Should I Upgrade to Windows 10?

Microsoft^® announced that computers, laptops and tablets with qualifying versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 (sometimes referred to as Windows X) at no charge starting July 29^th. Starting on June 1^st, many of you may have noticed a new “Get Windows 10” icon by the clock. We want to address the upgrade with you now, so you can make the best decision on when to upgrade.

Now for a little history on our support for operating systems, our testing plan, details on the upgrade and how to hide the upgrade icon.

Some History on our O/S Upgrade Support:

We first began to license Bookstore Manager to other retailers in 1989. Over the years, we have run on various operating systems including 386/MultiWare, SCO XENIX, SCO UNIX, Novell, LANtastic, Windows for Workgroups for DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 as well as Windows NT 3.5, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2012. One challenge we have encountered with the progression from one version of Windows to the next was a lag/delay before all the POS hardware would work properly. While Bookstore Manager Software continued to work as expected on each newly released version, we would sometimes find a commonly used receipt printer, price display unit or multi-feature (Cherry or Logitec) keyboards, Zebra label printers, PS/2 barcode scanners and various serial devices that didn’t have drivers for the new O/S.

Because of the wide range of hardware configurations that have been sold over the years that are capable of running Microsoft Windows, there have been other problems with initial releases of new versions of Windows (and sometimes with Service Packs). In addition to POS hardware driver issues, there have been network communications problems, and even one big Windows update that caused a significant number of computers to no longer boot.

Our Testing Plan for Windows 10:

We plan to download Windows 10 onto a test system in early August to begin testing. Since a support tech will be doing this while also handing normal duties (including support calls and emails), we don’t know exactly how long it will take to do our testing. We will keep a log of which hardware has been tested and will send out a list by the end of October. Since most retailers don’t want to make big changes right before going into the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, we anticipate many will wait until January before installing the upgrade.

When we send out our upgrade report, we will include a list of the hardware we tested with Windows 10. If you are using equipment we didn’t test, please let us know. If it is something we sold in the past, we will do our best to find that specific model so we can test it here. If we’ve never sold it, we will most likely be limited to reports on that hardware being used with Windows 10 that may be found on the Internet.

Windows 10 Upgrade Details:

Here is a summary of information from the Microsoft Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ. You can read it in its entirety by clicking here. Starting July 29, 2015, qualified Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. You have until July 29, 2016 (one year) to take advantage of this offer. If you are still running Windows 8 on a PC, laptop or tablet today, we recommend installing Microsoft’s free upgrade to Windows 8.1 so you can take advantage of the Windows 10 upgrade offer.

Here is a quick chart to show you which version of Windows 10 you will get for free based on the operating system installed when the upgrade is downloaded and installed.

How to Hide or Remove the Windows 10 Upgrade Icon:

There are actually a few different approaches you can follow to hide/remove the Windows 10 upgrade icon.

⇒ First, you can change the “behavior” for the icon in the Notifications Area Icon settings. Please note that this approach has been reported as only effective until you log out or restart your computer. Once you log in again, the Windows 10 icon will again show by the clock.

1. Click Start | Control Panel. In the Control Panel’s search box, enter Notifications Area Icons.
2. Click on the “Remove icons from notification area (system tray) on the desktop” link.
3. Next to the “GWX – Get Windows 10” icon, change the behavior to “Hide icon and notifications”
4. Click the “OK” button

⇒ Second, you can show or hide the icon using the Task Scheduler.

1. While pressing the Windows key, press the R key, then release both. This opens the Run command window. Type taskschd.msc, then click the OK button.
2. In the left pane, click to navigate to Microsoft | Windows | Setup | gwx under the Task Scheduler Library.
3. In the middle pane there should be two entries, named “launchtrayprocess” and “refreshgwxconfig”.
   1. To disable the Windows 10 upgrade notification, right click on each one and click “Disable”.
   2. To enable the Windows 10 upgrade notification (for later on), right click on each one and click “Enable”.
4. Close Task Scheduler and either log off and log back in, or restart the computer to apply the change. If this is the server (especially for a multi-store setup), please make sure no one else will be impacted by a restart.

⇒ Third, you can change the Task Scheduler using a Windows registry update file available on our web site.

1. Download the appropriate registry file.
   1. To disable the notification, click here to download the Disable “Get Windows 10” registry modification.
   2. To enable the notification (for later on), click here to download the Enable “Get Windows 10” registry modification.
2. Save the file to your desktop, then double click the icon to merge the change into your registry. The files are plain text, so you can view what will be changed using Notepad if you so desire.
3. If prompted, click on “Run” and answer “Yes” (UAC), Yes and OK to make the change.
4. Once the change is made, you can delete the .reg file.
5. Restart the computer to apply the change. If this is the server (especially for a multi-store setup), please make sure no one else will be impacted by a restart.

⇒ Finally, you can completely remove the “Get Windows 10” program from your computer by uninstalling the KB3035583 update. Please note that you must be logged in as a local Administrator to do the following.

1. Click Start | Control Panel. In the Control Panel’s search box, enter Installed Updates
2. Click on the “View Installed Updates” link.
3. In the list of updates, find “Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3035583)”.
4. Click on this update, then click the “Uninstall” button/link at the top of the window.
5. When that finishes you can hide the update for KB3035583 so it doesn’t show as an available update to re-install.

Your BSMGR Support Team
support@bsmgr.com | (800) 997-6724 (option 2)
Remember you can use SPT to put your support request directly on our support docket.