![\"Windows](\"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Windows_Logo-300x68.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Seeing that my book updates are drawing nigh, I felt the need to submit to Microsoft’s hegemony and download a copy of the Windows 10 beta.
\n
\nThe ordeal isn’t that horrific: You need to use your Microsoft account to sign up, which apparently I’d already done. So that part was painless.<\/p>\n
I remember many years back creating multiple Microsoft accounts simply to get into their beta testing cycle. It was an exercise in frustration, given how many times I had to sign up, sign up again, and then create a third bogus account because Microsoft wanted yet another registration.<\/p>\n
Such silliness reminds me of Microsoft efforts years ago to create one, universal password for all your accounts. Their attempt was so absurd and full of security holes that it was universally mocked. At least the project was mercifully killed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After signing in (once), I clicked on the link to download the ISO image.<\/p>\n
Well, actually, it wouldn’t let me click the link because I was on a Macintosh.<\/p>\n
A web page can divine which web browser you’re using and whether it’s running on OS X or Windows. (Or Linux, I suppose.) Microsoft told me that my computer didn’t support Windows 10, but I downloaded it anyway.<\/p>\n
The Windows 10 beta file is an ISO image. That type of file is a mountable storage system, which works like a special ZIP file or archive. You can copy the ISO file to removable media, but what you really need to do is to mount<\/em> the contents of the ISO file. Even in 2015, such a process isn’t that easy or obvious.<\/p>\n
The Mac has the Disk Utility program, which is why I downloaded the Windows 10 Beta ISO image to that computer. Using Disk Utility, I burned the ISO image to a DVD. It would be a bootable DVD, one I could use to start a PC and install Windows 10.<\/p>\n
After the DVD was created, I slid it into one of my most oldest and slowest PCs.<\/p>\n
Alas, that PC runs Windows Vista. The Windows 10 beta requires at least Windows 7 to install. That’s pretty dumb: I’m sure I could hack Vista and somehow cajole the beta to install on that system. It’s the hardware, after all, that’s important to run the operating system. The software? Bah.<\/p>\n
Being unable to sacrifice my oldest, slowest PC, I’m going to have to find another solution. I’m quite loathe to do so; I love all my PCs and I recognize that installing the beta means I’ll need to uninstall and reinstall a lot of software. More work. More pain.<\/p>\n
By the way, when I labeled the DVD, I wrote Win 10. Then it hit me: In binary, 10 equals 2. This is really Windows 2.<\/p>\n
Ha-ha<\/em>. Nerd humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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