Windows 10 Newest Build 9926

The newest Windows 10 preview is available for download. I downloaded it last night and installed it this morning. This build, build 9926, is a huge download and a huge improvement to the OS as well. I’ll list the major enhancements from the build 9879 that was first offered to us Win 10 Quinea Pigs in the bottom of this post.

Last weekend I posted on this blog how to go about installing Windows 10 Technical Preview running in a virtual machine on your PC or Mac. You can read that post by scrolling down to the post directly below this one or if you arrived here via a search engine you can get to that page by clinking here.

Last week’s post showed a screenshot of the Windows 10 build 9879 Start Menu. Below is a screenshot of the Start Menu in the new 9926 build.

Build 9879 Start Menu

Build 9922 Start Menu

What’s New In the Latest Windows Ten Build

Say “Hey Cortana” To Cortana

Cortana Windows 10 Personal Assistant

Cortana is to Microsoft Windows what Siri is to Apple iOS devices (iPhones, iPods and iPads) and Google Now is to Android phones and tablets. Just like Siri or Google Now you can speak to Cortana (normally in the form of a question) and she will answer you in a human sounding voice over the speakers of the machine or device you’re using.

When you first open Cortana in Windows Ten, she’ll ask you what your name is. I told her my name is Jay. She repeated my name and asked me if she was pronouncing it correctly. She’s so polite.

Is Cortana as good a Personal Assistant as Siri or Google Now? I don’t have an opinion. What I am impressed with is that Microsoft is rolling this functionality out onto PC’s. Cortana has been up and running for a good while on Windows phones but with Windows 10 she’s coming to desktop computers in the very near future as well.

Oh and you can get in the settings and configure her to respond when you say “Hey Cortana”.

Continuum

Continuum may be the beginning of Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Handoff. Apple’s Handoff allows you to begin a project large or small on your iPhone in any Apple app and then take up where you left off on any other iOS or OS X device. So far Continuum is not linking phones and PCs to the degree that Apple’s Handoff does.

Right now Continuum is offering the ability to switch between table and PC mode, depending on which Microsoft device you’re using. But MS will probably roll out more features for Continuum in the future.

Full Page Start Menu

I thought the Win 10 9879 build Start Menu looked pretty cool but the new 9926 build Start Menu looks even better. Scroll back up to the two screenshots and judge for yourself.

OneDrive

You probably have a Microsoft OneDrive account. You may remember that it was called SkyDrive when it first came out back in 2007. If you don’t have a Microsoft OneDrive account, Windows 10 will nag you about setting one up every time you log on. It’s obvious that Microsoft is aiming to make OneDrive their answer to Apple’s iCloud. But OneDrive has a long way to go to catch up with iCloud.

New Windows Store App

If you click to make larger the new Start Menu image above, you’ll see the new Store App prominently displayed in the upper right-hand corner. And yep, the Store is open for business on Windows 10.

Xbox App

By enlarging that picture you’ll also notice the new the tile that will open the new Xbox App. If you have Xbox you can register in this app to play games on it I suppose.

Add a Desktop

Windows 10 Gains Multiple Desktops

One of the things I love about Macs is the ability to switch between Desktops. Now Windows 10 allows this as well. There are many thing you can’t yet do with desktops on Windows 10 that you can on a Mac or Linux. For instance you can’t change the wallpaper for individual desktops. But just having more than one workplace is a great leap forward.

So there’s what Windows 10 is looking like so far. I’ll keep you posted on further developments when the next Windows 10 build arrives in a month or so.

If you found any of this information idiotic or confusing, yell at me in the comments.

How to Run Windows 10 in a Virtual Machine on Your Mac or PC

Last Wednesday (January 21, 2015) Microsoft announced the latest build (9879) for Windows 10 which is not even in beta yet but is still in Technical Preview stage. A couple hours ago I installed this newest version of Windows 10 on my Mac. It looks great and so far is working fine. Below is a picture of it running on my Mac’s Desktop.

If you’d like to get Windows 10 Technical Preview for yourself, I’ve got detailed instructions for installing it below. There are about four ways you can go about getting Windows 10. You can install it on an old PC you no longer use because you DO NOT want to install it on your every day Windows machine. Once you have installed Windows 10 to over-write your OS, you have crossed the Rubicon and there’s no going back. A far better way would be to partition your drive and install Windows 10 there. An even better way would be to install Windows 10 on an 8 gig USB drive and run it from there. But by far the best way to get Windows 10 for yourself is to run it as a Virtual Machine. What could be more geeky! And besides that’s easiest and safest way to do it.

As you can see by the above screenshot, I used VirtualBox as the virtual machine I used to install Windows 10 on my Mac. You can use it on a PC as well. It’s free and it’s easy to use. Just go to Oracle’s website and install VirtualBox and I’ll wait here until you get back.

Back so Soon! Now you need a copy of the proper Windows 10 Technical Preview IOS file. You can get one at Microsoft’s official Windows Insider Program page by signing up to be an Insider. If your computer has a 64 bit processor, you’ll want to get the 64 bit version of the IOS file. If your computer has a 32 bit processor then get the 32 bit file.

Oh by the way, that Windows 10 Technical Preview IOS file is huge – about 4 gigs. It will take awhile. Well after all, you’re downloading a full-blown Windows OS. Once you’ve finished downloading the Windows 10 Technical Preview IOS file, move it to your Desktop so it will be easy to find.

How to Install Windows 10 as a Virtual Machine

Let’s do this!

Let’s assume you have a free version of VirtualBox and the proper Windows 10 IOS file. The only other thing you’re going to need is your Microsoft account user name and password.

Open VirtualBox and click the New icon in the toolbar. In the window that slides down, type “Windows 10” in the Name box and be sure to click to choose “Windows 8.1 (64 bit)” in the Version box. If you downloaded the 32 bit version of the Windows 10 ISO then choose “Windows 8.1 (32 bit)”. Now click Continue.

Now just follow the VirtualBox wizard and go along with the default settings pretty much. Memory size – you’ll want at least 2048 MB. For space size you’ll be offered Custom or Fixed so choose Fixed because it’s faster and far simpler.

Once you’ve clicked though the wizard, you should see a progress bar as VirtualBox creates the virtual machine that your copy of Windows 10 Technical Preview will run in. If you don’t see a progress bar, you’ve done something wrong so start over and create another virtual machine choosing a different name like maybe WindowsTen.

Once the progress bar has run its course, your VM will have been created and you should see it highlighted in the VirtualBox side panel. Now click the Start button in the VirtualBox toolbar and you’ll see a box asking you to “Select start-up disk” so click the little folder icon next to the pull down and navigate to the IOS file on your desktop click it once to select it and click Open and away we go!

Windows will start to load.

As I was watching Windows 10 load on my Mac earlier today I was thinking “I’m hosed because Windows is going to ask me for a product key and I ain’t got one”. But as it turns out I didn’t need one. Once I typed in my Microsoft user name and password, the Windows setup wizard informed me that a security code had been sent to the email address associated with my account and that I should get that and type or paste that number into the box provided. I did that and entered it and Windows 10 finished installing without a hitch.

Running Windows 10 on a Mac is a hoot. You can use your mouse and keyboard without any configuration required. It looks good and feels very responsive. I’ll be checking it out for the next few days and weeks and I’ll be on the lookout for updates from Microsoft. And if I find some interesting stuff I’ll let you know about it.

If you found any of this information idiotic or confusing, yell at me in the comments.

NostraDumbass Predicts the Future

I’ve never really been very good at predicting the future but then history has shown us that neither has anyone else ever been especially good at it including Nostradamus Most of whose writings dealt with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders and droughts. To sum up Nostradamus: “A disaster now and then? Yeah, you’re gonna have that.”

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Just ask the NSA and the CIA who in Dec. 2000, several months before the 9/11 attacks, collectively issued an 85-page document predicting what the world would look like in 2015. It’s not laughable but it’s not all that accurate either.

So if Nostradamus, Yogi Berra, the NSA and the CIA can’t accurately foresee the future what makes me think I, NostraDumbass, can? Well, I don’t get out much and I read a lot.

Tech Stuff

The Apple Watch

I predict that Apple will introduce the Apple Watch early this year and that people in the States will be able to buy one before Valentine’s Day February 14th. And I predict that they will be called Apple Watches and not iWatches. And I predict they will fail miserably.

The cheapest one will be around $350 but pricer ones will be available too. Apple is rumored to be making gold watches that will sell for 4 to 5 thousand dollars. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber who has friends high in Apples’s software engineering departments claims Apple intends to market some of its gold watches for as much as $10,000.

The Apple watches are every bit as attractive as you would expect pieces of jewelry to be that’s made by Apple. You can see all twenty-two models of Apple watches here including the Mickey Mouse model and some gold ones as well.

Will Brad Pitt and and the rest of the coolest people on the planet wear this? Not unless Apple pays them to and then not for long. Would Steve Jobs have worn one? Well, he might have worn the Mickey Mouse one.

As gorgeous as these watches are and as cleverly as they no doubt will be designed, I predict they will be a bust.

Apple Pay

I predict that Apple Pay will, by the end of 2015, be deemed an unmitigated success. Just yesterday New York City’s Department of Finance announced it would begin allowing people to pay parking tickets with Apple Pay.

Apple says it has partnerships with 220,000 stores. A partial list includes Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Duane Reade, McDonald’s, Sephora, Petco, Panera Bread, Staples, Nike, Walgreens, Subway, Whole Foods and of course Apple’s own online Apple Store. Chain grocers Winn-Dixie and Albertsons just last week came onboard and Disney World signs up next week.

Apple Pay will only work with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and the yet to be released Apple Watch (see above). It supports Master Card, Visa and American Express issued by almost all major American Banks.

For now Apple Pay is only available in the US but it is set to launch in the UK in the first quarter of this year.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi is a Chinese electronics company that is very soon to be a major player in the smartphone, tablet, PC and TV market in the US, UK and the rest of the Western world.

Although you may have never heard of them, Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone maker in the world followed by Lenovo and LG at fourth and fifth place respectively. Samsung remains in first place world-wide despite declining shipment volume, followed by Apple in second place.

While Apple sells more smartphones and tablets in the US by far than does Samsung, both Apple and Samsung better be looking over their shoulders at Xiaomi.

In the very near future, Xiaomi will begin selling a smartphone here in the States that uses a variation of Android that is far more popular in Asia than any other Android phone.

I predict that Samsung will lose significant market share to Xiaomi in 2015. And I further predict that by the end of 2015 no one in America will wondering how to pronounce Xiaomi. By the way, it sounds like “SHOW me” if you pronounce the s in show as a z.

Move Over iMessage, Snapchat, WhatsApp et. al.

I predict that by the end of 2015 we will all be as familiar with Line a free to use Android and iPhone messaging and video calling app from Japan and WeChat, a messing service from Tencent in China as we are today with WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Bitcoin

2014 was a horrible year for Bitcoin. And I predict that 2015 won’t be much better for the beleaguered Internet currency. I don’t mean to suggest that Bitcoin is going to fade away and die in 2015. After all NY City is about to allow traffic violators to pay their fines with both Apple Pay and Bitcoins and a host of other reputable merchants have recently agreed to exchange their dollars and pounds for Bitcoins.

I predict that Bitcoin will become a viable currency but it won’t happen in 2015.

In November of 2013 Bitcoin soared to $1,100 but the price of a Bitcoin opened on the first day of last year at $770 and today one Bitcoin is worth $316.37.

Until the volatility of this currency is stabilized by attaching it to a real-world commodity it is worthless as an investment.

I predict that one year from today Bitcoin will be trading at or about the same price it is today.

You Will Be Hacked

I predict that Sony’d will become a part of the English language lexicon. To Be Sony’d will mean to be hacked.

And I predict that dozens of major companies will have their servers and networks compromised in 2015. Hackers will penetrate even the most supposedly secure government and private enterprise computer networks.

I recently wrote about using Wi-Fi to grab files from my PC to my Mac. I could do this because they share the same Wi-Fi network. The Internet is synonymous to Wi-Fi. If you’re on-line on your phone or computer then you’re on this giant world-wide network and you could be Sony’d at any time.

Politics

I predict that by the end of 2015 the Republican Party Platform Committee will officially repudiate it’s stance against human involvement in Climate Change.

I predict that by the end of 2015 the Republican Party will officially repudiate its opposition to marriage equality.

I predict that by the end of this new year the leaders of the Republican Party will begin to show some compassion for undocumented workers contributing to our robustly growing economy.

NostraDumbass

So there are my, NostraDumbass’, fearless Tech and Political predictions for 2015. We’ll revisit this page a year from now and see how I did.