Windows Technical Preview (Windows 10) Bugs, Glitches and Good Things

[S.B.G]

I've installed Windows Technical Preview or, Windows 10, on my iMac with VMware Fusion 7. They don't have an option for it when setting up the VM, so I chose Windows 8.1 and the install went just fine.

I gave it 1 CPU, 3GB of RAM and 80GB of storage. It seems to run rather nicely so far with this set up.

I haven't had a chance to put it through its paces quite yet, but it's been rather stable thus far; no BSOD's.

A few things have locked up or not responded and they're mostly tied to the Metro tiles off the side of the Start Menu. For example I've had a time trying to load the News tile, Mail tile and the Store Tile. I'll click them and nothing will happen or it will show that it's loaded in the Taskbar, but it won't come up. I've had to end task on them and try again.

I also went to look for the widgets so I could put the clock, weather and calendar on the desktop, but can't find it. Was it removed?

Some apps that I've installed and are working okay are:

• Firefox
• Evernote
• A free game called World at Arms
• Nagarsoft PhraseExpander

Once in a while when launching the Start Menu or an app from there, there is a momentary lag before it shows up. Other times there is a lag when closing a window or app. The Feedback Assistant seems to do this a lot.

I like the Task View, but it seems rather clunky to use so far. Not as refined as Spaces or Mission Control on OS X.

This is also a Wiki thread so please feel free to add to this post with any likes, dislikes or bugs found.

 

[macenied]

Good thread.

I'm running the W10 technical preview native in a dedicated partition and using VMware Fusion 7 on top of OS X Mavericks.

I'm not that interested in the GUI ( which is fine, IMO ), more in functionality and compatibility thus I consider to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Windows 10 host ( native ):

+ The most recent version of BootCamp 5 is working with Windows 10 ( even on MBP's, which are not supported from Apple for Windows 8/8.1, if you install BootCamp "correctly" - I posted a thread about this )
+ MS Office 2010 is running well
+ VMware Workstation 10 on the host runs Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows XP nicely
- Current version of CCleaner will destroy the Windows 10 registry if you clean long enough
- Norton Ghost 15 ( a backup solution ) is no more working on Windows 8/8.1/10
- Most of the MBP's have no TPM chip, which causes additional steps ( work ) to configure Bitlocker encryption

Windows 10 guest ( OS X VMware Fusion 7 ):

+ no problems so far

I will update what I tested when I will be ready.

 

[S.B.G]

I still have yet to install Office 2013. I may do that later this evening.

Its a small thing, but I really miss having the clock, calendar and weather widget on the desktop like I have on my Windows 7 office PC. Looking in the MS App Store, I find apps for the clock, but not widgets and none of them are to my liking.

I do like the Task Manager, which I think is mostly the same as Windows 8, and have been keeping it up on the desktop to monitor its performance.

 

[MacTCE]

I've installed Office 2013 on my Windows 10 VM with no issue. I haven't starting testing yet, but everything seemed smooth for the few minutes I did spend with it.

 

[macenied]

- Acronis Backup does not work
- Macrium Reflect Backup does not work

( I guess we will see updates for these products soon )

 

[macenied]

+ Bitdefender Antivirus ( Free Edition ) is working
+ Virtual CD / DVD Support is embedded in the OS
+ File Explorer is no more estimating time to complete for copying directories and files - this is good because the estimates have always been wrong

- Time synchronization with Windows Time Server does not work most of the time ( bug )
- Some glitches by changing the desktop background ( bug )

 

[S.B.G]

Just installed Office 2013 and Visio 2013 this morning. I won't have time until later to really use them though.

 

[maflynn]

I've downloaded the ISO, but I've not had time to throw in a VM, though I'm looking forward to playing with it.

 

[S.B.G]

I've downloaded the ISO, but I've not had time to throw in a VM, though I'm looking forward to playing with it.

It's pretty decent actually. I'd venture to say that, in my experience, it's been more stable than the first couple of Yosemite Public Beta's I used.

I've mostly been using it in the mornings, like right now, for my pre-work, just waking up, doing various things routine.

Right now it's installing Windows Updates for all the Office applications I just installed.

 

[MacTCE]

I haven't had any issues running Office 2013 Professional in Windows 10, but I have noticed some issues with Fusion 7. Until I do some further digging I'm not sure if they're Windows or the VM related.

 

[S.B.G]

I haven't had any issues running Office 2013 Professional in Windows 10, but I have noticed some issues with Fusion 7. Until I do some further digging I'm not sure if they're Windows or the VM related.

What are you seeing with Fusion? Maybe I see it too.

 

[MacTCE]

I'm seeing a lot of random crashes and the need to complete reopen Fusion. I'm going to try it with my Windows 7 VM today and see if I get the same results.

 

[maflynn]

I tried loading this into VisualBox on my work machine, but VB crached and caused a BSOD - I don't think it was win10 but VB, given when it crashed. I'm rather hesitant to try this again on VB.

I may have to wait until I get home tonight to try on vmware.

 

[macenied]

@sandboxgeneral, maflynn, mactce, are you all on yosemite already ? i'm running the technical preview native using bootcamp and on os x 10.9.5 using fusion 7. no crashes.

 

[S.B.G]

I'm seeing a lot of random crashes and the need to complete reopen Fusion. I'm going to try it with my Windows 7 VM today and see if I get the same results.

Hmm.... okay. I haven't Vmware crash ever. I've used it with Yosemite, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 and its been flawless for me so far.

I tried loading this into VisualBox on my work machine, but VB crached and caused a BSOD - I don't think it was win10 but VB, given when it crashed. I'm rather hesitant to try this again on VB.

I may have to wait until I get home tonight to try on vmware.

When you loaded it into Virtual Box, did you choose to load it as Windows 8.1 64 bit or Windows Other 64 bit? This member said he chose Windows other 64 bit and it didn't work. But choosing Windows 8.1 64 bit got it running.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It runs about a bajillion times better on my mac, in a VM, than Windows 8 did.

It's also amazingly stable. I've come across the odd bugs here and there, but I'm actually using it for some light development and the worst it's done so far is lose some icon graphics - of course I couldn't get them back without a reinstall, but like I said, quite stable and no crashes at all.


In case anyone is wondering, it runs WAMP and Notepad++ very well.

 

[MacTCE]

@sandboxgeneral, maflynn, mactce, are you all on yosemite already ?

Yeah, Yosemite GM 2.

 

[S.B.G]

@sandboxgeneral, maflynn, mactce, are you all on yosemite already ? i'm running the technical preview native using bootcamp and on os x 10.9.5 using fusion 7. no crashes.

I have Yosemite PB 5 on an external SSD on my MacBook Pro, but am running no virtualization on it.

Vmware Fusion 7 is running on my iMac with Mavericks (10.9.5).

Since I bought VMW 7, I converted my Boot Camp partitions to VM's and then deleted them.

 

[S.B.G]

I'm not sure if this was a glitch with Windows 10 or VMware Fusion 7.

This morning my cable went out for a short while. The iMac is connected via Ethernet and subsequently Windows 10 is too. When the cable went out, the VM was running, I went to OS X and switched from Ethernet to WiFi where I connected to my AT&T mobile hotspot. Everything worked fine for the next hour or so.

Then the cable Internet came back and I went back to OS X, turned the WiFi off so that the Ethernet would be primary again.

When I went back to Windows, it bogged down to almost a stop and was unresponsive. I had task manager up and it was showing 100% CPU usage, though I wasn't on the tab to show what process was doing that.

I was eventually able to restart it, without forcing it. When it came back up, after a longer time than usual for restarting a VM, it was still just as unresponsive. This time I shut down Windows and then closed out VMW Fusion altogether. I reloaded VMW Fusion and started up Windows 10 again and all is well now.

I'm leaning toward an issue with Fusion on this when I switched network adapters the second time in OS X. OS X never had any issues through this.

 

[doynton]

I have been running x64 10 in a separate partition for a couple of weeks now - set up using rEFInd and gdisk not bootcamp. I'm using bootcamp 4 drivers (I have a 2007 MacBook Pro Core2Duo) which are the latest I can install and they work fine (as they did in x64 8.1 Pro previously).

It runs somewhat cooler than when I boot into Lion which is interesting.

The only software that I have found does not work is the latest version of virtualbox but versions up until 4.3.12 (May this year) work OK. For me though the changes are underwhelming compared to 8.1 - I don't care about the start button so in April I'll either restore back 8.1 or continue on 10 depending on the cost.

At 21gb it is also quite a lot bigger than 8.1 (13gb) - I've no idea why this would happen - perhaps it is just a beta thing.

 

[S.B.G]

I hadn't realized that 10 was that much bigger of an installation than previous versions.

I have to rebuild my 10 installation as I lost it in an OS X Yosemite install issue. Not a big deal, I didn't back it up on purpose because I didn't have anything I needed in it saved.

 

[macenied]

I have been running x64 10 in a separate partition for a couple of weeks now - set up using rEFInd and gdisk not bootcamp. I'm using bootcamp 4 drivers (I have a 2007 MacBook Pro Core2Duo) which are the latest I can install and they work fine (as they did in x64 8.1 Pro previously).

It runs somewhat cooler than when I boot into Lion which is interesting.

The only software that I have found does not work is the latest version of virtualbox but versions up until 4.3.12 (May this year) work OK. For me though the changes are underwhelming compared to 8.1 - I don't care about the start button so in April I'll either restore back 8.1 or continue on 10 depending on the cost.

At 21gb it is also quite a lot bigger than 8.1 (13gb) - I've no idea why this would happen - perhaps it is just a beta thing.

I installed the Technical Preview on a physical Partition ( #4 ) as well by giving up the OS X Recovery Partition. My "nice" plan failed when I did install Yosemite and it crashed this partition table. So I'm out of the game of a physical installation but I'm running it in a VM now.

So far I'm very happy with Windows 10. Some glitches but nothing serious, it's a beta release. Needing Windows and coming from Windows 7, I will most probably upgrade when it is available and skip 8/8.1.

As for a physical install, go for 60 GB or more.

 

[doynton]

I hadn't realized that 10 was that much bigger of an installation than previous versions.

I did an upgrade not a clean install it could be that. I'm getting a new mac next week - is Yosemite itself the issue everyone is having with bootcamp or the upgrade process?

 

[S.B.G]

I did an upgrade not a clean install it could be that. I'm getting a new mac next week - is Yosemite itself the issue everyone is having with bootcamp or the upgrade process?

I've seen some reports where Yosemite was messing with partition tables, but I don't know any of the details. I've since rid myself of Boot Camp installations and migrated them to VM's.

 

[Michael Goff]

New update looks to be bringing battery sense and data sense, maybe not active yet. Also, "action center" is there (also, not finished).