back to article Windows 10 mobile upgrade coming in December

Microsoft has slipped out news that an upgrade to Windows 10 on mobile devices will land in December. Redmond took to Facebook to break the news, responding to a question from a member by saying “Broad availability of Windows 10 on other devices, including mobile phones, will begin rolling out in December.” The upgrade will …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    Pavlovian response

    May I take this opportunity to ritually condemn MSFT in the strongest possible terms!

    1. 0laf

      Re: Pavlovian response

      I whole heartedly concur Sir. Damn them. Damn them for reasons.

    2. Loud Speaker

      Re: Pavlovian response

      Ritual condemnation is not sufficient.

      What we have here is a case of maliciously installing unwanted software on gazillions of computers, despite the best efforts of Joe user.

      I would have thought this was a gazillion offences under the "Misuse of computers" act of 1873 or whatever, justifying a fine of at least a billion dollars per offence, plus similar numbers of arms and legs from top management.

      It is probably also a terrorist offence, and the management should be sent strait to Gitmo (or Hell, whichever is cheaper to run). perhaps they could be dropped onto Syria from high orbit.

      I run XP to drive some hardware costing £5,000 to replace, with no updated drivers. I turned of the Wifi to avoid updates. Wifi got accidently turned on, and my OS is now overwritten. Unfortunately, the driver disk has gone missing.

      There must be huge numbers of people in similar positions.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Here's hoping

    Its not a mandatory upgrade.

    I refuse to join (beta test) the privacy stealing OS that is windows 10.

    1. dogged

      Re: Here's hoping

      honestly, I doubt it'll be worse than 8.1 (assuming you run Cortana).

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Tiny chance for MSFT

    Surprisingly, the MSFT InTune MDM is pretty good and is easier to integrate than MobileIron, AirWatch etc. especially for corporates who are looking at Exchange Online as part of Office 365 migration.

    Maybe, just maybe, selling InTune will give MSFT an opportunity to also place Lumias into corporates now BBRY has lost its USP be going to chronically insecure Android and AAPL iPhone is too costly to issue to the likes of Chelsey in HR.

  4. Dave Horn

    Stick with 8.1

    My strong advice would be to stick with 8.1. I've been running the tech preview for some time now on a Lumia 930 because I have to and I'm developing an increasing dislike for it. Why?

    It's slower - much, MUCH slower - even taking into account it's a technical preview. Slower to boot, slower to unlock, slower to launch apps, slower to take pics, you name it. Even the Lumia 950 demoed the other day is noticeably sluggish and that's able to run a Snapdragon 810 flat out.

    It's oh-so-buggy. Yes, it's a technical preview. I can forgive bugs. But this is supposed to be finished in under a month. And it's not. Want to take a picture from the lock screen? Good luck with that. Want to edit it? Maybe, if you're good. Etc. Etc. Even the music app takes 5 seconds to start playing music while it wonders off into the internet to look something up first.

    And don't get me started on battery life. In a pinch you can squeeze 3 days out of the Lumia 930 - it's why I bought it - but with Windows 10 it's down to 12 hours. I don't understand the rabid "IT'S EATING MY PRIVACY" response with Windows 10 - after all, Google makes its living from stealing your private data and serving you ads based upon it.

    But Windows 10 on a phone is doomed to die a slow and painful death, and I'm not particularly concerned because they've lost the original vision of making it as refreshingly simple and quick to use as possible, something that was lauded in 2011.

    1. 0laf

      Re: Stick with 8.1

      It's a shame. I like my 920, I like WinPho8.1 Mainly for the camera, the keyboard and the fact it actually works quite well as a phone for speaking on and archaic stuff like that.

      Looks like I'll end up going back to Google with my tail between my legs next year. No chance I'm paying £30-40 a month to get something worse than I have now, which I only pay £9 for.

      1. Hellcat

        Re: Stick with 8.1

        Or, you know, stick with what you've got? Like your 920 on 8.1 - keep it another year or so?

        I've tech previewed on my 1020 a few times. It's a lot better than it was, but still a bit buggy for day to day use. Not handling the mass-driver of a camera was the last straw for rolling back to 8.1 - but then again if I'd read the fine print I would have known this. Shame on me.

        I might hold off on the 10 update until others have been braver - unless I can confirm I'll be able to roll back to 8.1 - then I'll be that first over the top.

      2. PaulyV

        Re: Stick with 8.1

        In the same situation as you. I went to 4G EE as soon as the Nokia 920 came out. I have had it almost 3 years now and the phone was outstanding when I first got it and is still fine now. During that time however Windows has barely changed and as much as I liked it at the start I am seeing more attractive options elsewhere. Sadly the phone doesn't relay my voice calls very clearly any more - something which seems not uncommon at this age on the 920. The keyboard I could never get on with for some reason - I think that might just be me.

        From tomorrow I downgrade my EE contract and am using a Wileyfox Swift which came into stock at Amazon today.

        The Lumia will stay on 8.1 and will never leave my car again where it will act as a rather good SatNav - those Here maps are excellent.

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Stick with 8.1

      I'm running it on my 1020.

      Just taken a photo from the lock screen, fine, no problems.

      Yes, it is a little laggy, I'm hoping that that is because it is still in pre-release mode with extra debugging.

      The new Audible app is as slow as ever, but other than that I haven't found it worse than 8.1.

      It has also been relatively stable. I've found that Audible gets its knickers in a twist every so often and I need to reboot about once a week on average. The Podcast app also crashes sometimes when it has been running and you try and refresh the list of podcasts - restart and it is fine.

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Re: Stick with 8.1

        Not to mention those of us on non-Lumia devices. My work phone is an HTC 8X, which is a nice phone but is only on 8.10.14203.306 so from the article info isn't going to be visited by the Win10 fairy.

        It's a shame, as I like the phone as a phone (I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 tablet for other stuff) although the general consensus seems to be that 8.1 maybe better for phone stuff than 10 anyway. And all that said, I guess work will end up swapping it out for a Lumia at some point soon anyway, so the whole point could become moot (although it'll be interesting to see with what OS, given the PCs here are still on Win7 and don't look to be moving anywhere else anytime soon).

        1. The Original Steve

          Re: Stick with 8.1

          I'm sure I read that MS will be releasing Win10 mobile to non-Lumia devices. As long as there is enough capacity with the onboard storage it's up to HTC to roll it out.

          Actually I'm more than sure - got a mate with an 8x running the tech preview...

          1. Anonymous Custard

            Re: Stick with 8.1

            @Steve,

            It'll be interesting to see, but given how long it took them to get 8.1 out to the 8x over 8.0, I think the phone will be up for its renewal before it does get Win10 (especially if it needs other prodding first to Denim).

            The tech preview is also interesting (I've been following it on WP Central) as apparently it was available, then stopped being so (and seemingly to flip at least once back to available again), and the reports of how it's been going on the 8x have been many and varied (hence why it's not so clear if the 8x will get Win10 finally or not).

            As it's both my only phone and my work phone (which they provided) tech preview isn't an option, if I get it, it will have to be "official OTA". But somehow I think I'll end up getting Win10 wrapped up in a nice new Nokia wrapping of some description or other in the end...

    3. The Original Steve

      Re: Stick with 8.1

      The last couple of builds have placed my 930 with Win 10 pretty much on par with it on 8.1.

      Did have some issues, but after doing a factory reset (so wiped but still with the latest tech preview on it) and restoring a backup (all automatic on WP) then it's been working fine since.

      Admittedly it's annoying I have to wipe the user partition, but that aside I'm finding it to be pretty good.

      Although not entirely confident they'll have it ship shape by December...!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Stick with 8.1

      @Dave Horn

      " I don't understand the rabid "IT'S EATING MY PRIVACY" response with Windows 10 - after all, Google makes its living from stealing your private data and serving you ads based upon it."

      You are operating under the assumption that myself and others who DO care about their privacy are automatically using Google and other privacy stealing platforms, twatter and farcebook to name but two.

      I, myself, use Duckduckgo, have adblockers running left right and centre and go to great lengths to keep my privacy, well, private.

      Please don't tar us all with the same brush.

  5. Mikel

    One day...

    Only Microsoft hardware will get Windows upgrades.

  6. Fihart

    Great picture.

    Just to remind you, Windows 3.1 came on 7 floppies.

    1. Cornholio

      Re: Windows 3.1 came on 7 floppies.

      And Amiga Workbench came on one :o)

    2. Kubla Cant

      Re: Great picture.

      Windows 3.1 came on 7 floppies

      Funny, it seems like more in my recollection. Maybe I used to install NT from floppies?

      I loved the picture, though.

      1. Farmer Fred

        Re: Great picture.

        Wasn't 95/98 on something like 26 floppies? I seem to recall doing an install of something where disc 21 had a bad sector gdut, gdut, gdut, gdurrrrrtt, gdut, gdut, gdut, gdurrrtt, gdut......

        1. Anonymous Custard
          Trollface

          Re: Great picture.

          Amazing quite how many horrible memories even reading that sound written down evokes...

  7. davidp231
    Trollface

    I see they've ditched the DMF format.

  8. 0laf

    How I know WinPho is fked

    I plugged in my Nokia Lumia 920 into my Windows 10 desktop fire up the phone companion and it asks if I want to be sent the links for Office for Android.

    If MS can't be arsed with its own kit why should anyone else?

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