To answer the question in post 27, probably not a bad idea to remove older apps, as Microsoft may not let ya upgrade if they are still kept on the machine. You can hopefully put them back on the machine once win 10 is fully installed.

hi,
the reason you didn't get a notification is the fact that people now are hammering microsoft's servers for the update.  As a result, microsoft is rolling out the operating system in waves.

OK, I'll wait, I assume I have up to a year to get it.

I didn't plan to upgrade immediately anyway, I just want to have it available for the next time I have to reinstall Windows, that was when I planned to upgrade in the first place.

As near as I can tell, there isn't anything new that's a must have right now in it , so I can wait.

As long as this copy of Windows 7 works, I'll keep using it.

I will attempt to shed light on what I can here, as it seems many of you are concerned and have problems, not without good reason in most cases.

The first question I will answer is the matter of "will I lose my old programs/data/etc".  The answer to that is if you upgrade, without doing a clean install, you shouldn't.  The installer will prompt you before the main process begins (after it makes sure everything is ready/compatible), saying "a few things need your attention" in a section of that dialogue.  There you will find, if no apps are incompatible, an install, refresh, back and maybe some other buttons that I can't remember off the top of my head.  If you have an app such as older versions of Jaws, they are considered incompatible by the installer (newer versions will not be affected if you remove these), the install button won't display.  instead, you'll be able to uninstall right from within the dialogue box itself and carry on, whether that's with the uninstallation of further apps or the rest of the installation of the new OS.

The second point I'd like to address is the idea that Microsoft don't give any thought to accessibility.  I would say otherwise, simply due to the fact that you can give feedback to Microsoft and interact with the rest of the community, via the windows 10 feedback app.  I haven't tried it myself in the public launch version of the OS, but when I got a chance to test it (which, granted, was a while ago during the preview builds), it seemed accessible, if a little slow.

The third point I feel needs addressing is that of using narrator in the installation.  After the aforementioned compatibility dialogue, once you press install and wait a while for the OS to physically be installed onto the drive, you can press windows u to bring up the ease of access centre that will speak and then start narrator from there.  You can then read all the controls in the setup dialogue.  The one thing I will alert you of now is that when you finish this set up process, the installer will keep telling you that it is "preparing windows" and you are told "do not turn off your PC".  Once that's done, NVDA should load and you should be good to go.

One final thing for now, the compatibility assistant will say that NVDA is not compatible when in fact it'll work under windows 10 with pretty much the same accessibility as before, other than a one addon that I've found not to work which is the virtualisation addon.  This might be fixable, I can't say for sure but someone somewhere will probably find a way round it.

If I think of anything else that needs to be noted, I'll post it here.

wow, a spam bot that actually tryes to fit in with the topic we're talking about? never seen this before. but anyway, spammy spam spam!

Hi.

I just want to clear up something about narator.

Personally I don't like mac, I've tried it and prefer windows. I will be buying a windows laptop as soon as I can and going back to that system on a laptop that is ment for it, instead of a mac that runs windows. As for narator; I haven't used it and will try it when i install windows 10. I only said what I thought you could do from a podcast I heard. I woulnd't say microsoft don't care, i'd say they're trying and honestly narator is tuns better than it used to be. No, it's no NVDA, b but you can download NVDA using it and then run the settup program with no problem, that's good enough for me.

Just to be fair folks, I wish more podcasts on Windows Narrator was done, since the only podcast done on it for Windows 10, was on Main Menu, and was, um, shall we say, poor and rushed?
#JustSaying

Hey guys

Just wanted to answer some things if I could.

Someone was wondering if Sapi could use Cortana's voice?  Sadly the answer is no, all of the speech is prerecorded by the actress who played the original Cortana battle AI for Master Chief , in the Halo series video games for the Xbox, owned by Microsoft.

Also, I would generally suggest that those who aren't prepared to fix a possible partly junked computer, and or deal with some accessibility problems out of the box should wait until early September to upgrade, since by then the early bugs should be ironed out, the initial role out process will be complete so that you can get your upgrade any time and not have to worry about slow Microsoft download servers, the support for all screen readers will hopefully be improved, but especially NVDA which should be on it's next stable, or at least RC release by then so that you don't have to use the unstable snapshot builds to get good compatibility, software and firmware developers will have more stable builds of there drivers and applications ready  for this new Windows build, and education pricing for windows 10 signature laptops from the Microsoft store will be at it's lowest if you are a student looking for a discount.

Those who are worried about the time it takes to get up and running from scratch with the basics gone after an upgrade or clean install should check out
http://www.ninite.com
Select what you want by using the headings and check box's, hit the get installer button, download the installer, and run it from your computer when connected to the internet.

This is a virus free site used by millions, and the installers act as future updaters as well, just keep the files on your hard drive and run them again now and then to update.

Hi.

here is another very useful thing to know; when you set an alarm and it goes off, everything else will be loward, so your screen reader will be loward and any music slash video you're listening to. The way to stop the alarm and have everything back to normal is simple: press windows A. this will bring up the action center window and stop the alarm. I do like the fact you can set an alarm on your computer and now everyone knows how to stop it.

I hope this tip helps someone.

I think MS would never improve that much for narrator.