In case it helps at all... I updated the Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit VM this afternoon -- FWIW the one that I'd already upgraded to win10 Home 64 -- and there were 3 upgrade related updates selected by Windows Update as important.
The 1st was KB 2952664:
This update helps Microsoft make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows.
2nd KB 3035583:
This update installs the Get Windows 10 app...
3rd KB 3083710, which to me looks like it has some win10 upgrade related files, though could be wrong. Before giving a long list of files it just says:
This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Microsoft gave arstechnica.com a statement that they were stopping the issue where the win10 upgrade was automatically selected in Windows Update *in error(?)*. I haven't gotten around to removing the related win7 updates on my wife's PC -- to be honest I forgot I hadn't already -- so Tuesday the win10 upgrade was right there, front, center, & selected.
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Dang it! That Win8 still won't install on my Apple/Android phone!!
That's where what Thurrott calls Microsoft's Plan B comes in. Many of their touch screen apps are released or updated on iOS &/or Android before the Windows version. Microsoft already has the code to run Android apps -- they almost have enough to release an Android cell phone without anything Google but the OS. Per neowin.com, in a much publicized article in "The Australian":
Last week in Seattle, The Australian’s Chris Griffith asked the company’s Chief Experience Officer if Microsoft would consider creating its own Android distribution. “We’ll go wherever our customers are,” replied Julie Larson-Green. The intriguing answer adds an interesting dimension to Microsoft’s recent Android strategy, which remains difficult to pin down.
In separate articles about Windows & Android, more & more writers, bloggers, &/or journalists are mentioning Microsoft maybe releasing an Android cell phone in the future. After all, mobile Office apps are one thing, tying into other Microsoft products & services, but start screen apps?
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This afternoon Microsoft released the ISOs for the latest insider build.
microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewiso
What they're saying on the download page doesn't make sense... A new feature of this latest build is you can install fresh using a win7/8 key [as in my original post]. You can turn the .esd file from updating the build via Windows Update into an ISO, but downloading an ISO would presumably be the way you'd go. Yet the page says:
You will need to install the Windows 10 Insider Preview build on a device that has been previously activated with Windows 10 or with a Windows 10 product key.
Then in a series of highlighted notes:
. If you want to stop using Windows 10 Insider Preview and return to your previous version of Windows, you'll need to reinstall your previous version from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC—typically a DVD. If you don't have recovery media, you might be able to create recovery media from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. You'll need to do this before you upgrade. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer's website for more info.
. After you install Windows 10 Insider Preview, you won’t be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows.
Seems that would Mainly apply if you were upgrading 7/8 -> 10. If you were on 10 already, up till now you just flip the switch in win10, saying you're leaving the insider program with that current installation. After all, even though the Insider builds are beta software, with the exception of stuff they tell you is broken beforehand [e.g. this last build won't work on cheap tablets], the newer builds are more stable & less troublesome than the RTM.
Maybe it's boilerplate? Maybe it's intended as a wink & nod to folks who want to install an insider build without upgrading a copy of 7/8? Who knows?...
