my Windows 8.1 Pro on my home desktop to Windows 10 TP 9926:
In-place upgrade of my desktop computer went without any glitches, apart from the fact than in the very end it redefined my LAN connection as Public and I consequently lost my inbound RDP connectivity to machine (I started this process being connected over RDP). So a quick fix for this was to enable Inbound RDP for Public network profile as a temporary solution, just because off the top of my head I wasn’t able remember how to redefine profile assigned to the network connection.
So far I see good UI improvements and some interesting stuff related to VPN connectivity. Also start menu is back but charms seems to be removed, which could be a sad thing if you at least slightly get used to them.
Here is non-Microsoft video which briefly explains what’s new in Windows 10 TP:
\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JphpLkmimVo\n
To name some things mentioned there: start menu is back with optional live tiles whereas full-screen modern UI is kept but as an optional thing; Aero snap feature introduced in Windows 7 which allows users to see 2 things side by side is improved and allows tile things in quadrants now; new task view which clearly shows what you are currently working on side by side similar to Apple OS 10 Mission Control feature, also allowing you to open multiple desktops switching between a number of different workspaces quickly; Cortana Microsoft’s answer to Siri (at least initially) evolved into something bigger than this; “entirely separate browser in addition to IE” 🙂 (code-named Spartan); native support for FLAC lossless audio; HEVC video codec with 8K video (aka Ultra HD TV) support and DirectX 12.