Scott Hanselman

Getting Started with Windows 10

July 28, 2015 Comment on this post [33] Posted in
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I've been making Windows 10 videos at night to help out friends and family, and because it's fun.

NOTE: Please share my videos with your family, friends, and social networks with this easy to remember URL: http://hanselman.com/windows10

#NinjaCatWindows 10 comes out July 29th, and it takes what was familiar about Windows 7 and what was great about Windows 8 and takes it forward. It's nice on a tablet, it's nice on a laptop, and I'm on my desktop with it now. Features like game streaming from an Xbox are amazing. The Office Touch apps look great.

I've just finished a new one where I show what the Start Menu will look like immediately after your upgrade. I'll show some tips you perhaps didn't know about like pinning links to apps to the Start Menu, Task Bar, *and* the Desktop. I'll show you how to pin Control Panel sections to Start as well. You can still add common icons to your Desktop like My PC, but you can also add Downloads, Documents, Music, and More to the Start Menu itself.

Customizing the Start Menu after Upgrading to Windows 10

Detailed Tour of Windows 10 in 8 minutes

A complete tour of the new Windows 10 Control Panel

How to prepare for an upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8

if you have ideas on new videos I can do, let me know in the comments!


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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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July 28, 2015 13:31
Can you shed any light on the "Will Windows 10 have any Media Center functionality?" question?

I use a Windows 7 PC as my TV recorder and also watch the wtv files on my other PCs around the house, and I want to know whether I will still be able to do this if I upgrade these PCs to Windows 10.

There are 3 questions I guess:
1) Will Windows 10 be able to record TV from DVB-T cards to disc?
2) Will there be a 10 foot interface to do this?
3) Will Windows 10 be able to play wtv files?
July 28, 2015 15:48
Thanks for the handy video's. I was wondering where I can find an ISO for Win10 so I can do a clean install. I do a clean install once a year and I'm running a bit late this year. So I thought Win10 is the perfect excuse.

Where will I be able to find a clean ISO with the installation of Win10? And what activation code do I use (I have a valid Win7 and Win8 code or do I need to generate a new code on the Microsoft site somewhere)?
July 28, 2015 16:02
KenBonny: From what I've heard from Gabriel Aul [1], if you're trying to leverage the free upgrade, you should make an upgrade install first.

After that, via undetermined means you should be able to use an ISO from heaven knows where to do clean installations in some unknown manner.

I really like the openness about how this release will be performed. :P

[1] https://twitter.com/gabeaul/status/605987336392810496
July 28, 2015 20:04
Hi Scott - Thanks for putting so much out there for the Windows community! Small correction needed, the headline on this page for the third video should be "HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN UPGRADE FROM WINDOWS 7 OR WINDOWS 8", not "... WINDOWS 10", after all, we're heading toward Windows 10, unless you've got a sneak preview of Windows 10++ :)
July 28, 2015 20:24
I assuming all is well with VS 2013 and VS 2015, SQL Server, etc.
July 28, 2015 20:27
How can I change the All white title bar to colored titled bar(like windows 8). All white is really hard to differentiate between multiple windows. I think this feature clearly needs a second thought.
July 29, 2015 0:50
Thank you Scott, for the vid's If i install W10 and vs community 2015.
When i open my vs2013 projects will i be force to update to 2015?

That's one reason why i wouldn't like to upgrade. i don't want to lose my environment. thank you.
July 29, 2015 3:10
Can't even get Windows 10 on MSDN a day early? Dang...
July 29, 2015 16:58
Is Windows 10 Free Upgrade available for Window 8 users too?
July 29, 2015 17:57
So - they've messed around with the start menu (again) and redesigned the control panel (again). I can see why this release is going to be free for a year.

I'm a big fan of MS, but some days I swear the only thing that has changed between 2001 and now is that I'm a couple of grand down due to OS licensing and MS have gone through numerous iterations of moving everyone's icons around.
July 29, 2015 18:03
Hi Scott,

These videos are awesome. Thanks for keeping us posted!

I was wondering, can you tell me what software you use to record your screen? Any decent recording software seems to be quite expensive. I'm curious as to whether you've found a free / inexpensive option?

Many thanks,
David
July 29, 2015 19:19
Just a suggestion to add a header image to make this post more shareable, and SEO stuff. When I shared this post on Facebook, the OrcsWeb advertisement got chosen as the post's representative image, which is somewhat misleading. Heck, even if all your posts can be engineered to use your mugshot as the shared thumbnail, that would be better, too.
July 30, 2015 7:20
Would like to know how to update IE desktop shortcuts to Edge shortcuts on the desktop AND in Windows Start.

-Chris
July 30, 2015 8:57
Mike C - Good idea! I will fix that.

Chris - Will check. Good question. Maybe I will write a script.

David C - I use Camtasia. Also see Camstudio.

Sushil - Yes, free for 7 and 8.

Leny - No you can have both VS2013 and VS2015 at the same time.
July 30, 2015 9:44
The Windows\Installer folder is still 30 GB after the upgrade from Win 8.1. Can I delete it? I have files from 2012 in there.
July 30, 2015 17:55
@Scott and Chris
Ars Technica already has directions for performing a clean install. How to do a clean install of Windows 10 (from Windows 7 and 8)
July 30, 2015 20:06
Those vids just convinced me to upgrade. Thanks Scott! The quick "how to customize it" one was awesome, but the Xbox streaming one just blew my mind. I had read that somewhere before, but I didn't get my mind around it until just now. Amazing! They just turned my 2 year old laptop into the greatest gaming laptop on the planet. Yeah, I'm all in! I am even upgrading my "real machine" too. Gulp.
July 31, 2015 5:12
Josh - Yes, run "Disk Cleanup" then "Clean System Files"
July 31, 2015 11:24
Upgraded day one using the download tool from MS since Windows update chose not to pick me.

The main thing I don't like is how in 10 the all apps list only takes up a single column at the side of the screen regardless of if you are using start menu or start screen. The number of columns should definitely be dynamic. If I'm on a 19xx by 1200 or higher screen it should show at least 3 columns AND automatically expand folders. I must remember to send feedback on that.

I've already sent feedback on the display scaling bug. I upgraded 8.1 Pro 64bit with a 27" and 24" monitor - I had 125% scaling due to 27" monitor res and lived with the extra bigness on the 24". I thought it would be great in 10 now you can have different scaling per monitor. However it is not to be. When I switch my 24" down to 100% it seems like either Windows or Outlook 2013 has a fit and it reduces down to what appears to be 75% and things look quite fuzzy. To a certain extent by turning the monitor sharpness up and increasing the font settings in Outlook I can compensate a bit - HOWEVER dialogs like the reading pane options are virtually unreadable with what appears like 6pt font.

I don't regret the upgrade, and once work releases the block I will be upgrading my domain joined Surface Pro 3 but as an MS fan I really hope MS has planed to do intensive bug investigation and fixes and release them ASAP over the next 2 months.

July 31, 2015 11:54
Hey Scott,

are you and the Edge guys aware that watching Netflix or Prime doesn't work in the Edge browser? The movies start but then skip frames, jump over whole scenes while you can hear the sound in the background. I had to install Chrome unfortunately :(.
July 31, 2015 18:12
Scott - sorry to be negative, but the sound quality deteriorated so much when you switched to the third machine in the upgrade video that I found it really difficult to keep up with what you were doing.
July 31, 2015 21:13
Hey Scott, did the new command prompt features not make it to the final release? I don't see a "Experimental" tab at all.
July 31, 2015 22:20
Thanks for all the time you put into this, great review.

was wondering if you found a way to stop your file explorer window, when in the quick access view from sharing certain recent files. Can i restrict what is seen in this list? can i make certain folders private?
July 31, 2015 23:03
Thanks for the videos. If I ever get the ability to change the settings they might be useful. I have a Dell XPS15 with Win 8.1 - I never got the upgrade icon despite trying various fixes and updates for the last few weeks.

I gave up trying to an in place upgrade, since I'm on MSDN I can download and install from there anyway, which is what I did.

So I did a clean Win10 Pro install (reformatted disk). I didn't put the key in during install as I only do this once I'm happy the installation is good, so skip to login.

The first impressions are **terrible**.

I join the domain, log in - and I can't use any modern apps. "Can't use with the built in administrator account" it says. What?? This is a CLEAN install. All I've done is run setup, join the domain and log in, and I cannot use pre-installed apps like Edge? Seriously?? What were the testers doing all this time???

After googling a fix for this (secpol and regedit required) I can now run modern apps.

But I can't activate. The settings screen gives and error, saying my key is blocked (Error code: 0xC004C003). I can't change the key, the settings screen locks and just bings at me.

I'm puzzled that MS has spent so much time trialling Win10 and yet having installed the RTM version it feels like you got it wrong again. is this Vista 2? My work machine is remaining Win7 for now.
August 01, 2015 12:35
thanks for sharing this amazing videos conversation with us. i am very happy for founding this informative videos on this wonderful blog.
vidmate for windows pc
August 03, 2015 17:46
@CountryGal

You would really need to give more detailed information than that if you want some help. What is "our program"? What format are the pictures? If you copy the pictures to your computer, is there a difference?

By the way, Scott isn't really a Windows 10 tech support person, except perhaps for his family. Seems kind of wrong to bother him about issues like that. You might be better off contacting Microsoft's support team or visiting a site like superuser.com.
August 05, 2015 3:33
@Lukas that's already been covered by Ars Technica.
August 07, 2015 14:17
Hi Scott,

thanks for your really great video tutorials. I've followed them closely during the last couple of months.

One subject which in my opinion would be a great addition to your video series is Windows' file history feature. With people having more and more data only in digital form, reliable backups are more important than ever. As of today, it's quite hard to find uptodate and precise information about this on Windows 10.

I've found your post about file history on Windows 8 which already was very helpful. However, in Windows 10 the configuration options have been split across a modern and an extended classic configuration dialog.

Some functions can now be configured in both dialogs (e.g. time intervals, excluded folders), some only in one (e.g. folders to be included in file history in the modern dialog), some don't seem to work at all (e.g. folder exclusion can be configured in both the modern and the classic dialog, but changes are not saved) which makes the configuration more confusing than in Windows 8.

As you seem to have been using file history under Windows 8 I assume, you use it under Windows 10 as well. So it would be great if you could share your experiences.

Thanks again.

Daniel
August 07, 2015 19:28
Has anyone had issues with F12 Developer Tools? I opened/closed F12 a few times, then when I opened F12 again it showed a blank page. Had to close Edge to get it to work again. It happened 3 times the last hour.
August 13, 2015 0:09
Well I love Silverlight.

Great Web Technology for Line of Business Apps.
August 20, 2015 15:17
Thank you for the valuable knowledge share.
September 02, 2015 0:34
Thnx for share, My system is pentium processor with windows 8 can i upgrade to windows 10
October 06, 2015 17:08
I have a coworker and he called today five times the Microsoft support and asked the same question and got the same response which kind of confused everybody here. He asked "My laptop had windows 7 and I successfully upgraded to Windows 10. My Windows 10 is activated now and it works. What's going to happen after that year ends?" All five agents gave him the same response: "After one year from the initial launch your copy will deactivate and you will be asked to reactivate (buy a copy of windows 10 since you will not have a valid license). If you plan of using Windows 10 more than an year you rather buy one right now!" Those are agents trying to make a buck or that's the reality? I am confused! I know my English skills are not that great but still: "After you’ve upgraded, you have Windows 10 for free on that device." (http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/windows-10-upgrade) - it's kind of clear.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.