back to article Windows 10 hands on: Build 10074 is for the brave - but it's pretty snazzy

Microsoft has released preview Build 10074 of Windows 10 at its Build developer event in San Francisco. It is only a week since the previous preview build (10061) arrived, but this one is a milestone available even to users who prefer to stick with the more stable releases – the “slow” update cycle in Windows Insider terms. …

  1. Hellcat

    Office 365 integration

    At bloody last!

    I hope this translates over to the Win phone also. The multiple Microsoft single-signon options for the same products was a significant pain in the arse for small businesses trying to make sense of it all.

    1. x 7

      Re: Office 365 integration

      "Office 365 integration

      At bloody last!"

      Personally thats the last thing I want. I only want my machines logging into online storage accounts when I want them to - not all the time.

      1. dogged
        Facepalm

        Re: Office 365 integration

        Use a local account then. Jesus, why is it some commentards see an optional feature and then immediately decide it's mandatory, that MS are "forcing you" to use it and that all workarounds have been deleted?

        Just select a local account.

        fucksakes.

        1. ZSn

          Re: Office 365 integration

          I use a local account, and when I installed 10041 it bitched about it. The question I have is can I still use onedrive without the entire account synchronising, or do I then have to go the whole kit and caboodle?

          I like the look of it in general (after the botch that was 8) however having my entire account synchronised so that the FBI can read it at will fills me with horror.

        2. Chronigan

          Re: Office 365 integration

          If only they made it easier to find the local account option. Are all four options given in the same place or do you have to look for a link in 3 point font in order to create a local account?

          1. Hellcat

            Re: Office 365 integration

            If only they made it easier to find the local account option. Are all four options given in the same place or do you have to look for a link in 3 point font in order to create a local account?

            I don't know. It's still in development! Adding a Win 7 machine to a domain is several clicks away, so don't be shocked if you need to 'find' the local account option. But it's not like you're going to have to hack the registry to get to it.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Office 365 integration

          I do wish I could update this comment more than the mere once ...

          1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Re: Office 365 integration

            I do wish I could update this comment more than the mere once ...

            I do wish people would learn to quote, so we know what comment they're talking about.

            Though I suppose when their post is just a vapid "me too" it doesn't really matter.

        4. x 7

          Re: Office 365 integration

          "Just select a local account."

          Most non-techie users can't work out how to do that in Win8, in Win8.1 it was close to impossible to find. In Win10 I'm betting Microsoft hide it so well it'll be next to impossible

          It should simply not be the default

      2. Hellcat

        Re: Office 365 integration

        Personally thats the last thing I want. I only want my machines logging into online storage accounts when I want them to - not all the time

        Then don't use it?

        God forbid someone else may have different usage requirements to you.

        1. dogged
          Unhappy

          Re: Office 365 integration

          > God forbid someone else may have different usage requirements to you.

          Welcome to the Reg forums, where if you don't use something or simply don't like the idea then a) you MUST USE IT because you're "forced" to and b) it should be banned and so should the company that makes it.

          Also, swearing you'll never use it means you're a hardcore dangerous rebel that the cool kids will like.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IE DOM object interface

    Does anyone know if W10 will have backwards compatibility for Excel VBA accessing a separate MS browser instance's DOM via an object?

    TIA

  3. Atonnis

    We're all still way behind though...

    Even being on the fast track we may have build 10074, but if you look at Joe Belfiore's PC at the BUILD conference (one of them, anyway) he's using a much later version there.

    At the moment, Microsoft are feeding us small improvements in slightly older builds a bit at a time so they can merge together what they get feedback on and can change and what they are working on anyway without feedback in order to get everything working.

    Considering the state of the most recent build, I'd say they're moving on really damn quickly, and - as odd as it is to say it - they may actually produce a final build within a not-too-off-the-mark timeframe as the end of July.

    1. Hellcat

      Re: We're all still way behind though...

      Happy to see someone else who realises we're not testing a full build. They are changing and testing sections of the build using a common core.

  4. x 7

    "Microsoft's second go at making sense of Windows on tablets"

    More like fourth or fifth attempt at making sense of Windows on tablets......XP had two attempts, Vista, Win 7 both had attempts......Win8 ....well enough said there

  5. AMBxx Silver badge

    Win32 apps start menu

    Fix on my install seems to involve the start menu not working at all.Back to Windows Explorer and browsing to c:\progetc etc

    1. jf4242

      Re: Win32 apps start menu

      Same thing here - since 10074, no start menu at all. The button is right there but when I click...nada.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    why is it some commentards see an optional feature and then immediately decide it's mandatory

    Because they are old enough to know this is how it all starts. Look how Google started enforcing needing Google accounts to access the Play store, etc.

    For me, the biggest deterrent to using cloudy goodness is the mish mash of accounts which seem to be needed. Playing around with Google for Work on my personal device (it's a testbed one, not my *real* one) I was irritated to see that now the device can conflate my personal gMail account with the one needed for work. Not what I want at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Also, unless Microsoft have back-tracked since 10041, the fact that they are deliberately attempting to arrive at that position by hiding the Local Account log-in option - whereby the overwhelming majority of users will already think it is mandatory and sign in with a Microsoft account.

    2. Hellcat

      Playing around with Google for Work on my personal device (it's a testbed one, not my *real* one) I was irritated to see that now the device can conflate my personal gMail account with the one needed for work. Not what I want at all.

      Crazy as it sounds but this is the purpose of being able to login with a 365 account. No longer will you need to login with a local or account linked to your personal hotmail.com account. You login with your company's 365 account, get their mail, their apps, their cloud storage, their contacts. This is why having the same option for Windows 10 phone is important - or at least some changes to the workplace functionality.

      1. Preston Munchensonton
        WTF?

        You login with your company's 365 account, get their mail, their apps, their cloud storage, their contacts.

        Crazy as it sounds, not every one uses Office 365, even for their company. Why is it so hard to give the user options without forcing everyone to default to an option that isn't the most prevalent?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          DO AS WE SAY!!!!!! LOGIN WITH A WINDOWS ACCOUNT !!!

          Because even though we are not being FORCED to use the MIcrosoft or Ofice 365 Accounts to log in its what Microsoft WANT people to do so they will Hide and make it hard to log in as a local account. that way Joe Public will just do it.

          You need a Windows or Office 365 account to access Onedrive, App Store and other Microsoft services so why would they want people only using a local account as that does not potentially provide them with more revenue, ............................................ or allow their Overlords the NSA access to your data.....

  7. tony2heads
    WTF?

    Edge

    "Introducing Microsoft Edge the brand new browser for doing"

    - followed by nothing??

    Is it indeed for doing nothing?

    1. hplasm
      Coat

      Re: Edge

      Doing!

      The Win10 version of Bing!

  8. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    FAIL

    Thought I'd give Win10 a look at in a VM just now...

    Oh FFS: "Insider Stats" > "0 quests completed", "0 quests completed on this device".

    Is this a fucking operating system (preview) or is it some retarded game aimed at tween / teenagers? Did I download and install the wrong ISO from Microsoft?

    Other than that, good chunks are similar to Win 8 with items helpfully hidden away, an odd mis-mash of touchscreen friendly and non-touchscreen friendly controls and stupid and annoying sounds and graphical fade transitions when they're not needed and don't enhance anything. In many places MS still seem to have forgotten some of the most basic aspects of good UI design, but it's not as bad as Win 8 where randomly thumbing the screen in the hope that something happened was the design principle of choice.

  9. elaar

    Is it just me that hates the big coloured boxes for each "app" (Tiles or whatever they call them now)?

    What's wrong with light coloured backgrounds and icons?

    1. cambsukguy

      No, it isn't just you - lots of people hate them, especially around here.

      Personally, I have a windows phone, I like seeing a headline on a tile instead of having to open a news app all the time. I also like seeing my next appointment on a tile without having to worry about reminders being timely.

      I also like seeing the basic weather on a tile, an indicator of unread emails, Whatsapp, email, Skype and Text messages outstanding etc. - all without having to slide for notifications and scrolling down a list (although that can be useful of course).

      I personally added the phase of the Moon and the Sunrise and Sunset times (courtesy of Skymap for both) to my start screen. Tiles are clever and can be double sided, take three sizes and exist in multiple forms at the same time from the same App. This is so far from a shitty, useless icon that comparison is pointless.

      So, enjoy being part of the club of Win3.1 fans and love that static screen. If you are more a fan of 'all different, interacting-differently, differently-shaped widgets' then obviously Android is your thing.

      Enjoy, just try not to belittle other peoples' completely reasonable choices.

      1. elaar

        At what point did I belittle others?

        I understand they have function, and from what you have said many people find them useful, and that's great. I also didn't state I wanted them to be static, but infact have that sort of colour scheme/style.

        So why do they have to look so ugly? To have that functionality, why do they have to be blocks of solid bright, high contrast colour?

        I don't see why you had to get so touchy about it.

      2. Richard Armstrong

        Thankfully someone at last with a bit of sense and perspective!

  10. Glenturret Single Malt

    Freeze-up problems

    I have W10 installed on an old Sony Viao laptop (about 5-6 years old) and I cannot use the Synaptic touchpad because as soon as I do whole thing freezes up. This is exactly the same as the previous build. The only solution found so far is to uninstall the touch pad and use a USB mouse instead.

    1. Glenturret Single Malt

      Re: Freeze-up problems

      Wow! Seems to be fixed.

  11. jmward007

    OneDrive - Progress?

    Just installed Build 10074, in the expectation that some kind of progress might have been made on resolving the issue of placeholder files in OneDrive, so as to keep data storage on a particular PC low while being able to look at the cloud file structure in File Manager. Unbelievably, considering how fundamental this now is to many people's requirements, Microsoft are still using Version 2013 of OneDrive (yes, from 2013, as used in Windows 7), not even the current Windows 8.1 version.

    With every new build, I get the impression of a poorly-managed development team that is finding it hard going just to back up a GUI design team mainly concerned with cosmetics and flashy bolt-on modules. The release of a build unable, even if temporarily, to run 32-bit binaries from the Start menu reinforces this suggestion of incompetence and maybe lack of understanding or documentation of the Windows 7 code on which I suspect all the subsequent relatively superficial stuff runs. What has been achieved so far really shouldn't have taken this long. Yes, it looks OK and seems to function reasonably well in general, but development since the release of Windows 8 has hardly been stellar, considering Microsoft's resources and supposed creative expertise. I'm not holding my breath for an amazing revelation in July. Just as well the upgrade will be free. I certainly wouldn't pay for it.

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