# Windows 10 Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555 "2015-07-18T22:57:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/1 "2015-07-18T22:57:37Z")
1. Does it have an emulator, that enables you to use older software. 2. Can you opt out of storing your data off-site? I keep my data on my own system, not cloud based. ( **Do not lecture me about the Cloud!** Thank you.) ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/2 "2015-07-18T23:26:09Z")
It doesn’t come with an emulator or anything like the Windows XP virtual machine you could get with Windows 7, but I just tried running the Windows 95 game **Blade Runner** on Windows 10 and it worked normally, so it should be capable of running older software. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/3 "2015-07-19T04:16:10Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > 1. Can you opt out of storing your data off-site? I keep my data on my own system, not cloud based. ( **Do not lecture me about the Cloud!** Thank you.) It’s more accurate to say you must opt-in to store any data in the cloud. Windows 10 includes OneDrive, which only stores files that you put there. It’s no different from Dropbox or Google Drive. You don’t even have to activate OneDrive. All of your applications, settings, etc. are local. No different from any other version of Windows. Were you under the impression that Windows 10 had connectivity requirements different from Windows 7 or XP? (I think XP was the first to require activation.) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/4 "2015-07-19T11:12:46Z")
> [@Jake\_Jones](#): > > It’s more accurate to say you must opt-in to store any data in the cloud. Windows 10 includes OneDrive, which only stores files that you put there. It’s no different from Dropbox or Google Drive. You don’t even have to activate OneDrive. All of your applications, settings, etc. are local. No different from any other version of Windows. > > Were you under the impression that Windows 10 had connectivity requirements different from Windows 7 or XP? (I think XP was the first to require activation.) And if I want to lock myself out of Onedrive? Can I? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/5 "2015-07-19T11:21:34Z")
> [@ricksummon](#): > > It doesn’t come with an emulator or anything like the Windows XP virtual machine you could get with Windows 7, but I just tried running the Windows 95 game **Blade Runner** on Windows 10 and it worked normally, so it should be capable of running older software. Does anybody know if you can run Civilization 2 on Win 10? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/6 "2015-07-19T11:38:22Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > And if I want to lock myself out of Onedrive? > Can I? What do you mean by “lock myself out”? I’m using Windows 7, and when I “Save as…” Onedrive is one of the options, but I simply never choose it. Are you thinking that somehow the operating system forces you to save to the cloud or saves there automatically? It doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/7 "2015-07-19T11:43:15Z")
So what’s the latest and greatest information on the free upgrade for us W8.1 users to W10? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/8 "2015-07-19T12:42:38Z")
With win8, it was possible (although a little circuitous) to install without having a microsoft account. Assuming the same is possible with win10 (didn’t try it myself when I trialled it), then it wont use onedrive (it might appear as a node in the file system, but won’t go anywhere) ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/9 "2015-07-19T13:05:46Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > And if I want to lock myself out of Onedrive? > Can I? This is a really strange question. Can you uninstall OneDrive? There are ways to uninstall it with third party apps, but in later preview releases and in the final release code (just updated this morning on my computer) there is no way to uninstall OneDrive natively from within Windows 10. If you don’t activate it, it’s invisible except in the “all apps” menu. If you do activate it, as **ThelmaLou** says, it’s just a virtual storage drive on your computer. Nothing defaults to storage on OneDrive. If you don’t actively, um, activate OneDrive, it doesn’t exist for you. Microsoft isn’t trying to force you to store your data in the cloud. OneDrive is a feature, not a nefarious tool. There are no aspects of Windows 10 that force you or even default to storing any of your data in the cloud. ---
**Author:** ![AdamF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/adamf/32/6246_2.png) [@AdamF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AdamF)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/10 "2015-07-19T17:48:14Z")
> [@Jake\_Jones](#): > > There are no aspects of Windows 10 that force you or even default to storing any of your data in the cloud. That is not precisely true. If you login into Win10 using your Microsoft account, Onedrive is automatically enabled and cannot be easily removed. Win10 will store some of your settings, list of apps installed from Windows Store, etc. in the cloud under your Microsoft account. Office 2013 and Office 365 will also try to save everything into Onedrive by default (this can be changed in settings). If you login using a local account, none of the above applies. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/11 "2015-07-19T18:04:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > So what’s the latest and greatest information on the free upgrade for us W8.1 users to W10? Grab the Technical Preview. I think it is stable enough now, though you will have to share error codes with MS, which is a good thing IMHO. Plus, when the final release comes out you have contributed to humanity and people bitching about Vista and XP and so forth. I am impressed by this current development team. MS seems to respond and is getting it right although I can’t answer to the enterprise market as I have exited that field some time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/12 "2015-07-19T18:28:25Z")
I disabled Skydrive/Onedrive on my Win 8.1 machine by using the method in the link. I’ve signed up for Win 10 and will disable it when I install it, hopefully. [http://www.howtogeek.com/167058/how-to-disable-skydrive-integration-in-windows-8.1/](http://www.howtogeek.com/167058/how-to-disable-skydrive-integration-in-windows-8.1/) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/13 "2015-07-19T18:29:42Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#): > > Grab the Technical Preview. Downloads and activations of builds are [suspended](http://betanews.com/2015/07/13/microsoft-suspends-availability-of-windows-10-builds/) pending the official release. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/14 "2015-07-19T20:07:16Z")
> [@AdamF](#): > > That is not precisely true. If you login into Win10 using your Microsoft account, Onedrive is automatically enabled and cannot be easily removed. Win10 will store some of your settings, list of apps installed from Windows Store, etc. in the cloud under your Microsoft account. Office 2013 and Office 365 will also try to save everything into Onedrive by default (this can be changed in settings). > > If you login using a local account, none of the above applies. I’ve been running Windows 10 on a Microsoft account that I created for the sole purpose of running the preview for about 8 weeks now and have had no need to activate OneDrive. Also, I can’t even fathom the possibility that the OP of this thread has a Microsoft account. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/15 "2015-07-19T22:04:00Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Downloads and activations of builds are [suspended](http://betanews.com/2015/07/13/microsoft-suspends-availability-of-windows-10-builds/) pending the official release. Thanks for the update. I knew that was coming, but didn’t know when. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/16 "2015-07-20T17:18:27Z")
> [@Jake\_Jones](#): > > I’ve been running Windows 10 on a Microsoft account that I created for the sole purpose of running the preview for about 8 weeks now and have had no need to activate OneDrive. Also, I can’t even fathom the possibility that the OP of this thread has a Microsoft account. How do you know? Is there a prompt that shows up that asks you to activate OneDrive? Does it not exist in the file system? Have you used the apps that default to OneDrive if OneDrive is activated, and found they defaulted to saving in locally instead? I could easily see someone simply being unaware that OneDrive is active if Microsoft doens’t make a big deal about it. And, last I heard, Microsoft tries to force you to get a Microsoft account when you install Windows 8.1. At least, one Doper claimed they couldn’t figure out how to avoid upgrading to a Microsoft account. Is this no longer true in Windows 10? Do they still, like in Windows 8, give you a link that will let you not install one? And how crippled are you without a Microsoft account? Can you still use apps that require a Microsoft sign-in, but just log in individually? (You could on Windows 8.) ---
**Author:** ![Lips\_Obsession](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/17 "2015-07-22T20:21:22Z")
The little icon in the status bar of my Windows 7 machine that advertises Windows 10. If I “follow through” with that, does that mean my PC will auto-update to Win10 when it releases, or will that just get me some sort of key or something so I can upgrade later at my own choosing? I want to upgrade eventually, but don’t want to be an early-adopter guinea pig… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/18 "2015-07-22T21:26:42Z")
> [@Lips\_Obsession](#): > > The little icon in the status bar of my Windows 7 machine that advertises Windows 10. If I “follow through” with that, does that mean my PC will auto-update to Win10 when it releases, or will that just get me some sort of key or something so I can upgrade later at my own choosing? I want to upgrade eventually, but don’t want to be an early-adopter guinea pig… If you “follow through” it’ll just download to your hard drive the 3GB or so worth of update files at some point on or after the 29th July. It won’t do anything more than that without prompting for further permission from you. If you are at all unsure, you’ve got a year to decide. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/19 "2015-07-23T03:21:06Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > So what’s the latest and greatest information on the free upgrade for us W8.1 users to W10? It’ll go live July 29 if that’s what you’re asking. The necessary files should have been downloaded automatically in the background over the last few weeks. It’s my understanding you can upgrade at your convenience. ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555/20 "2015-07-24T05:27:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And how crippled are you without a Microsoft account? Can you still use apps that require a Microsoft sign-in, but just log in individually? (You could on Windows 8.) All I know is that I could not figure out a way to use Skype on my 8.1 laptop without logging in to a MS account. Now, I may have missed something, but such things are not always easy or transparent for average users. That annoys me. [addendum] I believe I could have signed into Skype using facebook or some other such thing. But that would require me to open a fb account. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-questions/725555.md?page=2)