Windows 10: Could Windows 10 Be the Last Stand-Alone Windows Release?

Unless Microsoft makes changes to WU, that's not going to be a problem, as you can already pick and choose what updates to apply, and even uninstall them individually if the need/desire arises. I don't foresee forced updates. Win8.1 has at least another decade of update support, so if you don't like/want Win10, you don't have to use it. 8.1 will continue to update as usual, imo. Win7 still has another five years to go...*Wink

 

Someone else beat me to it...but "life of the device" has nothing to do with manufacturer's warranty...*Wink It's rather how long the manufacturer supports the device with software and/or driver updates. Generally speaking, the "life of the device" should therefore be of a longer duration than the system warranty. But not necessarily--for instance, Samsung just shipped a 1TB SSD with a *ten-year* standard factory warranty. In 3-4 years or even sooner it would not surprise me to see that device EOL'ed by the manufacturer, with no future updates, even though the devices sold to date remain well within their warranty periods. Ultimately, it will be Microsoft who decides what "lifetime of the device" is, and I imagine they'll do so on a case-by-case basis. Or, maybe they'll use some other measure, we'll see.

Remember the "buy your Win7 machine now, get a coupon good for free Win8" days? IMO, that sort of thing is now history. Everything is going to change, but so far, it all looks like it's dramatically slanted towards the consumer. Waltc or anyone else
I hardly even update my drivers. I don't tell everyone all my issues with my computer for the most part I can fix even if it means reinstalling windows 7. I had some major issue when I updated the drives using dell auto detect. I had newer driver already installed but dell detect couldn't detect that. That caused me to do another re-installation using Windows 7 re-install disk & dell drivers disk. Now with Macrium I don't have to worry about re-installing windows 7 again. Dell auto detect is not installed.

I am actually hoping Microsoft means the life of your device, when it quits working it will no longer be supported. Not when other parties decided my system is no longer good. I still have a win98se dual boot with windows xp sp3 that barely works it still could be fixed up.

 

Don't misunderstand..."life of the device" has nothing to do with how long you, personally continue to update your drivers... It rather is how long the manufacturer of the device continues to update and support the device with software and drivers. Whether you avail yourself of those driver updates is not a consideration--although my advice is that if you have devices which receive manufacturer support, like printers, scanners, 3d-cards, sound cards, etc., that you learn how to update your drivers in general if you want to get the most out of the hardware you buy. I'm simply guessing when I say I believe "supported life of the device" means "As long as the manufacturer continues to support the device with software and/or driver updates." If it means "Until the device chokes, sputters, and dies" then all the better...!.... I'm just trying to figure what Microsoft probably means by "supported life of the device." Can't leave off the word "supported," as it would seem that's rather a key word.

If it's a laptop, of course, then you pretty much have to go through the manufacturer of your laptop to receive driver updates because most laptops are slightly customized and often cannot use the generic drivers manufacturers create for their retail desktop components. But for external devices like printers & scanners, you can and should be going through the web site of the manufacturer of the device as opposed to the manufacturer of your laptop--unless they are one in the same, of course...

Bottom line is: it's good practice to learn who manufactures the components in your given system, and bookmark their respective web sites, so that from time to time you can check their sites for driver updates. You don't *have to* of course, but it's just good policy...

 

Waltc,

I did get what you meant.

However, we will have to wait for a clearer explanation of what the supported life of the device really means. Even your hard drive example wouldn't really work. The manufacture of the computer would have to EOL'ed the whole computer not individual parts. I still don't want any 3rd party telling me my computer is EOL'ed. Manufactures could EOL'ed the whole computer once the warranty expires or even sooner that is scary. Why would a Manufacture want to EOL a computer, the answer is to have people buy newer computers.


There is a way around that, if you build your own computer but not everyone can do that. I could up to a point but I am not that technical.

 

You talking to me? LOL...

You talking to me? *Huh Huh?? Sorry a bit late on this ... but those that read my rants at EF, may understand where I'm coming from *Wink

No more snide remarks, promise...

 

My take on it is. Once you upgrade said device to Windows 10, assuming it meets the hardware requirements, you can then run Windows 10 on that device as long as Windows 10 is supported. The manufacturer of the device is responsible for driver support. They are however not obligated to produce Windows 10 drivers for said device just because you want to update it to Windows 10. Neither is Microsoft. The free upgrade is not mandatory. If you decide to do it your the one that has to ensure your hardware will work. IMHO If you can't find all the required drivers, don't do it, or do it at your own risk. The OEM in most cases, will supply drivers for the OS installed at the factory. No more no less. If they latter ship the same device with a newer version of Windows, drivers for that latest version become available. If your PC shipped with Windows 7, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the OEM to produce new drivers for Windows 10. Also Microsoft gets its drivers from the manufacturers, they don't write them themselves. They just make what's submitted to them available through Windows Update or roll them into the install process.

 

Unless Microsoft makes changes to WU, that's not going to be a problem, as you can already pick and choose what updates to apply, and even uninstall them individually if the need/desire arises. I don't foresee forced updates. Win8.1 has at least another decade of update support, so if you don't like/want Win10, you don't have to use it. 8.1 will continue to update as usual, imo. Win7 still has another five years to go...*Wink I haven't found any way to pick and choose what updates gets installed in build 9926. WU installed a sound driver I didn't want. Everything is working OK, so I left it installed.

 

Unless Microsoft makes changes to WU, that's not going to be a problem, as you can already pick and choose what updates to apply, and even uninstall them individually if the need/desire arises. I don't foresee forced updates. Win8.1 has at least another decade of update support, so if you don't like/want Win10, you don't have to use it. 8.1 will continue to update as usual, imo. Win7 still has another five years to go...*Wink I haven't found any way to pick and choose what updates gets installed in build 9926. WU installed a sound driver I didn't want. Everything is working OK, so I left it installed.

 

Hi Edwin! Yes I did read that. I still think you should be able to select what drivers you want to install. Besides that I was replying to waltc's statement "Unless Microsoft makes changes to WU, that's not going to be a problem, as you can already pick and choose what updates to apply,"

 

Fair enough! I was frustrated with it myself cuz I knew Windows would install the whole 'boatload' of Nvidia stuff when I only wanted the graphics driver alone! No biggie! *Wink

 

Fair enough! I was frustrated with it myself cuz I knew Windows would install the whole 'boatload' of Nvidia stuff when I only wanted the graphics driver alone! No biggie! *Wink My thinking is, What happens if a driver causes problems. If you uninstall it WU will reinstall it.

 

Well, that's why its beta...

If that happens, you may just have to put it aside until the next release or a patch is released. You're not supposed to be using this as your day to day computer.

 

Well, that's why its beta...

If that happens, you may just have to put it aside until the next release or a patch is released. You're not supposed to be using this as your day to day computer. I use Windows 8.1 as my main OS so that's not a problem. I just started using Windows 10 again because of the bugs I was having in the last build. So far build 9926 has fixed the problems I was having in the last build.