Microsoft has published an interesting article today which lists the features which won't be available in Windows 10. These features do not have a proper replacement yet Microsoft thinks they are no longer worth including in Windows 10. This is not a complete or all-exhaustive list of what is removed in Windows 10. There are many small features deleted in Windows 10 but here is a Microsoft-provided list of what's going away.
- Windows Media Center will be removed when you upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8 Pro with Media Center, or Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center.
- Watching DVDs requires separate playback software. Windows Media Player won't be able to play DVDs.
- Windows 7 desktop gadgets will be removed as part of installing Windows 10.
- Windows 10 Home users will no longer have a choice to reject updates. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to delay updates.
- Classic Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts Games that come pre-installed on Windows 7 will be removed as part of installing the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft has released the Metro versions of "Microsoft Solitaire Collection" and "Microsoft Minesweeper."
- If you have Windows Live Essentials installed on your system, the OneDrive application is removed and replaced with the inbox version of OneDrive which no longer has smart files which showed all synchronized and non-sychronized files in Explorer.
- If you have a USB floppy drive, you will need to download the latest driver from Windows Update or from the manufacturer's website.
So what can you do? If you use a Media Centre app, look here: Windows Media Center for Windows 10 – here is a solution. For Windows games, you can download Windows 7 games for Windows 10 here: Get Windows 7 games for Windows 10. I think the worst change is definitely that Windows Updates are now forced on you in all editions. This behaviour was announced earlier and now confirmed. The rest of the removed features can be replaced by some third party apps. Will you miss these removed features?
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I really hate the forced updates, I don’t f***ing want Microsoft Removal Tool, guess I’ll just have to block ?:\*MRT.exe from being allowed to run then <_<
Sorry, I meant “Malicious Software Removal Tool”
Looks like full Aero Glass functionality isn‘t being revived too. Well, at least we have a 3rd party alternative.
I wonder whether people are going to use 3rd party program for Start menu too since it‘s quite popular to do so in Windows 8.
Maybe, not everyone likes that new menu.
Probably. It still doesn‘t feel as classic and simple as in Windows XP / 7. There are a lot of hardcore fans of old Windows versions who aren‘t keen on overcrowded design solutions MS is offering today.
I agree. Thankfully, Classic Shell offers us all types of The Start menu.
Yep, it‘s a shame that 3rd party program developers can make things better than Microsoft.
Yep. But it is not released/stable yet.
That’s one of the main thinks that’s put me off of upgrading to Windows 10 that we can no longer turn off automatic updating which sucks. Many times I get updates on Windows that I DON’T want to install. On Windows 7 and 8 I can just hide the update and set my PC to never check for updates but on Windows 10 you cannot. Which mean that we will be forced to have Windows Update ruing in the background slowing down our PC and be plagued by unwanted updates. One reason I WON’T be installing Windows 10.
So there isn‘t going to be a way to hide updates and download only specific ones? Do Enterprise users have such option?
Yeah, only the Enterprise edition of Windows 10 allows to select which updates to install.
I believe that’s right but you still cannot choose to disable updates because the “Never Check for Updates” option is removed from Windows 10. Which means you will have updates running in the background and slowing down your PC as well as unwanted updates installing,with no way to stop them.
At least with windows 8 you could do a lot of the same things you could with Windows 7 but most of those features have been removed from Windows 10. Also I see no point in upgrading to 10 when I have got Windows 7 and 8 which is everything I want.
Andrea.