DVD playback was never included in Windows, in XP through 8 you needed the Media Center version to get DVD playback. With the removal of the option to buy Media Center in 10, the DVD app is the replacement.

Media Center was an optional purchase with Vista, 7 and 8 (with XP there was a separate Media Center Edition, after that it was included in Vista Ultimate and Win7 and Win8, Pro users could purchase it as an option - I got mine free with the upgrade offer when 8 came out. Microsoft have to royalties for the patents in the DVD codec and as an increasingly small number of new PCs include optical drives, it isn't really a surprise that it isn't included as standard - and Media Center was used by a very small percentage of Windows users; I believe the figure was under 5%.

Most people assume that Windows can play DVDs, because most PCs are bundled with PowerDVD or one of the other DVD player utilities.

Solitaire is free, you just need to pay to get rid of the adverts - this has been the case since Windows 8 was released.

The Apps bundled with the OS haven't changed since Windows 8 - expect they now get the Outlook branding as opposed to just being Mail, Calendar, Contacts. And the same goes for the Office 365 apps, that was the case with the other versions of the apps as well, you get the for free for reading documents, you need an Office 365 subscription to use them to edit; this is the case on iOS and Android as well, it is hardly something new and a sudden change of direction.

That is a disgracefully poorly researched article - either that or they wanted to grab clicks by giving out false facts and old news under a new wrapper.

Nope. They're still 'mail' and 'calendar' although I think it's now 'people' rather than 'contacts'. And none of them have the Office branding, although they do have the new 'flat' interface design. May be different in Win10 Enterprise, I've only seen Pro.

And also, the email and calendar apps weren't bundled in with Windows 8, they were an optional download. Free, but you had to ask.



True.


Welcome to 95% of internet technology 'journalism'

OK having done the upgrade and everything including old laser printer and scanner worked first time,which I have to say was a bit of a shock, the only worry is the the event viewer administrative events looks like a war zone.

Hoping that will settle down in the next few days.

My next door neighbour upgraded yesterday - W7 - W10 and it has failed
PC starts but then goes into a W10 diagnostics and then a repair menu that just loops
Naturally he has never done a backup or a anything

I could re-install W7 (tried a repair but no go) but he will lose everything - so he will chat to MS to see if there is anything they can do

He's far from the only one - that problem came up the other day when I was looking up another Windows issue.

Tested have been doing some interesting reviews of W10: Some thoughts here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty1dalLtI6M - and a more in depth review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDGiXqU0MfE.
What I thought was smart was the notion that it wouldn't be available to everyone at first, just the platforms MS were confident it would work well on.

Windows 10 cumulative update arrives automatically - installs via force restart
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... ly-1301230
...

The Windows 10 privacy settings you need to change right now | TechRadar
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... ow-1301257

Yes, it's another slightly naff Techradar article, but I personally find the new 10 setup more than a little creepy. But then I'm paranoid about that sort of thing these days.

Anybody worked out how to take a system image in 10 yet?

Control Panel >> File History >> System Image Backup

It's good to see everything's still hidden amongst small writing since 8

And the search function for settings in 8, Jesus wept.

cheers guys, that's really obvious !

I've started a thread where we can share tips that we find while we're struggling with this bloody OS

Useful Windows 10 tips and hacks

Mine is still saying that I will be informed when Windows 10 is available... A 4.1GB folder has been there since the 28th July...

Edit: interesting, I left the laptop on over night and the 4.1GB directory is now 130KB in size!

even though I had asked for it to alert me when it was ready it never did. I clicked on the icon in the system tray and it open and showed it was ready.

I had to manually kick off W10 install on a couple of machines as I got sick of waiting