Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Get Your Computers Ready for Windows 10...We Have a Date


 

Yes, the news is out. Microsoft has finally told us when we can upgrade our computers to Windows 10. The date is July 29.

If you have been following the continuing story, you know that Windows 10 is a free upgrade for anyone running a legitimate copy of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 It's yours for free. No catches. Just download it, run it, let it update itself. All you have to do is learn of few of its new tricks. That's it...free for life.

If you have more than one computer, they all can have it. No limits. Now, how do you get it? This is all new stuff so pay attention. If you are running Windows now, look in the lower right corner of your task bar. If you see a small Windows logo icon, click on it. When it opens you will see a page telling you how the installation works and how you can make a reservation to get it. Just fill out your e-mail address and you are done. It will be downloaded to your computer automatically some time prior to July 29. But you can only install it on the 29th. 

I have three computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1...one of them being my MAC running Windows 7 inside Parallels. So I opened up Windows 7 and sure enough there was that little icon. So I clicked it, filled out the short form, and am ready to go. Ironically, my PC and Windows laptop have yet to receive that little icon. It just seemed funny that my MAC was the first computer to be authorized to get the new Windows. Life goes on.

It is important that you reserve your upgrade copy in advance. Why? So it can be downloaded ahead of time. If they didn't do this, millions of computers would be trying to get it on July 29th. It could potentially be a major logjam. 

From my understanding, you don't have to get the little icon to upgrade your computers to Windows 10. You can upgrade it for free anytime within the first year.

There will be some new things in Windows 10 and we will have more details in the next blog. But one thing I will tell you is you no longer will have a choice about updates. Microsoft will automatically send out updates and fixes in the background. That way, all of us will be running the same version of Windows.

The other thing I will tell you is that this version of Windows is not feature complete. They will be adding more features over the next few months. However the features that will come on July 29 are complete...subject to fixes and updates in the future. I think it is going to be an interesting time for all of us.

As you know, I have been running Windows 10 for quite a while now in Parallels on my MAC. I think it is a good product and most of you will like it. I got the latest build update the other day and I can tell it is much better...quite smooth, as a matter of fact. I think it is not far from completion. Just my opinion...but shared by many others.

OK, it is time for me to step aside and let you read all the news that's fit to print. -JRC 


Tech News and Opinions

Get Windows 10: Microsoft's biggest software upgrade in history begins today

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Opinion: Windows 10 Release Will Hurt the PC Market This Year

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Computer Tips and Tricks

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Tossed all your snaps into the new Google Photos? You read the terms, right? ... RIGHT?

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6 Features Disappearing in Windows 10 (and How to Replace Them)

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This article is about finding the content you want. There is a great deal of content available in bittorrent. Over 25 PetaBytes of content is available in over 20 million active torrents. These sites will help you narrow the results from all those torrents to find the clean, real and healthy (bittorrent-wise) torrent for the content you are looking for.


Mobile Computing

How to Charge Your Phone or Tablet Faster

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If you use mobile Safari for your web browsing, unbeknownst to you, it's been caching the data files of the photos and videos it loads.

Google's first attempt to revolutionize mobile payments didn't work out so well. Nearly four years later the company announced at Google IO that it's replacing its first mobile wallet solution with a new app called Android Pay, and it basically works just like Apple Pay.

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