Windows 10 IoT

Windows 10 IoT is the family name for the Windows 10 operating systems that run on a wide range of devices — from small intelligent devices to industry machinery.

 

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise is a full version of Windows 10 with advanced lockdown capabilities to enable industry specific device scenarios.

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise devices run powerful line-of-business applications and perform specialized functions in a secure, reliable, and streamlined way.

Windows 10 IoT Mobile Enterprise provides a secure device experience, instantaneous application access, and excellent battery life to enable a variety of mobile scenarios.

All Windows 10 apps are compatible with Windows 10 IoT Mobile and offer advanced lockdown features and multi-user support.

Windows 10 IoT Core is optimized for smaller and lower cost industry devices. It is designed to power devices like IoT gateways or sensors and that are designed to run a single application enabling specific industry scenarios and extending the flexibility of Windows 10 offerings to a yet wider range of specialized devices.

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Touch Screen Technology - Bringing the World to Our Fingertips

 

Brief History of Touch Screens

 

 

M.2 SSD Interface Starting to Gain Traction

We have reached the point where it is possible to buy high capacity SSDs at a reasonable price. Most are still bound by the bandwidth limitation imposed by the SATA 6Gb/s interface, with the top performing Samsung's SSD 850 Pro offering sequential read and write speeds of 550 to 520MB/s.

A solution to this problem was revealed midway through 2014 with Intel's Haswell refresh. The Z97 chipset provided support for the M.2 and SATA Express interfaces, both of which were designed to take mainstream SSD performance to the next level.

The Z97 chipset, which first introduced the M.2 slot on the desktop, only supports up to eight PCIe 2.0 lanes with the rest of the PCIe lanes being used by graphics cards. All this changed with Skylake as the Z170 can support twenty PCIe 3.0 lanes through the chipset, so putting aside four of those lanes for an M.2 socket is no longer an issue.

M.2 2280 Socket

In addition to the M2 socket, the Non-Volatile Memory Express or NVMe, is a new performance controller interface set to replace the aging AHCI standard. Being more than a decade old, AHCI was designed for hard drives and is therefore optimized for high latency rotating disks rather than low latency non-volatile storage.

AHCI isn't the best interface for PCIe SSDs and thus industry leaders including Intel, Samsung, and LSI have developed NVMe with advantages such as multiple queues, higher queue depths and lower latency as NVMe allows for a direct path from the storage to the CPU.

So far SATA Express has not been widely adopted and the uptake of the M.2 socket has been slow, but things are now starting to move forward.

Samsung was the first manufacturer to show what the M.2 socket was capable of with its OEM XP941 PCIe SSD. Using four PCI Express lanes the XP941 was good for read and write speeds of 1,170 to 950MB/s.

Earlier this year the XP941 was replaced with an even faster Samsung M.2 SSD, the SM951 which boasted read and write speeds of 2,150 to 1,500MB/s and was later upgraded to support the new NVMe command set, offering even greater performance.

The latest product from Samsung is the SSD 950 Pro. Made exclusively in the M.2 2280 form factor, the SSD 950 Pro comes in 256GB or 512GB capacities.

The 512GB model boasts a sequential read speed of 2.5GB/s and a write speed of 1.5GB/s making the 950 Pro reads superior than the SM951 NVMe. It's also more affordable at $350 for the 512GB model and is widely available unlike previous OEM-only drives.

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB 

The claimed sequential performance is staggering as the 512GB model boasts a read throughput of 2.5GB/s and a write speed of 1.5GB/s. The 256GB model is quite a bit slower but still blistering fast compared to any SATA SSD with a read speed of 2.2GB/s and a write speed of 900MB/s.

To achieve this kind of performance the 950 Pro series uses the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface which provides 32 Gbit/s or 3.93GB/s of bandwidth. The XP941 for example used the PCIe 2.0 x4 interface which limited it to a maximum throughput of 20Gbit/s (2GB/s) and this simply won't be enough for the 950 Pro.

Quantum Dot LCD Technology

 

The first thing to know is quantum-dot displays are a new type of LED-backlit LCD. The image is created just like it is on an standard LCD screen, but quantum-dot technology enhances the colour.

On an LCD, you have the backlight system, which is a bank of LEDs mounted at the edge of the screen or immediately behind it. The LED light is diffused, directed by a light-guide plate and then beamed through a polarized filter. The photons then hit a layer of liquid crystals that either block the light or allow it to pass through a second polarized filter.

Where a Nanosys quantum-dot film sheet (QDEF) fits into an LCD display.

How a Nanosys quantum-dot film sheet (QDEF) fits into an LCD display.

Before the light gets to that second polarizer, it passes through a layer of red, blue, and green (and sometimes yellow) colour filters. These are the sub-pixels. Electrical charges applied to the sub-pixels moderate the blend of coloured light visible on the other side. This light mixture creates the colour value of each pixel on the screen.

With a quantum-dot display, there are no major changes to the manufacturing process. The same design issues also still apply. You can have full-array backlit quantum-dot sets with local-dimming technology (Good for image uniformity and deeper blacks). There can be edge-lit quantum-dot sets with no local dimming (Thinner, but you may see light banding and greyer blacks). You can have 1080p quantum-dot sets, but you’re more likely to see only 4K quantum-dot sets because of the industry’s big push toward UltraHD/4K resolution.

The manufacturer of Quantum Dot Enhancement Film Nanosys, provides optical film components for LED driven LCD displays. Each sheet of QDEF contains trillions of tiny Quantum Dot Phosphors of different sizes. Larger dots emit longer wavelengths (red), while smaller dots emit shorter wavelengths (green).

During fabrication, the Quantum Dots are tuned to create better colour by changing their size to emit light at the correct wavelengths. Traditional light emitting materials such as crystal phosphors have a broad fixed spectrum. Quantum dots can convert light to nearly any colour in the visible spectrum, giving display designers the ability to tune and match the spectrum more accurately to colour filters while improving energy efficiency. Designed to replace the functionality of a diffuser sheet while actively converting colour, QDEF can be added to an LCD's film stack with little change in overall thickness or manufacturing process.

Differences in Quantum-Dot LCD Manufacture

In a quantum-dot display, the changes start with the colour of the backlight. The LEDs in a standard display emit white light, while those in a quantum-dot display emit blue light. Both types actually use blue LEDs, but they are coated with yellow phosphor in a standard display and therefore emit white light.

Quantum dots can be arranged along the entire back of the display in a film insert or in a “quantum rail” alongside an edge-lit system.

 

The blue LED light drives the blue hues of the picture, but red and green light is created by the quantum dots. The quantum dots are either arranged in a tube—a “quantum rail”—adjacent to the LEDs or in a sheet of film on top of the light-guide plate.

Blue is the highest-energy portion of the spectrum, much greater than red or green. The blue high energy light is refracted to a lower energy state to create the red and green colours.

If observed with a spectrometer, quantum-dot light gives a very sharp and narrow emission peak. Because of this, quantum dots have an advantage over a standard LCD display when it comes to vivid hues and colour gamut. In a standard LCD display, the white light produced by the LEDs has a wider spectrum, with a lot of light falling in a colour range unusable by the displays colour filters.

With a quantum-dot display, there is very little wasted light producing a display with brighter, more-saturated and more-accurate colours. 

Manufactures of Quantum Dot Technology

At this stage, three companies are the big players in the quantum-dot manufacture.

QD Vision specializes in glass-tube “edge-lit” components, and its systems can be found in TCL TVs and monitors from Philips and AOC.

Nanoco focuses on cadmium-free, film-based quantum dot systems. They have a licensing deal with Dow Chemical, and Dow is currently building a factory in South Korea to ramp up production of quantum-dot film. Nanoco’s cadmium-free technology will be found in LG’s quantum-dot TVs in 2015.

Nanosys is another film-based producer that has partnered with 3M on the film-sheet technology. It makes both cadmium-based and cadmium-free quantum dots. They are the company behind Amazon’s HDX 7 display and the Asus Zenbook NX500. Samsung licenses the cadmium-free quantum-dot tech in its new SUHD 4K sets from Nanosys. Nanosys is also working with Panasonic, Hisense, TCL, Changhong, and Skyworth.

Self-charging touch screens could replace LCD displays on smartphones

 

British scientists have invented a new type of touch screen material that requires very little power to illuminate, with vivid colours and high visibility in direct sunlight.

The team is already in talks with some big players in consumer electronics to see if their new material can replace current LCD touch screens over the next few years, www.sciencealert.com reported.

 

The researchers claimed that their ultra-thin display material can produce vivid colour displays at very high resolution, even in bright, direct sunlight.

Developed by Bodie Technologies, a University of Oxford spin-off company, the new technology could spare the user the difficulty of charging their smartphones daily.

"We can create an entire new market. You have to charge smartwatches every night, which is slowing adoption. But if you had a smartwatch or smart glass that didn't need much power, you could recharge it just once a week," one of the researchers, Peiman Hosseini, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

Last year, the researchers published a paper describing how a rigid or flexible display can be formed from microscopic 'stacks' of a material called GST and electrode layers.

Each stack is made of a single 7-nanometre-thick layer of GST inserted between two layers of a transparent electrode. This stack is fed a very low-energy electric current to produce colour images.

The researchers claimed that their ultra-thin display material can produce vivid colour displays at very high resolution, even in bright, direct sunlight.

"This makes them potentially useful for 'smart' glasses, foldable screens, windshield displays, and even synthetic retinas that mimic the abilities of photoreceptor cells in the human eye," the team was quoted as saying.

Raspberry Launches the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero

In a video showing off the tiny computer, Raspberry Pi boss Eben Upton spoke about how the high cost of machines, such as the Commodore Amiga, had been "a real barrier" to him learning about computers when he was a kid.

He said that the new product, dubbed the Raspberry Pi Zero, came about to make sure that cost doesn't get in the way of anyone interested in coding.

A few tens of thousand of the computers have been produced in Wales by the org, said Upton.

The device comes loaded with a Broadcom BCM2835 chip processor, including a 1GHz ARM11 core, that has been "up-clocked" making it 40 per cent faster than the Raspberry Pi 1.

It has 512MB RAM, an HDMI connector, SD card, two Micro USB ports and the same GPIO pin-out as Raspberry Pi 2, which was launched in February this year.

With a form factor measuring at just 65mm x 30mm x 5mm it is extremely compact and will no doubt form the basis of many IoT projects.

The computer runs applications such as Scratch and Minecraft and is available in the US and the UK from today.

"We really don't think we're going to get any cheaper than this at $5 per module” said Upton.

Credit-card PC now has a 7-inch pCAP display.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has given its seal of approval to a 7-inch touchscreen for its flagship microcomputer.

The makers of the hobbyist quad-core ARM-powered system said the $60 screen will allow display and touch functions to be accessed from software. Drivers for the screen are included with the latest version of Raspbian.  

The display sports an 800x400 resolution and connects to the Pi via an adapter board and DSI cable. The screen draws its power from the Pi's power supply.

Models supported include the Raspberry Pi Model A+, B+, and Pi 2 Revision B

Gordon Hollingworth, director of engineering for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, said in a blog post that delivery of the display was actually long overdue, pushed back from an original target of 2013.

"Two years ago, I began the process of looking for a simple, embeddable display for the Raspberry Pi. I honestly believed it would only take us six months from start to end, but there were a number of issues we met (and other products diverted our attention from the display – like Rev 2.1, B+, A+, and Pi 2). But we've finally got there," he said.

The touchscreen can be purchased for $60 (£48) from the RaspberryPi.org store

AMD Cards Will Support HDMI 2.0a And DisplayPort 1.3 Next Year

It’s good to get an insight into what can be expected over the next year when it comes to graphics hardware and AMD have recently shared some information about what to expect from their Radeon GPUs over the next 12 months.

R9 Fury pictured above

In a briefing to press at a technology summit for Radeon Technologies Group, a division formed this year for all AMD’s GPU assets, the company revealed that the latest DisplayPort and HDMI standards would be supported by AMD’s cards in 2016.

DisplayPort 1.2 currently only supports 3840×2160 at 60Hz, meaning that high refresh rates can only support 1080/1440p as a maximum resolution.

 

DisplayPort 1.3

The maximum resolution for DisplayPort 1.3 is boosted to 7680×4320 at 60Hz, but it can also support high refresh rates beyond 2K such as 4K at 120Hz. It is also possible to support 5K at 60Hz resolutions and 4K at 60Hz with higher colour depths than 8 bit per channel (necessary for a good HDR implementation).  

See the following frame from the presentation.

DisplayPort 1.3 will introduce a faster signalling mode for DisplayPort – High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3) – which in turn will allow DisplayPort 1.3 to offer 50% more bandwidth than the current DisplayPort 1.2 and HBR2, boosting DisplayPort’s bandwidth to 32.4 Gbps before overhead.

 

HDMI 2.0

HDMI 2.0 was launched in 2013 as an update to the HDMI standard, significantly increasing HDMI’s bandwidth to support 4Kp60 TVs, bringing it roughly on par with DisplayPort 1.2 in terms of total bandwidth. Along with the increase in bandwidth, HDMI 2.0/2.0a also introduced support for other new features in the HDMI specification such as the next-generation BT.2020 colour space, 4:2:0 chroma sampling and HDR video.

The fact that HDMI has only recently caught up to DisplayPort 1.2 in bandwidth just as DisplayPort 1.3 is about to be released is one of those consistent oddities in how the two standards are developed.

HDMI is not only the outright standard for TVs, but it’s the de facto standard for PC monitors as well; while you can find DisplayPort in many monitors, you would be hard pressed not to find HDMI. So as 4K monitors become increasingly cheap – and likely start dropping DisplayPort in the process – supporting HDMI 2.0 will be important for monitors just as much as it is for TVs.

FreeSync over HDMI is still proprietary technology at this stage since HDMI hasn’t gone with a common standard for variable refresh rates yet. So for FreeSync to be supported over HDMI, the monitors themselves will need to work with AMD’s special extensions, which in turns means the vendors have to work more closely alongside AMD to get everything going.

It might be the case that FreeSync over DisplayPort becomes more commonplace given that DisplayPort can support far more bandwidth at this stage. HDMI is still vastly more supported than DisplayPort as only 30% of monitors sold can support DisplayPort, with the remaining 70% only carrying ports for either HDMI or HDMI and DVI.

 

All CPU Charts 2015

 

Here are the new 2015 CPU Charts from Tom’s Hardware. Once again it compares all the latest and some older processors to give maximum comparison options.

 

This includes 46 processors with 2-8 cores utilizing either DDR3 or DDR4 memory and sockets 1366, 2011, 2011-v3, 1155, 1150, AM3+, FM1 and FM2. AMD FX, A10, A8 and A6 processors are included as well as older Phenom II and Athlon II models. Intel i3, i5, i3 and a Xeon processor represent the second, third and fourth Core generations.

 

All systems are benchmarked on Windows 8.1 Professional using as many as 18 individual benchmark solutions, resulting in 36 individual results per processor.

 

Below are three benchmarks using SiSoftware Sandra 2015.

 

ALU Performance (Dhrystone GIPS)

 

 

 

Floating Point Operations GFLOPS

 

 

Memory Bandwidth GB/s

Registry hack enables continued updates for Windows XP

[UPDATE: Microsoft response] A single registry setting makes Windows Update think your XP system is Windows XP POSReady, which will receive updates for another five years.

As reported by Wayne Williams at Betanews and confirmed by us, a simple registry hack to a Windows XP system tricks Windows Update into providing updates for it.

UPDATE: Six months later, find out how this hack is working so far .

Williams says that the hack, included just below, makes the system look like Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 which will continue to receive updated until April 9, 2019.

To apply the hack, create a text file with a .reg extension and the contents below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]
"Installed"=dword:00000001

Run it by double-clicking in Windows Explorer. After this is done, if you run Windows Update, it will find several updates, as illustrated in this screen capture:

WinXP.POSReady Image: ZDNet/CBS Interactive

The screen capture is from our own tests, which appear to work. Notice that two of the displayed updates are for WEPOS (Windows Embedded Point of Service) and Windows POSReady 2009. The others are for Windows Server 2003, which runs the same kernel and many other components as Windows XP.

This specific hack works only on 32-bit systems, but a 64-bit workaround is available at this page, which may have been Williams's source for the 32-bit hack.

[UPDATE:] Late Monday we received a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:

We recently became aware of a hack that purportedly aims to provide security updates to Windows XP customers. The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP. The best way for Windows XP customers to protect their systems is to upgrade to a more modern operating system, like Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Remove unwanted Windows 10 upgrade files from Windows 7 and Windows 8.x

Delete Keyboard Key Button

Microsoft has reportedly been downloading Windows 10 installation files on to computers running Windows 7 and 8.x, regardless of whether the users plan to upgrade to the new OS or not.

If you’re thinking of making the switch, and have requested an upgrade, that is fair enough. But if you’re more than happy to stick with your older OS for now, you might not be too happy about Microsoft cluttering up your hard drive with junk install files you don’t want. Fortunately, removing these files is easy enough.

Browse the root of your system drive, and you may find one or two sizable directories -- $Windows.~BT, and $Windows.~WS. These are hidden folders that contain the Windows install files (make sure Windows is set to show hidden files if the folders aren't visible). While you can just delete large folders, the best way to remove them and regain space is by using the built in Disk Cleanup tool.

Click Start and search for Disk Cleanup. Right-click the application that appears, and select Run as administrator. Select the drive you want to clean up -- this should be your system drive -- and click OK.

Click on Clean up system files, and select the drive again. In the list you’ll see Temporary Windows installation files. If this contains a sizable number of files, select it and click OK to remove the contents. This will clean out everything in the $Windows.~BT folder, but not in the $Windows.~WS directory (Disk Cleanup doesn’t target this particular folder at the moment). You can delete it manually though.

As for preventing the files being downloaded again, go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall or change a program. Click View installed updates on the left. Use the search box to locate the following updates: KB3035583, KB2952664, and KB3021917 (Windows 7) or KB3035583 and KB2976978 (Windows 8). Right-click each one and select Uninstall. When done, go to System and security in the Control Panel, and select Windows Update > Check for updates. Right-click each of the above updates in turn and select Hide update.

Hands-on with Windows 10: Upgrading, installing and activating in the real world

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Here's what you need to know before you upgrade, including details about activation and product keys. [Updated December 2, 2015]

[Latest update: December 2, 2015. This article has gone through multiple updates since its first publication in late 2014. The current revision is based on the most recent public release of Windows 10, version 1511, released in November 2015.]

This article covers the most common scenarios you're likely to encounter when installing and activating Windows 10.

What's the most recent Windows 10 version?

Microsoft released Windows 10 to the general public on July 29, 2015, following a nine-month-long preview. As part of its new "Windows as a Service" development schedule, the company released a major upgrade, version 1511, on November 12, 2015.

The build number of the July 2015 release is 10240. The build number of the November 2015 release is 10586.

To check which version of Windows 10 is installed on a device, open Settings, click System, then click About. If the November update is installed, you'll see version and build information, as shown here. (If you don't see these details, you are running the initial July 2015 release, build 10240.)

win10-version-info.jpg

As an alternative, you can click in the search box, type winver, and view results in a compact About Windows dialog box.

You can also view the build number (but not version information) using the System Information app, msinfo32. Look near the top of the System Summary page for the build number.

(If you're running a preview build as part of the Windows Insider program, you'll see an Insider Preview label after the Windows 10 edition, accompanies by a build number that's higher than the latest release version.)

When will Windows 10 users get the November update?

The November update is rolling out now via Windows Update. If you upgraded from a previous version of Windows to Windows 10 more than a month ago, you should see it right away.

windows10-v1511-via-wu.jpg

However, if your Windows 10 upgrade was completed less than 31 days ago, you won't be offered the November update until the full 31-day period has passed. (Microsoft says this is a precaution to ensure that you can roll back to your previous Windows version if you choose to do so.)

How long does a Windows 10 upgrade take?

That depends on the resources available to your device, The more raw CPU and (especially) disk storage speed you have available, the faster the upgrade will complete. On most systems, the process should require 1-2 hours and runs completely unattended.

Note that the November update is a full upgrade and will take about the same amount of time as an upgrade from an earlier version of Windows.

Is it possible to upgrade Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 using Windows Update?

Since the initial release date, Microsoft has delivered Windows 10 online via Windows Update to people who placed an online reservation. On systems that are eligible for the free Windows 10 upgrade where automatic updating is enabled, the Windows 10 installer files download automatically in the background.

This is what the installer looks like in Windows Update on a system running Windows 7.

win10-update-from-7.jpg

 

What's the best way to upgrade without waiting for Windows Update?

The latest Windows 10 version is available from the Get Windows 10 page in two formats.

Use the Upgrade Now button to immediately begin upgrading the current PC running Windows 7 or 8.1

win10-upgrade-now.jpg

If you plan to upgrade a different system (or multiple systems), scroll down the Get Windows 10 page and download the media creation tool. Running this tool allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive or download the Setup files in ISO format.

After running the Media Creation Tool, choose Create installation media for another PC. By default, the pre-selected options choose the version that matches the current PC. Clear the3 check box shown here if you want to choose a different version, such as downloading the x86 version on a 64-bit PC.

media-creation-tool-options.jpg

The download files contain both Home and Pro editions. The ISO file for an x86 (32 GB) edition is approximately 3 GB in size. The x64 (64-bit) edition is delivered as an ISO file approximately 4 GB in size.

What's the difference between Windows 10 and Windows 10 N?

The N editions of Windows lack media playback capabilities. Microsoft is required to offer these editions as part of a settlement in a European antitrust trial.

You don't want it. Nobody does.

Will the Windows 10 upgrade happen automatically?

Beginning in early 2016, Microsoft will offer the Windows 10 upgrade as a Recommended update. When that happens, anyone who has configured Windows Update to install Recommended updates automatically will see the Setup program run after the update finishes downloading.

The Setup program requires you to click to run it. It also requires acceptance of the Windows license agreement. Unless the owner of the device to be upgraded provides affirmative consent to both of these prompts, the upgrade will not continue

Will my PC run Windows 10?

Most PCs that can run Windows 8.1 will run Windows 10. The Windows setup program runs a compatibility check at the beginning of the process and will halt the upgrade and describe the problem if it finds a blocking issue.

Do I need a product key?

If you upgrade over a properly activated copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you do not need a product key. After the upgrade is complete, your new copy of Windows 10 will be activated with what Microsoft calls a "digital entitlement."

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that was previously upgraded and given a digital entitlement, you do not need to enter a product key. The system will be activated after the installation is complete.

If you are using bootable installation media to perform a clean install on a PC that has never been upgraded to Windows 10 and activated, you will need to enter a product key. Beginning with build 10586, you can enter a product key from a matching edition of Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1.

To check the activation status of a Windows 10 PC, open Settings, click Update & Security, then click Activation.

win10-activation-status.jpg

Should I upgrade or do a clean install?

That's up to you. Windows 10 supports upgrades over Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or later as well as clean installs. To do a clean install, you will need bootable media.

Can I set up Windows 10 as part of a dual- or multi-boot installation?

Yes, Windows 10 will add itself to the boot menu if you install it on a system that already has a previous version of Windows installed. An important note: When you use a conventional installation, you must install Windows 10 on a separate partition or physical drive; if you choose the same partition that contains an existing Windows version, you will lose access to that Windows installation. (Your files will be moved to the Windows.old folder.)

Is it possible to uninstall Windows 10?

Yes. For 30 days after the upgrade, you can roll back to your previous Windows version if you experience problems. The option to roll back is in Settings, on the Recovery tab under Update & Security.

Can I install Windows 10 in a virtual machine?

Yes, as long as the virtualization software is compatible. I have had no problems running test installations in several Hyper-V virtual machines on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

How do I install the November Update if Windows 10 is running on a VHD using native boot?

A quick explainer for those wondering what that question even means. Native boot is a feature that was introduced with Windows 7 and is documented in this Knowledge Base article. With native boot, you can install a business edition of Windows 7 or later in a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file. The setup instructions in this article appear to be valid with the Windows 10 Technical Preview, in my testing.

The advantage of installing on a VHD is that you don't have to mess with disk partitions. Windows mounts the VHD file when it starts and treats it as though it were a physical disk. Your main OS remains on the disk itself, allowing you to easily set up a dual-boot system to see how Windows 10 will run on your hardware without creating a mess.

Although it's not well documented, this type of installation has a significant limitation. As this TechNet article notes, "If you boot from a VHD, you cannot upgrade the Windows version in the VHD to a newer version."

The only alternative is cumbersome. The short version is this:

  1. Create a new Hyper-V virtual machine using the VHD file (make a copy, if possible).
  2. Boot the VM from the Windows 10 ISO (attached as a virtual DVD).
  3. Run startup repair on the virtual machine.
  4. Start the VM and upgrade to the new build.
  5. After the upgrade is complete, shut down the VM, copy the updated VHD file to the location specified in the boot menu.
  6. Restart the PC, choosing the VHD option from the boot menu.

Those instructions are obviously incomplete and assume you are familiar with some very advanced Windows tools and techniques: Hyper-V, the Windows multi-boot process, and mounting VHD files. If you're unsure about any of those topics, I suggest that you steer clear of native boot for now, or use it only in test environments where you're not concerned about the possibility of data loss.

If you're willing to accept that extra bit of hassle, follow the steps in this post: How to use a VHD to dual-boot Windows 8 on a Windows 7 PC.

How do I send feedback to Microsoft?

You'll see occasional pop-up prompts that ask questions about your experience with Windows 10. You can click those tiles to send comments, or use the Windows Feedback button on the new Start menu.

Open Source Alternatives to Photoshop