Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade for most people using Windows 7 or later on July 29th. It includes a number of new and improved features such as the Cortana personal assistant, Microsoft Edge web browser, Windows Hello automatic login, and a vastly improved experience for running Windows Store apps on a desktop or notebook.

But there are also some features which had been available in earlier versions of Windows which won’t be included in Windows 10.

minesweeper

We already knew Microsoft was dropping support for Windows Media Center. Here are a few other things you’ll lose if you upgrade to Windows 10 (or buy a new PC running Windows 10):

  • Native support for DVD playback
  • Windows 7 desktop gadgets
  • Native support for USB floppy drives

There are workarounds. If you still need USB floppy drive support, Microsoft suggests you should be able to download the latest driver through Windows Update for from the manufacturer’s website. Need DVD playback? Install a third-party app. Want desktop gadgets? You can try a third-party app like Desktop Gadgets or Rainmeter.

Microsoft will also remove the legacy versions of Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Hearts games that may have come pre-installed on your computer. If you want them back, you can download the free Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Microsoft Minesweeper apps from the Windows Store.

As for Windows Media Center, there are plenty of third-party alternatives, although none of them offer exactly the same features as WMC. So if you rely Media Center for its digital video recording functions and free electronic program guide updates, you might just want to avoid upgrading to Windows 10 at all.

via Neowin

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers

19 replies on “Upgrading to Windows 10? Here are features you’ll lose”

  1. “If you still need USB floppy drive support, Microsoft suggests you should be able to download the latest driver through Windows Update for from the manufacturer’s website.”

    LOL Everyone knows once M$ stops supporting something, the manufacturers will lock-step right in behind M$ skirts and follow suite.

  2. For those looking to replace WMC, you can try XBMC/Kodi. It’s a pretty solid media center.

  3. My HTPC running Win7, which will not be upgrading until I find a WMC replacement, actually has a new icon down in the task bar regarding upgrading to WMC. I think it just appeared yesterday.

    1. Keep an eye out. I’ve read that some Win7 systems get “updated” to WinX when you’re not looking. What a nasty surprise, eh? Gotta love that “automatic update” feature! ^_^

      1. Yes, I read that recently too, but I think it’s only for those who might have their system set to automatically apply the updates. I wonder though how it gets past the screen warning you that you’ll lose Windows Media Center?

  4. On Gabriel Aul’s (General Manager OSG Data and Fundamentals team, W10 Insiders Program) twitter feed, he has reported the following on May 4, 2015…

    “If you have WMC now, we’ll have a DVD option for you in an update later this year.”

    “The main scenario people used WMC for was to play DVD. We’ll provide another option for DVD playback in the future.”

    “HEVC is supported at platform level, so all apps can use in Win10.”

    Other reports seem to indicate that ever since W8 that MS has been shifting resources to using the XBox 360 as the media center instead of a HTPC… Now, as W10 gets release they are suppose to provide a lot of the same functionality in the XBox One but the difference being you can stream to any W10 device for a more integrated experience than what the XBox 360 offered…

    So DVR functionality, the ability to watch broadcast television isn’t going away entirely but appears to be shifting more towards a dedicated device solution…

  5. Frankly, a good strategy: Want something? Go to the Windows Store.

    For most apps/services that aren’t basic necessities, this is great. MS should make first party solutions for basics like Mail, Calendar, Alarms, Music, Notes, etc. But the rest (games, advanced utilities, special services) should be available, but require some marginal effort/cost if you really want it.

  6. My assumption is that DVD via Media Center is going way. I am willing to bet they will either add DVD/Blu-ray playback to the new Video app, or they will provide a new video player.
    Gadgets were removed in Win8 so this is not a surprise. I switched to Rainmeter

    1. I think I recall hearing it has something to do with licensing fees for the video codecs. That was supposedly the reason that they started making WMC a paid option in Win8.

    2. I doubt it, unless they are planning on charging $2 for the Video app. The reason they are abandoning DVD support is that they have to pay a $2 license fee to MPEG LA (the patent holding group for a consortium of MPEG-2 patent owners).

      DVD is dead weight anyways. Good riddance.

      Same with floppy disk support. I can’t think of any possible use-cases for someone needing USB floppy support. I can go buy a a $5 thumb drive at a gas station.

      1. I agree with the floppy disk support, but not dropping DVD support. Not a big deal as long as VLC is available. It is one of my first installs on any system. Of bigger concern is dropping WMC. We all knew it was coming and that is why two of my Win7 boxes will never be updated.

          1. Kodi (aka XBMC) isn’t a complete answer either. VLC works fine with physical disk but who uses those anymore? I am trying to get away from all physical disk including my PS3.

            I just started working regularly again and I move from long awaited projects to another and finally complete them, one of them is rebuilding my WHS 2011 now that 3TB drives (externals) are about $100 into a 9-12 TB micro server and rip every DVD/BR I know, “borrow them” or download from a certain place.

            Just go to the file, with eye candy from the various databases and play without inserting ONE DISK.

        1. But Microsoft have already dropped DVD support almost 3 years ago…

      2. I have a problem with it. If you bought a Windows 7 PC you -paid- for DVD playback support already. I can agree with leaving it out of the basic feature bundle for new sales because MPEG LA is being greedy and stupid by insisting on the same licensing fees on tech that is quickly falling out of patent protection and only protected by the DMCA monopoly grant. So yea, point users at VLC and have done with em.

        As for USB floppy support, why? They already have drivers written and debugged. They don’t have to even include them on the install media, just leave them available for auto detection and install if somebody actually plugs in a USB floppy. Just seems petty and Apple like behavior. Oh well, just another case of the Penguin having deeper hardware support.

        The biggie is actually Windows Media going away. They are the only legal solution for viewing content protected by CableCard DRM. Worse, since I haven’t heard of anyone cracking it yet, they are the ONLY solution.

        1. Judging by this statement, “If you have WMC now, we’ll have a DVD option for you in an update later this year.”

          It seems existing WMC users aren’t going to be left without a option to at least still be able to watch DVDs…

        2. Yep and we just switched from being a long time DirecTV sub to TWC and I got a CableCard Tuner which needs to be restarted (hard) every so often as it loses connection (can’t find the tuners) which leads to even in the middle of recording a show to freeze the screen and then drop the tuners which caused me to stop recording the Six Hours of the Glen last weekend. I just happen to be HOME so that wasn’t as big an issue but if I wasn’t home and it dropped like that I’d be pissed. I didn’t spend $120 to have these issues and only keep using it because it works WMC right out of the box, no complicated setup and I get the majority of my programs all in HD now when I previously only got shows in HD when pulling from OTA as I hadn’t forked out yet for an HD capture card and HD DirecTV box.

          My HTPC will be continue to be Windows 7, but may move up to 8.1 as support for 7 gets father and father away. Kodi is not an answer, it only supports OTA/MPEG-2, like you said no DRM support either.

Comments are closed.